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[Reactor] Variables not updating correctly in latest-25201-2aa18550
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Multi-System Reactor
Strange behavior for MQTT templates using payload and attributes
therealdbT
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Strange behavior for MQTT templates using payload and attributes

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  • therealdbT Offline
    therealdbT Offline
    therealdb
    wrote last edited by
    #1

    I'm re-writing my shelly_scenecontroller mqtt template because I added a new pushbutton and I had strange results. Basically, in the last couple of days, it fired itself, because of the way the logic works. Everytime I'm pushing a button, an "S" is sent as the event, so the button.state never changes. I'm looking for button.since to determine if the button is pressed again.
    That's good, but everytime a poll is done, the button.since attribute is updated, because it is tied to time().

    reactor-mqtt-contrib/shelly_gen1.yaml at 8bf5022f6b8ee80feed3d881befc119a1f58fcdc · dbochicchio/reactor-mqtt-contrib

    reactor-mqtt-contrib/shelly_gen1.yaml at 8bf5022f6b8ee80feed3d881befc119a1f58fcdc · dbochicchio/reactor-mqtt-contrib

    Contrib MQTT templates for Reactor. Contribute to dbochicchio/reactor-mqtt-contrib development by creating an account on GitHub.

    So, I introduced the use of event_cnt from the payload, comparing the value to the stored one, in order to understand if it has been pushed again, or, in general, the number of times the button is pushed.
    Updated template:

        events:
          "shellies/%topic%/input_event/%channel%":
            - attribute: "value_sensor.value"
              json_payload: true
              expr: "float(payload?.event_cnt)"
            - attribute: "button.since"
              json_payload: true
              expr: >
                entity.attributes?.button?.since == null || 
                float(payload?.event_cnt) != entity.attributes?.value_sensor?.value
                  ? time() : entity.attributes.button.since
            - attribute: "scene_activation.since" # just copy button.since
              expr: "entity?.attributes?.button?.since"
            - attribute: "button.state"
              json_payload: true
              expr: >
                payload?.event == "S" ? "single" :
                payload?.event == "SS" ? "double" :
                payload?.event == "SSS" ? "triple" :
                payload?.event == "L" ? "long" :
                "unknown"
            - attribute: "scene_activation.scene_id"
              json_payload: true
              expr: "payload?.event"
            - attribute: "x_mqtt_device.online"
              expr: true
    

    This should work, but instead I have this value:

    20de8c3f-ad80-4c4a-9f4e-cb404f54553e-image.png

    and that's beyond strange and I can't honestly figure it out. @toggledbits any hint is appreciated. Thanks.

    --
    On a mission to automate everything.

    My MS Reactor contrib
    My Luup Plug-ins

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    • toggledbitsT Offline
      toggledbitsT Offline
      toggledbits
      wrote last edited by
      #2

      Debug level 5 for MQTTController and log files are your friend.

      That said, I'm suspicious of the operator precedence effect on your expression. Wrap a set of parens around the conditional of the ternary operator and try it again.

      Author of Multi-system Reactor and Reactor, DelayLight, Switchboard, and about a dozen other plugins that run on Vera and openLuup.

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      • therealdbT Offline
        therealdbT Offline
        therealdb
        wrote last edited by
        #3

        No joy from the logs. I added parens but no joy. The only thing that worked was a delete of the entity/restart of Reactor.

        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.414Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:599> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 associated with Array(1)[ "shelly_gatebutton" ]
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.414Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:601> MQTTController#mqtt dispatching shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 to shelly_gatebutton
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.414Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1152> MQTTController#mqtt handling shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 (event shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0) for shelly_gatebutton: {"event":"","event_cnt":2}
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.415Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1168> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 affects entity shelly_gatebutton attributes value_sensor.value, button.since, scene_activation.since, button.state, scene_activation.scene_id, x_mqtt_device.online
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.415Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton value_sensor.value=2
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.415Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton button.since={"event":"","event_cnt":0}
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.416Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton scene_activation.since={"event":"","event_cnt":0}
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.416Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton button.state=unknown
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.416Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton scene_activation.scene_id=
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.417Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1274> MQTTController#mqtt topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 setting shelly_gatebutton x_mqtt_device.online=true
        [latest-25272]2025-09-30T14:49:47.417Z <MQTTController:5:MQTTController.js:1905> MQTTController#mqtt _handle_ext_event() shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 matches 0 subscriptions
        

        Maybe it's something that when it's corrupted with json, doesn't work as expected. I'm reporting as an edge case, but it's very hard to reproduce. Thanks anyway. New build for my MQTT-contrib incoming.

        --
        On a mission to automate everything.

        My MS Reactor contrib
        My Luup Plug-ins

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        • toggledbitsT Offline
          toggledbitsT Offline
          toggledbits
          wrote last edited by toggledbits
          #4

          Looking more deeply at your logic, I don't think it's going to work. Here's where I think you are:

          The current value of button.since is {"event":"", "event_cnt":0}. I assume it got set this way from prior effort leading up to this point. Now, based on what you currently have configured...

          When the topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 arrives with event_cnt:2 in the payload, the first thing MQTTController is doing is setting value_sensor.value to 2. You can see that in the log snippet.

          The next thing is it attempts to set button.since, but since your expression is set up so that button.since is only changed if if the value of value_sensor.value is different from payload.event_cnt, which it won't be, because it just set them to the same value. So the expression simply returns the current value of button.since and thus changes nothing.

          See the problem now?

          You have control over the order in which the attributes are processed for the topic/event.

          Author of Multi-system Reactor and Reactor, DelayLight, Switchboard, and about a dozen other plugins that run on Vera and openLuup.

          therealdbT 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • toggledbitsT toggledbits

            Looking more deeply at your logic, I don't think it's going to work. Here's where I think you are:

            The current value of button.since is {"event":"", "event_cnt":0}. I assume it got set this way from prior effort leading up to this point. Now, based on what you currently have configured...

            When the topic shellies/shelly-gatebutton/input_event/0 arrives with event_cnt:2 in the payload, the first thing MQTTController is doing is setting value_sensor.value to 2. You can see that in the log snippet.

            The next thing is it attempts to set button.since, but since your expression is set up so that button.since is only changed if if the value of value_sensor.value is different from payload.event_cnt, which it won't be, because it just set them to the same value. So the expression simply returns the current value of button.since and thus changes nothing.

            See the problem now?

            You have control over the order in which the attributes are processed for the topic/event.

            therealdbT Offline
            therealdbT Offline
            therealdb
            wrote last edited by
            #5

            @toggledbits said in Strange behavior for MQTT templates using payload and attributes:

            See the problem now?

            You have control over the order in which the attributes are processed for the topic/event.

            I see it! Thanks! (Never code in a hurry while doing 100 other things).

            --
            On a mission to automate everything.

            My MS Reactor contrib
            My Luup Plug-ins

            toggledbitsT 1 Reply Last reply
            1
            • therealdbT therealdb

              @toggledbits said in Strange behavior for MQTT templates using payload and attributes:

              See the problem now?

              You have control over the order in which the attributes are processed for the topic/event.

              I see it! Thanks! (Never code in a hurry while doing 100 other things).

              toggledbitsT Offline
              toggledbitsT Offline
              toggledbits
              wrote last edited by
              #6

              @therealdb said in Strange behavior for MQTT templates using payload and attributes:

              Never code in a hurry while doing 100 other things

              Ummm... is there any other way? 🙂

              Author of Multi-system Reactor and Reactor, DelayLight, Switchboard, and about a dozen other plugins that run on Vera and openLuup.

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