Esphome conditional compile?

ESPHome
1

Hi
Does the esphome yaml have conditional compile functionality?
I have several LD2450 sensors. They can count the number of people in up to three zones.
Everything regarding these is defined in a file include/ld2450.yaml.
For some of them I need all three zones, but for some one is enough. Today I have separate include files for this.
To avoid unnecessary/confusing sensors and stuff, I would like to add something like this to my include file (where zones could be defined in substitutions):

$if (${zones} > 1)
    zone_2:
      x1:
        name: ${prefix} Zone2 X1
      y1:
        name: ${prefix} Zone2 Y1
      x2:
        name: ${prefix} Zone2 X2
      y2:
        name: ${prefix} Zone2 Y2
$end if
$if (${zones} > 2)
    zone_3:
      x1:
        name: ${prefix} Zone3 X1
      y1:
        name: ${prefix} Zone3 Y1
      x2:
        name: ${prefix} Zone3 X2
      y2:
        name: ${prefix} Zone3 Y2
$end if
2

Have you had a look at ‘Packages as Templates’ not sure if this will achieve what you want or some way toward?

3

I was about to suggest this too. Put the additional zones in a separate package. You can even pass parameters to packages with some effort. This comes straight from some of my yaml files:

packages:
  diagnostics: !include packages/diags.yaml
  presence: !include { 
    file: 'packages/presence_2410.yaml', 
    vars: { 
      pres_uart_tx: 'GPIO17', 
      pres_uart_rx: 'GPIO16', 
      pres_pin: 'GPIO25' 
      }  
    }
  ble_tracker: !include packages/ble_tracker.yaml

Some of these packages add parameters to preexisting sections like ble:
The package files contain yaml with sensors etc. just like you would put it in the esp yaml.

4

I was working on a similar problem.

Packages is the only way you can somehow compose your files.

There is no real condition, if/then logic in yaml.
It is purely declarative.

The only thing you could do is to add a step with Jinja templates and add conditionals in there.
But then you have to generate the yaml files from templates and then compile the yaml for your device.
Quite cumbersome.

5

Thanks! I’ll give it a try!
I’ve seen that some yaml files can contain conditional compilation, but they are for very proprietary solutions.
I guess it should be possible in esphome too, but it’s not extremely important.

6

Yeah another thing I noticed is you can’t conditionally load a module. For example this does not work.

substitutions:
  libary_folder: "/my_library"

packages:
  # If your touch screen has a backlight include this
  backlight: !include ${libary_folder}/modules/base/backlignt.yaml
7

That has nothing to do with YAML.

This would be a templating language on top of YAML. Something like jinja or others.
YAML can only be descriptive and therefore there is no logic.

8

I agree, but in esphome as well as in other environments, yaml is being used as a preprocessor for c++ or other languages.
Or, even as something resembling a scripting language in it’s own right.

This is an example from some microsoft product, where the “${{ if” decides whether to include the following section or not.
Something like that would be helpful in esphome as well.

  - ${{ if eq(parameters.paramA, 'true') }}:
    - powershell: |
        "Conditional insertion from parameter whose value came from a variable"
      displayName: conditionally inserted task from variable
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