SOLVED: Conversion of lists passed to script

Configuration
1

I am trying to pass a list of device ids to a script and have the script use the list in a service call. It seems that I have recreated the list perfectly but it does not work.

test_automation:
  - service: script.test_script
    data:
      monoprice_zones: 
        - A12345
        - B12345
  mode: single

test_script:
  variables:
    target_zones: “[{{ monoprice_zones | join(', ‘)}}]”

  sequence:
    - service: some service
      target:        
        device_id: "{{ target_zones }}"

When the list:

  • A12345
  • B12345

is passed to the script it is arrives like this:
[‘A12345’,’B12345’]

Recreating the original list would be very problematic but another way to do a list (which works) would be like this:

[A12345, B12345]

The target_zones line in the script above recreates the later format. IOW I am able to turn this: [‘A12345’,’B12345’] into this: [A12345, B12345].

The problem is this does not work. If I dump it into the system_log I see the expedted format: [A12345, B12345].

If I hardcode it this like:

    - service: some service
      target:        
        device_id: [A12345, B12345]

It works fine! But this:

    - service: some service
      target:        
        device_id: "{{ target_zones }}"

generates the following:

Referenced devices [A12345, B12345] are missing or not currently available

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am about to tear my hair out!

2

I am responding to my own post in the hope the helps someone else. I figured out a way to use the list of device ids that was passed into a script. Basically, I used a template to take the passed device ids into a new list of entity ids which I can then pass to various services. The template looks like this:

    target_zones: "{%- set ns = namespace(entities_list=[]) -%}\
      \ {%- for zone in monoprice_zones -%}\n\
      \   {%- set ns.entities_list = ns.entities_list + device_entities(zone) -%}\
      \ {%- endfor -%}\
      \ {{ ns.entities_list }}\n"

Then to use the list I cast it as a sting as follows:


    - service: media_player.turn_on
      data: {}
      target:
        entity_id: "{{ target_zones|string }}"
3

I’m surprised to hear that works because each one of the two items in that list would be interpreted as being the name of a variable, not a device’s identifier. Wrapping each item in quotes makes each item a string value.

The device_id option does support lists. For example, I selected two devices using the Automation Editor in visual mode and here’s the YAML it generated.

Screenshot_20231208-151038~2
Screenshot_20231208-151038~2850×722 37.6 KB

You should be able to pass the script a variable containing a list and then reference the variable’s value directly in device_id.

test_automation:
  - service: script.test_script
    data:
      monoprice_zones: 
        - A12345
        - B12345
  mode: single

Assuming the device identifiers represent media_players:

test_script:
  sequence:
    - service: media_player.volume_set
      data:
        volume_level: 0.3
      target:        
        device_id: "{{ monoprice_zones }}"

Out of curiosity, why not use entity_id instead of device_id?