JRuby Scripting

This add-on provides JRuby (opens new window) scripting language for automation rules.

JRuby Scripting Configuration

After installing this add-on, you will find configuration options in the openHAB portal under Settings -> Other Services -> JRuby Scripting.

Alternatively, JRuby configuration parameters may be set by creating a jruby.cfg file in conf/services/

Parameter	Default	Description
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:gem_home	$OPENHAB_CONF/automation/ruby/.gem/{RUBY_ENGINE_VERSION}	Location Ruby Gems will be installed to and loaded from. Directory will be created if necessary. You can use {RUBY_ENGINE_VERSION}, {RUBY_ENGINE} and/or {RUBY_VERSION} replacements in this value to automatically point to a new directory when the addon is updated with a new version of JRuby.
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:rubylib	$OPENHAB_CONF/automation/ruby/lib	Search path for user libraries. Separate each path with a colon (semicolon in Windows).
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:local_context	singlethread	The local context holds Ruby runtime, name-value pairs for sharing variables between Java and Ruby. See this (opens new window) for options and details
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:local_variables	transient	Defines how variables are shared between Ruby and Java. See this (opens new window) for options and details
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:gems		A comma separated list of Ruby Gems (opens new window) to install.
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:require		A comma separated list of script names to be required by the JRuby Scripting Engine at the beginning of user scripts.
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:check_update	true	Check RubyGems for updates to the above gems when OpenHAB starts or JRuby settings are changed. Otherwise it will try to fulfil the requirements with locally installed gems, and you can manage them yourself with an external Ruby by setting the same GEM_HOME.

Ruby Gems

This automation add-on will install user specified gems and make them available on the library search path. Gem versions may be specified using the standard ruby gem_name=version format. The version number follows the pessimistic version constraint (opens new window) syntax. Multiple version specifiers can be added by separating them with a semicolon.

For example this configuration will install the latest version of the openHAB JRuby Scripting Library (opens new window), and instruct the scripting engine to automatically insert require 'openhab' at the start of the script.

org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:gems=openhab-scripting
org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:require=openhab

Example with multiple version specifiers:

org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting:gems=library= >= 2.2.0; < 3.0, another-gem= > 4.0.0.a; < 5

Creating JRuby Scripts

When this add-on is installed, you can select JRuby as a scripting language when creating a script action within the rule editor of the UI.

Alternatively, you can create scripts in the automation/ruby configuration directory. If you create an empty file called test.rb, you will see a log line with information similar to:

    ... [INFO ] [.a.m.s.r.i.l.ScriptFileWatcher:150  ] - Loading script 'test.rb'

To enable debug logging, use the console logging commands to enable debug logging for the automation functionality:

log:set DEBUG org.openhab.core.automation
log:set DEBUG org.openhab.automation.jrubyscripting

Imports

All ScriptExtensions are available in JRuby with the following exceptions/modifications:

• The File variable, referencing java.io.File is not available as it conflicts with Ruby's File class preventing Ruby from initializing
• Globals scriptExtension, automationManager, ruleRegistry, items, voice, rules, things, events, itemRegistry, ir, actions, se, audio, lifecycleTracker are prepended with a $ (e.g. $automationManager) making them available as global variables in Ruby.

Script Examples

JRuby scripts provide access to almost all the functionality in an openHAB runtime environment. As a simple example, the following script logs "Hello, World!". Note that puts will usually not work since the output has no terminal to display the text. The openHAB server uses the SLF4J (opens new window) library for logging.

require 'java'
java_import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory

LoggerFactory.getLogger("org.openhab.automation.examples").info("Hello world!")

JRuby can import Java classes (opens new window). Depending on the openHAB logging configuration, you may need to prefix logger names with org.openhab.automation for them to show up in the log file (or you modify the logging configuration).

Note: Installing the JRuby Scripting Library (opens new window) will provide enhanced capabilities with simpler rule syntax.

Transformations

This add-on also provides the necessary infrastructure to use Ruby for writing transformations (opens new window). Once the addon is installed, you can create a Ruby file in the $OPENHAB_CONF/transform directory, with the extension .script. It's important that the extension is .script so that the core SCRIPT transform service will recognize it. When referencing the file, you need to specify the SCRIPT transform, with rb as the script type: SCRIPT(rb:mytransform.script):%s. You can also specify additional variables to be set in the script using a URI-like query syntax: SCRIPT(rb:mytransform.script?a=1b=c):%s in order to share a single script with slightly different parameters for different items.

Note: Due to an issue (opens new window) in the current version of JRuby, you will need to begin your script with input ||= nil (and a ||= nil etc. for additional query variables) so that JRuby will recognize the variables as variables--rather than method calls--when it's parsing the script. Otherwise you will get errors like (NameError) undefined local variable or method 'input' for main:Object.

Example Transformation

compass.script

input ||= nil
DIRECTIONS = %w[N NE E SE S SW W NW N].freeze

if input.nil? || input == "NULL" || input == "UNDEF"
  "-"
else
  cardinal = DIRECTIONS[(input.to_f / 45).round]
  "#{cardinal} (#{input.to_i}°)"
end

weather.items

Number:Angle Exterior_WindDirection "Wind Direction [SCRIPT(rb:compass.script):%s]" <wind>

Given a state of 82 °, this will produce a formatted state of E (82°).

Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on GitHub (opens new window)