Core: ZHA Management Panel Shows Devices As Default Name

[drjared88]

Home Assistant release with the issue:
0.88.0

Last working Home Assistant release (if known):
0.87.1

Operating environment (Hass.io/Docker/Windows/etc.):

Ubuntu venv
Component/platform:

zha

Description of problem:
In the ZHA management panel (Configuration > ZHA) the drop down list now shows devices as their default generic name. It used to show the configured entity name of the zha.* device.

This makes it really hard to find the right device when you have multiples of the same kind.

Problem-relevant configuration.yaml entries and (fill out even if it seems unimportant):

zha:
  usb_path: /dev/ttyUSB1
  database_path: /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/zigbee.db
  enable_quirks: true

Traceback (if applicable):

Additional information:

[dmulcahey]

This is going to be tough to change, the zha entities themselves are probably going away in a future release. The entire ZHA system was rewritten to remove the HA entities from the ZHA parts. I completely understand the issue and the frustration! I’ll give it some thought to see what I can do to improve this.

[dshokouhi]

@dmulcahey I have actually found the zha entities to be more helpful when batteries die in a device (like this morning) compared to a low battery alert, will we get another entity to replace the online and offline states? or is that what the unavailable state is intended for in 0.88?

[dmulcahey]

@dshokouhi still a bit up in the air. either the ZHA entities stick around or we will end up with a binary sensor and a battery sensor. I like the ZHA entities myself but they kinda violate the HA architecture and I have been asked to replace them a couple times.

[Adminiuga]

My preference is to keep the ZHA entity, unless we have a ZHA event indicating device going offline/online. BTW, Could the device availability status be reflected in device registry?

[dmulcahey]

that's a question for the core devs. Post on backend_development and we can add it if they agree to it.

[mkArtak]

Hi @dmulcahey. I'm relatively new to this repo but have been an HA user for quite a while now.
Quick question regarding the statement:

the zha entities themselves are probably going away in a future release. The entire ZHA system was rewritten to remove the HA entities from the ZHA parts.

Is there an announcement or docs about this? I'd like to read more on that as I have a bunch of ZigBee devices all configured through zha and not sure what is the support story for those is. Most of these are from Xiaomi.

[dmulcahey]

@mkArtak sorry if the statement was confusing. ZHA isn’t going anywhere. We may change how a specific entity type works. That’s all.