Items and Sitemaps

Hi Guys,

I have some basic questions about OpenHAB2. Im still quite new to OpenHAB in general but i did some basic things with OpenHAB and i think i understand how it works. I now wanted to play a little bit with OpenHAB2 but got a bit confused. Again i think i got the concept of Things/channels/items.
I setup openhab2 with habmin2 and the hue binding. autodiscovery worked and i could see some channels for the hue bulbs under the things. However when i tried to create some items and link them to the channels in my home.items that didnt really work. can i only link the channels in the paper ui? and if so where do those items get stored?

thanks in advance

What sort of items are you trying to create? Can you share the items file that isn’t working?

Items/channels created in Paper UI/HABmin are stored with the internal OpenHAB data structure. The .items files are for backwards compatibility with 1.X bindings or items which can’t be created under the Paper UI (such as with the MQTT binding).

Yes of course:

But before what does that mean?
I should create Items/ Things through paperui / habmin if possible. Ant the use them in the xxx.sitemap?

And only use the xxx.items for 1.x Bindings?
Or is it also possible with 2.x bindings to create items in the xxx.items file? I am a big gui fan but i also think the textfile way is faster

my home.items

//hue

Switch Bett “Bett” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:6}
Switch Eingang "Eingang " (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:8}

Color Bett_C “Bett Color” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:color}
Color Eingang_C “Eingang Color” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:color}

Dimmer Bett_D “Bett Dimmer” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:brightness;30}
Dimmer Eingang_D “Eingang Dimmer” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:brightness;30}

Dimmer Bett_T “Bett Temperature” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:color_temperature;30}
Dimmer Eingang_T “Eingang Temperature” (hue) {channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:color_temperature;30}

I Basically tried to replicate what was already working in OpenHAB just with the new channels

There are missing “” … Have to look like this:

Switch Bett "Bett" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:6"}
Switch Eingang "Eingang " (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:8"}

Color Bett_C "Bett Color" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:color"}
Color Eingang_C "Eingang Color" (hue) {"channel=hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:color"}

Dimmer Bett_D "Bett Dimmer" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:brightness;30"}
Dimmer Eingang_D "Eingang Dimmer" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:brightness;30"}

Dimmer Bett_T "Bett Temperature" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:6:color_temperature;30"}
Dimmer Eingang_T "Eingang Temperature" (hue) {channel="hue:LCT001:001788177767:8:color_temperature;30"}

I’am not sure about that ;30 part at the end. Not sure binding 2.0 is supporting this anymore.

By having this as your .items and adding hue Bridge and Bulbs via PaperUI as Things, after a reboot the channels should be automatically be linked to the items. So just add the Things in PaperUI and reboot.

That are mine:

My advice is using the Smarthome Designer. Because typos like missing “” are very fast visible.
(https://github.com/eclipse/smarthome/blob/master/docs/documentation/community/downloads.md#designer-builds)

1 Like

Thank you got it working. But anyhow moved back to OpenHAB for now. But especially the workflow advice with adding items, then things via paperui and then a reboot helped and will be useful when i move to OH2 again. does the desinger also work for OH ? Or should i use the one from the OH Homepage?

You’ll need the Eclipse SmartHome Designer
http://www.eclipse.org/smarthome/documentation/community/downloads.html#designer-builds