Expand light group not possible?

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

trying to simplify some scripts and automation, which now verbosely list several light entities more than once like this:

    sequence:
      service: light.turn_on
      data_template:
        entity_id: >
          light.{{['frontdoor','dining_corner','symfonisk','kist','serre_chair',
                   'lounge_chair_long','home_theater','world_map']|random}}

I was hoping to be able to do this with a made light group:

      service: light.turn_on
      data_template:
        entity_id: >
          {{expand('light.party_lights')|map(attribute='entity_id')|list|random}}

however the above merely returns the light.party_lights as entity_id…

while eg this

{{expand('group.battery_sensors_low')|map(attribute='entity_id')|list|random}}

does randomly pick an entity from the group.

is this a bug, or by design (and would make the above require a true group after all)?
thanks if you could have a look.

[tom_l]

The light group platform creates a light entity. You can’t expand an entity.

Yes you will have to use a standard group.

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

yes, thought as much, not sure if this is a pity or not… thanks anyways.

[niro1987 (Niels)]

It might not have been possible then, but it sure is now

expand(state_attr('light.woonkamer', 'entity_id'))|map(attribute='entity_id')|list

[
  "light.richting_hoek",
  "light.richting_televisie",
  "light.richting_trap"
]

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

That’s nice! Some time ago since I checked this, but I completely missed this change in the use of light groups.
Thanks for the nudge!

on further inspection: my config above and hence the conclusion still stands. We can not expand the light group itself:

{{expand('light.library_lights')|map(attribute='entity_id')|list}}

Changing it to the format you provide solves that:

{{expand(state_attr('light.library_lights', 'entity_id'))|map(attribute='entity_id')|list}}

and probably has been available before, only we didnt think to try it… ?

anyways, might be a nice addition to the light group docs

@petro and @123 , please have a look here, has this been there all the time? seems quite an important feature in the templating tools we overlooked (so hence my tag, please don’t get mad)

[123 (Taras)]

@Mariusthvdb

please don’t get mad

I’m not mad but I haven’t been participating in this thread because I have little interest in the Light Group integration.

I have used expand extensively (its documentation seems adequate) but I have never used it with a Light Group, primarily because I don’t use Light Groups.

Maybe the example should be added to expand’s documentation?

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

yes, thats a fine idea too, I do think it is not known to a wider public here.

[petro]

entity_id has existed from day one on light groups

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

well, I hadn’t noticed a change in the integration either, so probably yes…
However, nobody realized we could use the expand() on them in light groups… so the fact we can using entity_id is still very useful information. Must say I don’t understand the inner workings though, as I’ve only seen it being used on groups

[petro]

expand turns a list of entity_ids, an entity_id, or a group into state objects.

[123 (Taras)]

@Mariusthvdb

I’ve only seen it being used on groups

You inspired me to search through all my posts where I had offered examples for the use of the expand function. The majority of them expand groups but a few expand a comma-delimited entities:

Multiple if statements

It can also be done like this but it’s not necessarily superior to a simple chain of if-elif statements. service: homeassistant.turn_off target: entity_id: >- {% set x = expand('input_boolean.kitchen_lights', 'input_boolean.dining_table_lights_checkbox') | selectattr('state','eq','on') | map(attribute='object_id') | list %} {{ 'none' if x | count == 0 else x | join(', ') | replace('kitchen_lights', 'switch.kitchen') | replace('dining_table_lights_checkbox', 'switch.smart_plug_2') }}

and a recent post expanded the entities attribute of a Light Group:

Light group for lights that are already on

If you already have a Light Group (defined with a fixed list of light entities), a template can use it to determine which of its members is currently on or off. For example, if your Light Group is called light.first_floor then this template will select all members that are off and present them as a comma-delimited string of entity_ids. {{ expand(state_attr('light.first_floor', 'entity_id')) | selectattr('state','eq','off') | map(attribute='entity_id') | join(',') }}

As mentioned, the documentation is good; it includes examples of expanding a mix of entities and groups. Perhaps I was more familiar with its abilities because I had created a Feature Request and then followed the PR that implemented it very closely (thank you Tho85). FWIW, it was a difficult nut to crack; it took about three versions before it worked correctly. During its long gestation, I saw the developer’s examples for its usage.

[Mariusthvdb (Marius)]

@123

As mentioned, the documentation is good;

yes, I followed most of that, but admit having missed the expand on entities of the light group. I feel the documentation could benefit from an example how to iterate these using expand(), bot in the expand explanation in templates, and in the light.group docs though. Something like:

The entities configured in the light group are listed in the attribute entity_id which allows to iterate these entities in a Jinja template like using the expand() function on the light group:

{{ expand(state_attr('light.first_floor', 'entity_id')) | selectattr('state','eq','off') | map(attribute='entity_id') | join(',') }}

Since you have made a lot of effort in the expand() development, would you care to do that? If not, I would gladly do so.

It wasn’t until now, that I even realized entity_id was an attribute of the light.group. If I had seen that, I wouldn’t have posted this thread.

[petro]

Put it in the expand section in templating, not light group. Also, I would phrase it in a way that shows you can grab any entity_id list as an attribute for the expand function, using light group as an example.

Templating