What is a GroupItem?

Setup, Configuration and Use Runtime
1

So I thought I understood groups but my Lifx binding keeps creating these GroupItem items for the lights but I can’t actually seem to figure out what I’m supposed to do with them.

lifx:colorlight:D073D5003FBE (Type=Thing, Status=OFFLINE, Label=Original 1000, Bridge=null)
lifx:colorlight:D073D5004280 (Type=Thing, Status=OFFLINE, Label=Original 1000, Bridge=null)
lifx:colorlight:D073D50066D2 (Type=Thing, Status=OFFLINE, Label=Original 1000, Bridge=null)
lifx:colorlight:D073D5006772 (Type=Thing, Status=OFFLINE, Label=Original 1000, Bridge=null)
lifx:colorlight:D073D502D5AC (Type=Thing, Status=OFFLINE, Label=Original 1000, Bridge=null)

If I want to actually control the lights I’ve had to create my own items that are bound directly to the things.

lifx_colorlight_D073D5003FBE (Type=GroupItem, Members=0, State=NULL, Label=Original 1000, Category=null, Tags=[thing])
lifx_colorlight_D073D5004280 (Type=GroupItem, Members=0, State=NULL, Label=Original 1000, Category=null, Tags=[thing])
lifx_colorlight_D073D50066D2 (Type=GroupItem, Members=0, State=NULL, Label=Original 1000, Category=null, Tags=[thing])
lifx_colorlight_D073D5006772 (Type=GroupItem, Members=0, State=NULL, Label=Original 1000, Category=null, Tags=[thing])
lifx_colorlight_D073D502D5AC (Type=GroupItem, Members=0, State=NULL, Label=Original 1000, Category=null, Tags=[thing])
Living (Type=GroupItem, Members=5, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null)
MovieScene (Type=SwitchItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null)
NightScene (Type=SwitchItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null)
Nook (Type=ColorItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null, Groups=[Living])
BackRight (Type=ColorItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null, Groups=[Living])
FrontLeft (Type=ColorItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null, Groups=[Living])
BackLeft (Type=ColorItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null, Groups=[Living])
FrontRight (Type=ColorItem, State=NULL, Label=null, Category=null, Groups=[Living])
2
3

That is correct. In OH 2 Things represent a physical device and encapsulates the communication between the device and OH. But within OH you need to map the Things to an Item to put it on your sitemap, control it, or use its values within a rule.

A Group is a collection of Items that allow you to summarize the states of one or more Items and/or send a command to one or more Items as if it were a single Item.

I cannot explain why lifx is creating groups for your lights.

4

In OH2 a Group is created to represent your Thing. All the channels that make up your Thing are members of that overarching group.

In terms of your question - what are you supposed to do with them - nothing. You still interact with the device through the items/channels as normal.

5

Thanks for the replies.

I guess there is something up with the LIFX integration. I think it’s actually supposed to create more items that are in those groups but for some reason it doesn’t work. I think I actually saw it work correctly yesterday for a short time then those items went away.

6

What’s the actual problem you’re having with the LIFX bulbs?

7

They were only creating the GroupItem for the lights and nothing else which was really weird. Anyway I did a totally fresh install of openhab2 and it seem to be working now. Not sure how I got it in a weird state but hopefully that’ll fix a lot of the other issues I was having.

8

Not anymore since beta3!

@hadees: You can simply ignore any automatically generated items - in general, you should define your own items and link them to the channels of the Thing that you want to use.

9

I missed that - is there anyway to generate a change log?