Using trigger.idx to index a list

Configuration
1

I’ve got the following automation that works well enough:

# Security - Motion
# if motion is sensed
# when no one is home or we're in bed
- alias: motion?
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.living_room_motion_motion
      - binary_sensor.dining_room_motion_motion
      - binary_sensor.upstairs_motion_sensor_motion
    from: 'off'
    to: 'on'
  condition:
    condition: or
    conditions:
      - condition: template
        value_template: "{{ states('group.family') != 'home' }}"
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.in_bed
        state: 'on'
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_russ_phone
      data:
        message: '{{ trigger.to_state.name }} motion'

It gives a much-more-verbose-than-I’d-like message like “binarary_sensor.living_room_motion_motion motion”.
What I’d like to do is use trigger.idx to index into a less verbose list of device names, but I’m not quite sure how to set up the list so that less_verbose_list[trigger.idx] would return something like “living room”.
Any suggestions?

2

Your automation is using trigger.to_state.name which should be displaying the entity’s friendly_name and not its entity_id. However, if it has no friendly_name then it will display entity_id. Do the binary_sensors have friendly names?

Do you want it to display the entity’s friendly_name or something shorter?

4

something shorter … and I’m thinking I can create my own list of “something shorter” and use trigger.idx as an index into that list.

5

The automation has one State Trigger so the value of trigger.idx will always be the same.

I suggest creating three separate State Triggers and give each one’s id property the desired name.

- alias: motion?
  trigger:
    - id: 'Living Room'
      platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_motion_motion
      from: 'off'
      to: 'on'
    - id: 'Dining Salon'
      platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.dining_room_motion_motion
      from: 'off'
      to: 'on'
    - id: 'Sleeping Quarters'
      platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.upstairs_motion_sensor_motion
      from: 'off'
      to: 'on'
  condition: "{{ states('group.family') != 'home' or is_state('input_boolean.in_bed', 'on') }}"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_russ_phone
      data:
        message: '{{ trigger.id }} motion'

If you want to only use a single State Trigger, you will need to use trigger.to_state.object_id as the key for a dictionary to find the associated short name.

- alias: motion?
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.living_room_motion_motion
      - binary_sensor.dining_room_motion_motion
      - binary_sensor.upstairs_motion_sensor_motion
    from: 'off'
    to: 'on'
  condition: "{{ states('group.family') != 'home' or is_state('input_boolean.in_bed', 'on') }}"
  action:
    - variables:
        names:
          living_room_motion_motion: 'Living Room'
          dining_room_motion_motion: 'Dining Salon'
          upstairs_motion_sensor_motion: 'Sleeping Quarters'
    - service: notify.mobile_app_russ_phone
      data:
        message: "{{ names.get(trigger.to_state.object_id, 'Unknown') }} motion"
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6

Those examples are very helpful. Both are useful in their own way and I’ll probably use the second for some other things I have in mind, but the first is exactly what I want in this instance.
(I didn’t know you could do that with id:)
Thanks for this.

1 Like