# Categories

Categories in openHAB are used to provide meta information about Things, Channels, etc. UIs can use this information to render specific icons or provide a search functionality to for example filter all Things for a certain category.

# Differences between categories

We separate the categories into functional and visual. Therefore we treat Thing categories as how the physical device looks like and Channel categories as something that describes the functional purpose of the Channel.

# Thing Categories

The Thing type definition allows to specify a category. User interfaces can parse this category to get an idea how to render this Thing. A Binding can classify each Thing into one of the existing categories. The list of all predefined categories can be found in our categories overview:

Category Description Icon Example
Battery Batteries, Energy Storages battery
Blinds Roller shutters, window blinds, etc. blinds
Camera All kinds of cameras camera
Car Smart Cars
CleaningRobot Vacuum robots, mopping robots, etc.
Door Door door
FrontDoor Front Door frontdoor
GarageDoor Garage Door garagedoor
HVAC Air condition devices, Fans
Inverter Power inverter, such as solar inverters etc.
LawnMower Lawn mowing robots, etc. lawnmower
Lightbulb Devices that illuminate something, such as bulbs, etc. lightbulb
Lock Devices whose primary purpose is locking something lock
MotionDetector Motion sensors/detectors
NetworkAppliance Bridges/Gateway need to access other devices like used by Philips Hue for example, Routers, Switches
PowerOutlet Small devices to be plugged into a power socket in a wall which stick there poweroutlet
Projector Devices that project a picture somewhere projector
RadiatorControl Controls on radiators used to heat up rooms
Receiver Audio/Video receivers, i.e. radio receivers, satelite or cable receivers, recorders, etc. receiver
Screen Devices that are able to show a picture screen
Sensor Device used to measure something
Siren Siren used by Alarm systems siren
SmokeDetector Smoke detectors
Speaker Devices that are able to play sounds
WallSwitch Any device attached to the wall that controls a binary status of something, for ex. a light switch wallswitch
WebService Account with credentials for a website
Window Window window
WhiteGood Devices that look like Waschingmachines, Dishwashers, Dryers, Fridges, Ovens, etc. whitegood

# Channel Group Categories

Channel Groups can be seen as a kind of sub-device as they combine certain (physical) abilities of a Thing into one. For such Group Channels one can set a category from the Thing category list.

# Channel Categories

The Channel type definition allows to specify a category. A Binding should classify each Channel into one of the existing categories or leave the category blank, if there is no good match. There are different types of categories for Channels, which are listed below.

# Widgets

Category Icon Example
Colorpicker colorpicker
Number number
Rollershutter rollershutter
Slider slider
Switch switch
Text text
Group group

# Weather

Category Icon Example
Sun sun
Moon moon
Clouds clouds
Sun_Clouds sun_clouds
Rain rain
Snow snow
Wind wind
Humidity humidity
Temperature temperature

# Properties

Category Icon Example
BatteryLevel batterylevel
LowBattery lowbattery
CarbonDioxide carbondioxide
Energy energy
Gas gas
Oil oil
Water water
Light light
ColorLight colorlight
Temperature temperature
Smoke smoke
SoundVolume soundvolume
Pressure pressure
Fire fire
Motion motion
QualityOfService qualityofservice
Moisture moisture
Noise noise
Flow flow
Price price
Time time

# Control

Category Icon Example
Heating heating
MediaControl mediacontrol
MoveControl movecontrol
Zoom zoom

# Purpose

Category Icon Example
Alarm alarm
Presence presence
Vacation vacation
Party party