Check for 'null' property

Configuration
1

Hi All,

I have an automation which sometimes is triggered by the following object (based on the automation debug from Home Asssitant):

trigger:
  id: '0'
  idx: '0'
  platform: state
  entity_id: light.ds_hauptbad_light2
  from_state: null
  to_state:
    entity_id: light.ds_hauptbad_light2
    state: 'off'
    attributes:
      supported_color_modes:
        - onoff
      friendly_name: Dusche
      supported_features: 0
    last_changed: '2021-07-29T10:01:54.956513+00:00'
    last_updated: '2021-07-29T10:01:54.956513+00:00'
    context:
      id: 6a1c02a658062eae8089bed27fe2a3fa
      parent_id: null
      user_id: null
  for: null
  attribute: null
  description: state of light.ds_hauptbad_light2

as you can see the trigger has the attribute from_state: null
I would like to filter my automation not to process if the form_state is null.
How can I do this? I already tried the following options:

  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: light.ds_hauptbad_light2
  condition: "{{ trigger.from_state is defined }}"
#  condition: "{{ trigger.from_state != null }}
#  condition: "{{ trigger.from_state != 'null' }}"

Thanks for input :slight_smile:

2 
{{ trigger.from_state is not none }}
2 Likes
3

Long three years since either of you have probably looked at this, but I have the same question, and don’t know if the solution here will work or if I’m just doing something incorrectly.

So, I’m trying to add an if-then action to an existing automation. The English version is that it’s an automation that simply uses a camera’s person sensor as a trigger, takes a picture, then sends that picture and actionable notice to a mobile device.

But… there’s four people in the house, and we all tend to get different phones/devices on different schedules, and device names change all the time (along with apps). So, rather than finding/changing the automations when someone does that, I started by editing the original automation with just the first device/app name variable, via a helper. Once I got that working perfectly, I figured I’d build out the other three as helper variables as well, but plan on if the kids move out, etc., maybe having 1-2 being blank in the future. So… I’m trying to get Helpers 2-4 to be if-then actions.

I’ve conceived this as "If Helper 2 variable is not empty, then send the notification and picture, then move on to Helper 3, then Helper 4… etc. The code below is the if-then for Helper 2 only, and it doesn’t work. I am NOT a YAML person at all, so hopefully this doesn’t make you laugh too hard. But really, it’s only the first part about triggering off of the NULL value in the Helper 2 that isn’t working.

alias: >-
  If Mobile App 2 Helper NOT SET to NULL, then send notice and picture there as
  well.
if:
  - condition: template
    value_template: |-
      trigger:
        - platform: state
          entity_id: input_text.mobile_app_2
      condition: "{{ trigger.from_state is not none }}"
then:
  - action: notify.mobile_app_{{ states('input_text.mobile_app_2') }}
    data:
      data:
        image: https://mydomain/local/photos/Driveway.jpg
        actions:
          - action: URI
            title: Open Home Assistant Views
            uri: /lovelace/yard
      message: Person Detected
      title: "Driveway:"
    alias: >-
      Send notification with picture to user of device named in Mobile App 2
      helper variable.
else: []

Hope you even see this! :smiley:

Thanks in advance!

4

You put yaml in the value_template, it should just be the template. I.e. the “{{ … }}”. Make sure you only use single line notation. Put it on the same line and drop the |-

5

Thank you for the quick reply! It was with this, and other posts, youtube videos, and information that I ended up giving myself more of a crash course in templates than I’d expected. I eventually just created binary sensors for my helpers, so “helpers for helpers”, using the template coding:

{% if states('input_text.mobile_app_1', 'is not none') %}
{{ True }}
{% else %}
{{ False }}
{% endif %}

(Where the number 1 is 1-4, for the four different text input helpers.) Now the notifications with pictures being sent to phones when cameras detect people work perfectly, and they just don’t send anything when one of the helper variables is blank.

Again… thank you!