'Rules' Editor difficult to use due to Things labelling inconsistencies

[GHoGit]

Name labels for Things used in rules change during edit.
For me at least, this makes efficient use of rules practically impossible.

Observed in 1.2.A on RPI3+ with PI OS and recent 2.0.0-alpha.1 on RPI5 with Ubuntu 24.04.

See attached pdf for description.

RulesInconsistency.pdf

[benfrancis]

Thank you for the report. I haven't yet tried to reproduce these exact steps, but I did want to note that I noticed:

STR:

• Add two Things from the Virtual Things adapter
• Rename one of the Things
• Create a rule using the two things
• Exit the rules view
• Re-enter the rules view

Expected:

• New name displayed for Thing

Actual:

• Old name displayed for Thing

[benfrancis]

I have now been able to reproduce the original bug.

STR:

• Add an on/off switch device from the Zigbee add-on (I don't know if this is important)
• Add a light device from the virtual Things add-on
• Create a new rule so that while the switch is on the light should be on

Expected:

• The human-readable description at the top accurately describes the rule
• Clicking back then re-entering the rule detail view shows the rule still in place with properties selected and a line joining the two Things

Actual:

• The human-readable description at the top specifies the wrong Thing names
• Clicking back then re-entering the rule detail view shows the line disconnected and properties not selected

[benfrancis]

I can also reproduce with two Things from the virtual Things add-on

STR:

• Add an on/off switch device from the virtual Things add-on
• Add a light device from the virtual Things add-on
• Create a new rule so that while the switch is on the light should be on

Expected:

• The human-readable description at the top accurately describes the rule
• Clicking back then re-entering the rule detail view shows the rule still in place with properties selected and a line joining the two Things

Actual:

• The human-readable description at the top specifies "Virtual On/Off Switch" as the name of both devices
• Clicking back then re-entering the rule detail view shows the line disconnected and the target property unselected

[GHoGit]

Since I made the report mostly using HUE connected sensors, I guess which they are is not important.

I have looked at the instructions for downloading, compiling and possibly debugging WT.
How relevant are they to current code tree and state of development ?
An updated version with some details on how to debug the whole thing would be nice.
Is it possible or practical to use pc hosted VisualStudio or VisualCode to set breakpoints and step code running on RPI5 target ?
I have no practical experience with ts based assemblies, but being able to set breakpoints and trying to figure out what is happening in a system has been a way of learning in the past.

[benfrancis]

How relevant are they to current code tree and state of development ?

The debugging instructions are still valid, the source code structure may be a little out of date but is broadly correct. The easiest way to debug is to build locally on Linux or macOS and then just press the "Debug" button in VSCode to launch with the debugger enabled.

Is it possible or practical to use pc hosted VisualStudio or VisualCode to set breakpoints and step code running on RPI5 target ?

In theory, but I've never tried it.

It's possible the bug might actually be on the front end, in which case it's the debugger inside your browser which will be more useful.

I'm going to have a go at tracking down this bug but I'm afraid the rules engine is one area of the gateway code I've never really touched so it may take me some time to figure out what's going on.

[benfrancis]

I haven't quite figured this out yet, but I think this is a regression that may have been caused by a change to RuleUtils.byProperty() in 45e0015#diff-b6e5e8bd591bc6836f4d343bac55735257d736a04e82bca0e8fcc4de818924e2 (from PR #2811).

This is called at https://github.com/WebThingsIO/gateway/blob/master/static/js/rules/Rule.js#L259 to figure out which Thing the rule should effect based on the selected property and results in the wrong Thing being assigned.

CC @relu91 in case he can figure this out faster than me.