Help with template automations

Configuration
,
1

I have the following automation which is supposed to notify me when my kid gets to school/leaves school. It worked when I had the automations segregated, but I tried to combine them and… no dice. I can see that the automation is triggering , but it gets to the step to choose, and skips to the end performing no actions.

Can anyone help me understand why?

alias: Nathan School
description: >-
  Notifies when Nathan gets to school, leaves school, and leaves the house on
  weekdays.
trigger:
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: leave
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: enter
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.home
    event: enter
condition: []
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: >
              {{ trigger.platform == 'zone' and trigger.entity_id ==
              'device_tracker.npixel' and trigger.zone == 'zone.poston' and
              trigger.event == 'enter' }}
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is at school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is at school
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: >
              {{ trigger.platform == 'zone' and trigger.entity_id ==
              'device_tracker.npixel' and trigger.zone == 'zone.poston' and
              trigger.event == 'leave' }}
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan left school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan left school
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: >
              {{ trigger.platform == 'zone' and trigger.entity_id ==
              'device_tracker.npixel' and trigger.zone == 'zone.home' and
              trigger.event == 'enter' }}
          - condition: time
            after: "12:00:00"
            before: "17:00:00"
            weekday:
              - mon
              - tue
              - wed
              - thu
              - fri
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is home from school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is home from school
mode: single
2

Try this version without a choose.

alias: Nathan School
description: >-
  Notifies when Nathan gets to school, leaves school, and leaves the house on
  weekdays.
trigger:
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: leave
    variables:
      msg: 'Nathan left school'
      is_true: 'yes' 
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: enter
    variables:
      msg: 'Nathan is at school'
      is_true: 'yes' 
  - platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.home
    event: enter
    variables:
      msg: 'Nathan is home from school'
      is_true: >
        {{ iif(12 <= now().hour < 17 and 1 <= now().isoweekday() <= 5, 'yes', 'no') }}
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ is_true == 'yes' }}'
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
    data:
      message: '{{ msg }}'
  - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
    data:
      message: '{{ msg }}'
mode: single
3

The clause above will always fail… the trigger.zone variable returns the state object of the zone, not just it’s entity ID. You would need to use trigger.zone.attributes.entity_id == 'zone.poston'.

4

Question for you, what’s the purpose of this needlessly long Template Condition when you can simply use the trigger’s id to determine which one of the three triggers occurred?

      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: >
              {{ trigger.platform == 'zone' and trigger.entity_id ==
              'device_tracker.npixel' and trigger.zone == 'zone.poston' and
              trigger.event == 'enter' }}

Assuming you call the three triggers poston_leave, poston_enter, and home_enter then you can do this:

alias: Nathan School
description: >-
  Notifies when Nathan gets to school, leaves school, and leaves the house on
  weekdays.
trigger:
  - id: poston_leave
    platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: leave
  - id: poston_enter
    platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.poston
    event: enter
  - id: home_enter
    platform: zone
    entity_id: device_tracker.npixel
    zone: zone.home
    event: enter
condition: []
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger 
            id: poston_enter
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is at school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is at school
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger 
            id: poston_leave
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan left school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan left school
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger 
            id: home_enter
          - condition: time
            after: "12:00:00"
            before: "17:00:00"
            weekday:
              - mon
              - tue
              - wed
              - thu
              - fri
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_dpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is home from school
          - service: notify.mobile_app_jpixel
            data:
              message: Nathan is home from school
mode: single
5

Thank you guys for the responses, I have created new automations with each of these suggestions, and I’ll post back when I see which is working. I really appreciate this community.

6

This solution seems to be working well now. Thank you for your help folks!

To answer your question about the (needlessly) long template, it wasn’t working with the other attempts I made, so I kept revising the template. Lol, I fell down the rabbit hole.