I’m writing an automation/script and I enter a media_player.play_media automation and set some parameters. I’d like to test it by clicking the 3 dots and having a “Test” button.
At the moment I have to open another window to Developer Tools go to services and re-enter all the data to test if I’ve got it correct or I have to save the automation and trigger it just to test one of the steps.
I understand this is not what you want to hear but Node red can do that and give you feedback if something went wrong.
Two big benefits that makes me do all my complex automations in node red.
Yeah - it is a valid point - I’ve always tried to keep things in Home Assistant to avoid another thing to go wrong. Although I do use NodeRed for one of my automations.
You can manually trigger the automation to fire off the action part, but it will perform all actions, not just particular parts or your choosing.
To have a Test button would require a button for every service call in an automation or script… how is that feasible?
Under the 3 dots in the editor where you have a delete option (for every service call in a script) add another one “Test this step”.
I was thinking you meant having it within the GUI where you open up an automation entity. I don’t use the GUI automation editor
Yeah I don’t think that would work if the script was long I also suspect that we only need it whilst writing an automation.
I though of it yesterday whilst fiddling with the parameters to play media on my Google mini. I ended up having to have two windows open one on the automation editor and one on the services panel and I was actually fiddling with two steps on different services so constantly back and forth in the services window and copying it across to the automation window.
Oh and the reason I didn’t want to run the whole automation was that I was modifying an existing doorbell automation to add more announcements. The rest of the house wouldn’t have been pleased if the doorbell rings were going off constantly for 15 mins.
I don’t see this as possible at least not be something that could easily be implemented. Amongst all the other complex mechanics you also have things like the nested variables that only come into play upon a trigger of an automation which could not be tested individually in the manor you are referring.
It sounds nice and all for more simple actions but because it’s setup to allow a vast array of more complex actions there is no simple way to just test a part.
When creating editing anything in HA I always have two browser windows open. It’s just so much easier and quicker to work that way