WTH am I supposed to do with these repair messages, really?

Month of "What the heck?!"
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Every time I get a “repair notice”, the messages are so cryptic and difficult to follow that I’m left completely stumped, and spend like an hour on a wild goose chase trying to fix the thing right. And it often ends in having to write YAML. And I’m an advanced and experienced HA user!

Latest example (just an example) these Ring trigger sensor fixes. No clue what to do.

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This whole experience could be so much better.

P.S. anyone know what I’m supposed to set up to fix my automations with the above “events”?

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The message tells you what to do though.

The integration provides an event entity, use that as your trigger in automation.vacation_mode instead of binary_sensor.living_room_cam_motion.

Start by going to the integration page for Ring, look for the event entity. Change your automation to use that.

3

I disagree quite strongly. What you describe requires a pretty solid technical understanding of how HA works and how to resolve the automation issue and change the trigger.

The first thing I do when I try the obvious thing, is to choose the trigger type “Manual Event.” When doing that, I’m greeted by the description “(event is an advanced concept in Home Assistant)” so I am disinclined to choose that at all. If I do choose it, then I get a free text box for who knows what (channeling a beginner user here, not myself who could likely figure it out).

If I try some other way to find the event I’m supposed to trigger on, I cannot find anything related to this event or its name anywhere in Triggers.

There is not a clear instruction here, the instructions that do exist lead me down a dead end, and if I want to succeed at this task then I need to go to the docs or do something technically advanced.

Therefore, this is obtuse and could absolutely be improved significantly.

One very simple improvement: link to the integration page for Ring if I’ll need it to be successful at this.

4

Here’s the extent of the information on Events in the Ring docs:

The event entity captures events like doorbell rings, motion alerts, and intercom unlocking.

I get it, I could contribute here. I’m just using this as an example of all of the complexity involved in fixing a “Repair” notice. I’ve done this and run into similar issues with at least 3 different repair notices, not just this one.

5

If your trigger is

- trigger: state
  entity_id: binary_sensor.abc

You change it to

- trigger: state
  entity_id: event.xyz

That’s all there is to it, the hard part is figuring out the event entity_id, which is in the page I described above.

I.e. the trigger stays a state trigger, all you have to do is find the entity id for the event. Which is what the message says

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I do think there is something super valid about the support for events in the UI. There needs to be a drop-down of all possible events in the system and their properties. Not sure what the data model is and if HA can easily tell or reflect the possible events and props but that stuff needs an overhaul. Events are used commonly with timers and it is kind of crazy the UI considered events this obscure arcane thing

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That’s what event entities are for. Are y’all missing the fact I’m saying the word entity with the word event?

8

I’m not, I’m talking general support for events in the UI.
Unless you are saying events in HA as a whole are getting remodeled as entities which I don’t think is the case – this is a Ring specific approach. Pls correct me if wrong.

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That is the case, it’s been an ongoing process since August 2023.

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Oh thanks @petro sorry about the misunderstanding! Interesting, events are kind of point in time. Is there a doc on the intended behavior of event entities? Actually I can google :slight_smile:

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