4.1.0

TCP/UDP Binding

This binding allows using TCP or UDP connection to bring external data into openHAB or execute requests on commands.

• Supported Things
• Thing Configuration
• Channels
• Example configurations

Supported Things

Two things are available:

• client for connecting to remote hosts
• receiver for receiving from remote hosts

Both can be extended with different channels.

Thing Configuration

Note: Optional “no” means that you have to configure a value unless a default is provided and you are ok with that setting.

client

parameter	optional	default	description
host	no	-	The address of the remote host (can be an IP address or a hostname (FQDN).
port	no	-	The port on the remote host that this thing shall connect to.
protocol	no	-	protocol for this connection: TCP or UDP.
refresh	no	30	Time in seconds between two refresh calls for the channels of this thing.
timeout	no	3000	Timeout for requests in ms.
bufferSize	no	2048	The buffer size for the response data (in kB).
delay	no	0	Delay between two requests in ms (advanced parameter).
encoding	yes	-	Encoding to be used if no encoding is found in responses (advanced parameter).

receiver

parameter	optional	default	description
localAddress	yes	-	The address of the receiving network interface (default is: listen on all interfaces).
port	no	-	The port on the local machine that this thing shall listen to.
protocol	no	-	protocol for this connection: TCP or UDP.
bufferSize	no	2048	The buffer size for the response data (in kB).
delay	no	0	Delay between two requests in ms (advanced parameter).
encoding	yes	-	Encoding to be used if no encoding is found in responses (advanced parameter).

Channels

Each item type has its own channel-type. Channel-types with receiver--prefix are available on receiver things, channel-types without prefix are available on client things. Depending on the channel-type, channels have different configuration options.

Common parameters for channels

All client-channel-types (except image) have stateContent, stateTransformation, commandTransformation and mode parameters. The image channel-type supports stateContent only.

All receiver-channel-types (except image) have addressFilter and stateTransformation parameters. The receiver-image channel-type supports addressFilter only.

parameter	optional	default	description
stateTransformation	yes	-	One or more transformation applied to received values before updating channel.
commandTransformation	yes	-	One or more transformation applied to channel value before sending to a remote.
stateContent	no	-	Content for state requests.
mode	no	READWRITE	Mode this channel is allowed to operate. READONLY means receive state, WRITEONLY means send commands.
addressFilter	no	*	Address filter for incoming connections.

Transformations need to be specified in the same format as Some channels have additional parameters.

Value Transformations (stateTransformation, commandTransformation)

Transformations can be used if the supplied value (or the required value) is different from what openHAB internal types require. Here are a few examples to unwrap an incoming value via stateTransformation from a complex response:

Received value	Tr. Service	Transformation
{device: {status: { temperature: 23.2 }}}	JSONPATH	JSONPATH:$.device.status.temperature
<device><status><temperature>23.2</temperature></status></device>	XPath	XPath:/device/status/temperature/text()
THEVALUE:23.2°C	REGEX	REGEX::(.*?)°

Transformations can be chained by separating them with the mathematical intersection character “∩”, e.g. JSONPATH:$.device.status∩MAP:onoff.map would first apply the JSONPATH transformation and then apply the given MAP transformation on the result. Please note that the values will be discarded if one transformation fails (e.g. REGEX did not match).

The same mechanism works for commands (commandTransformation) for outgoing values.

Address filter (addressFilter)

Channels on receiver things allow to add a filter for the incoming connection. The format is ip:port, the *-wildcard can be used. The default is * (i.e. accept everything).

Examples:

• 192.168.178.2:* accept values from the host 192.168.178.2 from every port
• 192.168.0.*:* accepts values from every host with an address that matches 192.168.0.* from every port
• *:4444 accepts values from every host but only if the SENDING port matches 4444

In most setups it is a good idea to use * for the sending port because this usually can’t be controlled.

Additional parameters for channel-types color, receiver-color

parameter	optional	default	description
onValue	yes	-	A special value that represents ON
offValue	yes	-	A special value that represents OFF
increaseValue	yes	-	A special value that represents INCREASE
decreaseValue	yes	-	A special value that represents DECREASE
step	no	1	The amount the brightness is increased/decreased on INCREASE/DECREASE
colorMode	no	RGB	Mode for color values: RGB or HSB

All values that are not onValue, offValue, increaseValue, decreaseValue are interpreted as color value (according to the color mode) in the format r,g,b or h,s,v.

Additional parameters for channel-types contact, receiver-contact

parameter	optional	default	description
openValue	no	-	A special value that represents OPEN
closedValue	no	-	A special value that represents CLOSED

Additional parameters for channel-types dimmer, receiver-dimmer

parameter	optional	default	description
onValue	yes	-	A special value that represents ON
offValue	yes	-	A special value that represents OFF
increaseValue	yes	-	A special value that represents INCREASE
decreaseValue	yes	-	A special value that represents DECREASE
step	no	1	The amount the brightness is increased/decreased on INCREASE/DECREASE

All values that are not onValue, offValue, increaseValue, decreaseValue are interpreted as brightness 0-100% and need to be numeric only.

Additional parameters for channel-types number, receiver-number

parameter	optional	default	description
unit	yes	-	The unit label for this channel

number channels can be used for DecimalType or QuantityType values. If a unit is given in the unit parameter, the binding tries to create a QuantityType state before updating the channel, if no unit is present, it creates a DecimalType. Please note that incompatible units (e.g. °C for a Number:Density item) will fail silently, i.e. no error message is logged even if the state update fails.

Additional parameters for channel-types player, receiver-player

parameter	optional	default	description
play	yes	-	A special value that represents PLAY
pause	yes	-	A special value that represents PAUSE
next	yes	-	A special value that represents NEXT
previous	yes	-	A special value that represents PREVIOUS
fastforward	yes	-	A special value that represents FASTFORWARD
rewind	yes	-	A special value that represents REWIND

Additional parameters for channel-types rollershutter, receiver-rollershutter

parameter	optional	default	description
upValue	yes	-	A special value that represents UP
downValue	yes	-	A special value that represents DOWN
stopValue	yes	-	A special value that represents STOP
moveValue	yes	-	A special value that represents MOVE

All values that are not upValue, downValue, stopValue, moveValue are interpreted as position 0-100% and need to be numeric only.

Additional parameters for channel-types switch, receiver-switch

parameter	optional	default	description
onValue	no	-	A special value that represents ON
offValue	no	-	A special value that represents OFF

Note: Special values need to be exact matches, i.e. no leading or trailing characters and comparison is case-sensitive.

Example configurations

Thing tcpudp:receiver:string "TCPUDP String" [ localAddress="0.0.0.0", port="17236", protocol="UDP" ] {
    Channels:
        Type receiver-string : bewgtrp "Bewegungsmelder Treppenhaus" [ addressFilter="192.168.179.41:*" ]
        Type receiver-string : fschlaf "Fenster Schlafzimmer R" [ addressFilter="192.168.179.31:*" ]
}

This creates a thing that

• listens on all network interfaces on port 17236 for UDP connections
• has one channel accepting only connections from a client with the IP address 192.168.179.41 and outputs the result to a channel that can be linked to a String item
• has one channel accepting only connections from a client with the IP address 192.168.179.31 and outputs the result to a channel that can be linked to a String item