What is the MQTT message to publish to open the Garage Door?

[helpme]

First of all, a big thank you to the person writer who created this instructable. My parts are not ready yet but I am playing around with the software OpenHab and MQTT Mosquito.

I have followed the instructions below.
www.instructables.com/id/Uber-Home-Automation-w-Arduino-Pi/step4/Garage-Door-Monitor/

So far so good. When I visit the link http://localhost:8080/openhab.app?sitemap=demo#_Home, I can see the new row 'Garage Door Status' appearing after adding the entries to demo.items, demo.sitemap and demo.rules. The problem is that I do not see any status message. If things are working, I should see "Open" or "Closed". I believe it is because nothing is received on MQTT. 

What message should be published on which topic to get the "Garage Door Status" to change to "Open"?

Thank you.

[demondreamer]

Node #: 40
device #: 3
sensor data 1,2,3: 2

assembled topic: 4032

The payload is the distance in inches. A number less than 19 sets the garage door state to open.

So, to mimic what the Arduino is going to be doing when you get it, you would publish a message to topic 4032 with a number <19 to show open status and >=19 to show status closed.

You will need a MQTT client like MYMQTT app for Android devices, or MQTT.fx for computers.

-Demondreamer

[helpme]

Feb 13, 2015 16:43:32 GMT demondreamer said:

Node #: 40
device #: 3
sensor data 1,2,3: 2

assembled topic: 4032

The payload is the distance in inches. A number less than 19 sets the garage door state to open.

So, to mimic what the Arduino is going to be doing when you get it, you would publish a message to topic 4032 with a number <19 to show open status and >=19 to show status closed.

You will need a MQTT client like MYMQTT app for Android devices, or MQTT.fx for computers.

-Demondreamer

Thanks for helping me. I am closer to the solution now. I have verified that my MQTT broker is working fine. How I did that was to write paho python MQTT clients to test the MQTT broker.

To publish to the topic 4032, my python code looks like this;

   import paho.mqtt.client as mqtt
   mqttc = mqtt.Client(client_id="python_pub")
   mqttc.connect(host="127.0.0.1", port=1883)
   mqttc.publish(topic="4032", payload="22")
   mqttc.loop(timeout=2)

The code works because another python script which subscribes to the topic "4032" can see the payload "22".

However, I am not able to see the Garage Door status change to status closed. I suspect it has something to do with the MQTT settings in openhab_default.cfg. I blindly used your settings. I did not really understand what I was doing when I configured MQTT binding because there was so little documentation.

mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883
mqtt:mymosquitto.qos=0
mqtt:mymosquitto.retain=true
mqtt:mymosquitto.async=true

I am wondering ... where does this mymosquitto come from?

[helpme]

I just solved the problem by changing mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883 to mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883.

Thanks.

[demondreamer]

Feb 16, 2015 9:29:41 GMT helpme said:

mymosquitto is just an alias for the broker. You could probably change it to whatever you want. I think someone (maybe Eric) had that alias setup in his instructions. I left it that way because it makes sense as I use mosquitto MQTT broker. The alias gets used when you make items in OpenHAB that publish or subscribe, for example:

Number rssi_mqtt "RSSI [%d db]" {mqtt="<[mymosquitto:home/rfm_gw/nb/node17/dev02:state:default]"}





This is the section in openhab.cfg where the broker is defined. 
################################# MQTT Transport ######################################
#
# Define your MQTT broker connections here for use in the MQTT Binding or MQTT
# Persistence bundles. Replace <broker> with a id you choose.
#

# URL to the MQTT broker, e.g. tcp://localhost:1883 or ssl://localhost:8883
#mqtt:<broker>.url=tcp://<host>:1883
mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883





It's interesting that 127.0.0.1 works where localhost does not. They are supposed to be the same
-Demondreamer

[LaSpencoia]

Having this same problem and I've tried all the fixes from this post! Somebody HELP!!!

[greginkansas]

Post your section in openhab.cfg where the broker is defined.

[laspencia brown]

What you mean post my section in the openhab.cfg where the broker is defined...not understanding your response. SORRY!

[LaSpencia Brown]

Last login: Tue Oct 11 20:16:56 on ttys000
LaSpencias-MacBook-Air:~ laspencia$ /opt/openhab/runtime/start_debug.sh ; exit;
Launching the openHAB runtime in debug mode...
Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 8001
osgi> 20:20:33.296 [DEBUG] [.s.internal.SchedulerActivator:36 ] - Scheduler has been started.
20:20:33.342 [INFO ] [uartz.impl.StdSchedulerFactory:1175 ] - Using default implementation for ThreadExecutor
20:20:33.365 [INFO ] [rtz.core.SchedulerSignalerImpl:61 ] - Initialized Scheduler Signaller of type: class org.quartz.core.SchedulerSignalerImpl
20:20:33.366 [INFO ] [rg.quartz.core.QuartzScheduler:243 ] - Quartz Scheduler v.2.1.7 created.
20:20:33.368 [INFO ] [org.quartz.simpl.RAMJobStore :154 ] - RAMJobStore initialized.
20:20:33.370 [INFO ] [rg.quartz.core.QuartzScheduler:268 ] - Scheduler meta-data: Quartz Scheduler (v2.1.7) 'openHAB-job-scheduler' with instanceId 'NON_CLUSTERED'
Scheduler class: 'org.quartz.core.QuartzScheduler' - running locally.
NOT STARTED.
Currently in standby mode.
Number of jobs executed: 0
Using thread pool 'org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool' - with 2 threads.
Using job-store 'org.quartz.simpl.RAMJobStore' - which does not support persistence. and is not clustered.

20:20:33.371 [INFO ] [uartz.impl.StdSchedulerFactory:1324 ] - Quartz scheduler 'openHAB-job-scheduler' initialized from specified file: './etc/quartz.properties'
20:20:33.372 [INFO ] [uartz.impl.StdSchedulerFactory:1328 ] - Quartz scheduler version: 2.1.7
20:20:33.372 [INFO ] [rg.quartz.core.QuartzScheduler:534 ] - Scheduler openHAB-job-scheduler_$NONCLUSTERED started.
20:20:33.376 [DEBUG] [o.config.core.ConfigDispatcher:146 ] - Processing openHAB default configuration file '/opt/openhab/runtime/configurations/openhab_default.cfg'.
20:20:33.438 [DEBUG] [o.config.core.ConfigDispatcher:168 ] - Processing openHAB main configuration file '/opt/openhab/runtime/configurations/openhab.cfg'.
20:20:33.464 [DEBUG] [.o.core.internal.CoreActivator:93 ] - UUID file already exists at '/opt/openhab/runtime/webapps/static/uuid' with content '2045263c-1f04-489e-9dfe-53693766ffb8'
20:20:33.466 [DEBUG] [.o.core.internal.CoreActivator:115 ] - Created file '/opt/openhab/runtime/webapps/static/version' with content '1.8.3'
20:20:33.466 [INFO ] [.o.core.internal.CoreActivator:61 ] - openHAB runtime has been started (v1.8.3).
20:20:33.507 [DEBUG] [a.internal.AutoUpdateActivator:31 ] - AutoUpdate binding has been started.
20:20:35.013 [DEBUG] [.p.i.PersistenceModelActivator:23 ] - Registered 'persistence' configuration parser
20:20:35.041 [DEBUG] [.c.t.i.TransformationActivator:38 ] - Transformation Service has been started.
20:20:35.096 [DEBUG] [m.internal.MultimediaActivator:34 ] - Multimedia I/O bundle has been started.
20:20:35.123 [DEBUG] [.s.i.DiscoveryServiceActivator:27 ] - Discovery service has been started.
20:20:35.128 [INFO ] [o.o.i.s.i.DiscoveryServiceImpl:93 ] - mDNS service has been started
20:20:35.147 [DEBUG] [.io.transport.mqtt.MqttService:123 ] - Starting MQTT Service...
20:20:35.171 [INFO ] [o.o.i.s.i.DiscoveryServiceImpl:53 ] - Service Discovery initialization completed.
20:20:35.298 [DEBUG] [.i.internal.ItemModelActivator:24 ] - Registered 'item' configuration parser
20:20:35.414 [DEBUG] [o.o.c.i.items.ItemRegistryImpl:137 ] - Item provider 'GenericItemProvider' has been added.
20:20:36.388 [DEBUG] [.o.m.s.i.SitemapModelActivator:23 ] - Registered 'sitemap' configuration parser
20:20:36.489 [DEBUG] [io.rest.internal.RESTActivator:33 ] - REST API has been started.
20:20:36.550 [INFO ] [org.atmosphere.util.IOUtils :370 ] - META-INF/services/org.atmosphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework not found in class loader
20:20:36.573 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2601 ] - Atmosphere is using org.atmosphere.cpr.DefaultAnnotationProcessor for processing annotation
20:20:36.575 [INFO ] [cpr.DefaultAnnotationProcessor:138 ] - AnnotationProcessor class org.atmosphere.cpr.DefaultAnnotationProcessor$BytecodeBasedAnnotationProcessor being used
20:20:36.586 [WARN ] [cpr.DefaultAnnotationProcessor:178 ] - Unable to detect annotations. Application may fail to deploy.
20:20:36.612 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:1891 ] - Auto detecting atmosphere handlers /WEB-INF/classes/
20:20:36.628 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:639 ] - Installed AtmosphereHandler org.atmosphere.handler.ReflectorServletProcessor mapped to context-path /* and Broadcaster Class org.atmosphere.jersey.JerseyBroadcaster
20:20:36.628 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:1945 ] - Auto detecting WebSocketHandler in /WEB-INF/classes/
20:20:36.629 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:1602 ] - Installed WebSocketProtocol org.atmosphere.websocket.protocol.SimpleHttpProtocol
20:20:36.657 [INFO ] [.a.h.ReflectorServletProcessor:103 ] - Installing Servlet com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer
20:20:36.763 [INFO ] [c.s.j.s.i.a.WebApplicationImpl:815 ] - Initiating Jersey application, version 'Jersey: 1.18.1 02/19/2014 03:28 AM'
20:20:36.766 [INFO ] [c.s.j.s.i.a.WebApplicationImpl:826 ] - Adding the following classes declared in META-INF/services/jersey-server-components to the resource configuration:
class org.atmosphere.jersey.AtmosphereResourceConfigurator
20:20:36.818 [INFO ] [j.s.i.a.DeferredResourceConfig:101 ] - Instantiated the Application class org.openhab.io.rest.RESTApplication
20:20:37.569 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2435 ] - AtmosphereInterceptor CORS Interceptor Support will always be executed first
20:20:37.572 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor CORS Interceptor Support with priority FIRST_BEFORE_DEFAULT
20:20:37.573 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor Default Response's Headers Interceptor with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.575 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor Android Interceptor Support with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.576 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor SSE Interceptor Support with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.577 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor JSONP Interceptor Support with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.580 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor Atmosphere JavaScript Protocol with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.581 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:2404 ] - Installed AtmosphereInterceptor Browser disconnection detection with priority AFTER_DEFAULT
20:20:37.587 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:935 ] - Using EndpointMapper class org.atmosphere.util.DefaultEndpointMapper
20:20:37.589 [WARN ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:941 ] - No BroadcasterCache configured. Broadcasted message between client reconnection will be LOST. It is recommended to configure the org.atmosphere.cache.UUIDBroadcasterCache
20:20:37.589 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:949 ] - Default Broadcaster Class: org.atmosphere.jersey.JerseyBroadcaster
20:20:37.590 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:950 ] - Broadcaster Polling Wait Time 100
20:20:37.590 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:951 ] - Shared ExecutorService supported: true
20:20:37.593 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:958 ] - Messaging Thread Pool Size: 10
20:20:37.594 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:968 ] - Async I/O Thread Pool Size: 10
20:20:37.595 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:979 ] - Using BroadcasterFactory: org.atmosphere.cpr.DefaultBroadcasterFactory
20:20:37.595 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:980 ] - Using WebSocketProcessor: org.atmosphere.websocket.DefaultWebSocketProcessor
20:20:37.595 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:990 ] - Invoke AtmosphereInterceptor on WebSocket message true
20:20:37.596 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:991 ] - HttpSession supported: false
20:20:37.597 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:993 ] - Atmosphere is using DefaultAtmosphereObjectFactory for dependency injection and object creation
20:20:37.597 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:994 ] - Atmosphere is using async support: org.atmosphere.container.JettyAsyncSupportWithWebSocket running under container: jetty/8.1.3.v20120522 with WebSocket enabled.
20:20:37.599 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:996 ] - Atmosphere Framework 2.2.5 started.
20:20:37.599 [INFO ] [sphere.cpr.AtmosphereFramework:998 ] -

For Atmosphere Framework Commercial Support, visit
www.async-io.org/ or send an email to [e-mail]
20:20:37.603 [INFO ] [penhab.io.rest.RESTApplication:144 ] - Started REST API at /rest
20:20:37.605 [DEBUG] [o.o.i.s.i.DiscoveryServiceImpl:66 ] - Registering new service openhab-server.tcp.local. at port 8080
20:20:42.914 [DEBUG] [o.o.i.s.i.DiscoveryServiceImpl:66 ] - Registering new service openhab-server-ssl.tcp.local. at port 8443
20:20:44.336 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'demo.sitemap'
20:20:44.563 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'demo.script'
20:20:44.660 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'db4o.persist'
20:20:44.678 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'exec.persist'
20:20:44.684 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'logging.persist'
20:20:44.689 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'rrd4j.persist'
20:20:44.720 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'demo.items'
20:20:44.735 [DEBUG] [i.internal.GenericItemProvider:154 ] - Processing binding configs for items from model 'demo.items'
20:20:44.737 [DEBUG] [i.internal.GenericItemProvider:133 ] - Read items from model 'demo.items'
20:20:45.577 [INFO ] [.o.u.w.i.servlet.WebAppServlet:80 ] - Started Classic UI at /classicui/openhab.app
20:20:46.003 [DEBUG] [.r.internal.RuleModelActivator:42 ] - Registered 'rules' configuration parser
20:20:46.019 [DEBUG] [m.r.internal.engine.RuleEngine:77 ] - Started rule engine
20:20:50.096 [DEBUG] [.a.mqtt.internal.MqttActivator:34 ] - Mqtt action has been started.
20:20:50.101 [DEBUG] [.o.b.ntp.internal.NtpActivator:31 ] - NTP binding has been started.
20:20:50.114 [INFO ] [.service.AbstractActiveService:169 ] - NTP Refresh Service has been started
20:20:50.115 [DEBUG] [inding.ntp.internal.NtpBinding:78 ] - There is no existing NTP binding configuration => refresh cycle aborted!
20:20:50.117 [DEBUG] [xecPersistenceServiceActivator:33 ] - Exec persistence bundle has been started.
20:20:50.126 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:146 ] - Initializing exec persistence service.
20:20:50.151 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:428 ] - Scheduled strategy exec.everyMinute with cron expression 0 * * * * ?
20:20:50.167 [DEBUG] [.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jActivator:31 ] - RRD4j persistence bundle has been started.
20:20:50.180 [DEBUG] [.p.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jService:395 ] - Unknown property name : org.openhab.persistence.rrd4j
20:20:50.180 [DEBUG] [.p.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jService:364 ] - config 'objectClass' should have the format 'name.configkey'
20:20:50.181 [DEBUG] [.p.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jService:405 ] - Created default_numeric = GAUGE heartbeat = 60 min/max = NaN/NaN step = 60 6 archives(s) = [ AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 1 rows = 480 AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 4 rows = 360 AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 14 rows = 644 AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 60 rows = 720 AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 720 rows = 730 AVERAGE xff = 0.5 steps = 10080 rows = 520] 0 items(s) = []
20:20:50.182 [DEBUG] [.p.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jService:405 ] - Created default_other = GAUGE heartbeat = 3600 min/max = NaN/NaN step = 1 6 archives(s) = [ MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 1 rows = 3600 MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 10 rows = 1440 MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 60 rows = 1440 MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 900 rows = 2880 MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 21600 rows = 1460 MAX xff = 0.999 steps = 86400 rows = 3650] 0 items(s) = []
20:20:50.182 [INFO ] [.p.rrd4j.internal.RRD4jService:407 ] - Removing invalid defintion component = null heartbeat = 0 min/max = 0.0/0.0 step = 0 0 archives(s) = [] 0 items(s) = []
20:20:50.185 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:146 ] - Initializing rrd4j persistence service.
20:20:50.211 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:315 ] - Item 'DemoSwitch' does not exist.
20:20:50.212 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:315 ] - Item 'NoOfLights' does not exist.
20:20:50.213 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:315 ] - Item 'Window_GF_Toilet' does not exist.
20:20:50.213 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:328 ] - Item group 'Heating' does not exist.
20:20:50.214 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:328 ] - Item group 'Temperature' does not exist.
20:20:50.215 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:328 ] - Item group 'Weather_Chart' does not exist.
20:20:50.217 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:428 ] - Scheduled strategy rrd4j.everyMinute with cron expression 0 * * * * ?
20:20:50.222 [DEBUG] [p.r.i.charts.RRD4jChartServlet:118 ] - Starting up rrd chart servlet at /rrdchart.png
20:20:50.224 [DEBUG] [.i.LoggingPersistenceActivator:31 ] - Logging persistence bundle has been started.
20:20:50.231 [DEBUG] [.p.internal.PersistenceManager:146 ] - Initializing logging persistence service.
20:20:50.234 [DEBUG] [.b.http.internal.HttpActivator:34 ] - HTTP binding has been started.
20:20:50.246 [INFO ] [.service.AbstractActiveService:169 ] - HTTP Refresh Service has been started
20:20:50.248 [DEBUG] [.b.mqtt.internal.MqttActivator:34 ] - MQTT binding has been started.
20:20:50.262 [DEBUG] [i.internal.GenericItemProvider:341 ] - Start processing binding configuration of Item 'itm_garage_dist (Type=NumberItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'MqttGenericBindingProvider' reader.
20:20:50.264 [DEBUG] [b.mqtt.internal.MqttItemConfig:72 ] - Loaded MQTT config for item 'itm_garage_dist' : 1 subscribers, 0 publishers
20:20:50.271 [DEBUG] [m.internal.MqttEventBusBinding:68 ] - MQTT: Activating event bus binding.
20:20:54.869 [INFO ] [c.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl:80 ] - Loading model 'demo.rules'

[greginkansas]

This part


################################# MQTT Transport ######################################
#
# Define your MQTT broker connections here for use in the MQTT Binding or MQTT
# Persistence bundles. Replace <broker> with a id you choose.
#

# URL to the MQTT broker, e.g. tcp://localhost:1883 or ssl://localhost:8883
#mqtt:<broker>.url=tcp://<host>:1883

mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883

# mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883

# mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://192.168.2.43:1883

# Optional. Client id (max 23 chars) to use when connecting to the broker.
# If not provided a default one is generated.
#mqtt:<broker>.clientId=<clientId>
mqtt:mosquitto.clientId=agreg

# Optional. User id to authenticate with the broker.
# mqtt:<broker>.user=<user>
mqtt:mosquitto.user=agreg

# Optional. Password to authenticate with the broker.
#mqtt:<broker>.pwd=<password>
mqtt:mosquitto.pwd=agreg

# Optional. Set the quality of service level for sending messages to this broker.
# Possible values are 0 (Deliver at most once),1 (Deliver at least once) or 2
# (Deliver exactly once). Defaults to 0.
mqtt:mosquitto.qos=0

# Optional. True or false. Defines if the broker should retain the messages sent to
# it. Defaults to false.
mqtt:mosquitto.retain=false

# Optional. True or false. Defines if messages are published asynchronously or
# synchronously. Defaults to true.
mqtt:mosquitto.async=true

# Optional. Defines the last will and testament that is sent when this client goes offline
# Format: topic:message:qos:retained <br/>
mqtt:mosquitto.lwt=openhab:1:0:false

[LaSpencia Brown]

################################# MQTT Transport ######################################
#
# Define your MQTT broker connections here for use in the MQTT Binding or MQTT
# Persistence bundles. Replace <broker> with a id you choose.
#

# URL to the MQTT broker, e.g. tcp://localhost:1883 or ssl://localhost:8883
#mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883

# Optional. Client id (max 23 chars) to use when connecting to the broker.
# If not provided a default one is generated.
#mqtt:<broker>.clientId=<clientId>

# Optional. User id to authenticate with the broker.
# mqtt:<broker>.user=<user>

# Optional. Password to authenticate with the broker.
#mqtt:<broker>.pwd=<password>

# Optional. Set the quality of service level for sending messages to this broker.
# Possible values are 0 (Deliver at most once),1 (Deliver at least once) or 2
# (Deliver exactly once). Defaults to 0.
#mqtt:mymosquitto.qos=0

# Optional. True or false. Defines if the broker should retain the messages sent to
# it. Defaults to false.
#mqtt:mymosquitto.retain=true

# Optional. True or false. Defines if messages are published asynchronously or
# synchronously. Defaults to true.
#mqtt:mymosquitto.async=true

# Optional. Defines the last will and testament that is sent when this client goes offline
# Format: topic:message:qos:retained <br/>
#mqtt:<broker>.lwt=<last will definition>

[greginkansas]

If this is from YOUR openhab.cfg you have not made any entry's of your data.

[papa]

laspencia, I believe much of that MQTT Transport section in openhab.cfg is optional or its defaults are usually adequate so you don't necessarily need to change much in that section.  However, you do need to define the broker which you have not done yet.

To remind you of something you may already know, in openhab.cfg, a line that starts with "#" is a comment, that is, not active code.

     So see these two lines early in your MQTT Transport section ...
# URL to the MQTT broker, e.g. tcp://localhost:1883 or ssl://localhost:8883
#mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883

      change the second line ^^ to ...
mqtt:mymosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883
        (that is, delete the # at the beginning to make it active code).

Then in your .items file you can & must refer to your broker as mymosquitto.
      As in demondreamer's example (Feb 16, 2015 at 12:48pm post above) ...
Number rssi_mqtt "RSSI [%d db]" {mqtt="<[mymosquitto:home/rfm_gw/nb/node17/dev02:state:default]"}

As demondreamer wrote in that Feb 16, 2015 at 12:48pm post above, you can name your broker whatever (as long as you use the same broker name throughout your OpenHAB config files).

In my own config file & in my openhab-papa4.zip offered sample of config files, I just named my broker mosquitto ...
        so that way, the MQTT Transport line reads ...
mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://localhost:1883
     though for some people, it works better this way:
mqtt:mosquitto.url=tcp://127.0.0.1:1883

Hope this helps.  Apologies if I said too much or too little.