WTH I can't update a blueprint from the original location?

Archive Month of "What the heck?!" 2022
1

Blueprints are often hosted on a service like github, and blueprints are also updated from time to time.

While the custom integration HACS warns me about updates for other integrations, the blueprint functionnality that is part of the core does not warn me about updates and it does not allow me to just press a button to fetch the new version from the original location.

It would be nice to be able to fetch the new blueprint easily (keeping a backup somewhere of the previous versioni).

2

Updates for Blueprints would be really nice!

The reason it doesn’t provide a simple update button is: it is not simple.

Downloading one is not the issue, but the upgraded version might not be compatible with your existing automations, breaking those.

The latter is a complicated issue for which no good solution has been found yet.

3

I agree that blueprints are quite prone to changes that break after an update (which is why I wrote “keeping a backup”).

However, the update is often needed to fix something.

Some suggestions:

  • Postfix the blueprint with a timestamp (on initial download or later) and keep this file in place & selectable from the UI;
  • Duplicate the automation(s) using the blueprint upon update. The original automations are then deactivated and the duplicates point to the updated blueprint. The user can then always return to the previous version.
4

Existing feature-request thread: Allow blueprint upgrades

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5

I don’t feel like “updates might break things” should prevent updates from happening. A blueprint author should be aware of how to handle code updates so that upgrades do not break existing installations, and they are already on the hook for support etc. If I update a blueprint that breaks things, people are going to be asking me for help on that (and not the home assistant devs), so knowing how to avoid that is on me.

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6

For everyone interested, there IS a solution working rather well in the chat thread of this feature request. It may not be the final solution, however it is there, it does work, and the Author is willing to work with others in order to improve or integrate this into main…

7

With this mindset I would still be running a HA version that is several months old. Oh, wait! I actually am! Because I need to invest quite some time on some upgrades.

(What’s my point in this message? Well, none. Maybe venting a little.)

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8

It’s very clear that several HA updates have required adjustments in the configurations that were not always that easy to find: broken automations, broken energy meters, home assistant overload because of a summertime change, etc.

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9

Hi, didnt want to start a new topic for this because i thought it relevant. If updating isnt a straightforward process could we at least have a update available icon? I would only find out about updates by going to each thread/repo. This at leasts makes me aware an update is there and i can choose to update manually for now.

P.S. if there was a triangle next to blueprints that didnt work with the latest vest of HA would be amazing too

Thank