Migrating MQTT1 items to MQTT2.4 items

vzorglub · November 10, 2019, 7:10pm

Because eventually v1 binding support will go the way of the dodo. So getting used to a v2 binding now, whilst the two can still work together, is best practice.

thisisIO · November 10, 2019, 8:01pm

Vincent, am supporter of configuring things and items throught files and not UI. If something happend, i put the files to their places and everything works again in minutes. But with GUI as somthning happens you will have lot of problems.
I have really NO one problem from the time i installed mqtt1! It looks like that it is the stabiliest part of my intallation:slightly_smiling_face:
So why migrate to mqtt2?

vzorglub · November 10, 2019, 8:14pm

Because one day you will HAVE to and will will curse that day for not having prepared for it

thisisIO · November 10, 2019, 9:16pm

That is the problem ((( that we have to leave the real stable things.

vzorglub · November 10, 2019, 9:19pm

MQTTv2 is stable
A lot, and I mean a lot of work and testing went into it.
MQTTv2 actually has more options than MQTTv1 like nested transformations, payload validation etc…

rlkoshak · November 10, 2019, 9:23pm

MQTT2 supports:

automatic discovery of Things that follow the Homie or Home Assistant standard
chained transformations (e.g. perform a JSONPATH followed by a REGEX without needing Rules)
use of the retained flag in a more MQTT standard and expected way
is receiving updates and will continue to receive updates going forward, development has completely stopped with MQTT 1 and the MQTT 1 Action
MQTT 1 will no longer be supported at some point, perhaps as soon as OH 3 sometime next year
supports Profiles
will eventually support Units of Measure
works better with REST API creates/managed Items (you cannot manage OH 1 binding Items any way except through .items files
you are guaranteed to get the syntax right every time and you don’t have to look anything up when creating the Thing.
The UIs as you see them in PaperUI is not how the UIs will exist in OH 3. They are undergoing a complete rewrite and from what I’ve see so far it’s going the be really good.
Already the number of people who can provide support on the MQTT 1 binding on this forum has grown small.
Simple transforms like mapping 1 to ON and 0 to OFF can be done right on the Thing without the need to create and use a transform.

I’m sure there are more but those are off the top of my head.

No, and in fact when you manage your stuff through the UI/REST API you are in an even better situation that with .items files.

If you are creating backups, you are already (or should already) be backing up the “mysterious” database where stuff created through the UI/REST API because you had better be backing up /var/lib/openhab2 too. If you are using òpenhab-cli backup` you are also backing up that folder as well.
The JSONDB (that “mysterious” database) is automatically backed up for you on every change and periodically. So if something goes wrong, you have an automatically created backup you can restore from. Unless you create a backup every time you save a .items file you can’t have that with text configs.
The JSONDB is not really that mysterious. It’s a text file, JSON formatted, and it has one entry for each element and it is pretty easy to read and, if necessary, edit by hand.

To reiterate Vincent’s posts, it’s a lot better and easier to migrate when you want to rather than when you have to. And there are benefits as mentioned above.

If you are of the "don’t touch it you’'ll break it"sort, than you won’t be making any updates or upgrades to your system anyway, so why ask the question in the first place? You’ll be staying on OH 2.3 or what every older version of OH you are currently running and just let it run. But if you need or want to update OH to get bug fixes or new features as OH continues to evolve, at some point you will not be able to continue to run the MQTT 1 binding any more.

In my experience, at least for the parts of the binding I’ve used, the MQTT 2 binding is now every bit as stable as the MQTT 1 binding. Only it works a lot more like it should now in how it treats the retained flag. And I have a lot more capability than I ever had in the MQTT 1 binding.

thisisIO · November 10, 2019, 10:12pm

Rich, perfect explanation! Thanks a lot.
After that i will think about it carefully.

thisisIO · November 10, 2019, 10:24pm

Thanks Vincent.
Will learn more about mqtt2.

thisisIO · November 22, 2019, 6:54pm

Hello Rich,

could you please tell if it still possible in MQTT2 to define things, channels and items over the files.
I can not find any information till now about it. I have found в little about things definition, but now complete, but about channels and items nothing.
Couild you make soime example or guide?

Thanks a lot!

rlkoshak · November 22, 2019, 7:13pm

It’s possible. The ability and syntax is a core feature of OH and not implemented by individual bindings. There are examples all over the forum.

But I personally recommend using PaperUI to create at least your initial Things and then if you have a lot of copy/paste/edit, use the REST API. People are always getting the syntax wrong and very rarely do users reasons for insisting on using .things files have merit in my opinion. When you use the UI the syntax is guaranteed to be right and it’s clear and intuitive what options there are and how to use them.

I do not define anything in .things files and I recommend against their use so I won’t be the one to create a guide or tutorial.

thisisIO · November 23, 2019, 1:03pm

Thanks!
I have installed mqtt2 yesterday. It worked till restart.
Now i get

2019-11-23 13:58:44.656 [ERROR] [nal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler] - An error occurred while calling method 'ThingHandler.initialize()' on 'org.openhab.binding.mqtt.handler.BrokerHandler@9d4645': null

java.lang.NullPointerException: null

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.MqttPersistentData.<init>(MqttPersistentData.java:63) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.persist.MqttDefaultFilePersistence.get(MqttDefaultFilePersistence.java:219) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientState.restoreState(ClientState.java:342) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientState.<init>(ClientState.java:172) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientComms.<init>(ClientComms.java:108) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:470) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:320) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:315) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.io.transport.mqtt.MqttBrokerConnection.createClient(MqttBrokerConnection.java:752) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.io.transport.mqtt.MqttBrokerConnection.start(MqttBrokerConnection.java:706) ~[?:?]

	at org.openhab.binding.mqtt.handler.AbstractBrokerHandler.initialize(AbstractBrokerHandler.java:108) ~[?:?]

	at org.openhab.binding.mqtt.handler.BrokerHandler.initialize(BrokerHandler.java:232) ~[?:?]

	at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor89.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]

	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:?]

	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler.invokeDirect(AbstractInvocationHandler.java:152) [133:org.openhab.core:2.5.0.M4]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.Invocation.call(Invocation.java:52) [133:org.openhab.core:2.5.0.M4]

	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266) [?:?]

	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:?]

	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:?]

	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:?]

2019-11-23 13:58:44.708 [ERROR] [core.thing.internal.ThingManagerImpl] - Exception occurred while initializing handler of thing 'mqtt:broker:max': null

java.lang.NullPointerException: null

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.MqttPersistentData.<init>(MqttPersistentData.java:63) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.persist.MqttDefaultFilePersistence.get(MqttDefaultFilePersistence.java:219) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientState.restoreState(ClientState.java:342) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientState.<init>(ClientState.java:172) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.internal.ClientComms.<init>(ClientComms.java:108) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:470) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:320) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.MqttAsyncClient.<init>(MqttAsyncClient.java:315) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.io.transport.mqtt.MqttBrokerConnection.createClient(MqttBrokerConnection.java:752) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.io.transport.mqtt.MqttBrokerConnection.start(MqttBrokerConnection.java:706) ~[?:?]

	at org.openhab.binding.mqtt.handler.AbstractBrokerHandler.initialize(AbstractBrokerHandler.java:108) ~[?:?]

	at org.openhab.binding.mqtt.handler.BrokerHandler.initialize(BrokerHandler.java:232) ~[?:?]

	at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor89.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]

	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:?]

	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:?]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler.invokeDirect(AbstractInvocationHandler.java:152) [133:org.openhab.core:2.5.0.M4]

	at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.Invocation.call(Invocation.java:52) [133:org.openhab.core:2.5.0.M4]

	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266) [?:?]

	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:?]

	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:?]

	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:?]

And seems not to work at all. All things are offline.
Pi4 and OH 2.5M4

I have googled a little, and seen the same problem in 2018, it was written, that they must be fixed, but how can it be, till now not fixed or have i made smth wrong?

Thanks a lot!

rlkoshak · November 23, 2019, 2:13pm

Use 2.5 M5. That version dropped the Paho library for the HiveMQ library because Paho isn’t being speed very well.

job · November 23, 2019, 2:52pm

It is still possible. I use thing and item files for all my devices. It’s easier if you own multiple instances of the same devices.

thisisIO · November 23, 2019, 4:00pm

Thanks Rich,
I have just installed 2.5M5 form M4.
After installation and restart i got messages that persistant service with ID Influx not found (maybe other i have not mentioned)
And after reboot dashboard and logs and all uis never came back. OH died

thisisIO · November 23, 2019, 4:14pm

After 2 reboots it is again here with me

tdlr · January 16, 2020, 2:30pm

Rich, I read that you if you wish to use the Alexa skill you’ll need to tag items or things which is not available in paper ui. I presume you not using the Alexa skill.

Sascha_Billian · January 16, 2020, 2:51pm

Items need to be tagged. Rich mentions that at least things should be configured in PaperUI since otherwise it is likely that you get the syntax wrong an this always is a pain to find and support

rlkoshak · January 16, 2020, 4:20pm

You need to tag or add metadata to Items. Not Things.

Items are much easier to create by hand and present far fewer syntax problems. So I, and the official docs say to use .items files for Items and not to use .things files for Things.

I do not use Alexa but I do use GA which does require tags, soon to require metadata. And because of that and other reasons I follow the official advice in the docs and define my Items in .items files. But all my Things are defined through PaperUI or the REST API and I’ve never had a syntax error or had to research what fields are available or what needs to go into them.

heX · May 20, 2020, 11:36am

I installed the addon using a file “addons.cfg”. What do I have to change in this file to migrate?

addons.cfg:

package = minimal
# Access Remote Add-on Repository
remote = true
# Include legacy 1.x bindings
legacy = true

action = mqtt
binding = http1,mqtt1,network,astro,network
ui = classic,basic,paper,habpanel,habmin
transformation = map,regex,xslt,exec,javascript,scale,xpath,jsonpath

Sascha_Billian · May 20, 2020, 11:47am

Didn’t read your question properly. So i edited all of it:; Did you install te MQTTv2 binding? It should be done via UI and not addons.cfg