Macro/blueprint template Entities

Configuration
1

Hi all. Apologies if this is covered elsewhere.

I have a number (a lot!) of template switches that use more than one switch entities to provide redundancy, for example where a physical relay can be controlled by more than one switch entity via different integrations. I also do the same with template sensors. For example, here’s a couple of switch templates.

switch:
  - platform: template
    switches:
      flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper:
        friendly_name: Flat 2 Green Room Bug Zapper
        unique_id: bc8944bc-0b5d-40de-adb8-d72920604521
        availability_template: >-
          {{
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'off') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink', 'off')
          }}
        value_template: >-
          {{
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on')
          }}
        turn_on:
          - action: switch.turn_on
            target:
              entity_id:
                - switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo
                - switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink
        turn_off:
          - action: switch.turn_off
            target:
              entity_id:
                - switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo
                - switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink
        icon_template: >-
          {% if is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or 
                is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on') %}
            mdi:flash
          {% elif is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'off') or 
                  is_state('switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink', 'off') %}
            mdi:flash-off
          {% else %}
            mdi:flash-alert
          {% endif %}

      flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper:
        friendly_name: Flat 2 Bedroom Bug Zapper
        unique_id: 683fad81-2c01-401b-b272-480cd9578ee6
        availability_template: >-
          {{
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'off') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink', 'off')
          }}
        value_template: >-
          {{
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or
            is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on')
          }}
        turn_on:
          - action: switch.turn_on
            target:
              entity_id:
                - switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo
                - switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink
        turn_off:
          - action: switch.turn_off
            target:
              entity_id:
                - switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo
                - switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink
        icon_template: >-
          {% if is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'on') or 
                is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink', 'on') %}
            mdi:flash
          {% elif is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'off') or 
                  is_state('switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink', 'off') %}
            mdi:flash-off
          {% else %}
            mdi:flash-alert
          {% endif %}

Is there any way to create a macro, blueprint or other object that encapsulates the logic so that I can simply do something like:-

switch:
  - platform: template
    switches:
      flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper: instance_of('redundant_switch', ['switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tapo', 'switch.flat_2_green_room_bug_zapper_tplink'])
      flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper: instance_of('redundant_switch', ['switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tapo', 'switch.flat_2_bedroom_bug_zapper_tplink'])

I have some cases where there are two ‘source’ entities and some where there are three so ideally a list of entities would be ideal as shown but it would be okay if I had to define separate 2-entity & 3-redundant-switch macros (or whatever construct it is).

Here are some sample redundant sensors. I appreciate that I could use the HACS ‘average’ integration instead of these but something more directly expressing redundancy rather than statistics would be good.

template:
  sensor:
    - name: Flat 2 Bathroom Sensor Temperature
      unique_id: 0145218f-6e79-4f2c-be6f-0d43399d9837
      unit_of_measurement: "°C"
      state_class: measurement
      device_class: temperature
      availability: >-
        {{
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_matter') or
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') or
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_tplink')
        }}
      state: >-
        {{
          states('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_matter') if has_value('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_matter') else
          states('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') if has_value('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') else
          states('sensor.flat_2_bathroom_sensor_temperature_tplink')
        }}
    - name: Flat 2 Bedroom Sensor Temperature
      unique_id: 7f5910e7-5210-4e1b-b742-d7bee6fd9172
      unit_of_measurement: "°C"
      state_class: measurement
      device_class: temperature
      availability: >-
        {{
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_matter') or
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') or
          has_value('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_tplink')
        }}
      state: >-
        {{
          states('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_matter') if has_value('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_matter') else
          states('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') if has_value('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_tapo') else
          states('sensor.flat_2_bedroom_sensor_temperature_tplink')
        }}
2

No/yes. Template entities just recently gained support for blueprints, but they don’t seem quite fully featured/debugged yet, and will only work for the specific types of entities that fall under the template integration. Template sensors do, template switches do not. Would be nice if everything eventually became blueprintable…

1 Like
3

Thanks for the pointer. That should certainly make my template sensor files a bit less repetitive. Shame that switches haven’t been folded into the newer template model. Hey ho, I can maybe do some level of de-duplication with macros I suppose. Or maybe dive in and write a ‘redundant switch integration’ if I ever find the time to gen up on that.

4

I have plenty of similar template entities.
Used macros for “availability”, “state” etc.
Then changed everything to blueprints for template sensors - which work OK if these are not trigger-based ones))
And yes, not for template switches (still using macros for them).

Alternatively - “include” can be used along with calling “this” variable.

1 Like