Inject node at a specific time and making this time configurable from Home Assistant UI?

[martinst (Martin)]

Normally I use the inject node for example executing something at everyday at 22:30.

What I want is to have this time configurable from Home Assistant UI.

So I have made a input_datetime helper (only time) for storing this time value.

Unfortunately you couldn’t “bind” this time helper to the node-red inject node.

So what is the best way to do this?

Using a poll state node (check every second) and a function node. And in the function node you compare the current time with the HA helper time (so when hour and minute are the same) and then setting a context/flow/global variable with the date of today and execute an “output” of the function node.

And at the start of the function node you check if context/flow/global variable is set to today then you have to do nothing.

Is this easiest way or is there a better way?

[MaxK (Mark)]

@martinst

What I want is to have this time configurable from Home Assistant UI.

Just curious…why do you want to adjust the time from the UI and how often is the time adjusted currently?

[martinst (Martin)]

Yes I know it will be not very often. But it is nice to have all the setup from the home assistant ui possible.

[MaxK (Mark)]

This should give you some ideas:

Pulling helpers into node-red global variables. Is there a better way?

I currently have a node-red flow that injects a message every 5 minutes which gets the current status of a few input_text helpers which then flow into a change node that sets the payload to global.gvarsomename for example. When a node needs to act on the value of this variable, I then reference {{global.gvarsomename}} which works great. I guess I could use a poll node for each variable, but redoing this to reduce 1 node isn’t worth it. I’d like to just get rid of the whole flow. Is there anot…

Edit: put your global variable created by your input_datetime helper into the time node.

[martinst (Martin)]

Thanks! That node I have never used before

What I was planned to use was this kind of construction:

.

[{"id":"53512b122b46f88d","type":"tab","label":"Flow 1","disabled":false,"info":"","env":[]},{"id":"4d7009beb27da1cd","type":"poll-state","z":"53512b122b46f88d","name":"Some entity","server":"63f26c18.71f4f4","version":2,"exposeToHomeAssistant":false,"haConfig":[{"property":"name","value":""},{"property":"icon","value":""}],"updateinterval":"1","updateIntervalType":"num","updateIntervalUnits":"seconds","outputinitially":false,"outputonchanged":false,"entity_id":"sensor.zijraam_woonkamer_buiten_lux","state_type":"str","halt_if":"","halt_if_type":"str","halt_if_compare":"is","outputs":1,"x":150,"y":500,"wires":[["5a27f4298ac28e2f"]]},{"id":"5a27f4298ac28e2f","type":"function","z":"53512b122b46f88d","name":"Some logic","func":"// Outputs\n// [\n//      signal to simulate the inject node at the specific time from the HA helper\n//      signal to do something else...\n// ]\n\nvar msgInjectSimulation, msgSomethingElse = null;\n\nconst haStates = global.get(\"homeassistant.homeAssistant.states\");\n\nconst closeCoversStaticTime = haStates[\"input_datetime.close_all_covers_static_time\"];\n\nvar injectLastExecutedDate = global.get(\"some_name_executed_date\", \"file\");\n\nconst currentDateTime = new Date(Date.now());\n\nif (currentDateTime.getHours() == closeCoversStaticTime.attributes.hour &&\n    currentDateTime.getMinutes() == closeCoversStaticTime.attributes.minute &&\n    (injectLastExecutedDate == undefined || \n     currentDateTime.getFullYear() != injectLastExecutedDate.getFullYear() ||\n     currentDateTime.getMonth() != injectLastExecutedDate.getMonth() ||\n     currentDateTime.getDate() != injectLastExecutedDate.getDate())\n   )\n{\n    global.set(\"some_name_executed_date\", currentDateTime, \"file\")\n\n    msgInjectSimulation = {\n        \"payload\": \"Injecting...\"\n    };\n}\n\n// ..... all other logics ...\n// ...\n// ...\n// ...\n\nreturn [msgInjectSimulation, msgSomethingElse];","outputs":2,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":350,"y":500,"wires":[["c4195a96f5427ca9"],["cd5b898deaec76b7"]]},{"id":"c4195a96f5427ca9","type":"debug","z":"53512b122b46f88d","name":"Inject once at specific time from input helper HA","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":660,"y":460,"wires":[]},{"id":"cd5b898deaec76b7","type":"debug","z":"53512b122b46f88d","name":"Something else....","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":570,"y":540,"wires":[]},{"id":"63f26c18.71f4f4","type":"server","name":"Home Assistant","version":5,"addon":true,"rejectUnauthorizedCerts":true,"ha_boolean":"y|yes|true|on|home|open","connectionDelay":true,"cacheJson":true,"heartbeat":false,"heartbeatInterval":"30","areaSelector":"friendlyName","deviceSelector":"friendlyName","entitySelector":"id","statusSeparator":"at: ","statusYear":"hidden","statusMonth":"short","statusDay":"numeric","statusHourCycle":"h23","statusTimeFormat":"h:m","enableGlobalContextStore":true}]

But with this time node it is very easy!

[Lewis]

I suppose my comment is quite late.

However, you could also make an input button in HA, and then a state change node in NR would trigger the flow when the input button is pressed.

You could place the button on a dashboard, or in a widget on your Android / iOS Action on Apple device.

I use this type of setup to submit form data, on demand, instead of on schedule.