Configuration of NotePad++ for Home Assistant administration

We now have Home Assistant installed, but to make it useful in any way we need to able to change the configuration. To do this we are going to use NotePad++.  I like to use Notepad++ I think it is a great and flexible editor, and it will directly connect to a Raspberry PI for editing configuration files. It also provides color coding and other useful help when dealing with .yaml files (the configuration files for Home Assistant are .yaml files).  You can use other editors, as well as configure Samba file sharing on your Pi (BRUH Automation has a great tutorial on setting up Samba), this is just my preference.

Export your private SSH Key to OpenSSH format

Because we have set up certificate based logon for our pies we need to provide NotePad++ with a certificate to use for login.  The certificate we created before is not in a format that the NotePad++  pugin we will use understands.  So we need to export the certificate to an OpenSHH format.  To do this follow these steps:

• Open puttygen
• Load your ssh private key key (This is the key we created before – if you are using a passphrase you will need to provide it when asked)
• Click on Conversions menu
• Click Export OpenSSH key
• Save key to a secure location
• Close puttygen

Install and Configure Notepad++

Install Notepad++ from here

A default installation will work fine for our purposes.

Install the NppFTP Plugin for Notepad

• Start Notepadd++
• click Plugings->Plugin Manager->Show Plugin Manager
• check the box next to NppFTP and click install
  
• Once installed restart Notepad++
• If the NppFTP console does not appear on the right side of NotePad++ click Plugins->NppFTP->Show NppFTP Window
  

Configure a NppFTP Profile for SSH Connection

• Click on the setting icon (cog)
  
• Select Profile Settings
• In Connection Tab Settings
  • Type your connections settings (IP Address,Port, Username), do not add a password here
  • Set the connection Type to Sftp
    
• In the Authentication tab Select
  • Try private key file authentication
  • enter Private Key File path (from steps above)
  • enter your Passphrase
    
• Click Close
• Click on the connection icon
  
• and select the profile you just created
• Notepadd++ should connect and show you a listing of your home directory