You know what an openHAB **Rule** and **Script** is, right? Your friendly [tutorial](tutorial.html) reminder. In the middle part of the screen you see the graphical rule editor. To your very left there is a list of available rule components. There are three different types of components. For easy navigation they are color coded:

• Trigger: Defines the events when the Rule will trigger. This is optional if you are creating a Rule that is to be called from other Rules. You can create more than one trigger.
• Condition: Defines the conditions under which the Rule will run when triggered. This is optional and there can be more than one condition.
• Action: Defines what actions the Rule takes when it runs. This is optional (though the Rule won’t do anything) and there can be more than one Action. Actions are performed in the order they are connected.

Just drag&drop the component from the list onto the grid pattern or double click it. ### More … Certain [Add-ons](addons.html) add more actions and triggers to the table. ## Component configuration Usually a component requires configuration. A specific time trigger component for example requires you to enter the actual date/time. Click on the respective input field and edit the value. Some configurations cannot be performed inline. Click on the *Edit* button instead. #### Edit full By default there are only 2 configuration parameters shown. If a component requires more, it will show a button labeled "Edit full component". That allows you to edit the component in a zoomed in variant. ## Connect components Components can have *Inputs* and *Outputs*. If you hover over an *Input*/*Output* you will see its type. You can only connect *In/Outputs* of the same type. Note: You can connect an *Output* to as as many *Inputs* as you want.

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Example: You are using the **a trigger channel fired** component to trigger a rule. You want the rule to perform its actions only if the channel name contains "test". Therefore you connect the output `channelname` to the **contains text** condition component. You enter the text "test" into the configuration field of that component.