openHAB 4.2 release blog post

[florian-h05]

Deploy preview: https://deploy-preview-475--openhab.netlify.app/blog/2024-07-07-openhab-4-2-release.html

[florian-h05]

Possible authors for sub-sections:

• @digitaldan for notification enhancements
• @mherwege for persistence extensions
• @JustinGeorgi for semantic model template, oh-context
• @jimtng for item form enhancements, add-on store redesign
• @stefan-hoehn for Blockly
• @lolodomo for Basic UI and sitemaps
• @ecdye for openHABian
• @holgerfriedrich for Java 21 support

@openhab/core-maintainers for core enhancements
@openhab/add-ons-maintainers for noteworthy add-on enhancements
@openhab/android-maintainers @openhab/jruby-maintainers Anything you would like to add?

[jimtng]

@mherwege's comment disappeared?

[florian-h05]

Yeah, I have also noticed. I however got an email of it, so it is not lost.

[mherwege]

@mherwege's comment disappeared?

That was my fault. I tried to make a suggestion from it, but didn't succeed. I hope the text provided gives a good enough base to work with.

[mherwege]

LGTM

[digitaldan]

Hi, are we shooting to be done with this by EOD July 4th ? (release is on the 5th?)

[holgerfriedrich]

Should we add a section regarding Java21 support?
(We basically still recommend Java 17, but development can be done with a Java 21 compiler creating Java 17 binaries as well, or even native Java 21. Running OH on Java 21 is experimental, but possible.)

[florian-h05]

Hi, are we shooting to be done with this by EOD July 4th ? (release is on the 5th?)

Release was announced for 7th (see https://community.openhab.org/t/openhab-4-2-milestone-builds/154315/5?u=florian-h05), we need this to be finished in the evening of 7th.

Should we add a section regarding Java21 support?

@holgerfriedrich Absolutely, this should be mentioned!

[holgerfriedrich]

Should we add a section regarding Java21 support?

@holgerfriedrich Absolutely, this should be mentioned!

Ok, but let me first add it to the documentation: openhab/openhab-docs#2325 and openhab/openhabian#1879.

[mstormi]

care to spend a word on openHABian?
We moved to bookworm Debian release, support RPi5 and 64bit now.
I'm on vacation if you need something this week I believe @ecdye can provide it.

[ecdye]

care to spend a word on openHABian?

We moved to bookworm Debian release, support RPi5 and 64bit now.

I'm on vacation if you need something this week I believe @ecdye can provide it.

Yep, I should be able to provide whatever you need. I'll go review the PR @holgerfriedrich provided.

[JustinGeorgi]

How does this look?

[florian-h05]

care to spend a word on openHABian?

Of course - totally forgot it, sorry!!

Yep, I should be able to provide whatever you need.

@ecdye A section where you mention what is new and what has changed for openHABian would be great. Just write about everything you think is important and should be mentioned, I will than put it into the blog post.
I would propose to put openHABian after the add-on enhancements, and before a section about documentation enhancements, which I will add soon.

[ecdye]

Sounds good, I'll work on that later today.

[jimtng]

Don't forget to update the health check location here

[lolodomo]

PR submitted for Basic UI changes.
I will try to add a screen capture later (after 4.2 RC2 is released).

[lolodomo]

Here is a screen capture for the new Basic UI settings. Please include it.

[lolodomo]

Proposal for default presentation pattern:

Default presentation pattern

A default state pattern is now provided for string, number and datettime items, whether the item is linked to a channel or not. It is used when no other pattern is provided by any other means (channel, metadata, ...). No need to set it explicitly, unless the default does not match your wish.
Here are the respective defaults:

• for string item: %s
• for datetime item or group with datetime state: %1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td %1$tH:%1$tM:%1$tS
• for number item or group with number state: %.0f
• for number with dimension item or group with number with dimension state: %.0f %unit%

[florian-h05]

@lolodomo I included your proposal for default state presentation patterns and added your image.

[digitaldan]

you beat me to the header image ;-) I had dall-e create this one, but i like yours as well!

[florian-h05]

Dall-E looks superior to Foocus wrt to details (using juggernautXL_v8Rundiffusion), but somehow looks more artificial.
Anyway it still looks really nice.

[lolodomo]

Here is a new screen capture for Basic UI. One description was updated at the last minute.

If it can be updated, that is perfect. If not, nothing really dramatic.

[netlify]

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