I’m wondering if it would be useful to have a ‘discussion URL’ in the zwave db that could be added to have a dedicated link to a thread on the community forum specific to that device. In the thread, discussions could take place about issues and updating this device’s database entry and then users could subscribe if they have the device and know when someone is trying to update it.
I don’t know if that makes sense but I think it would be helpful considering I’ve seen many threads about the same device all of the forums.
It’s not a bad idea - I could either add some sort of URL entry and try and display that prominently somewhere on the database page for the device, or it could just be added as a comment (which would be less obvious, but easier for people to add links.
I’m happy to look at this if you have a suggestion on the implementation.
One other thing that I did add recently is a “Usage Information” box for each device. The idea with this is that people can add examples or comments relating to OH, and this could then be added into the documentation that gets automatically generated from the database. This field can be formatted with tables, titles etc, so can act as a (sort of!) wiki…
I like the Usage Information box. I assume that will show up in HABMIN when looking at a device?
My thoughts for the url were to have it similar to the Usage Information box and make it show up in both the database and HABMIN so it would easily be visible.
This way it is sort of a standard location for the URL and in theory you should only need one URL per device.
Not at the moment… I wasn’t planning to add this as part of the thing description - my thought was only to add it to the documentation export. However, I’m open to being persuaded .
I will take a look at adding another field where URLs can be added - preferably just a single one, but let’s see how it goes. I wouldn’t want to end up with a huge list of URLs, but I think having a pointer to the forum is a good idea - my only reservation is there will likely be a number of discussions, and it could get messy… Let’s see.
It may or may not be helpful so I don’t have a good argument for persuasion at the moment!
Ideally, this would minimize the multiple threads in the forum. It may take some time to get users used to adding a URL and utilizing that discussion before making a new post but I think it’s worth a shot.
Basically a great idea. As a lot of users don’t like to use the forums search button this could avoid writing the same answer over and over again
I think the “comment” version would be fine. The basic function of the database is to provide technical information to make the device work. It does already provide a lot of information form the manual, but I think the main focus should not be to avoid reading the manual.
My personal opinion: no, please don’t. I already don’t like the very long “Device Overview” entries: when I need to quickly check or change some parameters, I have to scroll down, and down, and down …
It would be a great addition to the device docs, though.
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