Top Tip - configuration of openHAB without a PC

1 Oct 2014

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I thought I'd write a quick post.

openHAB configuration is controlled by a number of text files, which define the various rules, items, and sitemaps. The format is quite particular and editing directly on the RPi can be tedious.

Initially I was using the openHAB designer on my laptop to configure openHAB. It runs on Windows, Linux, and OSX, providing a GUI with which to modify the various files. By also running openHAB on my laptop, I could preview the interface, and then the saved config files were copied to the RPi via SFTP/Samba for deployment.

From what I've read, most people involved in the challenge are following this approach. It is somewhat cumbersome, as you need to copy files across manually.

When a recent burglary left me without a PC, suddenly I couldn't rely on the openHAB designer. I was looking for an easy way to continue development and testing. I wanted to be able to edit the openHAB configuration directly on the RPi. Unfortunately, the openHAB designer does not run on the RPi, and even if it did, would no doubt be hideously slow.

HABmin

Enter HABmin. It allows you to control and configure a running instance of openHAB, using a straight-forward GUI.

It's tremendously easy to install. From your RPi, download the latest release:

wget https://github.com/cdjackson/HABmin/releases/download/0.1.3-snapshot/habmin.zip

Then unzip to your openHAB folder. In my case this is done with the command:

unzip habmin.zip -d /opt/openhab

Restart openHAB and then you can navigate to the HABmin URL: http://<openHAB IP address>:8080/habmin/index.html

The HABmin interface isn't perfect, but find the workflow much better than using openHAB designer. It's also more convenient, as you can edit on the fly. Even now, when I have a replacement laptop, I continue to use HABmin to configure my openHAB install.

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michaelwylie over 10 years ago

Neat, I was not aware. I know this won't help you now, but openHAB designer allows you to modify the files directly if you network your Pi with Samba. I really like the look oh HABmin though, I might give it a try.
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tekmeister over 10 years ago in reply to michaelwylie

I think you'll be hooked after you've tried it. Just remember to click "Save" or the tick to save changes.
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mcb1 over 10 years ago in reply to tekmeister

I've been using it for a while, but it doesn't do proper checking on syntax, etc.
The format of the files is more like plain text, (ie minimal spacing, squashed together, with little extra white space)

Regardless of what you use, you really do need to restart openHAB for the effects to properly migrate.
http://www.element14.com/community/people/fvan even reboots the RPi which seems to ensure the necessary open files are closed.

Mark
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mcb1 over 10 years ago in reply to tekmeister

I've been using it for a while, but it doesn't do proper checking on syntax, etc.
The format of the files is more like plain text, (ie minimal spacing, squashed together, with little extra white space)

Regardless of what you use, you really do need to restart openHAB for the effects to properly migrate.
http://www.element14.com/community/people/fvan even reboots the RPi which seems to ensure the necessary open files are closed.

Mark
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tekmeister over 10 years ago in reply to mcb1

I haven't actually checked the generated output of HABmin, but to be honest, I'm not overly fussed on formatting as long as it works.

So far I haven't needed to restart openHAB after making changes.
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mcb1 over 10 years ago in reply to tekmeister

So far I haven't needed to restart openHAB after making changes.

I was changing the sensors, so maybe that binding needs to be restarted.

Mark
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