Checking attribute of an unrelated entity [SOLVED]

ThisIsMatt · June 3, 2020, 7:11am

Hi!
I’m trying to create a simple automation with Node Red, but I can’t figure out the right logic to use. On a purely logical format, it should look like this:

Detecting the Shield’s state is easy, as is using the Harmony remote. But how do I import an attribute of an entity to check its status? I have it correctly displaying on a dashboard (media_player.onkyo_receiver, attribute = source), but I can only seem to surface the entity in Node Red.

TIA.

AlmostSerious · June 3, 2020, 7:16am

The way your doing it is correct, but you need to find out the correct path to your source. To do that, just connect a debug node to the current_state check. Set that debug node to show complete message and the investigate the message and copy the correct path into your switch node.

ThisIsMatt · June 3, 2020, 7:18am

Thanks very much, Marcus! I’ll give it a go.

AlmostSerious · June 3, 2020, 7:19am

here is an example. You can copy the path directly from the debug window. In my case its:
msg.data.attributes.source

ThisIsMatt · June 3, 2020, 7:43am

That worked perfectly. And, ironically, it was exactly the same attribute name: msg.data.attributes.source.

Thanks again for your help.

AlmostSerious · June 3, 2020, 8:02am

Glad to hear! That the message is the same, is to be expected, as the media_players in HA all have the same layout :). On thing to note: Depending if you use the current_state node or the entity_state node you might see some additional messages: new_state and old_state. Then the path will be different.