Trigger variables

Configuration
1

Hi

I’m trying to automate so I get a notification on my phone when someone is changing zone.
This works, but the notification template does not. It shows:
person.oscar from Oscar to Oscar

Why is the friendly_name of from_state the friendly_name of the person object?

Or should I just do this:
{{ trigger.from_state.name }} to {{ trigger.from_state.state }}

alias: Kids location notify
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - person.oscar
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - person.christian_bendtsen
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.from_state.state != trigger.to_state.state  }}"
    alias: Not the same state
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_michael_mobile
    data:
      title: Kids status
      message: >
        {{ trigger.entity_id }} from {{ trigger.from_state.name }} to {{
        trigger.to_state.name }}
mode: single
2

Shouldn’t it simply be


from {{ trigger.from_state.state }} to {{ trigger.to_state.state }}

?

EDIT: typo

3

Automation Trigger Variable for State triggers represent the State Object of the triggering entity. The name property refers to the entity i.e. person.oscar it doesn’t refer to the state… that’s what the state property does.

Most of the time your people are going to be either leaving or entering an undefined zone, so I would set this up a bit differently… Also, you may want to use queued or parallel mode in case they happen to be changing zones at the same time.

alias: Kids location notify
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - person.oscar
      - person.christian_bendtsen
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.from_state.state != trigger.to_state.state  }}"
    alias: Not the same state
action:
  - choose:
    - conditions:
      - condition: template
        value_template: "{{ trigger.from_state.state == 'not_home'  }}"
        alias: Leaving Undefined zone
      sequence:
        - service: notify.mobile_app_michael_mobile
          data:
            title: Kids status
            message: >
              {{ trigger.to_state.name }} arrived at {{ trigger.to_state.state }}
    - conditions:
      - condition: template
        value_template: "{{ trigger.to_state.state == 'not_home'  }}"
        alias: Entering Undefined zone
      sequence:
        - service: notify.mobile_app_michael_mobile
          data:
            title: Kids status
            message: >
              {{ trigger.to_state.name }} left {{ trigger.from_state.state }}
    default:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_michael_mobile
        data:
          title: Kids status
          message: >
            {{ trigger.to_state.name }} from {{ trigger.from_state.state }} to {{
        trigger.to_state.state }}
mode: single
4

Agree with Drew for how to solve the problem you’re having. Small suggestions for additional improvements/simplifications though:

This does the same thing:

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - person.oscar
      - person.christian_bendtsen
    to:

You can list multiple entities to watch in a state trigger, don’t need to list them each separately if the triggers are otherwise identical.

And if you add to: or from: without any value specified then it will only trigger if the state changed, exactly the same thing your condition is doing. The other benefit of this (besides the shorter code) is you won’t get a trace clogging up the list of traces when only an attribute of a person entity changed by doing it this way.

Your automation seems to assume everyone will go from home to not_home to some other zone. And while I’m sure that will happen a vast majority of the time, sometimes phones die. In which case they may go straight from home to some other zone without stopping in not_home which seems like it would really mess up your automation.

You may want to consider just checking the to_state.state to see what it is and notifying accordingly rather then looking at the from_state.state and assuming the pattern of travel.

1 Like
5

Works much better, thank you