Organizing/ structuring rule sets and rules

[toggledbits]

Reactor 22328

ALL USERS -- IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading from any version earlier than 22256, please read the advisories and prerequisites for that build, below.

• The baseurl config key/value is no longer required. It is used only in exceptional circumstances. It is now commented out in default configurations (dist-config/reactor.yaml), and setting it is no longer required as an installation step. Users configuring their systems to use HTTPS access to the Reactor UI should, instead of using baseurl: https://..., set use_tls: true in the reactor section of their configuration.
• Improve messages in Run Reaction actions when there is an error starting the reaction.
• DynamicGroupController: make sure change in group name in configuration is always applied at startup.
• HassController: implementation for device_tracker service to location capability.
• HassController: since HA appears to provide conversion, enable all color modes if any is supported.
• HassController: Add support for new xy_color capability.
• HassController: Allow YAML form service data in call_service actions. The service data can now be formatted as YAML or JSON. The former is the default unless { is the first character in the field, to preserve compatibility with existing actions using JSON data.
• Add xy_color system capability.
• Fix a startup issue on Windows.
• PR 0000345: Fix expression doc example for each statement
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2022.11.4

ZWaveJSController 22323

NOTE: This version requires Reactor build 22314 or higher.

• Allow zwave_device.set_config parameter to be either string (property name) or number (property/configuration parameter ID). This should improve usability for this action.
• Store property ID in metadata for x_zwave_values attributes.
• Improve "first guess" device support for many devices when Z-Wave JS is still running interviews and Reactor comes up (i.e. when data from Z-Wave JS about devices is incomplete).
• Improve device support for multiple Fibaro, Aeotec, Everspring devices.
• Improve manufacturer/device support for Remotec, Poly-Control, Danalock, Zipato, Nortek, NEO, Minoston (EVA Logik).

MQTTController 33326

NOTE: This version requires Reactor build 22306 or higher.

• Allow templates to be stored in individual files in a config/mqtt_templates subdirectory. This should improve users' configuration management for community-contributed templates.
• Additional error checking in install script.
• Implement entity deadmarking like other controllers.
• Improve entity initialization/resilience to isolated configuration problems.
• Incorporate some device template fixes from @therealdb (with gratitude for his ongoing contributions).
• Support for deterministic updating of attributes on a topic by using a new/alternate array-based configuration syntax. [docs]
• Support for requires key in templates to facilitate user-feedback when a template is used but a configuration value required by the template it not provided by the user.

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 22337

ALL USERS -- IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading from any version earlier than 22256, please read the advisories and prerequisites for that build, below.

• Rules UI: Improved detection in UI (or more correctly, notification from core to UI) of "trouble" on rules.
• HassController: reconfigure entities on HA version change; support for person, weather, number, button, sun.
• HTTPAPI: API requests are now logged by default.
• HTTPAPI: A malformed monitored_entities configuration will no longer prevent the perform API request from completing.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2022.11.5

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 22349

NOTE: If you get missing entity errors from your rules when you first start this version, don't panic. Just wait a few seconds and then restart Reactor; it should then start clean.

IMPORTANT: The bare-metal distributions no longer include package dependencies pre-installed. It is therefore critical that you install/update dependencies every time you upgrade by running npm run deps in the Reactor install directory (for Linux users; Windows users please refer to the installation documentation. This advisory does not apply to docker-based installs — Reactor docker images always include package dependencies pre-installed.

• Expressions: isNaN() now returns false when passed null. This is now different from JavaScript, where parseFloat(null)/parseInt(null) return NaN, but isNaN(null) (oddly, IMO) returns true.
• Fix an error in Group class implementation that was causing spurious errors from DynamicGroupController after a member entity was deleted or purged.
• VeraController: Improve detection of UV sensor child devices registered as GenericSensor device type and having LightSensor1/CurrentLevel state variable when LightSensor1 isn't even a declared service for the type (i.e. a mess). This applies specifically to Aeotec Multi-Sensor 6 devices on 7.32beta4, but may apply to other devices/firmware.
• EzloController: Sound sensors are now handled with Reactor value_sensor capability.
• EzloController: Guard against missing item enumerated in data for a device (data inconsistency in Ezlo API's returned device data).
• UI Entities List: UI now stores the last 10 actions and their parameters, and restores the parameters when an action is repeated.
• UI Entities List: Action parameter default values for certain types are now provided correctly (some types would come up blank even though a non-blank default was provided in the parameter definition).
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2022.12.6
• i18n: Improve messages for Rules/Predicates when dependent objects are missing.
• Improvements from the 22343 silent release (see below).

MQTTController build 22350

• Improve handling of x_mqtt_device.online attribute for templates that have custom LWT event.

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23010

• Stop Reaction action now allows you to stop the current/running reaction. This is intended to be used in constrained groups, where a match to the constraints may stop the reaction to prevent it from doing anything else.
• New ev_charger system capability.
• Reaction Editor: Fix incorrect storage type for boolean arguments affecting some controllers.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.1.2

MQTTController build 23010

• Fix spurious message when stopping MQTTController instance.

ZWaveJSController build 23011

• Fix a possible runtime error during node configuration if the target node isn't yet fully ready.
• Support for iblinds V3.

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23028

• UI/Rules Editor: Collapsed sections now change the color of the "hidden content" badge -- red if the hidden content contains an error that needs to be corrected before save, green if it contains modified conditions or actions, and info blue (as before) if no errors and unmodified. No badge is shown if the section is empty (as before). The badge icon has been changed to a crossed eye.
• Docs: Add Portainer installation instructions: https://reactor.toggledbits.com/docs/Installation-docker-portainer/
• EzloController: If there are too many consecutive timeouts on requests to the hub, recycle the hub connection.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.1.7

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23049

• Rule and Reaction Editors: Use fixed "helper" for drag/drop to circumvent limitations in jQuery-UI causing odd restrictions and side-effects when dragging large objects (like HTTP Request actions). It's not as cool-looking, but function over form is required here.
• Docs: Provide installation link for community-supplied HassOS add-on; thank you to mrw298 for this.
• HubitatController: Do not automatically select the Hub Information device for health probes; the new Hub Information v3 operates differently from previous versions and now is longer usable for health probes. A device will be chosen at random unless the probe_device config is set. [docs]
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.2.5

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23063

• Reaction Editor (UI): restore wide fields in HTTP Request action; injection from changes in 23049.
• Reaction Editor (UI): fix detection of substitution in some cases that would cause single-action "try" button to not be disabled when a substitution was in the action's parameters (substitution isn't performed on single-action try).
• Entities Page: Action dialog now warns that substitution isn't performed in that tool (launching an action from entity detail panel).
• HassController: support for humidifier/dehumidifier (domain/service and device class, respectively).
• VirtualEntityController: Fix an error in config check that was not allowing underscore (_) in entity IDs.
• VirtualEntityController: Enforce x_virtualentity.set_attribute parameters more aggressively (better error message when not provided).
• VirtualEntityController: Fix an error in x_virtualentity.set_attribute that would cause the HTTP API to not give a response when the action completed.
• I18n: Rework the loading of locale settings files, their relation to the node or browser locale, and the configurable overrides. Reactor will now use the requested locale (host config, browser config/URL, Reactor config) even if a translation file is not available for it. This places the burden on JS' native Intl, which is ample, and reduces some complexity in Reactor's model.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.3.1

ZWaveJSController build 23063

• Command class Sound Switch now maps to chime capability (Aeotec Siren 6, others)
• Support multi-step action implementations (e.g. chime.play needs to set two values sequentially (volume then sound).

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23078

• Fix loading of local capabilities definitions broken in a previous build.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.3.5

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23114

• Conditions: add is NOT TRUE and is NOT FALSE operators. The is NOT TRUE operator (for example) is unlike the is FALSE operator in that, if the tested value is null, the is NOT TRUE operator result would be true, while the is FALSE operator result would be false. This distinction facilitates some tests where it may be desirable to handle null as equivalent to either true or false without having to provide an additional, separate is NULL condition (and possibly an enclosing OR group).
• DynamicGroupController: document group actions; this makes it an official feature (was experimental).
• Engine/Rule: Clean up a misspelled method name.
• InfluxFeed docs: update supported and recommended versions. [doc]
• HubitatController: Tweak reconnect timing decay (allow for longer decay when hub cannot be contacted for an extended period).
• Reactions: Clarify what "Disabled" means in the constraints of a Group action (incl. Repeat...While) of a reaction. It does not disable the actions in the group. The disable flag applies to the constraint conditions only, having the same effect as it would on rule-based triggers and constraints (i.e. it becomes as if the constraint conditions do not exist). [docs] and [docs]
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.4.6

[toggledbits]

MQTTController 23135

• In action payload, force conversion of all data types to string for "raw" output, rather than assuming result of expression is a string (although docs say to do that, it's just too easy to omit, and too easy to change it so the requirement is moot).
• Add parameter: name value form to action payload definition to draw payload value from the named parameter without the need to use an expression (this follows the implementation of action definitions in other Controller instances as well). That is, you can specify, for example, parameter: level instead of using expr: parameters.level (assuming the parameter value requires no scaling or other modifications to be compatible with the device). [docs]

[toggledbits]

Reactor Build 23171

NOTE: This build includes fixes made in a prior silent release (where the change(s) affected only one user).

DEPRECATION NOTICE: Support for versions of Home Assistant prior to 2022.5.3 will be removed on the next build. These older versions may continue to operate successfully with HassController going forward, but I will not address/fix issues for them.

• PR 0000356: Fix an issue where a rule with multiple sunrise/sunset conditions using the between operator chooses the first condition's before/after constraints rather than its own (i.e. it was choosing the control states from the first row rather than the current row).
• SystemController: the deprecated suninfo.sun_angle attribute is now removed (its replacement is suninfo.elevation).
• HubitatController: Hub variables can now be set up to 1024 characters with hub firmware 2.3.5.135 and above; for earlier firmware, the limit is 255 characters. The length limit is enforced by the hub, not HubitatController.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.6.2

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23196 (latest and stable branches)

NOTICE: As announced in the release note for the previous build (23171), Home Assistant versions earlier than 2022.5.3 are no longer supported.

• Introduce a maximum delay in the write-back of certain storage containers (e.g. that used for expressions).
• Docs: fix an error in an example on the How-To: Expressions with Entities page.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.7.2

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23218

• Improve the initialization of new global variables so they don't show "not yet evaluated" until a non-null value is set (null is a valid evaluation result and should remove the "not yet").
• Expressions: improve the display of non-printing characters in the expression editor's "current value" display (they now display as Unicode escape sequences).
• i18n: Fix init of localized weekday names when most recent Sunday occurs in prior month (caused, for example, incorrect weekday checkbox labels in Weekday conditions; cosmetic only, no operational effect).
• SystemController: for Reactor update, include update branch, version, and commit as attributes on system entity.
• Entities page: New Copy Attributes button in entity detail copies all attribute values to the clipboard.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.8.0

[toggledbits]

Reactor Build 23242

• Rules Editor: Fixed an issue where a condition option change to the duration operator with no change to duration value may not be saved.
• HassController: Add mapping for proximity domain (to value_sensor).
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.8.2

[toggledbits]

ZWaveJSController build 23254

• Some versions of iBlinds v3 report CC 38 (Multilevel Switch) and some report 106 (Window Covering), no obvious way to tell if there's a config parameter that controls this, or if it's a firmware change (firmware versions report same even when command class is different). Update handles both based on what's available (this is the first time I've seen a 106-reporter in the wild).

[toggledbits]

MQTTController build 23254

• Improve recovery time when broker is starting up, accepts our connection, but then refuses subscription (i.e. it's not fully ready).

[toggledbits]

Reactor build 23302

• Expressions: functions asin(), acos(), atan(), and atan2(), and the reserved word pi (lowercase), are now supported (identical to their JavaScript equivalents).
• Update the documentation for migrating (importing) rules from Reactor for Vera (the Vera Reactor Plugin).
• HassController: All use of x_hass.call_service (the entity-based service call action) now uses the target field to specify the entity_id, rather than the old form which embedded the entity_id in the data field.
• HassController: The x_hass_system.call_service (system-global service call action) has been extended to allow the user to enter a target field for service calls that benefit from it. It should be noted, however, that the x_hass.call_service action on a Reactor entity (mapping a HA entity) should be used in preference to the system-global service call whenever possible, as changes in ID by HA will break the system-global call without warning (entity-based service call actions will simply use the new ID given by HA).
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.10.5

[toggledbits]

Reactor Build 23338

DEPRECATION WARNING (bare-metal installs only): all nodejs versions earlier than 18 are now end-of-life; these versions will not be supported for Reactor after 1-Mar-2024. You should upgrade nodejs as soon as possible. The minimum supported version is now 18.18, but for longevity, upgrading to the current LTS version is recommended. Users of Reactor running in docker containers are not affected, as the image always embeds a supported LTS version of nodejs (that is, no action is required for docker users).

• Expressions: Update lexpjs to fix degenerate case of case with single when and an else (which is better written as an if...then...else, but shouldn't throw an error in any case).
• CallMeBot: the built-in CallMeBot notifier is now deprecated. There are no plans to remove it right now, but it will not receive future updates. Use HTTP Request actions directly in Reactions instead.
• Reduce the frequency of reminder alerts when an upgrade is available.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.11.3

[toggledbits]

Reactor Build 23344

This is a "silent" release (you won't get upgrade notices) and available for docker containers only at this time.

• PR 0000294: InfluxFeed now supports exporting of global variable values to InfluxDB. See docs.
• VirtualEntityController: Fix issue where a global variable dependency (value change) was detected, but the old GV value was always retrieved.
• Dashboard: Strings displayed by ValueSensor widgets are now elastic-sized to reduce overflow.
• Dashboard: Fix group spec handling so that custom top-level dashboards for a group can be created. This needs documentation.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2023.12.1

[toggledbits]

Reactor Build 24052

BARE-METAL USERS: It is recommended that you update package dependencies when installing all Reactor updates. After unpacking the Reactor archive, remove any existing package-lock.json file from your Reactor install directory, and then run npm i --no-save --no-package-lock --omit dev to update package dependencies.

BREAKING CHANGE: The valve capability's state attribute value is now boolean, to match similar system capabilities (was previously/erroneously string). If you are using an entity with the valve capability in conditions or actions, make sure the type for the current or target state is boolean now.

• Update support for many packages. Please remember to do npm i --no-save --no-package-lock (bare-metal installs only; docker containers are always up-to-date).
• Add ability to override the state of a rule from the UI, for logic debugging purposes. A disabled rule will have its state forced, but will not run its reactions. An enabled rule will also have its state forced, but the corresponding rule reaction will run on the state transition. When overridden, the trigger and constraint conditions have no effect on the overall rule state, but (if rule enabled) are still evaluated and their status is still accurately displayed on the status card for the rule in the UI.
• PR 0000357: Implement getRule() extension function to get rule metadata; refer to the docs for more.
• Fix an error in the handling of the entity action cache in the UI (occurred when running actions from the entity detail in the Entities list).
• Docs: improvements to description of custom event handlers for HassController (still a work in progress, but isn't everything?).
• Docs: add a section in VeraController doc for the firmware's UnsafeLua flag, required to be on for the x_vera_sys.runlua action to be available. The value is now also published as an attribute on the system entity.
• HassController: Implement new HA valve domain with our valve capability.
• HassController: Bless Hass to 2024.2.2

MQTTController Build 24050

NOTE: Either 24049 or 24050 of MQTTController is required for Reactor 24052.

• Rebuild entity when configuration change detected (supports version field in user templates).
• PR 0000365: Fix broken config for tasmota_generic_relay template's toggle.toggle action.
• New templates for genmon (generator monitoring; see https://github.com/jgyates/genmon)
• Support for new js-yaml
• Support map in event handling configuration.