PSA: When testing trigger templates, use namespace

@petro wrote:

I don’t often use the template editor to create my own automations because I’ve been using appdaemon for years. Well today, I created my own automation because it seemed silly to create it in appdaemon app because it was very basic. Like all automations I create, I tried to make it as generic as possible. This means, anyone can use it or expand it with as few lines of yaml as possible. Typically when doing this we need templates, so that’s what I did.

This lead me to the realization that users don’t have a great way to test triggers in the template editor. So, without further delay, here are some ‘canned’ triggers that can be used when testing trigger templates in actions or conditions:

State Trigger

Equal from_state and to_state

Simply change the name of the entity_id and it will create a ‘fake’ trigger object. Keep in mind that from_state and to_state will always be equal.

{% set entity_id = 'sensor.xxx' %}
{% set fake_state = states | selectattr('entity_id','eq',entity_id) | first %}
{% set trigger = namespace(platform='state', entity_id=entity_id, from_state=fake_state, to_state=fake_state) %}

Emulates:

trigger:
- platform: state
  entity_id: sensor.xxx

Use examples:

{{ trigger.to_state.state }} # returns the state of sensor.xxx
{{ states(trigger.entity_id) }} # returns sensor.xxx

---

from_state and to_state are not equal

Simply change the name of the entity_id and it will create a ‘fake’ trigger object. Keep in mind that from_state and to_state will not be equal. Also, keep in mind that they are different entities. Try to use entities from the same domain to ‘simulate’ this properly.

{% set entity_id = 'sensor.xxx' %}
{% set entity_id2 = 'sensor.yyy' %}
{% set from_state = states | selectattr('entity_id','eq',entity_id) | first %}
{% set to_state = states | selectattr('entity_id','eq',entity_id2) | first %}
{% set trigger = namespace(platform='state', entity_id=entity_id, from_state=from_state, to_state=to_state) %}

Emulates:

trigger:
- platform: state
  entity_id: sensor.xxx

Use examples:

{{ trigger.from_state.state }} # returns the state of sensor.xxx
{{ trigger.to_state.state }} # returns the state of sensor.yyy
{{ trigger.from_state.state != trigger.to_state.state }} # returns sensor.xxx state does not equal sensor.yyy's state

---

With a for: minutes: 3 object.

Simply change the name of the entity_id and it will create a ‘fake’ trigger object. Keep in mind that from_state and to_state will always be equal.

{% set entity_id = 'sensor.xxx' %}
{% set entity_id2 = 'sensor.yyy' %}
{% set for_obj = namespace(minutes=3) %} #simply change minutes=3 to hours=1 for hours etc.
{% set from_state = states | selectattr('entity_id','eq',entity_id) | first %}
{% set to_state = states | selectattr('entity_id','eq',entity_id2) | first %}
{% set trigger = namespace(platform='state', entity_id=entity_id, from_state=from_state, to_state=to_state, for=for_obj) %}

Emulates:

trigger:
- platform: state
  entity_id: sensor.xxx
  for:
    minutes: 3

Use examples:

{{ trigger.for.minutes }} # returns 3

---

If this gets a lot of attention, I’ll gladly add more examples.

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