Organizing/ structuring rule sets and rules

[tamorgen]

Good morning,
I'm trying to recreate some notifications I received on my old Vera system based upon House mode. I migrated from Vera to Home Assistant about 6 months ago, and all the automation I have set up are working great, however, I'm noticing that there were things that were once simple in Vera that are more involved in Home Assistant.

In House Modes in Vera, there was a screen where I could select all the devices I wanted to be armed in various house modes. I recreated those house modes in Home Assistant very early on, but what I'm not getting now is notifications for various sensors. For instance, if the system is in Away mode, and interior motion is detected, I would get a Vera push notification on my phone. I've been setting these up one by one using haas>system --> x_haas_system.call_service, then setting the notify device and the message, one by one, but it's repetitious and tedious. For a few devices, like motion sensors on my ground floor, it's not a big deal, but now I'm looking at all the windows in my home, which have sensors on them.

So, enough of the background thesis. Simply put, is there a way to have a group of devices ( like 16 different window sensors ) as an entity, and when they are tripped, send out a notification and state which of those sensors was tripped, all in a single rule?

If I have to copy and edit 16 different rules, I'll do that, but I'd prefer a more elegant way where there is one rule to send out the notifications that tells me what was opened.

Thanks for all your advice/help in advance.

I'm running MSR latest-23049-1fd87c91 and Home Assistant 2023.2.5, Supervisor 2023.01.1, Operating System 9.5,

BTW, @toggledbits, I noticed on the About screen for MSR it still shows copyright from 2022. I know you've released versions this year.

Reactor (Multi-hub) latest-23049-1fd87c91 2020-2022 Kedron Holdings LLC, All Rights Reserved; Patrick Rigney (toggledbits), Principal Engineer.

[toggledbits]

@tamorgen You could use DynamicGroupController to make a group of tripped leak sensors. Here's the config (in reactor.yaml) for that:

  - id: groups
    enabled: true
    implementation: DynamicGroupController
    name: Dynamic Group Controller
    config:
        leak_detectors:
          name: Leak Detection
          select:
            - include_capability: leak_detector
          filter_expression: "entity.attributes.leak_detector.state"

The select clause just finds all entities with leak_detector capability. The filter_expression then eliminates those that are not tripped (when leak_detector.state attribute is false, no leak).

This simple rule trips when that group is not empty:

The condition just checks to see if the group is empty and triggers if it is not.

The reaction uses a substitution in its message of a local expression shown below to emit a human-readable list of device names. The local expression (in the rule) gets the name of each tripped leak detector in the group and creates a comma-separated string (e.g. Kitchen Sink, Guest Bath Vanity if those two were tripped):

You could do this in the rule using only local expressions and no use of DynamicGroupController, but DGC is more efficient at handling large lists of devices, especially when those change frequently.

Ref: https://reactor.toggledbits.com/docs/DynamicGroupController/

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits

So I would create a group in the reactor.yaml using include_entity instead of Includ_capabilty, like in your example above?

The example you have in your documentation should work well to implement notifications for low batteries on my battery powered blind controllers and a few battery powered sensors I have, so that is one thing I can definitely make use of as well.

I'll give this a shot. It should definitely help clean up my rules a bit.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits , before I go too far down the rabbit hole, is this correct?

- id: groups
  enabled: true
  name: "Dynamic Group Controller"
  implementation: DynamicGroupController
  config:
    groups:
      "low_battery":
        select:
          - include_capability: battery_power
        filter_expression: >
          entity.attributes.battery_power.level < 0.35
      "window sensors":
        select:
          - include_entity:
            - 'hass>binary_sensor_basement_window'
            - 'hass>binary_sensor_family_room_double_window'

So, from what i'm understanding, I should be using the ID under "include_entity". Your documentation shows the following for exclude_entity. I'm assuming the format should be the same.

      select:
        - include_capability: battery_power
        - exclude_entity: 'vera>device_1789'

So I'm using the "haas>device id" format for my array of devices.

And am I correct in understanding that it will use the Entity (human readable name) for the notificatoin?

In my case,

notify.mobile_app_tims_iphone
data:
  message: $ {{ window sensors }} opened while in Away mode

[toggledbits]

Seems OK except two things:

1. Your window sensors configuration isn't valid. You cannot have an entity ID with a space in it, so you should use something like window_sensors instead. And it has no filter, so the group will contain those two sensors regardless of their state.

2. Your substitution will not automagically convert the group entity into a human-readable list of names. Your substitition as you write it won't work (for multiple reasons). You need to create a local variable in your rule as I showed to take the contents of the group (the group members) and transform that list into a list of names. You refer to that local variable in the substitution.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

Seems OK except two things:

1. Your window sensors configuration isn't valid. You cannot have an entity ID with a space in it, so you should use something like window_sensors instead. And is has no filter, so the group will contain those two sensors regardless of their state.

2. Your substitution will not automagically convert the group entity into a human-readable list of names. Your substitition as you write it won't work. You need to create a local variable in your rule as I showed to take the contents of the group (the group members) and transform that list into a list of names.

Okay, thanks! This is why I checked before going to far into the configuration.

[toggledbits]

Note I edited my reply with some corrections.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

And it has no filter, so the group will contain those two sensors regardless of their state.

Okay, so like this?

      "window_sensors":
        select:
          - include_entity:
            - 'hass>binary_sensor_basement_window'
            - 'hass>binary_sensor_family_room_double_window'
          filter_expression: >
            entity.attributes.binary_sensor = true

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits

Patrick,
This is what I've come up with.

        "window_sensors":
          select:
            - include_entity:
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_basement_window'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_family_room_double_window'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_back_lower'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_back_upper'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_front_lower'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_front_upper'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_guest_room_windows'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_mama_cave_windows'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_master_bathroom_window'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_master_bedroom_windows'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_mia_s_room_windows'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_mud_room_window'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_office_windows'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_family_room_fireplace_left'
              - 'haas>binary_sensor_family_room_fireplace_right'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_left'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_left_middle'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_middle'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_right_middle'
              - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_right'
          filter_expression: >
            entity.attributes.binary_sensor = true

I've restarted Reactor, and set up my rule to use the window_sensors DGC.

While there is an additional condition in the rule, so it will only trip at Night or in Away mode, if I open a window, the current value should change to (boolean) true. I've opened a window and my alarm system sees it open, HA see's it open, but the DGC does not. Is the filter_expression set up correctly?

Also, the Local Expression appears to be working correctly:

Is this the correct format for the notification? It's what I've used for other notifications to use the HA companion app so far, but I've never used a varraiable iin the message.

[Pabla]

For your notify action you're going to want to remove the data:. Also another tip you can add the time and date in your notification like this {{ now().strftime(\"%-I:%M %p %Y-%m-%d\") }}

[toggledbits]

@tamorgen said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

Okay, so like this?

Almost. filter_expression should be indented at the same level as select (so two spaces back from what you've shown).

Also, you have entity.attributes.binary_sensor = true in your filter expression. A couple of errors there. binary_sensor is a capability, so you need to specify the attribute in that capability you want to look at, which is state. That is, you want entity.attributes.binary_sensor.state. Then, you are using the assignment operation = rather than the equality comparison operator ==. And finally, you don't need to make an equality comparison to true or false, because state is already boolean true or false, so you're basically saying if true == true which is true already, or if false == true which is false already... you don't need the == operator or its operand here.

The same caution above applies to your rule. Get out of the habit of using == with the word true in conditions when testing a boolean attribute, and instead use the is TRUE or is FALSE operators provided. The way you've done it, that operand is a string in the rule condition, so you're forcing an extra conversion and assumption of data type when you use == and true... the is TRUE and is FALSE operators (which take no operand) are more efficient. You even used them in your second condition, so just follow that model.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

The same caution above applies to your rule. Get out of the habit of using == with the word true in conditions when testing a boolean attribute, and instead use the is TRUE or is FALSE operators provided. That operand is a string in the rule condition, so you're forcing an extra conversion and assumption of data type when you use == and true... the is TRUE and is FALSE operators (which take no operand) are more efficient. You even used them in your second condition, so just follow that model.

Ha, good catch! I didn 't even notice I did that. I usually do try to use "is True", I just missed this one.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

Also, you have entity.attributes.binary_sensor = true in your filter expression. A couple of errors there. binary_sensor is a capability, so you need to specify the attribute in that capability you want to look at, which is state. That is, you want entity.attributes.binary_sensor.state. Then, you are using the assignment operation = rather than the equality comparison operator ==. And finally, you don't need to make an equality comparison to true or false, because state is already boolean true or false, so you're basically saying if true == true which is true already, or if false == true which is false already... you don't need the == operator or its operand here.

So like this:

          "window_sensors":
            select:
              - include_entity:
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_office_windows'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_basement_window'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_family_room_double_window'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_family_room_fireplace_left'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_family_room_fireplace_right'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_back_lower'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_back_upper'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_front_lower'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_garage_window_front_upper'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_guest_room_windows'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_mama_cave_windows'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_master_bathroom_window'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_master_bedroom_windows'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_mia_s_room_windows'
                - 'haas>binary_sensor_mud_room_window'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_left'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_left_middle'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_middle'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_right_middle'
                - 'hass>binary_sensor_morning_room_right'
            filter_expression: >
              entity.attributes.binary_sensor.state

[toggledbits]

Seems OK

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

Seems OK

It's still not tripping in MSR when I open a window.

This is what is being shown when all the windows are closed. I'm not really paying atention to the comparssion value, jsut the current value it's displaying. That value isn't changing.

I tried it with sys_group.members as well.

None of the comparisons seem to make any difference. Current value: array:0) "" remains the same in any state of the windows.

[toggledbits]

Go to your Entities list, and find the window_sensors group entity, look at its attributes while you open and close a listed sensor. If it's not changing, then you either have an error in your DGC configuration, or the device(s) aren't responding as expected.

Remember also your basic troubleshooting steps: any time something doesn't work the way you expect it to, go look in the log files for messages. DGC configures groups at startup, so look at the messages logged for DynamicGroupController during startup.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits
I was just going around the hosue and testing different windows.

Some of the windows seem to work. When I use sys_group.empty (primary), the value when all the windows are closed is True: The windows that are working, the boolean changes to false and the Local Expression value (window_names) changes to that window. I'm going to have to pinpoint which windows aren't working correctly. It could be an issue in the HA configuration.yaml for the DSC/Envisalink entries. That's for me to figure out.

The only other issue is the message. It's not sending the value of the string. I'm receiving $ Opened!

message: ${{ window_names }} Opened!

Edit: The one I had been testing with, right next to my office desk, does change in the entities tab.

Office Windows
hass>binary_sensor_office_windows
true
1:38:38 PM

Edit 2: I copied and pasted from the Entities tab the Office Windows Canoncial ID into the reactor.yaml config. Even though they looked identical, once I restarted reactor, that window is now responding properly. I suspect I may have hidden characters in the ones that aren't functioning.

[tamorgen]

@tamorgen said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

@toggledbits said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

Seems OK

It's still not tripping in MSR when I open a window.

This is what is being shown when all the windows are closed. I'm not really paying atention to the comparssion value, jsut the current value it's displaying. That value isn't changing.

I tried it with sys_group.members as well.

None of the comparisons seem to make any difference. Current value: array:0) "" remains the same in any state of the windows.

I went back to all the windows in the reactor.yaml file and copied the values directly from the Entities tab. They are all now working.

The only thing not working is the notification. Any ideas what the cause could be?

[toggledbits]

@tamorgen said in Is it possible to use a single reaction for multiple entities as variables?:

The only thing not working is the notification. Any ideas what the cause could be?

You have:

message: ${{ window_names }} Opened!

That stands out because it's not valid YAML. Missing quotes.

[tamorgen]

@toggledbits, how should the quotes work for a MSR variable in yaml? I copied your example in the second post, but you aren’t calling a HA function. I’ve been playing around with it, but I’m not getting the variable in the system call.

I’m looking at this documentation for HA.

Home Assistant

Script Syntax

Documentation for the Home Assistant Script Syntax.

They show an example

data: 
    message: "{{ blind_state_message }}"

So, in theory,

    message: "{{ window_names }}" opened.

should be valid. The difference here is that window_names is coming from the local expression.

However, MSR throws an error, telling me that I have invalid service data.