Well, I can see a reason in checking that entity does exist before changing its state.
you can use the following code:
inputEntity = data.get('entity_id')
if inputEntity is None:
logger.warning("===== entity_id is required if you want to set something.")
elif hass.states.get(inputEntity) is None:
logger.warning("===== unknown entity_id: %s", inputEntity)
else:
inputStateObject = hass.states.get(inputEntity)
inputState = inputStateObject.state
inputAttributesObject = inputStateObject.attributes.copy()
for item in data:
newAttribute = data.get(item)
logger.debug("===== item = {0}; value = {1}".format(item,newAttribute))
if item == 'entity_id':
continue # already handled
elif item == 'state':
inputState = newAttribute
else:
inputAttributesObject[item] = newAttribute
hass.states.set(inputEntity, inputState, inputAttributesObject)
On the other hand, I have no idea what one would create if a sensor does not exist… and who would use it…