Fix thing reloading from things file

[J-N-K]

Fixes #3527

It was found that things from textual configuration are not properly updated if changes are only made in configuration or label of a channel. The reason is that for assuming equality only uid and accepted item-type of the channel were checked. This is obviously wrong and also confusing because for the thing itself configuration and other fields are also compared.

Another bug in the GenericThingProvider: The things are cached in the provider to determine changes. However, this list was never updated, resulting in changes back to the first version (v1 -> v2 -> v1) not resulting in an update notification, because the new thing and the cached thing are equal.

[florian-h05]

I‘ve tested this, and it is very weird: sometimes when you change channels, the thing is updated, but sometimes the thing is not updated.

[J-N-K]

If you enable debug logging for org.openhab.core.model.thing, do you see this message in both cases?

logger.debug("Updating thing '{}' from model '{}'.", newThing.UID, modelName);

[florian-h05]

No, Updating thing 'knx:device:bridge:Kueche_Glastaster' from model 'knx.things'. is only logged when it works.

Read things from model 'knx.things' is always logged.

[J-N-K]

Ok, so for some reason the code still thinks they are equals even if they are not. Do you have something that always or at least mostly fails (i.e. editing the label fails, editing the configuration works)? Can you share the .things code?

[florian-h05]

It seems like it mostly happens when:

1. openHAB starts with a given .things file
2. I change anything of the channel (in this case label) -> Thing updated
3. I change the channel label back -> Thing not updated

Here the relavent part of my *.things file (I have removed the Things I don't modify):

Bridge knx:ip:bridge [  
    type="ROUTER", 
    ipAddress="", // in TUNNEL Mode: 192.168.180.5
    portNumber=3671, // for TUNNEL mode
    localIp="192.168.180.4",
    readingPause=50, 
    responseTimeout=10, 
    readRetriesLimit=4, 
    autoReconnectPeriod=30,
    localSourceAddr="0.0.0",
    useNAT=false
] {

    Thing device Kueche_Glastaster "Küche Glastaster" @ "Küche" [
        address="1.1.24",
        fetch=true,
        pingInterval=300,
        readInterval=0
    ] {
        Type number             : Temperatur                 "Temperatur"              [ ga="9.001:3/3/130" ]
        Type switch             : Verstaerker_Radio          "Verstärker Radio"        [ ga="2/3/150" ]
        Type switch-control     : Verstaerker_Radio_Status   "Verstärker Radio Status" [ ga="1.011:2/3/151"]
        Type switch             : Verstaerker_BT             "Verstärker BT"           [ ga="2/3/155" ]
        Type switch-control     : Verstaerker_BT_Status      "Verstärker BT Status"    [ ga="1.011:2/3/156" ]
        
    }
    
}

[J-N-K]

I think I found it. However, I'm not 100% if my fix is correct, it's in the XTend code and that is always a mystery for me. Currently testing if it works for me.

[J-N-K]

Please check this version, it also contains an updated org.openhab.core.model.thing bundle.

[florian-h05]

Works fine, thanks for the fix!

[jlaur]

Another bug in the GenericThingProvider: The things are cached in the provider to determine changes. However, this list was never updated, resulting in changes back to the first version (v1 -> v2 -> v1) not resulting in an update notification, because the new thing and the cached thing are equal.

Great finding, thanks for this fix. This is something that has annoyed me for a long time, but never took the time to reproduce or investigate this further. I just had this feeling that it did not work correctly, as it usually happened for me during tests where I was changing configuration back and forth.

[wborn]

LGTM! 👍

[openhab-bot]

This pull request has been mentioned on openHAB Community. There might be relevant details there:

https://community.openhab.org/t/text-configuration-loading-after-change/146244/5

[openhab-bot]

This pull request has been mentioned on openHAB Community. There might be relevant details there:

https://community.openhab.org/t/come-back-and-learn-how-to-use-file-based-configuration/147067/15

[openhab-bot]

This pull request has been mentioned on openHAB Community. There might be relevant details there:

https://community.openhab.org/t/oh3-model-and-things-go-offline-after-a-while-when-i-configure-the-system/147785/12