Using variables in automation actions - what is the available scope (Receiving ERROR Invalid service data)

Configuration
1

Running 0.74.2
I’m trying to understand what is the available scope for the various variables in the configuration yaml.

I’m receiving Invalid service data for notify.zohar_sms in a message I’m sending as a notification and I’m wondering if it’s related somehow to variables scope.

Here is my configuration:

Sensors.yaml:

- name: waze_route_info
  platform: waze_travel_time
  origin: "Paris, France"
  destination: "Berlin, Germany"
  region: 'EU'

automations.yaml:

- alias: Send message with waze info
  initial_state: True
  trigger:
    # make sure the trigger is fired at an expected event
    platform: homeassistant
    event: start
  action:
    service: notify.zohar_sms # Based on free_mobile sms platform. Tested.
    data:
      # message: "Regular text messages work perfectly"
      # message: "Text with variable such as {{ sensor.waze_route_info.origin }} or {{ waze_route_info.destination }} are not working"
      message_template: "Same with message_template: Text with variable such as {{ sensor.waze_route_info.origin }} or {{ waze_route_info.destination }} are not working"

Note the messages on the buttom - only pure text messages are actually sent. For the rest I’m receiving Invalid service data for notify.zohar_sms error in the log.

A few questions:

  1. What is the expected variable scope in Hass’s config files?
  2. What is the preferred way to debug such errors?

Thanks!

2

the only templating sections that exist are service_template, data_template, and value_template. Message_template is something you made up. This is the correct syntax:

- alias: Send message with waze info
  initial_state: True
  trigger:
    platform: homeassistant
    event: start
  action:
    # You should consider adding a delay.  If waze doesn't respond instantly on startup,
    # all the attributes could not exist yet.
    service: notify.zohar_sms 
    data_template: #<---- changed to data_template
      message: "Text with variable such as {{ sensor.waze_route_info.origin }} or {{ waze_route_info.destination }} are not working"
3

I think he said he already tried it that way. See commented message #2 in his code.

maybe it’s supposed to be like {{ sensor.waze_route_info.attribute.origin }}?

I don’t use a travel time sensor but I assume that origin & destination is an attribute of the sensor? or not…?

4

@petro Thanks a lot for that pointer. I’ve changed accordingly. I read the docs 50 times and still missed that bit.

So the syntax is now corrected, but there still remains the question about variable scope, or object scope.

The error I’m getting now is that Error rendering data template: UndefinedError: 'sensor' is undefined
(This is why @finity 's suggestion didn’t work either - the problem is at the object level )

Here’s the corrected [still not functional] code:

action:
    service: notify.zohar_sms
    data_template:
      message: "Waze trigger. Origin is {{ sensor.waze_route_info.origin }}"
5

If origin is an attribute of sensor.waze_route_info, then you need to replace sensor.waze_route_info.origin with state_attr('sensor.waze_route_info', 'origin').

6

It’s funny that you say that. I wrote the last major change on that component and I don’t remember if the component has those attributes.

Looking at the code… it does not. That’s why this isn’t working. You should only have 4 attributes:

duration
distance
route
attribution

@zohar

#EDIT: It is possible that it has origin and destination inherited from the base class though. Honestly, I don’t remember and I don’t have it configured to verify.

7

Alright, I’m getting there slowly :slight_smile: but still no success:

@pnbruckner you we’re right about the syntax. The error is gone. Is this mentioned in docs or did I have to read through core’s code to understand it?

@petro, which code are you looking at?

My sensor has the origin and destination attributes (it has to, so waze can calculate the driving time…)
Or maybe the term attribute is the misleading one?
This brings me back to the scope issue: how do I access the origin/destination attributes, which are part of the sensor, but not part of the calculate object? (where the duration and route are given)

Many thanks to all of you who are in to clarifying this issue!

8

Templating and State Objects.

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/blob/master/homeassistant/components/sensor/waze_travel_time.py

See especially the device_state_attributes method.

@petro, you’re right, the only entity attributes are the four you listed, not origin or destination.

The term “attribute” is definitely overloaded in HA. In general, we mean an entity’s attributes, as in states.domain.object_id.attributes.xxx or state_attr(entity_id, 'xxx'), and not a class object’s attributes in the Python implementation. You can see which “attributes” an entity_id has by looking on the States page.

1 Like
9

So why do you want that information? I can make you a custom component with that info, but is there a reason why you want the origin and destination? If you make a static origin and destination, then you already know it depending on the sensor it is coming from.

for example, you can name the sensor: Work travel time. Then have the message say “Your Work travel time is XXX”

EDIT: Also, looking at the code, it’s going to be a larger change than I thought. The origin and destination isn’t always populated because it can come from another entity. Sometimes its a zone with latitude and longitude.

1 Like
10

@petro I don’t really need this for anything practical - I’m doing my first steps with HA and I chose the Waze component as an exercise. My goal was to send myself a text message that says something like “Going from $origin to $destination takes $duration minutes” or similar.

By doing it I expected to achieve several things:

  • Get to know the HA configuration structure better
  • Send a basic alert to my phone
  • Create a smart condition to learn how conditions work in HA (e.g. if travel time is less than X minutes then send alert)
  • Use the templating engine with reusable objetcs

(Thanks a million anyhow for your kind proposal :slight_smile: )

@pnbruckner

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Reading through the code in Github, I see that origin and destination are part of setup_platform and are config options:

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/blob/master/homeassistant/components/sensor/waze_travel_time.py#L55-L65

So I guess a more suitable question would be how do I reuse the sensor’s configuration as part of my message template. I may go ahead and create a new thread with a more precise question regarding the use, reuse and scope of variables and entities in HA.

11

The short answer is, you can’t. What you’re looking for is part of this platform’s implementation, and not part of what the platform author chose to expose to the end user.

Mainly you can see the state of entities via state objects, which I pointed you to before. Go to the States page in the frontend, and click on sensor.waze_route_info. Then at the top of the page you will see its state, and its attributes (both the attribute names and their current values.) It will look something like this:

image

If you don’t see it there, then it wasn’t made available by the component and platform code.

1 Like
12

I have to update the component at some point to bring it in line with the new ‘format’ that all new components are required to have. When I make that change I’ll add the 2 attributes. But I don’t have time for it anytime soon. In the meantime. The waze travel time app allows for users to use Zones as origins and destinations. So in theory, you could configure 2 zones:

zone:
- name: Paris France
  latitude: 48.864716
  longitude: 2.349014
  radius: 500

- name: Berlin Germany
  latitude: 52.520008
  longitude: 13.404954
  radius: 500

sensor:
- name: waze_route_info
  platform: waze_travel_time
  origin: zone.paris_france
  destination: zone.berlin_germany
  region: 'EU'

automation:
- alias: Send message with waze info
  initial_state: True
  trigger:
    platform: homeassistant
    event: start
  action:
    # You should consider adding a delay.  If waze doesn't respond instantly on startup,
    # all the attributes could not exist yet.
    service: notify.zohar_sms 
    data_template: #<---- changed to data_template
      message: "The travel time from {{ states.zone.paris_france.name }} to {{ states.zone.berlin_germany.name }} is {{ states.sensor.waze_route_info.attributes.duration }}.
1 Like