WTH are some entity names so long and ugly

Month of "What the heck?!"
1

example:
select.ikea_of_sweden_tradfribulbe14wscandleopal470lm_4114c5fe_on_off_startuponoff
sensor.lumi_lumi_switch_n1aeu1_electrical_measurement_power_factor

Adding a device to my HA instance and seeing:
image
Does not give a slick/polished feel. (Although maybe this shouldn’t be a goal for HA)

Would be partially ameliorated by WTH is there no "refactor" functionality when changing an entity name?

I get that a lot of this is because of how the integration authors choose to generate entity names and I understand why the generate names like this. The need it to be unique so the user can find it, and explain what it does.

Maybe if each entity had a “description” field that was included in searches then integration authors could move a lot of this information there. WTH don't entities have a description of what they do?

2

You know you can rename these things right? You also know that if you rename the device, it carries that name to the entity name and entity_id’s as well?

3

Yes, hence my reference to

Would be partially ameliorated by WTH is there no “refactor” functionality when changing an entity name? which would make renaming even more ameliorating.

Doesn’t mean that the names should be long and ugly in the first place though, particularly as they are presented to the user.

P.S see my screenshot addition to the OP

4

I don’t get the reference. When you add a device, the first thing you’d do is identify it and name it and you wouldn’t need to update the references. Yes updating references is needed, but it really doesn’t have any relationship to long unusable names default names that can be changed with 1 stroke.

5

Ok so after renaming it to “Spare Big Bulb”
I still have
image

6

You have to rename the device…

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image

7

I did exactly that.

Before the rename it was

select.ikea_of_sweden_tradfribulbe14wscandleopal470lm_e2cc66fe_basic_iqi
Then I renamed the device ikea of sweden tradfribulbe14wscandleopal470lm to Spare Big Bulb and it became sensor.spare_big_bulb_e2cc66fe_basic_lqi better but not perfect

8

Some integrations add some “unique” id to the device name but even then I think you can still rename them when you open the entity settings, can’t you? Another thing is how easy or hard it is to change it everywhere but then this referred topic is the right place to discuss it.

9

yes because the engine replaces the devices name, not the portion at the end which is a description of the entity. You can also rename that if you want as well on each entity.

10

I think this is the point. Some integrations just choose to add some uniqueness and the merits of that can be discussed here or WTH don't entities have a description of what they do?

Otherwise renaming is the solution (can be a pain when some devices add 10 + entities) and then the dangers of renaming are best discussed here: WTH is there no "refactor" functionality when changing an entity name?

As an N.B:
That something can be solved by user intervention is not a reason it can’t be a ‘WTH’ - my understanding about WTH is that it is stuff that frustrates you. Renaming ugly entity names frustrates me and takes time. I wish I didn’t have/want to do it… But It doesn’t stop me loving HomeAssistant :heart:

11

I think you should take this up with the ikea integration then. Many integrations don’t have this problem with any of their devices. Everything is pretty self explanatory, even zwave at this point doesn’t really raise questions on entity_id names nor what the entities do.

1 Like
12

Its ZHA not IKEA integration
But point made and received. This is the wrong place for this WTH - my apologies.

You can lock this thread now if you wish.

13

Yeah, ZHA integration likes to make long names :smiley: This is how it looks like when I click the “devices” under the integration

zha
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