Thanks for asking.
Like I said, debugging OH is just a nightmare. And at least for MQTT differentiating between things and items it does not make any sense.
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@ysc Didn’t recognised the code tab yet. That is nice, but now we have three way to define a thing: The Ui, The yaml in the ui and the plain text files. This is from my point of view a little over done and confuses newbies. On the other hand the is no was to setup up transformations line *.map files from the ui. There we are still with test files.
Nevertheless great work so far, but i really appreciate the work. By the way i decided to move back to test files, beacuse mass editing or copying or templting dore not work in UI
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OH was designed to be flexible where that makes more sense. for instance, Z-Wave Things have many channels and usually only a few are interesting enough to create Items.
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Very impressive - this is a massive update.
Thats what worried me in your original post.
I use things and items file. I find it very obvious how they´re created and dependable on eachother.
On the other hand, for MQTT (and modbus), I simply dont get it when using PaperUI. I´m totally lost and tend to give up very fast, mainly because I see the exact same problem like you. But thats when I use PaperUI. Some might say this is a matter of working with it. But I see it quite different. Going from seperate config files like things and items to PaperUI, its like starting all over with a totally new principal. I simply havnt got the patient for something like that.
I somehow wish there would be a more obvious or simular way between those to options. Maybe its just the design of PaperUI which need to be reworked.
Anyway - If thats your issue, sometimes it might be worth looking at it from the other side (ie insted o using PaperUI use things/items files or visa versa).
3 yrs old but still valid (even more so today) :
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Oh yes, it does, because thing (channel) and item are two completely independent objects. The former is a hardware abstraction, the latter is part of the openHAB bus.
Please keep in mind, that it’s possible to link more than one channel to one item (and it’s possible to link more than one item to one channel, too). In combination with profiles this is a very powerful way to link hardware without the need of rules. And thanks to the thing model it’s absolutely hardware independent.
can you give an example, please?
Sure 
DateTime Buszeit "Zeit und Tag" {channel="knx:device:bridge:Virtuell:wochenzeit",channel="ntp:ntp:home:dateTime"}
This item links the ntp time to my knx bus. this would also work for mqtt 
but I don’t have a mqtt clock yet 
I tend to agree with the Op… And trying to read the help sections is a nightmare, multiple links to other information and sometimes the instructions don’t work with different user results to those documented.
I set up OH1.1 a few years back and thought that was that for my home automation… It was a huge and steep learning curve for not only the device setup and Tasmota installations, but getting things to work in OH…then I went away and made use of the home automation for a while. During that time things changed and “improvements” to OH were made…only anyone not heavily reading the forum would have known. Then thinking that a simple upgrade would be a good thing, certainly not expecting nothing to work afterwards was a huge shock. It caused days worth of time and lose of sleep.
Summary: OH is not for beginners and novices or people that just want the system to work “out of the box”. Too many of the forum members, although helpful have that “we will make you think about it before giving easy step solutions”. Sometimes marriages depend on something faster
Another example of poor documentation is for “secure access” to the OH server, preventing unsecured access to my Raspberry Pi…note I can’t even access it remotely and have up after trying to sort it 3 out 4 times.
So not to belittle all the hours of dedication and time spent by the creators and developers, you did a good job and clearly the majority of forum members are able to fully utilise its benefits…the rest of us just fall by the wayside and shuffle off to another platform.
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That is why there are paid solutions available. Volunteers are not beholden to maintain your system,. If we give a complete solution we are committing to supporting it on your system.
Thanx Bruce,
You simply reconfirm my statements above. No I don’t expect you to maintain my system, but I also don’t expect you to f with it on upgrade or at the very least to place a warning on the upgrading process so that I know nothing will work after the update.
I can appreciate there are many of these types of user’s which is why there is more than one platform. I think openHAB need more user’s like you helping out editing the help sections and writing beginner tutorials.
It is extremely hard to unlearn something and some users start with a binding that someone has written with hardly any documentation assuming this is not your first one. I think its mainly a UI problem that OH3 may fix with the help of beginners giving specific feedback.
This can’t be further from the truth. I will give the support I want to and feel no obligation to support their system any further. Some Maintainers may feel obligated to JUMP to action when there is a issue witch may not be expected as tone is never conveyed well over text.
It really depends on you, I am a person that receives a text message for work “everything is burning” and have a shower before heading in. I tell everyone at work if you break something tell me because there is nothing you can break that I can’t fix and it only pisses me off if I find out the hard way.
Like in the Release Notes for every version?
If you do not read the provided change documentation you have nobody to blame but yourself. Hint: There is sometimes a section on breaking changes…
And many times we have seen users that blindly copied a solution that initially worked and then broke. Since they have no idea why it worked to start with, they expect us to support it.
Ok Bruce,
You are right and I’m wrong, thank you for ramming that down my throat. You would only have to read some of the noob posts and read the expert answers to understand where the OP and my comments come from…but you would first have to come off your defensive box and open your mind to a time when you were still learning.
As said above you can’t un learn something, but equally if you can’t learn something in the first place then you “don’t know what you don’t know” thereby an impossible situation for both you and I.
How can I help fix documentation when I don’t know what I’m trying to do in the first place? I could write down my findings in a post like this, only to be ridiculed by members like yourself.
Good one 
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The Release Announcements here actually have links to the Release Notes. Until the recent forum update broke things I would recommend using the search function to find them.
As said above you can’t un learn something, but equally if you can’t learn something in the first place then you “don’t know what you don’t know” thereby an impossible situation for both you and I.
Yes it can be near impossible to get everyone on the same page. Reading other people programs is like looking into their brain using a straw. I have no idea of the challenges you have had up until this point.
How can I help fix documentation when I don’t know what I’m trying to do in the first place? I could write down my findings in a post like this, only to be ridiculed by members like yourself.
Its only perception that you think it is ridicule in your inner monolog. Once you have learned little things as you go along make notes. Then look at the doc’s again and see how you can improve them as they are editable. Members like myself would appreciate the help in making it easier for the next beginner to pick it up where you left off. Jnr Dev simple mistake because of DOC
Some people learn by example. Some need it rammed down their throat. Some just need a gentle push to HA.
Microsoft pushed an update that deleted people personal files. No ones perfect and life is to short to hold a grudge. openHAB is fantastically frustrating at times. It dose prepare you or a job as a systems intergrader.
you know I hear this over and over. I am beginning to think maybe there does need to be some type of warning. What do you suggest? Seriously?
Should a big giant full screen pop up warning warning, you are about to do something that could potentially complete trash your perfectly running home automation system… proceed yes/no ??? Are you sure???
Are you sure you have read the release notes???
Perhaps if it should flash red???
Suggestions welcome
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Like in the Release Notes for every version?
If you do not read the provided change documentation you have nobody to blame but yourself. Hint: There is sometimes a section on breaking changes…
So you either have never updated a Linux server or what you are writing is completely hypocritical. Do you think it is feasible to do a apt upgrade or yum update only after checking the release notes of all 100+ packages to be updated? You think the nginx developers would talk like this when I complain that the upgrade from 1.15 to 1.16 broke my web server? So why does OpenHAB require such a special treatment?
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