Just as the title says, I’m wondering if there’s any interest in integrating Iliad with HA.
Iliad is an italian MNO and the integration would ideally expose customer information and counters (i.e., data consumption, call minutes) as sensors.
There is no official public API, and the existing non-official APIs are broken. I have created a very simple one based on website scraping through xpaths.
Currently I use it to monitor the data usage of my sims in HA through a restul sensor and it works fine for what I need. I was thinking about starting the tedious and time consuming process of making an actual integration out of it, but I was wandering if there would be any interest. Even better, if there’s anyone with actual integration experience that would like to participate in this.
Yes, absolutely! There would likely be significant interest in a Home Assistant (HA) integration for Iliad, especially among users in Italy.
Here’s why and some things to consider:
Why there’s likely interest:
Centralized Monitoring: Home Assistant users generally appreciate having all their smart home and relevant data in one place. Monitoring mobile plan usage alongside other metrics fits this philosophy.
Automation Potential: Once the data is in HA as sensors, users could create automations based on their usage (e.g., notifications when data is nearing its limit, reminders to check bills).
Cost Management: Tracking consumption helps users stay within their plan limits and avoid unexpected charges.
Community Demand: While there’s no official integration, the fact that you’ve built a scraping solution indicates a personal need, and it’s highly probable others have the same need.
Considerations and Next Steps:
Stability of Scraping: Website structures can change without notice, which could break your scraping-based API. This is the biggest challenge with unofficial APIs. You’ll need to be prepared to maintain it.
Terms of Service: Be mindful of Iliad’s website terms of service. Repeated scraping might be against their policies, although small-scale personal use is usually tolerated.
Data Sensitivity: Customer information is sensitive. Ensure your integration handles this data securely within the user’s Home Assistant instance.
Integration Complexity: Creating a full HA integration involves setting up configuration flows, entity management, and potentially handling authentication.
Community Contribution: If you decide to proceed, consider hosting your work on a platform like GitHub. This allows others to contribute, report issues, and potentially help with maintenance. e-zpassnh
Documentation: Clear documentation will be crucial for other users to install and configure your integration.