Using Rules to Update a dummy text item...not showing up in sitemap

[TheJM (JM)]

Hey guys, I am having some trouble getting a text item to update on Sitemap. Let me explain below:

Item File:

String JMsHome "JM" <man_3>
Switch JMHomekit "JM is Home" [ "Lighting" ]

Rule File

rule "Occupancy Test"
when
    Item JMHomekit received update
then
    switch JMHomekit.state
    {
        case ON : 
        {
            postUpdate(JMsHome,"Home")
        }
        case OFF : 
        {
            sendCommand(JMsHome,"Away")
        }
    }
end

Sitemap:

   Text item=JMsHome

HomeKit updates JMHomekit which is an ON/OFF type item and the above rule updates the JMsHome item accordingly. After activating the rule, the sitemap doesn’t display the item state. If i go into the console and use smarthomestatus JMsHome it says: Home. The logs show no errors, they verify the rule is in fact running and they show the item state being updated accordingly (home or away).

I originally just had JMHomekit and used mappings to make it say ‘Home’ or ‘Away’ on the sitemap but i didn’t like how i could click the buttons, changing the item state. This is why i chose to create the text item JMsHome to display a message i couldn’t change.

I want it to look like this but cant get the state to show on the right side where Carrie Underwood is:

Thoughts and advice is appreciated.

[thefechner (Steffen Sommer)]

Hi, two thoughts on this.

1. You might try to change the description to
   String JMsHome "JM [%s]" <man_3>

2. I‘ve seen in your rule you are using a mix of postUpdate and sendCommand. And you are using the generic methods.
   Probably not the root cause for your issue but worth to have a look here postUpdate vs. sendCommand

Cheers thefechner

[TheJM (JM)]

Hey thanks for the reply. I’ll try making that change and let you know how it works. For my own knowledge, what does the %s do?

Regarding the rule, that was my bad. I originally tried postUpdate which didn’t work then I tried sendCommand which also didn’t work. When I copied this rule to post here, I meant to change both back to postUpdate but missed one. I never ran the rule like that where one is post update and the other is sendCommand.

[thefechner (Steffen Sommer)]

Ha, funny, as I didn’t know the exact term how it is called, I did a quick search and found the answer to your sitemap issue.

[SOLVED] When to add "[%s]" to an item label

%s displays the item value as a string (which only makes sense for string-type items). It isn’t required but the only way to display the value in a sitemap (else it’s just displaying the rest as static text). label= in sitemaps overrides what is set in the item definition, so you can do it there, too.

In the same thread there is also a link to an explanation how to display other values than string (e.g. numbers & units)

[SOLVED]Question aboute [%.1f °C], [%d %%], [%.3f kW]

What you are asking about is called String formatting. For example: [%.1f °C]: %.1f means that at that point a floating point number is to be filled in, with 1 digit after the decimal separator (the .), followed by the unit degrees Celcius in this case, but that could be anything. [%d %%]: %d means that a integer number is to be filled in there, and it should be followed by a percentage sign (%), but as the % is already a special character, it is escaped by adding another % in front of it. [%…

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

@TheJM

I originally just had JMHomekit and used mappings to make it say ‘Home’ or ‘Away’ on the sitemap but i didn’t like how i could click the buttons, changing the item state. This is why i chose to create the text item JMsHome to display a message i couldn’t change.

So why not do the following.

Create a .map file in the transformation folder that maps ON to Home and OFF to Away. See https://www.openhab.org/addons/transformations/map/ for details.

Configure the Item’s label to use that map. JM [MAP(homeaway.map):%s].

Then use a Text sitemap element to show the Switch Item.

There is no need for a Rule and a separate Item to achieve this.

@TheJM

For my own knowledge, what does the %s do?

Items

[TheJM (JM)]

Hey thank you both for posting and providing that information. Adding the [%s] to my item and using postUpdate solved my problem:

Item file

String JMsHome “JM [%s]” <man_3>

Also wanted to post a workaround that might help someone else out reading this if for some reason the above solution isn’t acceptable. Before i tried the above solution, I made the below dummy items:

Switch JMsHome “JM” <man_3>
Switch JMsAway “JM” <man_3>
Switch JMHomekit “JM is Home” [ “Lighting” ]

and had the following sitemap file:

Switch item=JMsHome mappings=[ON=“Home”] visibility=[JMHomekit==ON]
Switch item=JMsAway mappings=[ON=“Away”] visibility=[JMHomekit==OFF]

Here is a screenshot of my sitemap with this implemented

for those not aware, the visibility tag above basically hides the ‘incorrect’ item according to how JMHomekit is set. When JMHomekit is on, the item JMsAway is hidden but JMsHome is shown and visa versa.

Thanks everyone!