Blueprint: use !inputs (or variables) in templates

Feature Requests
1

I would like to be able to use !inputs (or variables) with templates. I have a blueprint with a boolean that I want to use in a trigger (if on) at a specific time (mobile phone alarm).

2

You can use !inputs in templates, assign them to a variable first and then use the variable in the template, something like this:

variables:
  my_var: !input light

condition:
  - {{ states(my_var) == 'on' }}
6 Likes
3

That’s not a solution, it’s a workaround. The template rendering engine should be robust enough to replace !input calls with their actual values.

1 Like
4

Did I say that this is a solution? I just showed a way how it can be done currently.

2 Likes
5

I’m trying the following, but can’t get it to work.

variables:
  alarm_trigger: !input alarm_trigger

trigger:
  - platform: template
    value_template: "{{ states('alarm_trigger') == true }}"
6

Remove the quotes around alarm_trigger in your template. If you out it in quotes it reads it as a string, but it’s a variable so you need to use it without quotes.

4 Likes
7

It does not work with templates in triggers since variables are expanded only after the trigger has happened AFAIK.
I therefore made a fake trigger in one of my Blueprints and then put ‘wait for trigger’ as first action. Alternatively you could try putting it in a condition and triggering every minute or so. But yeah a proper fix would be good.

8

That’s not true. If you declare the variable before the trigger, it will be available to the trigger.

9

Then please tell me how it is supposed to work. Take this dummy blueprint for example which just turns a light off when it is turned on.

blueprint:
  name: Test
  domain: automation
  input:
    light_entity:
      name: Light entity
      selector:
        entity:
          domain: light
variables:
  light_entity: !input "light_entity"
trigger:
  platform: template
  value_template: "{{ states(light_entity) == 'on' }}"
condition: []
action:
  - service: light.turn_off
    entity_id: !input "light_entity"
mode: single
max_exceeded: silent

Result is:
homeassistant.exceptions.TemplateError: UndefinedError: ‘light_entity’ is undefined
in the logs for the trigger template.

10

You are right, I remwmber now that I had the same issues before blueprints even got introduced. I’m sorry for the misinformation.

See this existing feature request that I even voted for myself xD

1 Like
11

Yes, it’s unfortunate that the convention is not currently supported. Not only would it allow for more flexible Template Triggers in automations, it would be useful in blueprints as well.

BTW, this Feature Request asks for two separate things and the first one can’t be fulfilled. An !input is a YAML directive to replace a placeholder for a key’s value. In other words, this:

key_name: !input placeholder_for_the_key_value

That’s not possible when the YAML directive appears somewhere within a Jinja2 template (basically it’s a syntax error; a misunderstanding of what is handled by the YAML processor and what is handled by the Jinja2 interpreter).

The second half of the Feature Request is ambiguous. Currently, variables are allowed in templates except not in Template Triggers. That’s what the linked Feature Request proposed over two months ago:

2 Likes
12

Hello together,

I have a similar, but more complicated problem:

blueprint:
  name: Climate
  description: Test
  domain: automation
  input:
    room:
      name: Roomname
      description: Roomname
      selector:
        text:

variables:
  room: !input 'room'

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: !input trigger
    to: 'on'

action:
  - service: input_boolean.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: !input trigger
  - service: notify.all_devices
    data:
      message: >-
        Climate in '{{ rooom }}' off
      title: >-
        Climate '{{ rooom }}'
mode: restart

I thought, that the notification will be “Climate Work”, if the “Work” is set as “room” in the inputs, but it is only “Climate”. I also tested the following, but it didn’t work:

Climate room
Climate {{ rooom }}
'Climate {{ rooom }}'

What is wrong?

13

There’s a spelling error.

You defined a variable named room but you are referencing it using the name rooom.

variables:
  room: !input 'room'

      message: >-
        Climate in '{{ rooom }}' off
1 Like
14

Thanks a lot! Things could be so easy sometimes, but I really didn’t recognized it.

15

I think this just saved me hours of debugging. It seems like this is still the case? I’m trying to use a sun sunrise/sunset event where the offset is a computed value based on one of the inputs. This seems to make it impossible, or at least VERY cumbersome, or plain inefficient.

As I understand this is impossible…?

trigger:
  - platform: sun
    event: sunrise
    offset: "{{ computed_variable_here }}" # this is based on input that has been defined in "variables" section of the blueprint

@Sbyx @Burningstone - what are my options here?

16

There’s no option, you can’t use templates in triggers. See also the feature request I posted above.

1 Like
17

Try this…

  input:
    seq_status:
      name: Control Sequence Status Placeholder
      description: >-
        input_number - The internal use lock sequence number (set range to 0 to 100)
        You will need one of these for every copy of this automation, 
        IE one for every lock code.
      selector:
        entity:
          domain: input_number
variables:
  seq_status_ent: !input 'seq_status'
  seq_status_last: '{{ expand(seq_status_ent)[0].last_changed | as_timestamp }}'
  seq_status_val: '{{ expand(seq_status_ent)[0].state }}'
18

I have an automation that uses templating

    trigger:
      platform: template
      value_template: "{{ state_attr('vacuum.my_crapper', 'status_code') not in ['RDY', 'CCC', 'CCP', 'DFS', 'DF1', 'DF2'] }}"
      for:
        minutes: "10"

Am I correct in my understanding there is no way to create a blueprint from this yet?

19

AFAIK it’s the variables that are the problem not templating in general.

I also have automations that use value_template and they work and blueprints are just automations with an extra wrapper, basically. The problem, as stated above, is that variables aren’t populated until after the trigger fires.

I’m getting the same error mentioned earlier in this thread (Template variable error: '_____' is undefined when rendering) as of today so it likely hadn’t changed.

Edit: Actually this may now be possible thanks to trigger_variables. I found a working example of this that I have in an automation as well as this post. I’ve yet to get my automation triggering properly (that might be another issue) but the errors are gone!

2 Likes
20

Could someone tell me if this allowed? And will it work?

input:
    after_time:
      name: 'After: '
      description: runs only after this time.
      default: '23:59:59'
      selector:
        time:

    before_time:
      name: 'Before: '
      description: runs only before this time.
      default: '05:00:00'
      selector:
        time:

...............

condition:
  condition: time
  after: !input 'after_time'
  before: !input 'before_time'