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Tags and Groups? [message #1691983]

Sat, 11 April 2015 12:47

Chris Jackson

Messages: 256
Registered: December 2013

Senior Member

I'm just wondering what the difference between tags and groups is. It seems tags are another type of group - presumably they are intended for a different use?

From what I can tell in the PaperUI, tags are used for UI related functions, while groups are more 'functional' - grouping of items into things, or things into rooms etc...

Is there anything that provides a quick overview on this. Are we free to use the two as we like, or is there some guidance available?

Chris

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Re: Tags and Groups? [message #1692283 is a reply to message #1691983]

Tue, 14 April 2015 18:10

Dennis Nobel

Messages: 166
Registered: September 2014

Senior Member

Hi Chris,

in general a tag is just a string which can be added to a thing for "tagging" or "labeling" it with something. So the framework does not clearly define, for what it should be used. It is similar to a blog, where you can have arbitrary tags for a post. Tags might be put by users or by solutions.

Actually the Paper UI does not use or support tags at all. It uses the ThingSetupManager which adds tags to Items, to identify them as a 'thing', or 'channel'. But these tags are not evaluated in the UI.

If you want to support tagging in HABmin you should be free to use it.

Regards

Dennis

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Re: Tags and Groups? [message #1697056 is a reply to message #1692283]

Mon, 01 June 2015 09:03

Dirk Stueben

Messages: 7
Registered: May 2015
Location: Ostfriesland, Germany

Junior Member

Hi Dennis,

I have a related questation about channel groups, are they supported in the paper ui?
Currently I have a channel group type with several channel elements. if I use the group they do not appear in the paper ui control screen, if I use the channels directly in the thing they appear in the paper ui control in the way it was expected.

Best regards from Leer

Dirk

[Updated on: Mon, 01 June 2015 09:04]

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Re: Tags and Groups? [message #1697102 is a reply to message #1697056]

Mon, 01 June 2015 15:21

Dennis Nobel

Messages: 166
Registered: September 2014

Senior Member

Hi Dirk,

unfortunately the Paper UI does not support channel groups at the moment. For a complete list of known limitations of the Paper UI please look here: https://github.com/openhab/smarthome/blob/master/docs/sources/addons/paperui.md#known-limitations.

Regards

Dennis

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Re: Tags and Groups? [message #1697201 is a reply to message #1697102]

Tue, 02 June 2015 12:02

Kai Kreuzer

Messages: 673
Registered: December 2011

Senior Member

Chris,

just some additional info: You are right that in general groups and tags can be used for similar use cases.
For me, the main difference is this:
- Groups are individually defined by the user - they can have any name and any special meaning to them. And yes, they are "functional" in a way that they themselves support commands and have states.
- Tags were introduced to carry some semantics in future. My plan is to have some tag libraries defined within ESH that define some meaning that apps (be it bindings, rules or other extensions) can rely upon. Something like "presence" or "security". Such tag libraries could also be external ontologies, see e.g. my comment at https://github.com/openhab/openhab2/issues/257#issuecomment-107656613 for HomeKit.

As long as we do not have tag libraries in ESH, I actually suggest not to use tagging even though technically this is available in ESH.

Regards,
Kai

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