Automation to call a URL at a certain time

Configuration
1

I want to call and execute a specific external URL at a specific time in an automation. Would you please help me? This is my pseudo code:

- alias: 'call my URL'
  trigger:
    platform: time
    at: "05:00:00"
  condition:
    condition: and
    conditions:
        - condition: state
          entity_id: binary_sensor.workhours
          state: 'on'
        - condition: state
          entity_id: binary_sensor.workday_sensor
          state: 'on'
      
  action:
    CALL https://www.myexternalurl.com/something

Thanks for your help

2

Define a Shell Command that uses curl to call the URL. Then call the shell command in your automation’s action.

# Example configuration.yaml entry
shell_command:
  call_something: curl https://www.myexternalurl.com/something

In your automation:

action:
  - service: shell_command.call_something

EDIT

This assumes you are not interested in any data that may be returned by the URL. If you are then you’ll need to consider using something different, perhaps a RESTful sensor.

3

Hijacking the thread… I have a similar question.
I have to occasionally log on to my Home Assistant at port 3456 to refresh my Amazon token. When I log on, I enter my Amazon login credentials and I am finished. Close the browser. If the token is already current the port 3456 doesn’t exist, so I get a 404 error.

Can you think of a way I could automate this?

4

Thanks for your reply. I did try a shell command but it didn’t work. I even tried the -G (get) option. I didn’t have any errors but for some reason it did not executed the external URL. I tried the rest command instead and that worked. So my solution was:

# In configuration.yaml file
rest_command:
  call_something: 
    url: https://www.myexternalurl.com/something
    verify_ssl: false
    

# action In automation:

action:
  - service: rest_command.call_something
5

Are you sure the example you posted is correct? It looks more like a shell_command instead of a proper rest_command.

Look at the examples in the documentation and you’ll see that a rest_command has very different options and doesn’t call other commands (like curl).

A properly configured rest_command looks more like this:

rest_command:
  call_something:
    url: "https://www.myexternalurl.com/something"
6

Yes, you are correct. I corrected the code.

1 Like
7

It will look a lot like the example in the first post of this topic. An automation with a Time Trigger that calls a REST command. The main difference is that sometimes your rest_command will fail (because the desired port doesn’t exist) and generate an error message. I think if you add continue_on_error: true then it’ll allow the automation to finish.

8

Thanks, but how do I structure the REST command to log on with credentials?

9

If it’s basic HTTP authentication, try using the rest_command’s username and password options.