List from Group that meet criteria

Configuration Frontend
1

I want to create a list of devices in a group that meet a criteria, to show the result in a dashboard.

I’m assuming I would need a template sensor but don’t know where to start so would welcome some advice please.

One of the lists I want to achieve is all window sensors, grouped into a group so the entity is binary_sensor.windows, that have a state of on. If there are none that meet that criteria then I expect a blank list. The result would then be used in a dashboard card.

I should say, I have tried the Auto Entities custom card but this shows the icon and state against each entity but I just want the device/entity name to be displayed.

1 Like
2

The basic template would be as follows:

{{ state_attr('binary_sensor.windows', 'entity_id') 
| select('is_state', 'on') | list }}

FWIW, the state of any entity is always a string. If you need an actual list the template should be assigned to an attribute since they can be other data types.

EDIT: Fixed “fancy quotes”

2 Likes
3

Thanks. I’ve added that to a template sensor in config.yaml

  sensors:
    list_windows_open:
      friendly_name: "List Windows Open"
      unit_of_measurement: 'on'
      value_template: "{{ state_attr(`binary_sensor.windows`, 'entity_id') | select('is_state', 'on') | list }}"

but I get the following error when checking config:

Invalid config for [sensor.template]: invalid template (TemplateSyntaxError: unexpected char '' at 14) for dictionary value @ data['sensors']['list_windows_open']['value_template']. Got "{{ state_attr(binary_sensor.windows`, ‘entity_id’) | select(‘is_state’, ‘on’) | list }}". (See ?, line ?).

4

It’s a copy/paste error… the quotes around the entity id need to be standard quotes not “fancy” quotes.

Also, you may get errors from the unit of measurement. IIRC, any sensor with a unit of measurement defined expects a numeric value for the state.

5

Thanks, I just spotted it and amended the quotes. It checks out fine now but I’ve reloaded the config and for some reason the sensor is not showing up in my entities.

6

Scrub that, I’ve managed to get it showing in my entities but it took a full restart instead of just a reload of all yaml config.

However, I created a markdown card in my dashboard and added {{ states('sensor.list_windows_open') }} and it just returns a result of ‘Unknown’ when there is at least one window open. I’ve also tried amending it to {{ state_attr('sensor.list_windows_open') }} and that returns a blank.

7

I commented out unit_of_measurement: 'on' in my template sensor and I seem to be getting closer because trying the code in my markdown card in Dev Tools it shows the only door that is open but in this format: ['binary_sensor.kitchen_living_room_door_sensor'].

But I want the device name in my output (e.g. Kitchen/Living Room Door Sensor)

To summarise, this is now what I have:

Template Sensor:

- platform: template
  sensors:
    list_doors_open:
      friendly_name: "List Doors Open"
      value_template: "{{ state_attr('binary_sensor.doors', 'entity_id') | select('is_state', 'on') | list }}"

Markdown Card:
{{ states('sensor.list_doors_open', 'on') }}

Output:
[‘binary_sensor.kitchen_living_room_door_sensor’]

How do I get the output to show the device/friendly name?

8

Is anyone able to advise on the above, please, because I can’t find any suitable info on how to do this?

9

My suggestion is to use this template to cycle through each item in your list and print its friendly name:

In your Markdown Card Content:

{% for my_item in states('sensor.list_doors_open', 'on') %}
   {{ state_attr(my_item, 'friendly_name') }}
{% endfor %}

As an alternative suggestion, I use auto-entities to create a card in the front end that lists entities while applying specific filters.
It is a custom frontend card that you install using the HACS app.