Manage and create devices for using it in other adapters like material, iot, matter...
Important: enable tab in admin, like log and scripts
This adapter uses Sentry libraries to automatically report exceptions and code errors to the developers. For more details and for information how to disable the error reporting, see Sentry-Plugin Documentation! Sentry reporting is used starting with js-controller 3.0.
The ioBroker.devices adapter is a component of the ioBroker smart home platform designed to simplify device management by creating and managing virtual devices.
These virtual devices provide a standardized interface for physical devices, making it easier to integrate, script, visualize, and control devices across different manufacturers and protocols.
The adapter ensures consistency in data point naming and structure, reducing the need to modify scripts or visualizations when hardware changes.
It wraps any collection of states in ioBroker (physical or virtual) into well‑formed devices with rich information:
type,role,smartName,color,room,function,icon,unitand more
The result is consumed by dashboards (Material UI, VIS‑2), voice assistants (Alexa/Google), matter adapter, the iot/cloud adapter and scripts, giving you a clean, future‑proof object tree.
Note: The adapter does not poll hardware. It runs as a tab‑only “web” instance → zero CPU/RAM footprint.
The ioBroker.devices adapter serves the following purposes:
- Standardization: Creates virtual devices with consistent data point structures, regardless of the underlying hardware or protocol from different data points.
- Simplified Maintenance: Allows users to swap physical devices without updating scripts or visualizations by remapping data points in the adapter.
- Enhanced Compatibility: Integrates seamlessly with visualization adapters (e.g., Material UI, VIS), IoT adapters (e.g., Alexa, Google Home).
- User-Friendly: Simplifies device management for beginners while offering flexibility for advanced users.
Many adapters like mqtt, knx or similarly deliver data points with different names and structures. This adapter creates a virtual device with a consistent structure, making it easier to manage and visualize devices. It adds automatically roles, units and names to the states.
The ioBroker.devices adapter allows users to create virtual devices that can be easily remapped to different physical devices.
This means that if you change a physical device, you don't need to update your scripts, visualizations or history settings; you just need to remap the data points in the adapter.
The adapter knows how the devices should look like and how to use them. It creates a virtual device with the same structure as the physical device, making it easier to integrate with other adapters.
The ioBroker.devices adapter is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible for beginners while still offering advanced features for experienced users. The intuitive interface allows users to create and manage virtual devices without needing extensive technical knowledge.
Once installed, configure the adapter via the Devices tab in the ioBroker admin interface.
Open Devices Tab in admin.
- Click the "+" button to create a new virtual device.
- Enter a Name for the device (e.g., "LivingRoomLight").
- Select a Device Type (e.g., Light, Switch, Thermostat) from the predefined list.
- Optionally, assign a Category (e.g., Lighting, Heating) for organization.
Map Data Points:
For each function (e.g., on/off, brightness), map the virtual device’s data point to the corresponding state of the physical device (e.g., hm-rpc.0.12345.1.STATE for a Homematic switch).
Use the interface to browse and select states from other adapters.
Save: Click "Save" to create the virtual device. It will appear under alias.0. in the Objects tab.
The ioBroker.devices adapter supports three main approaches to device creation:
- Automatically Detected Devices
Some adapters (e.g., ioBroker.zigbee, ioBroker.hm-rpc) already provide a valid structure for the devices, and they will be detected automatically if some category (function or room) is assigned. Without the assigned category, the automatically detected device will not be processed.
- Linked Devices
Linked devices are virtual devices manually created to mirror a specific physical device’s data points with ioBroker.linkeddevices.
It is suggested to use ioBroker.devices and alias.0 branch instead of linkeddevices.
- Aliases
Aliases are lightweight virtual devices that act as shortcuts or simplified references to existing states without creating a full device structure.
You can create a new virtual device in a alias.0 branch. By selecting the device type, you should fill all required states (marked with *). Optionally, you can add not required states (e.g., humidity by temperature sensor).
For every required state and filled optional state, the adapter creates a structure of aliases.
If you created e.g. a temperature device named Temperature and provided both states (temperature and humidity) you will find the following states and channel in alias.0 branch:
alias.0.Temperature- channelalias.0.Temperature.temperature- state with unit '°C'. It should have a virtual link to some real state with temperature. If you remove the alias inioBroker.devicesadapter, this state will stay without a link.alias.0.Temperature.humidity- state with unit '%'. This will have a virtual link to real state (e.g., tohm-rpc.0.JHAGHGJJJ.1.HUMIDITY). If you remove alias inioBroker.devicesadapter, this state will be deleted.
Almost every device type could have additional states (indicators) for battery, connectivity, error and some more else. They are optional, but some adapters (e.g., material or matter) could interpret it.
For every state, you can provide all settings, that aliases support:
- Different states for read and write
- Convert formula for read and write
Edit Device: In the Devices tab, click the pencil icon next to a device to modify its name, type, category, color, name, icon or data point mappings.
Delete Device: Click the trash can icon to remove a virtual device. This does not affect the physical device or its adapter.
Organize Devices: Use categories to group devices (e.g., "Lighting", "Heating") for easier management in visualizations.
This adapter is built with the help of type-detector. All possible devices could be found here
- (@GermanBluefox) Type-detector updated
- (@GermanBluefox) Execute the conversion formula on current value
- (@GermanBluefox) Better categories selector
- (@GermanBluefox) Corrected device importer
- (@GermanBluefox) Corrected many GUI issues
- (@GermanBluefox) Updated logo
- (@GermanBluefox) Updated type-detector
- (@GermanBluefox) Updated packages
- (@GermanBluefox) Used vite
- (@GermanBluefox) Used eslint-config of ioBroker
- (@GermanBluefox) Rewritten to TypeScript and corrected all known bugs (Except extension requests)
- (Garfonso) fixed: problem with editing imported states
- (Garfonso) fixed: warning
- (Garfonso) fixed: enabling iot again (without setting a custom smartName)
- (Garfonso) fixed: possible crash / typo in 1.1.3.
- (bluefox) Updated packages
- (bluefox) Better behavior of category selection
- (Garfonso) corrected the double states in light devices
- (Garfonso) added CIE color type as equivalent to
rgbSingletype
- (bluefox) Corrected delete dialog
- (bluefox) Added ukrainian translation
- (bluefox) Migrated GUI to v5
- (bluefox) Allowed to work with devices behind reverse proxy
- (bluefox) Replaced the function icon
- (bluefox) Updated some libraries
- (bluefox) Corrected edit of folders
- (bluefox) Updated some libraries
- (bluefox) Implement the narrow rows
- (bluefox) Corrected creation of the devices
- (bluefox) Corrected creation the folders
- (bluefox) Implemented the filters
- (bluefox) Implemented the edit of
statesparameter
- (bluefox) Fixed some GUI errors
- (bluefox) Added sentry
- (bluefox) Added new devices
- (bluefox) Fixed the error for IDs with the strange characters
- (bluefox) Updated the select ID dialog
- (bluefox) Fixed errors by optional states
- (bluefox) added the vacuum cleaner
- (bluefox) added the air conditioner
- (Apollon77) Added Sentry error reporting for Frontend/React
- (Apollon77) Fixed typo
- (bluefox) Fixed error by device creation
- (Apollon77) usage with all kinds of admin ports and reverse proxies optimized
- (Apollon77) compatibility with Admin >4.0.0 added
- (bluefox) Backend was removed
- (bluefox) Allowed the clone of devices
- (bluefox) work in progress
- (bluefox) work in progress
- (bluefox) initial release
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2019-2025 bluefox dogafox@gmail.com
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