Configuring file sensor to read json file properly

Configuration
1

I have a json.dump file from my pfSense router that displays my firewall rules. What I would like to get out of it is to see the status of a particular rule (enabled/disabled). I can’t seem to find a value_template syntax that would help me extract this (my programming skills are quite basic)

sensor:
  - platform: file
    file_path: /config/python_scripts/pfSense_rules.json
    name: pfSense_rule_office
    value_template: '{{ value_json ????}}'

Dump file example

If the specific rule is {“disabled”: “”} then my rule is, of course, disabled and if this field is missing then it’s enabled. I can differentiate rules eighter by “tracker”: “1542580425”, or by “descr”: “office_pc_on_vpn”

2

Assuming you’re getting this from some API on the router, you’re probably better off putting the whole thing into a custom component. It could then hit the API to get a list of all rules, create a sensor for each one, and update the enabled/disabled statuses.

Otherwise:

{% set tracker = '1542580425' %}
{% for rule in value_json['rule'] %}
  {% if rule['tracker'] == tracker %}
    {{ 'disabled' not in rule }}
  {% endif %}
{% endfor %}

That should produce “True” (i.e. enabled) for any rule that doesn’t have the “disabled” key.

1 Like
3

Awesome,

sensor:
   - platform: file
     file_path: /config/python_scripts/pfSense_rules.json
     name: pfSense_rule_office
     value_template: '{% set tracker = "1542580425" %} {% for rule in value_json["rule"] %} {% if rule["tracker"] == tracker %} {{ "disabled" not in rule }} {% endif %} {% endfor %}'

This worked like a charm. You are right about the custom component, I’m gonna have to have a look into that as I ultimately wanted to combine sensor and a script to get a toggle switch for my rule.
I’m barely swimming above water but yeah, will get there soon hopefully.
Thanks again.

4

FYI, you can do something like (I think) this to have the template multiline and remove the need for the initial quotes:

value_template: >-
    {% set tracker = '1542580425' %}
    {% for rule in value_json['rule'] %}
      {% if rule['tracker'] == tracker %}
        {{ 'disabled' not in rule }}
      {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}
5

Like I sad, barely swimming :slight_smile: