Where do sitemaps live in OpenHAB2?

So, I’m still fairly new to 1.x and 2.0. I’ve got a decent 2.0 install going on a RPI. I’ve got HABmin installed, and some EXEC devices in a sitemap that I manage out of the sitemaps folder. Some devices are detected with the Wemo binding (although nothing is in the Addons folder). However, if I go into HABmin, I see a different list of sitemaps that are not the ones I’ve created from with a text editor via ssh. I guess they are in a database somewhere, but I can’t figure out where or how to edit them. Do I need to install Eclipse somehow? Or manage them through the REST API? I’ve done many searches, but am missing the key somehow. I assume this is what I should want to do. Any quick tips?

Sitemaps are still managed in files. Look at the conf/sitemaps folder where your install resides. You can use PaperUI to configure the default sitemap that’s pulled up in the UI.

Hi Trevor,

Thanks so much for the reply.

If I go into OpenHAB BasicUI I see a prompt:
Available Sitemaps

  • standard
  • default

But when I go into HABmin, I see:

  • Main Menu
  • Main Menu
  • Home

I guess now that these two 'Main Menu’s are the menus I created in the two sitemaps, but I don’t have access to any of the items that I manually added to the sitemaps that are visible in BasicUI.

I also suppose I need to figure out how to move the automatically discovered onto the sitemap I created manually.

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I think the HABMin sitemaps operate a bit differently (and I know it also auto-creates one). If you’re trying ti figure out how to work with sitemaps, the OH wiki has a good guide (OH2 works the same as OH1 in that respect)

No - sitemaps are the same in HABmin - you get the list of sitemaps from the system - this is the same list as other UIs provide.

Nope - there’s no auto generated sitemaps in HABmin. I started creating a dashboard editor, but this isn’t auto generated…

Something seems amiss then. I have a sitemap showing in HABmin called “Home” that I most certainly did not create…it seems to contain a list of all Things available. It only shows up in HABmin.

That said, it seems a bit odd to me that everything in OH2 is stored in the db and created dynamically except sitemaps. I feel like that’s a poor choice as it’s inconsistent.

This is created by OH - not HABmin.

Maybe it’s not listed in the other UIs - I don’t know. However, it works fine with the other UIs if you manually type ?sitemap=_default on the end of the URL (at least, it does here).

Only things/items are stored in the DB - other information like rules aren’t…

Not really - it’s just that this hasn’t been migrated/enhanced yet so it’s still the OH1 implementation. That said, if it gets stored in a text file, that would be fine with me - I don’t think the underlying storage is an issue, it just needs to be fit for purpose?

My bad.

I guess my beef isn’t so much that they’re stored in files…but that the only way to edit them is directly edit the files (there is no UI). Heck, I’m more than technically competent and I find it to be a pain…I can imagine how much trickier it is for people with less technical experience (though I’m sure some people prefer that). I just find it annoying to have to ssh into my hub every time I want to make a change.

I completely agree - that’s why I originally wrote HABmin - not because I wasn’t capable of editing a file, but it’s (often) easier and less error prone to use a GUI (although a good old text editor has some benefits at times)…

I guess the point though is simply that an API for editing Sitemaps has not yet been developed - it’s not that it won’t be developed. There is some discussion on the ESH forum, but everything takes time, and Sitemaps are one of the last things on the hitlist. Until then, we’re stuck with the OH1 files…

How hard do you think it would be to have a file editor for those items in HABmin? Would be a handy solution in the meantime (I’d offer to help, as I’m a web dev, but haven’t touched Java in years and don’t have the time to dig into it atm).

Not hard - I already have this for rules…

For HABmin-2, I was trying to avoid developing my own interfaces where an ‘approved’ interface was going to be developed - which is why I didn’t support the drag-n-drop sitemap interface I have in HABmin-1.

I guess it would be a couple of hours work to do something like this - but it’s still time I’d need to find… Of course, if you fancy giving it a go I’d be happy to point you in the right direction :wink:.

Chris, where is this _default sitemap stored? I’ve looked all over the file system and can’t find it. I’ve created a new one in /etc/openhab2/sitemaps which works OK for me, but the original _default map now has errors in it that I’d like to fix.

It’s not stored anywhere - it’s created automatically by the runtime based on your item configuration.

Hello!

I was wondering if there is a possibility to remove this _default/Home sitemap. I’m not using it at all, and it shows in every UI (HABDroid, Rotini).

Best regards,
Davor

You may configure another name as default Sitemap through Paper UI and define this sitemap through text file :slight_smile:

How exactly can this be done? I can not find a way to change the default in Paper UI (nor anywhere else), but I’d love to change the default.

The migration guide says:

A new default sitemap provider is in place, which provides a dynamic sitemap with the name _default, which lists all group items that are not contained within any other group

Which one could read as: there will always be a default, which you can not change, that will show “ungrouped” items.

Okay, I got it :smiley:

It’s in “Configuration -> Services -> Basic UI”, took me a while to actually find it.

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I’ve successfully set the Default Sitemap under Paper UI to my custom sitemap. That mechanism is working correctly. However, I still see the built-in “Home” sitemap in the list of sitemaps under Paper UI. Also, using habdroid, there is an entry “_default” when I go to select the habdroid default sitemap. All of my items are assigned to groups, so there should be nothing to auto generate in the openhab2 sitemap provider. Is it possible to completely remove Home (_default)?

The topic is quite old, but is there an update?