The calendar integration is great; however, there seems to be a missing link with the offset feature for automations that trigger before or after an event. While offsets work well for scheduling actions relative to an event, there’s a missing link at the time its triggered and filtering relevant events within a calendar.
Currently, the “state condition” only functions if the event is active at the time of checking. For instance, if an automation is set to trigger 30 minutes before an event starts, the condition may fail unless the event is already in progress. This limits the flexibility of calendar-based automations, particularly for pre- or post-event notifications.
I propose an enhancement to improve event filtering at the trigger and to make it more user friendly. This would allow Home Assistant to check for events matching specific criteria (e.g., name, location, or attributes) at the offset trigger time, even if the event is inactive. Such a feature would significantly expand the usability and reliability of calendar automation.
It seems that you are actually more interested in a Calendar Event condition than changes to the trigger.
The data for the Calendar Event which caused the trigger is part of the trigger data. While it does take some templating knowledge to use, it isn’t exactly missing.
Hi, and thanks for this. I’m happy to implement it into my automation and give it a go.
That said, it might be worth considering implementing something similar to what I suggest, as it does feel like a missing gap in the calendar integration/feature, especially for new/existing users
EG When looking for a solution, the main solution suggested in the various groups is something called the long offset technique by 23 hours, which isn’t ideal, especially if you have to reboot/restart HA (amongst other unforeseen issues). If large communities are suggesting such techniques, it means that very few are aware and had no idea of the triggers mentioned, and adding something a little more user friendly for this might be of interest to the various people who use calendars.
Regardless, thanks again for showing me the options with trigger data.