MQTT 2.5 Event Bus

rlkoshak · November 5, 2020, 3:55pm

There is now a Remote openHAB binding which replaces this capability. See https://github.com/openhab/openhab-addons/tree/main/bundles/org.openhab.binding.remoteopenhab

Update: Corrected a mistake in the table that describes the publish/subscribe topics in a typical set up.

Update: Added installation and configuration instructions for MQTT 2 binding.

Update: A significant rewrite of the text of this tutorial. Note that the code itself has not changed. The purpose of the rewrite is to make it more clear how to avoid infinite loops.

Update: Moved the code to a new repo and rewrote it to make it easier to configure and add much more error checking and reporting.

Introduction

What’s an Event Bus?

There are times when one may have more than one OH instance that needs to have some or all of it’s Items synchronized across all the instances. An Event Bus is a way to synchronize the Items, also called federation.

When to use Event Bus

Let’s assume we have a Switch Item on a remote OH named Foo. We want to know the state of that Item on a local OH and we want to be able to send commands to that Item from local OH. This is the perfect use case for the Event Bus. To set this up all updates to Foo on remote OH need to be published to local OH and all commands on Foo’s proxy on local OH need to be published to remote OH.

When not to use the Event Bus

When you want to be able to process commands on both instances of an Item on both instances of OH. For example, if we have Item Foo exposed on the event bus and when a command is issued on Foo on remote OH, local OH needs to receive that command too and when a command is issued on Foo on local OH, Foo on remote OH needs to receive that command too. In that case, a straight forward configuration of the Event Bus will result in an infinite loop. If you need to support this use case, the Event Bus code presented here would need to be modified to prevent the loop, which is outside the scope of this tutorial.

Parts of the Event Bus and General Flow

The event bus will have three parts, the subscription, the publishing, and online status reporting.

We will use the following conventions:

topic	purpose
`<openHAB name>/out/<Item>/command`	Topic where all commands that occur on `<openHAB name>` are published
`<openHAB name>/out/<Item>/state`	Topic where all state updates that occur on `<openHAB name>` are published
`<openHAB name>/in/<Item>/command`	Topic where commands that occur in another openHAB instance are published that should be reflected in `<openHAB name>`.
`<openHAB name>/in/<Item>/state`	Topic where state updates that occur in another openHAB instance are published that should be reflected in `<openHAB name>.`

<openHAB name> is a name you chose to uniquely identify each openHAB instance. <Item> will be replaced with the Item name.

Note that you will want to use the same name for all Items that need to be synchronized across the OH instances. In other words, if you have an Item Foo linked to a device on a remote openHAB instance, you need an Item of the same type named Foo on your local openHAB instance.

Thus, each openHAB instance has four topics for each Item, but you do not use all four topics all of the time. Typically you will only use one or two of the topics at most. Take the first scenario above where remote OH has an Item named Foo that we want to proxy on local OH. One approach that one might use is:

Instance	Event	Pub/Sub	Topic
local	command	publish	`local/out/Foo/command`
local	update	subscribe	`remote/out/Foo/state`
remote	command	subscribe	`local/out/Foo/command`
remote	update	publish	`remote/out/Foo/state`

Let’s assume there is a command on Foo on local. The data flow will be:

command received by Foo on local OH
command is published to local/out/Foo/command
command is received by remote OH and triggers the event bus subscription Rule (see below)
remote OH Rule calls sendCommand("Foo", "CMD")
eventually Foo may receive and update as a result of the command
remote OH publish Rule triggers as a result of the update and publishes the update to remote/out/Foo/state
local OH receives the update and triggers the event bus subscription Rule (see below)
local OH calls postUpdate("Foo", "UPD")

This will be the typical configuration when one wants to proxy one or more Items from one OH instance to another. The topics published to and subscribed from for an Item will be those topics associated with the OH instance that has the “real” Item, e.g. the Item linked to the device. In this case, remote owns Foo so it’s remote’s topics that are used.

Another common configuration would be where the remote OH instance only has sensors that it publishes to other OH instances. In this case the recommended approach is to follow the same overall approach as above and just exclude the command topic, i.e. steps 5-8 above. In other words, remote OH publishes updates to remote/out/Foo/state.

Note that these two use cases are not mutually exclusive. It’s to be expected that there will be some Items that will follow the first scenario and other Items which follow the second.

Also note that the concept of “leader/follower” is not being used here. There is no leader (a.k.a. master) or follower (a.k.a. slave) instance of OH. There is the Item owner, in this case remote, and the proxy, in this case local. And the role is determined on an Item by Item basis. So some Items might be owned by local and others might be owned by remote.

Finally, these are not the only configurations one can create with the Event Bus. See the readme at the github repo (linked below) for others.

MQTT Installation and Configuration

MQTT Broker

To work with MQTT one must install an MQTT Broker (the middle bubble in the data flow diagram above). Publishers send messages to topics on the broker and subscribers receive messages published to topics on the broker.

There are a number of options for brokers. For this tutorial the recommendation is to use Mosquitto. Do not use the embedded MQTT Broker (found under the Misc tab in PaperUI). The embedded broker has some problems that some users experience and appears to no longer be maintained by the upstream provider.

There only needs to be one MQTT broker installed. All openHAB instances must be able to see the machine and MQTT broker port over the network.

Mosquitto is very light weight and runs very well on an RPi along side openHAB.

Installtion: openHABian

Mosquitto can be installed from openhabian-config -> 20 Optional Components -> 23 Mosquitto. openhabian-config will ask if you want to secure connectivity to the broker with a password. The following instructions will assume no password was supplied.

Installation: Direct

Mosquitto is included with most Linux Distros. Use the package manager for your distro (e.g. apt, yum, etc.) to install mosquitto and mosquitto-clients`.

sudo apt install mosquitto mosquitto-clients

On Windows you can download an installer from https://mosquitto.org/download/

On Mac mosquitto is available through Homebrew. See https://brew.sh/.

For those distros that support snap, Mosquitto is available as a a snap.

There are other ways to install Mosquitto that are beyond the scope of this tutorial, such as Docker. Please see the Mosquitto docs for details.

MQTT Broker Configuration

These instructions assume the default configuration of Mosquitto so no additional configuration is required. If desired, a username/password can be set.

run mosquitto_passwd -b /etc/mosquitto/passwd <user> <password>
Add the following lines to /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf:

password_file /etc/mosquitto/passwd
allow_anonymous false

On openHABian this is done for you when you supply a password when asked. Where relevant, these instructions will assume openhabian as the user and password as the password.

openHAB Binding Installation and Base Configuration

These instructions will only show setup and configuration through PaperUI. If you are using text configurations, the assumption is you know enough to translate these instructions to text configs.

In PaperUI, navigate to Add-ons and select the Bindings tab. Search for “MQTT” and install “MQTT Binding”.

Once installed we need to create a Thing that implements the connection to the broker. Navigate to the Inbox and click the + Icon.

Select MQTT from the list and then select “Add Manually”. Finally, select “MQTT Broker” from the list.

Fill in the following fields. Any field not in the list should be left blank or set to the default value shown. Data that is in

Field	Value	Notes
Name	`<Something Meaningful>`	This is the name that the Thing will appear as in the List of Things, e.g. `Mosquitto Broker`
Thing ID	`<Something Meaningful>`	E.g. `mosquitto`
Broker Hostname/IP	`<Hostname or IP address>`	The machine running the MQTT broker; can be `localhost` or `127.0.0.1` if installed on the same machine as this instance of openHAB
Client ID	`<client id>`	Uniquely identifies the OH instance to the MQTT broker, each client must have a unique client ID. If left blank, a random string is generated. This is not the same as the username. Should be set to the name for this OH instance. In the above discussion `remote` and `local` are used.
Last Will Message	`OFFLINE`	Message sent to the Last Will Topic when this instance of OH loses it’s connection to the MQTT broker
Last Will Topic	`<client id>/status`	Where the ONLINE/OFFLINE status gets’ published to. `<client id>` will be the name of this instance of openHAB and be the root of the MQTT topic hierarchy.
Last Will Retain	ON	This causes the (LWT) message to be retained so any client that subscribes to the topic will always know the ONLINE/OFFLINE status of this OH instance
Username	`openhabian`	Username configured on the broker, blank if one was not set
Password	`password`	Password configured on the broker, blank if one was not set

Repeat these steps on all openHAB instances that will participate with the Event Bus. Use a unique <client id> for each.

Rules

There are Python and Rules DSL versions presented here. You only need follow one of these subsections.

Python

A complete implementation of the event bus is hosted at https://github.com/rkoshak/openhab-rules-tools.

Installation

Clone or download the openhab-rules-tools repo and change directories to the openhab-rules-tools folder.

At a minimum execute the following two commands.

cp -r rules_utils/automation $OH_CONF
cp -r mqtt_eb/automation $OH_CONF

where $OH_CONF is the path to your openHAB conf folder (when installed that’s /etc/openhab2). Note that two new Items will be created if they are not already present:

Reload_MQTT_PUB: when an ‘ON’ command is received, the MQTT event bus publisher will be refreshed with the updates made to the configuration
Reload_MQTT_SUB: when an ON command is received, the MQTT event bus publisher will be refreshed with the updates to the configuration.

Configuration

These instructions assume the MQTT binding configuration discussed above has already been performed. With the MQTT Broker Thing configured with the proper event Channel, edit $OH_CONF/automation/lib/python/configuration.py and add the following new variables:

Variable	Purpose
`mqtt_eb_name`	Name for the instance of openHAB, will be used as the root of the MQTT topic hierarchy for the Publisher.
`mqtt_eb_broker`	Thing ID for the MQTT Broker Thing.
`mqtt_eb_puball`	Optional variable, when absent or set to `True` indicates that all command and updates to all Items are to be published to the event bus. When `False`, only those Items with the `eb_update` and `eb_command` tags are published.
`mqtt_eb_in_chan`	The Channel ID for the Event Channel on the Broker Thing.

For example (also contained in configuration.py.mqtt_eb_example):

# The Channel ID of the MQTT Event Bus subscription channel
mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus"

# The name to use for this instance of openHAB, forms the root of the MQTT topic
# hierarchy.
mqtt_eb_name = "remote-openhab"

# Thing ID for the MQTT broker Thing.
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"

# Optional flag, when True all Item commands and updates are puiblished.
# Defaults to True.
mqtt_eb_puball = True

If the mqtt_eb_puball variable is left out or set to False, the next step is to add the following tags to only those Items that should publish to the event bus.

Tag	Purpose
`eb_update`	Items tagged with this will have all their updates published to the event bus.
`eb_command`	Items tagged with this will have all ther command published to the event bus.

For example:

Switch Foo [eb_command] // publishes only commands to the event bus

String Bar [eb_update] // publishes only updates to the event bus

Number Baz [eb_command,eb_update] // publishes both command and updates to the event bus

Rules DSL

The Event Bus requires the installation of a few short Rules. These Rules do not need to be customized. They work as is so they only need to be copied to the right location in the openHAB installation.

Conventions

For the code below, we will be using the following variables:

Variable	Value	Purpose
`eb_cmd_gr`	`PubItems_CMD`	Group containing all the Items whose commands are published to the bus.
`eb_upd_gr`	`PubItems_UPD`	Group containing all the Items whose updates are published to the bus.
`eb_name`	`remote`	Name for the publishing OH instance, will be the root of the topics.
`eb_br`	`mqtt:broker:mosquitto`	Thing ID for the MQTT Broker Thing created above
`eb_in_chan`	`mqtt:broker:mosquitto:eventbus`	Channel ID for the Trigger Channel defined on the MQTT Broker Thing for the OH instance that subscribes to the event bus (see below)

Publishing to the Event Bus

Items and Groups

The first step to publish commands and updates to the out topics is to create a Group for each. Be sure to give the Group a Type. It doesn’t matter what type we choose because we will not be aggregating the states of it’s members, but without a Type the Group will not receive events that are necessary to drive Rules.

Group:String PubItems_CMD
Group:String PubItems_UPD

All Items that need to be published to the “event bus” need to be a member of these Groups. For example, on the remote openHAB instance, all of the “real” Items (those linked to devices) must be members of PubItems_UPD so all updates on the Items get shared with the local openHAB instance. On the local openHAB instance where the proxies reside, the Proxy Items must be members of PubItems_CMD so all commands issued on the proxy Item get published out and acted upon by the remote openHAB instance.

Take care when adding the Items to the Groups to follow this convention.

Rules

Next we will need Rules. Copy these to $OH_CONF/rules/eb_pub.rules and modify at a minimum eb_name. If a custom value was used for anything else modify the code as appropriate.

eventbus_pub.rules

val eb_br = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto" // Thing ID of the broker connection
val eb_name = "remote"              // <client ID>

rule "Publish commands to the event bus"
when
    Member of PubItems_CMD received command // eb_cmd_gr
then
    val mqttActions = getActions("mqtt",eb_br) 
    mqttActions.publishMQTT(eb_name+"/out/"+triggeringItem.name+"/command",receivedCommand.toString)
end

rule "Publish updates to the event bus"
when
    Member of PubItems_UPD received update // eb_upd_gr
then
    val mqttActions = getActions("mqtt",eb_br)
    mqttActions.publishMQTT(eb_name+"/out/"+triggeringItem.name+"/state",triggeringItem.state.toString)
end

Repeat for all OH instances.

Summary

That’s all there is to it. All commands to all members of PubItems_CMD get published to the command topic and all updates get published to the state topic.

Subscribing from the Event Bus

Items and Groups

For every Item that needs to be proxied the subscriber must have an Item of the same name and type defined. For example, if there is a Switch Foo linked to a device on remote, there needs to be a Switch Foo defined. Linking an incoming message to an Item is done based on Item name.

Setting up the Subscriptions

For subscription we need to create a publish trigger Channel on the MQTT Broker Thing. This subscription will be subscribing to the desired out topics on the publishing instance of OH. MQTT and configure it to subscribe to the output topics from the other openHAB. You can use the wild card subscription to use this one Channel for all the Items. Be sure to define a separator character so we can get the MQTT topic from the event in our Rule.

In PaperUI navigate to the MQTT Broker Thing. Click on the + icon to add a Channel and enter:

Field	Value	Notes
Channel Type	Publish Trigger	The only choice
Channel ID	`<client-ID>cmd`, upd	Choose a meaningful name indicating what OH instance the Channel subscribes from (e.g. in this case on remote we subscribe to commands from local so use `local-cmd`.
Label	Human readable name for the Channel	Spell out what this Channel does, e.g. “Local’s Commands”
MQTT Topic	On the local openHAB subscribe to `remote/out/+/state`, On the remote openHAB subscribe to `local/out/+/command`	If you want to subscribe to both commands and updates from remote subscribe to `remote/out/#`.
Separator Character	`#`	Triggers the Rule with and event consisting of `topic#message`.

If you have more than one “remote” OH instances, create a Channel for each instance. Alternatively, if this openHAB instance doesn’t publish anything to the Event Bus (e.g. the remote OH instances only publish sensor readings) you can subscribe to +/out/# which will subscribe to all events from all other instances of OH. If you do that and do publish for the local instance of OH, an infinite loop will result.

Rules

With the Channel in place we only need a single Rule.

If more than one trigger Channel was created above, add those additional triggers as rule triggers to the Rules.

eventbus_sub.rules

rule "Subscribe for commands and updates from the event bus"
when
    Channel "mqtt:broker:broker:remote-updates" triggered
then
    var topic = receivedEvent.toString.split("#").get(0)
    var state = receivedEvent.toString.split("#").get(1)
    val itemName = topic.split("/").get(2)
    val type = topic.split("/").get(3)

    if(type == "command") sendCommand(itemName, state)
    else postUpdate(itemName, state)
end

The Rules DSL version has one limitation that doesn’t exist for the Python version. If the Item doesn’t exist an error will be generated on the sendCommand or postUpdate. To avoid this error make sure to define a proxy for all the Items that are published to the event bus.

Online Status

It is also desirable to know when one of the OH instances goes offline. To handle this, we configured the LWT on the MQTT Broker Thing (see above).

When the OH instance loses it’s connection to the MQTT Broker, the Broker will publish “OFFLINE” to <client ID>/status. Since the message is retained, even if the subscribers are not online, they will get the OFFLINE message when they reconnect.

Next we need a Rule triggered at Systems started to publish “ONLINE” as a retained message when the OH instance comes back online.

eventbus_online.rules

rule "Eventbus Online"
when
    System started or
    Thing mqtt:broker:mosquitto changed to ONLINE
then
    logInfo("mqtt-eb", "Reporting eventbus as online")
    getActions("mqtt", "mqtt:broker:mosquitto").publishMQTT("openhab-remote/status", "ONLINE", true)
end

Example Topologies

The following assume the Python library described above is installed. You should be able to translate it to the Rules DSL version if desired.

Leader/Follower

In this topology there are two openHAB instances, one of which is a leader and the other is the follower. The leader has all the rules and is the primary openHAB instance. All the Item from the follower exist as proxies in the leader.

In this topology, all commands to the proxied Items in the leader need to be published to the follower. All updates to the “real” Items in the follower need to be published to the leader. Therefore we will configure the event bus to use leader/out/* and follower/out/* as the topics.

Leader’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to follower/out/*

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to follower/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "leader"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = False

All the Items that proxy those on follower need to be tagged with eb_command.

Follower’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to leader/out/*.

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to leader/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "follower"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = True

One-to-One

This scenario is more complicated than Leader/Follower in that which instance of openHAB owns the real Item versus the proxy Item can be either openHAB instance. Therefore the Items need to be individually tagged properly with the real Item tagged with eb_command only and the proxy tagged with eb_update only.

Instance One’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to two/out/*

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to two/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "one"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = False

Each Item owned by one is tagged with eb_update. Each Item owned by two that is proxied in one is tagged with eb_command.

Instance Two’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to one/out/*

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to one/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "two"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = False

Each Item owned by two is tagged with eb_update. Each Item owned by one that is proxied in two is tagged with eb_command.

Star Topology

In this topology there is one central main openHAB instance with multiple satelite openHAB instances. The “real” Items are all owned by the satelite instnaces and are proxied in main. Note, all the Items in the satelites need to have a unique name.

Main’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to satelites/out/*

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to satelites/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "main"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = False

Each Item owned by one of the satelites is tagged using eb_command.

Satelite’s configuration

The Event Channel on the broker subscribes to main/out/*

configuration.py:

mqtt_eb_in_chan = "mqtt:broker:broker:eventbus" // Event Channel ID that subscribes to main/out/*
mqtt_eb_name = "satelites"
mqtt_eb_broker = "mqtt:broker:mosquitto"
mqtt_eb_puball = True

All satelite instances will use the same configuration and therefore publish to the same root topics. All satelite Items are published.

Note, the Online rules will not work with this configuration as is.

JGKK · July 8, 2019, 6:00am

I use them in Jython in a more basic Form than yours but this is it in principle:

@rule("Publish all")
@when("Member of OutItems changed")
def MQTTPublishOut(event):
    output1 = event.itemName
    output2 = str(event.itemState)
    actions.get("mqtt","mqtt:broker:f79d2a84").publishMQTT("allItemsout/"+output1,output2)

@rule("Receive all")
@when("Channel mqtt:broker:f79d2a84:TriggerIn triggered")
def MQTTPublishIn(event):
    input1 = event.event
    input2 = input1.split("/")
    input3 = input2[1].split("#")
    events.sendCommand(input3[0], input3[1])

Best regards Johannes

Ferryb4 · July 24, 2019, 7:40pm

Hi Guys,

I hope that someone can give me the redeeming answer because it is starting to drive me crazy. I’ve been playing around for a few days but can’t get out.

I use the event bus rule of a Rich. This works fine, however, he sent to the Mqtt broker an On or and OFF instead of 1 or a 0.
I would like to transform this.

Can someone help me on my way? Do I have to do the transformation via the Item file or in the rule?

Thanks

rlkoshak · July 24, 2019, 7:53pm

The Event Bus is intended to work as a way to federate two OH instances. OH understands ON and OFF.

If you have something that isn’t OH and it expects something besides ON and OFF, you should not be using the Event Bus to integrate that device/system or you should adjust that device/system so it understands OH’s states.

To properly integrate a device/subsystem with OH, you would create a Generic MQTT Thing (assuming it doesn’t support Homie or HA standards) and define Channels. In the Channels you can define a transformation that will convert the ON to 1 and OFF to 0.

Ferryb4 · July 24, 2019, 8:55pm

Thank you for your quick response Rich.

I have a Mqtt channel which also sends the status of the item. Only this one will send a 0 or a 1.

I was so happy with your rule that I can choose which item to put on the bus

Switch Output_2 “Output_2 [%s]” (PubItems) { channel=“knx:device:9d0e2d38:1”, channel=“mqtt:topic:mybroker:satelthing:output_2” [profile=“follow”]}

if I do a transformation in the channels does this work with the rule above?

rlkoshak · July 24, 2019, 9:46pm

No. That isn’t what the Rule is intended to do. It publishs the openHAB states to topics. On the subscriber side it expects openHAB states.

It is not designed to nor is it intended to be used with some other system beyond two or more OH instances talking to each other.

If you cannot make whatever it is that you are using that needs the 1 and 0 instead of ON and OFF, this is not the correct approach.

This is the right approach. This Rule does nothing for you.

Ferryb4 · July 25, 2019, 9:06am

Thnx Rich

Thank you for your clear explanation always. Where would the community be without you.
Can you perhaps explain why the Mqqt also sends the statuses of all other items when there is a change in status of 1 of the items?
I do not use the rule but only via the mqtt things.
This is quite a big load with multiple items.

rlkoshak · July 25, 2019, 2:15pm

You will have to describe the behavior more. Are you saying the Rules in the OP does this? Or are you saying that your Generic Things are doing this?

I don’t see how this behavior is possible given the Rules above. The Rule only triggers when a member of PubItems receives a command or receives an update. Then the Rule only publishes on that one Item that triggered the Rule. If it’s sending updates for ALL Items, that means that the Rule is triggering for all Items which means that all of your Items are receiving an update at the same time.

Ferryb4 · July 25, 2019, 2:48pm

Sorry I wasn’t entirely clear.
I do not use the rule as above but only the Items and the channels.

When the staus of output 1 changes, the mqtt binding also immediately sends the status of output 2.

Items file

Switch Output_1 “Output_1 [%s]” (Test) { channel=“knx:device:9d0e2d38:2”, channel=“mqtt:topic:mybroker:satelthing:output_1” [profile=“follow”]}
Switch Output_2 “Output_2 [%s]” (Test) { channel=“knx:device:9d0e2d38:1”, channel=“mqtt:topic:mybroker:satelthing:output_2” [profile=“follow”]}

Mqtt things

    Type switch : output_1 "Output_1" [ stateTopic="output_1", commandTopic="output_1/state", postCommand="true" ] 
    Type switch : output_2 "Output_2" [ stateTopic="output_2", commandTopic="output_2/state", postCommand="true" ]

rlkoshak · July 25, 2019, 2:56pm

You will need to post a new thread and hope someone who knows more about the MQTT binding, especially when using .things files to configure them will see and can help.

Ferryb4 · July 25, 2019, 3:33pm

ok thanks

Ferryb4 · July 27, 2019, 3:41pm

Rich,

Is there not a possibility to use your rule anyway? Possibly create a proxy item and have it converted to 0 and 1

rlkoshak · July 27, 2019, 3:48pm

You could (you can do just about anything you want), but why would you? Just create a Thing, configure the transform on the Channel and avoid the extra Item and rule. That’s what the Generic Things are for. What you are proposing, given the information I have so far, send like an awful lot of extra work just to avoid the little bit of work of creating the Thing.

Ferryb4 · July 27, 2019, 5:17pm

The problem with that is that I also want to link an alarm system (Satel) to another system. However, this alarm system only allows 1 connection. With a status change of 1 zone, the system immediately sends the status of all zones. This means that when 1 zone is changed, 200 statuses are immediately sent over the broker.
With the rule above I can override this by replacing meber or group changed instead of received command.

If I use the thing, all statuses are also sent.
So I am looking for a solution to overcome this.

rlkoshak · July 27, 2019, 7:29pm

Is that really a problem? MQTT brokers are designed to presses tens of thousands of messages with hundreds of connections on machines like an RPi. I found these 200 messages are overloading the broker. So what other system is actually experiencing a problem?

It’s best not to try to fix things that are not actually a problem.

But it you do want to user a rule liked the above, than you need to code it significantly differently. You will have to add logic to figure out what sort of message it is and convert it as appropriate

Kim_Andersen · December 20, 2019, 9:51am

This is great!

I actually had this idea the other day, and wondered how I could connect more OH systems to eachother… The idea was to use two or three Rpi´s placed strategic in our house to cover every corner of Zigbee/Zwave or whatever else needed near these particular places… (I live in a rather big one level house, so wireless communication is impossible everywhere with just one single coordinator/gateway).

I understand MQTT is an option, but I also wondered if there are any plans to make this possibilty more “integrated” directly into OH. (mainly because I´m still struggling with understanding MQTT fully).

rlkoshak · December 20, 2019, 3:04pm

All plans I’m aware of involve MQTT. I have plans to improve the above and perhaps there will be tighter integration with openHAB, but I know of no current plans to implement this using anything but MQTT. It is, IMHO, the best tool for the job.

Some of the things I’m considering include:

automatically create the Itemson the subscriber side
automatically discover remote OH instances
turn this into a Rule Template to make installation and use easier
add it as a feature to the MQTT binding or create a separate binding

What direction this goes will depend on what direction OH 3 goes. And I don’t want to do too much to it until it gets merged into the Helper Libraries.

Kim_Andersen · December 22, 2019, 2:43pm

I understand you wont put too much effort into it. But it sure would be nice to see those things mentioned beeing included.
The best option would be, if this “event bus” could be added directly into OH. I have a little idea, that many would find it highly usefull.

rlkoshak · December 22, 2019, 3:08pm

I said I won’t put much effort into it until what I’ve already submitted gets merged. I didn’t say I’m not going to not work on it much at all for ever.

That’s exactly what rule templates are.

Kim_Andersen · December 22, 2019, 3:13pm

Sorry thats what I meant… I took that for granted I gues…Sorry!

What I meant was, the event bus got a part of the system itself, as an direct option in the setup where you specify wheter you need to activate this even bus, and if yes, then there would be an option where you place to where, and which funktions/items/things etc you want to share between the systems… The actualy communcation should then be established automaticly. Perhas like main system “download” a list of all resources/items/things ext from the other(s) system(s).