Request:
The ability to take our existing Automations, Scenes, Scripts etc and be able to import only selected items in a new build.
Use Case:
While rebuilding a new system, it would be great to have the ability to pick single automations to import in my new Automations etc. Some of my automation have some great logic behind them only to turn on a single lamp. It would be great to be able to browse my old automations, select one, and just have to change the entity in the actions section. Not only saving a lot of time, but be able to keep some of the smart logic that I thought of at the time.
This could be a feature of the advanced setting under the Admin user profile.
I am familiar with the concept of blueprints, but not sure that it applies for this use case. My automations have separate logic either based on presence, location (home, away, work, grocery store etc.) but the ones that I would be interested in importing are the ones that have specific, sometimes complicated logic where the outcome is only to turn a light on. It would be hard to recreated, top of my head the trigger or condition logic that I originally thought of.
I understand also that I could take a copy of any of these YAML files, search what I am looking for and paste into a new automation.
But my point with all of this is to have a easy way, for users of every level to easily get these features either in a new system or a development sandbox.
Another use case is that in the past, I had some automation that after a while, I deleted. Down the road I see the need to having something fairly similar. I could dig in to backups of automation.yaml files and restore an automation to be re-implemented.
I mean, if we’re talking about digging into the backup files, you can already do this. They are Linux’s version of zip files, just extract and pull out the automation as yaml. You can do this with any file associated with HAs configuration.
I understand what you are saying and I have done this numerous times. I have no issues digging into yaml files. As a matter of fact, I was one that was reluctant to move to automations via the GUI and I personally feel very comfortable with yaml and felt that I could organize my automations.
But I want to make sure that we don’t miss the point here. The suggestion in this WTH is to make it easier for the new or average user. Pretty much the same train of thought of why this software is moving to GUI setup of automations, scenes, scripts, integrations etc. So in a nutshell, just ease of use.