It looks like there is a way to talk to the dimmer directly through the api, but I have no experience with that:
OK now I know the problem 
If I want to change the buttons I have to use the Hue App.
So I am limited to the functions of the app.
It is not possible to tap button 1 on the hue dimmer remote to start the TV for example via the Harmony Binding.
This is the main difference beetween the smarthome “homee” and “openHab”.
homee connects directly to the devices and therefore the dimmer is a device (thing) I can set inside the smarthome software.
But openHAB communicate trough the Hue Bridge and a dimmer is not a “bulb” inside the hue bridge and so openHAB does not add it as a thing.
Thank you very much for your help.
OK thanks I will check this thread.
Who would do that via remote? Today that is done via openHAB voice command, it’s fun 
Yes this would be also a good way…
BUT my girlfriends needs a hardware to touch. She don’t like to talk to machines
And I am currently only check the features and functions from openHAB.
Currently I use homee, but I think I will change this to openHAB. So I check if I can do all I can do with homee.
Hi,
i know the thread has advanced a lot. But i like to add the “solution”.
The problem is that Philips does not expose the dimmer switch events to anything outside its own bridge. So OpenHAB can not get the tap notifications off the dimmer switch nor the tap switch (another device from Philips HUE). There are some hacks by polling the HUE api on the bridge to detect the events from dimmer and tap switch, but those would result in a lot of load or pretty much delayed responses to taps. So the short answer is: No, you can not use the Philips HUE Dimmer Switches or the Philips HUE Tap Switch to trigger things in OpenHAB.
It is not intended by Philips to open up the HUE System to these uses. Technically it would be easy to remove the restriction by Philips from the bridge software, but their support does not even react on any requests in that direction…
To have a useful physical tap switch in OpenHAB you need to use another supplier than Philips (i did not found a reasonable priced switch that worked well, but that would be another thread).
Kind regards
Matthias
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Thanks for the clarification. I’m thinking of picking one of these Philips Dimmers as it seems like a reasonable deal.
So what I have in mind is to use the dimmer switch to control a certain ‘controller’ Hue bulb, then using rules in OpenHAB I can define what happens when that ‘controller’ bulb receives a command (whether from the dimmer switch or from any OpenHAB items). Once that rue triggers than I can send the command value to any other bulb on my system or control any other things. Eg. If the Hue bulb receives command ‘40’, then set any other lights I want to 40 and switch on the TV.
Would that be a feasible approach before Iay out 25 quid for the dimmer + a bulb?
Did you see this thread? You are able to use the HTTP binding to fetch the info which button is pressed. Which can be used to trigger a rule. But you have to live with a little delay.
Philips just announced at IFA that the DimSwitch, Tap and Motion sensors will be Homekit compatible soon. Does this mean that we can expect that those devices can trigger events via the API (push status changes instead of pull/poll intervalls?). How would it otherwise work with Homekit?
So let’s see how Philips will integrate this.
Hey! It’s official now.
Does anyone know if it can be integrated to the Hue binding? 
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Any update on the possibility to integrate Philips Hue Dimmer Switch and Tap Switch with openHAB?
So, it is possible to include Hue Switches within openHAB, but not via the binding.
It can be done through the hue bridges api and the HTTP Binding.
It´s descriped on a German Smarthome Blog:
onesmarthome.de Hue Switch
At first you need to add a api user on the bridge and the rest is done as an HTTP Binding item and rules
String HueRemote "Remote[%s]" (Hue) {http="<[http://<HueBridge_IP>/api/<HueAPIUser>/sensors/2:6000:JSONPATH($.state.buttonevent)]"}
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Unfortunately this solution pulls the status change from the bridge in predefined intervals so there is delay.
I wonder how to get the switch press or motion sensor information pushed to openhab via the bridge.
While this wasn‘t possible in the past some months ago Philips announced integration of dim-switch and motion sensor with Apple Homekit. So I was confident that they implemented some push channel. However, maybe this only works with homekit.
Maybe someone here has further information concerning Homekit integration of dim-switch and sensor and how to use this with openhab to make the switch & sensors fully integrated devices with openhab.
Essentially it would mean that the Hue binding behaves like a HomeKit App, which has a public spec here: https://developer.apple.com/homekit/specification/. You do need an apple ID wich I don’t have. Are there any plans to use this API from the Hue binding? My gut feeling tells me that status polling could soon be a thing of the past 
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Are there any news on integrating Hue Dimmer Switch?
I mean, Philips has opened it to HomeKit, so it seems the Hue bridge somehow allows capturing events from the dimmers.
I know that there is a solution by polling. But this seems not to be optimal.
These dimmers are quite cheap. And I believe have because of that a certain footprint in the market.
Would be very cool if they were supported by OpenHab.
Bodo
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Can the dimmer switch be used too trigger rules ect in openhab and not do anything to my lights ?
I already have a hue bridge and bulbs with motion sensors running and talking too OH
I’m hoping to use the Hue Dimmer switch to enable modes like in bed and turn on fans ect
i don’t need it too control my lights as they are already automated or motion activated
I did post about it but got no response so thought i would try here
(EDIT)
JUST FOUND THIS POST
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@chrisonline @mstolt @bodomenke @Sharpy @uweb @apfelflo89 @jakobjp @Jonas88 @UglyKidJoe @sihui
FYI → Hue Sensor and Hue Dimmer Switch are both now supported by Hue binding
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Hi,
thanks for letting us know.
I already switched to the binding as far as i could, because there is still a lack of support for the “Hue Tap” .
So there is still use for the web api calls
Have not integrated my Tap yet, any links available on how to do that? Thx.
@apfelflo89 @sihui May I ask you to send me some data (logs, information from Hue API interface about that sensor, etc.) about your “Hue Tap”. This will help to include it into the binding as I am not having access to an own device. Thanks.