Global Aliases

Now that Aliases have been implemented in GH, could we please take a look at GLOBAL ALIAS REGISTRY for devices.

Justification:
Currently there are devices that set up with their own device ID when initially set up (Shelly being one of them) and I know we can set a “friendly name” however this name is not GLOBAL throughout things like automations, scripts and lovelace. These three areas STILL refer to the DEVICEID and not the FRIENDLY NAME

If that device becomes faulty and is replaced, you MUST find every instance of the ID and replace it manually.

When there are MULTIPLE references to a particular device across multiple scripts, automations and lovelace dashboards you may be faced with an editing nightmare.

If these areas have the ability to refer to the GLOBAL ALIAS, when replacing a device, you pnly need to change the deviceID in the Alias registry, and then Automations scripts and lovelace dont need to change.

I currently do this in my brewery through the use of a separate yaml file that is a template registry and I create a seperate template for each device ID. When using scripts automations and lovelace dashboards I ONLY refer to the template entity, that way when I replace a faulty device I only need to change the deviceID in the template registry that I created.

Its a VERY convoluted way of doing things and hence my request. @balloob @frenck

They only refer to the device ID if you choose to do that. Alternatively, you can just use entity IDs instead of using device actions, triggers and conditions. Those don’t involve device IDs at all. And if you replace your faulty device you can just use the same entity IDs for every entity in that device and everything keeps working.

This also really has nothing to do with the alieas feature your referring to. Devices don’t get aliases, entities do. Devices also aren’t exposed to voice assistants (the reason for the feature), entities are.

Don’t tag people that aren’t currently involved in the conversation, its rude.

1 Like