This page is part of archived documentation for openHAB 4.3. Go to the current stable version
# Settings - Things
Things manage the physical layer of the openHAB system and represent individual devices or services. The Things that you can add to your system are determined by the bindings that you have installed.
There is a Things concepts page that explains the idea of Things in detail.
On this page, you can manage all the Things you have added to your system:
- Add new Things
Use the Thing Inbox to scan for available things or manually add ones that cannot be found automatically using the plus button. - Configure Things
Click on any Thing in the list to see its configuration page and its channels. - Delete Things
Select multiple Things using the top Select button and use the Remove buttons at the bottom or use the Delete Thing button on the individual Thing pages. - Enable/Disable Things
Select multiple Things using the top Select button and use the Enable or Disable buttons at the bottom or use the pause button on the individual Thing pages.
Adding Things via the user interface is described comprehensively in the tutorial section:
- Adding Things - Simple
- Adding Things - Intermediate: Things that are dealing with a binding where the bridge-Thing cannot be automatically discovered.
- Adding Things - Advanced: Things that do not support automatic discovery.
# Inbox
Many devices, technologies and systems can be automatically discovered on the network or browsed through some API. It therefore makes a lot of sense to use these features for a smart home solution.
openHAB bindings can therefore implement discovery services for Things, which provide discovery results. All discovery results are put into the Thing inbox from where they can be easily added to openHAB with just a few clicks.
Please read the tutorial to learn how to use the inbox.