openHAB rules not appearing in Paper UI

Setup, Configuration and Use Scripts & Rules
,
1
  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: RPi 3B
    • OS: Raspbian with OpenHABian running as package on top
    • Java Runtime Environment: OpenJDK version 9.0.4+12-Raspbian-4
    • openHAB version: 2.4.0-1
  • Issue of the topic:
    I am writing rules using the DSL language in OpenHAB, and have stored these rules in the location suggested by https://www.openhab.org/docs/configuration/rules-dsl.html . When I check Paper UI to see if they are present, they do not appear. When I perform the action my rules are looking for, my smart devices do not respond.

a) Is them not appearing in Paper UI expected if added manually?
b) How can I troubleshoot my rules?

Code below for sanity purposes:

(network_pingdevice_[id]_online) is the name of my phone as given by REST API, with [id] replaced by the respective ID.

rule "Sense My Presence"
when
  Item network_pingdevice_[id]_online changed from OFF to ON
then
  HueLightSwitch.sendCommand(ON)
  LifxLightSwitch.sendCommand(ON)
end

rule "Sense My Absence"
when
  Item network_pingdevice_[id]_online changed from ON to OFF
then
  HueLightSwitch.sendCommand(OFF)
  LifxLightSwitch.sendCommand(OFF)
end

Thanks for your help,
Jack

2

Best thing to troubleshoot your rules it to put logging statements into the rule and observe the log.
PaperUI exposes only the Next gen rule engine - that’s why you do not see the rules in PaperUI.

rule "Sense My Presence"
when
  Item network_pingdevice_[id]_online changed from OFF to ON
then
 logInfo("my rule", "item changed to ON")
  HueLightSwitch.sendCommand(ON)
  LifxLightSwitch.sendCommand(ON)
end

rule "Sense My Absence"
when
  Item network_pingdevice_[id]_online changed from ON to OFF
then
 logInfo("my rule", "item changed to OFF")
  HueLightSwitch.sendCommand(OFF)
  LifxLightSwitch.sendCommand(OFF)
end
3

(source)

You probably want to fix that first.

1 Like
4

The rules that PaperUI talks about are NGRE rules - New Generation Rules Engine, aka Experimental. These are incompatible with, and different from, DSL rules in xxx.rules files.
PaperUI knows nothing about xxx.rules and provides no viewer or editor for them at all.

2 Likes
5

to expand on what was said, to debug your rules you could look at the log file or, you can can ssh into the console and “watch” whats happening. Remembering how I struggled in the begining… :slight_smile:

  1. Download and install putty
  2. open it and ssh to port 8101
  3. default username and password is openhab / habopen
  4. you should now see the welcome banner
  5. now type log:tail and hit enter. You should now see the current events scrolling past.