The openhab-google-assistant seems abandoned compared to openhab-alexa repo. Code is a mess, issues not fixed and even simple PR are not checked and merged.
Alexa is miles ahead with capabilities and supported services vs Google Assitant.
I’ve forked the code, added some extra features that I needed (Player, Volume, Gate support) and created an issue to ask if a code cleanup to make it more DRY would be appreciated and if new features can be merged. But since the repo looks dead, no answer.
Also the Tag approach seems to be not scalable, and at least to me the way to go is through item metada like Alexa skill has been implemented. Can anyone comment why the Tag approach was chosen? Is there some kind of a roadmap? Or was this just one mans contribution which simply does not have time for this anymore?
The long term fix (at least to me) is complete rewrite by using item metadata, cause current Tag approach is not scalable, you cannot combine items, and you cannot implement complex items like Fan with various speed settings, aliases, etc.
I don’t want to complain, or insult anybody, I understand that this is Open source, I’m just looking if someone from the admins or plugin maintainer can shed a light on what is the status.
I´m no developer, admin or maintainer. I´m a simple user with great interest in specially the google assistant connection.
I have to admit, I feel the development of the integration has been abandoned for quite some time. It basicly works, but there are several issues which need to be taken care of. Like you say, all respons from developer seems to have dissapeared.
It´s really sad as I believe AI integration into a smarthome system is highly important.
If you @gytisgreitai have any changes or suggestions. I would be pleased to see continuing development of the integration and support it all I can, no matter how much breaking changes is required. As it is today, it seems lost.
I’d love to see continued improvements to the assistant integration. I can’t comment on the design philosophy, but would be happy to help where I can, I’ve worked on the daikin binding, have contributed the opengarage binding, and am working on a tesla powerwall binding.
yes, maintenance and adding functionality is dropped. (it’s why i look for jeedom or other) When we inform that there is a problem , the answer is: ok then we look …but nothing … even some post is closed when we speaks of google assitant. Except if someone takes over the project, I think we should not rely on the team of openhab.
One post was closed because it became a 1000+ long thread where there was troubleshooting taking place for dozens of issues all at once. It was not usable and not the way the forum is supposed to be used. So that one thread was closed to encourage users to start new threads for each new issue that comes up and use this forum properly.
yes I know,In this case, just say, “we do not have the time” and gave keys someone else who can develop, rather than saying, I look and finally do nothing No ? I like openhab, really, but I like also good communication
There are still threads not beeing commented/answer in anyway. (I as well as others have posted issues about the heating mode troubble on the Nest Hub not working, but working fine using the Google Home app). Its quite frustrating when there simple isnt any respons at all. Maybe this isnt a openhab issue at all. But without any answers, no one knows.
Ofcouse we are aware of this. I believe this is why Gytis raise this problem.
This is the most important problem to try to handle in an open source project maintained by volunteers.
When an serious feature seems to be abandonded its important to place a focuse on the matter and try get someone else to continue. We cant know if Marzima have abandonded the integration. But when things arent moving in development, we´ll have to assume he has. And then try someone to catch it and continue.
In my opinion it is a highly serious matter, cause I believe the integration of voice control (wether it beeing Google, Alexa are anything else) is highly important for a smarthome system.
Absolutely agree.
Such an important feature cannot be left in the hands of one single volunteer : he may become unavailable, may have not enough time or enough motivation anymore.
Here we are not talking about a small bug for a binding with limited audience , but one of the 2 main voice interfaces for the whole openHAB ecosystem.
I know many people are choosing OH2 and not other because it allows (free) integration with Alexa and Google Assistant.
Moreover in this case is not just a matter of maintaining the code (something that has been done by other volunteers but their PR has not been processed since months), but also updating the new code to the myopenhab cloud which no single contributing github volunteer developer can do.
So as a volunteer I may fix/improve the code on github, make a PR request, run the improved code on own my instance, but users with regular myopenhab will not benefit of my improvements until the single maintainer accepts the PR and deploys it on the cloud.
Hi think @ maintainers should give an indication of what is going on with Google Assistant support in OH2 so that people can decide wether to look to other systems or not.
Let’s just not get into blame ping-pong here. I think every contributor went into this with best intentions, and then simply life happened. And it’s perfectly normal.
And I also don’t think that anyone should feel entitled to anything - answers to questions, support requests, or changes and bug fixes. I think nothing puts maintainers off than this attitude of entitlement in the community…
Regarding ‘It is all on github, so feel free to contribute.’. Yes it is, but no one is looking at that repo… there are simple one-line PR’s with no comments, merges or rejects, one of them since August. So it’s not inviting to contribute, if you’ll spend your time adding features or fixing bugs, but no one is going to get a look at it
The last thing I wanted with this thread is to cause a flame and blame game, but it seems that I have not succeeded in that.
Anyhow, I’ve started my own implementation based on item metadata, if life will not happen, it should be a pretty good self hosted solution. Peace.
Very good @gytisgreitai !!
We can help in case you decide to make it available for other to test (we suggested in the past if a beta cloud instance for google assistant could be used for testing with some users new traits and bug fixes, but maybe this is not possible?)
When finished, will you post a PR ? so that maintainers can do something with it, hopefully.
@Stbowling throw’s water balloons on everyone uh wait… that’s not a balloon
Never expect anything and always be thankful for any support these here fine folks are willing to provide on a volunteer basis. For what they do for free here most probably could retired if they were making what they deserve. And remember… "We are OpenHAB Strong "
Those PRs you refer to are updates to the documentation but as you can see, they have failed the travis test and the authors did not check or comment why they failed.
What should mainainters do in these cases, what do you think ?
It is not about blaming, but what do you want to tell us with that link you posted?
Like with any other openHAB binding, if the original author, for whatever reason, does not find time for adding features, and no other developer/contributor steps up, there will be no additional features.
Its simply the same for openHAB 1.x Bindings not being moved to a native openHAB 2.x version. Voluntary developers are free to chose what they are working on, nobody can force them what to do.
No ? I like openhab, really, but I like also good communication 
uh wait… that’s not a balloon 
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