[RFE] Device & Battery aliases

[badnetmask]

Checklist

• I have filled out the template to the best of my ability.
• This only contains 1 feature request (if you have multiple feature requests, open one feature request for each feature request).
• This issue is not a duplicate feature request of previous feature requests.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Not a problem. Just an improvement suggestion.

Describe the solution you'd like

It would be nice if devices would have aliases, for the multiple names they might be known for.

Particularly, for my case, this came up because I used to use the official Sure Petcare integration that comes with Home Assistant Core, but at some point that integration became broken, so I switched to a HACS integration. The problem is: the core integration uses the name "Sure Petcare" (which is already in the library), while the HACS one uses "SurePetCare", which I would need to add to the library. Another difference is that the core integration uses "Feeder", while the HACS one uses "FEEDER_CONNECT". One that looks even worse: a device the core integration calls "Felaqua" while the HACS one calls it "POSEIDON_CONNECT" (they don't even share a "startswith").

The aliases would also be helpful for situations like the one mentioned in this issue, where a battery can be called by multiple names. I also bumped upon a similar situation the other day because the LR44 (alkaline) can also be called SR44 (non-alkaline) or even the CR3032 that can be known as DL3032.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I manually added my devices, while this feature does not exist.

Additional context

I'm raising the RFE in an attempt to avoid adding duplicate data to the library. If there is no interest in adding the feature, I can submit the different names for the devices I'm interested in.

[andrew-codechimp]

Hi, aliases have always been a dilemma, you just have to look at the Philips Hue/Signify variants as an example between ZHA/Z2M/Hue Hubs/others.

As the library is crowd sourced this is tricky as most people don't know all the integrations that could have the same device to assign an alias to an existing one and I wouldn't have confidence trying to match them.
Whilst I do provide the match method aliasing almost everyone submits via the simple GitHub form which is very limited and doesn't provide complex multi step/logic driven fields so this has largely been used just by myself when I see commonality.
I have had some idle thoughts about a proper db/backend/web submission form but this would be a huge amount of work and again falls back on people knowing about the variations. The amount of effort/hosting costs would outweigh the very small library size reduction.

The battery type aliasing I could see more potential in, I have a recurring battle with things like doorbells where they can be 3xAA, Rechargeable packs or Mains powered and eventually set them to Manual to stop submissions. I could have a list and when there is more than one battery type it lets you choose when onboarding the device within HA, this could also be used for the DL/CR scenario you describe, though again the GitHub submission form wouldn't cope with the list of items or editing to add another variant, though I may be up for the idea of making that optional via manual json submission. With manual confirmation/override before adding the device and the fact it doesn't update if the library changes there are ways around this today.

[badnetmask]

I totally understand your reasons, and it does make sense.

Then I suppose you wouldn't mind if I submit my device variations, right?

Also, should this RFE get renamed/edited for the battery aliases instead? Otherwise, if you prefer to just track it offline, you can close it.

Thanks!

[andrew-codechimp]

Sure, you can either submit one big PR for your devices or use the form.

I'll rename this and move to discussions, good to have it as a bit of history and I'll think more on the battery aliases.