[Labs] Rules

igor · February 8, 2022, 8:48pm

7.0 release has the new Rules in HomeHabit Labs (enable in Settings).
This is an early release for Rules feature, so it is currently only configurable with Remote Admin and it isn’t possible to configure in the app UI yet.

What is Rules feature?

Rules feature allow to perform some UI actions based on certain conditions.
For example: turn on device screen when motion sensor is triggered, or change screen brightness using external dimmer device.

Available actions

Turn screen on/off (turn-on-screen, turn-off-screen)
- screen turn off is based on the Android display timeout. For example, if display timeout is set to “after 1 minute of inactivity”, screen will turn off 1 minute after the rule condition is triggered.
- Stay Awake needs to be enabled in Settings for these rules to work
Start/stop screensaver (start-screensaver, stop-screensaver)
Set screen brightness (set-screen-brightness)
Set device volume (set-volume)
Show/hide camera (show-camera, hide-camera)
Select dashboard (select-dashboard)
Speak a text message (speak-text)
Launch an app (launch-app)
Open URL in browser (launch-browser)

How to enable Rules?

Go to Settings > HomeHabit Labs
Enable Rules feature
Restart the application

How to configure Rules

To configure Rule you need to have Remote Admin enabled in Settings and use any browser to open provided editor URL. The configuration is not streamlined yet, and requires editing JSON config.

Example configuration

{
  ...
  "rules": {
    "rule-id": {
      "name": "Turn Screen ON",
      "condition": {
        "item": "y6e5q5u6vl921gamz284yt1gq.DemoSwitch#switch.state",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": "on"
      },
      "action": {
        "type": "turn-on-screen",
        "binding": null,
        "value": null
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  },
  ...
}

Properties

id - each rule should have an id key, any string value works
name - rule name
condition
- item - reference to item attribute to use as a condition. Format is the same as for widget bindings, so it best to copy it from an existing widget if possible
- operator - possible values eq (equals), changed (any change)
- value - comparison value for equals operator
action
- type - possible values listed above
- binding - can be used as dynamic value for set brightness/volume actions
- value - used as a value for launch app/browser actions
enabled - flag to enable/disable this rule

Notes

condition value for switches and binary sensors is currently on/off string

igor · February 5, 2022, 8:17pm

Examples

Turn on screen based on switch state

"rules": {
  "screen-on": {
    "name": "Turn Screen ON",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.DemoSwitch#switch.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": "on"
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "turn-on-screen"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Turn off screen based on door sensor state

"rules": {
  "screen-off": {
    "name": "Turn Screen OFF",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.9#content-sensor.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": "off"
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "turn-off-screen"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Start screensaver based on motion sensor state

"rules": {
  "start-screensaver": {
    "name": "Start Screensaver",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.DemoMotion#motion-sensor.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": "off"
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "start-screensaver",
      "value": "screensaver-id"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Stop screensaver based on motion sensor state

"rules": {
  "stop-screensaver": {
    "name": "Stop Screensaver",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.DemoMotion#motion-sensor.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": "on"
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "stop-screensaver"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Change screen brightness based on dimmer position

"rules": {
  "change-screen-brightness": {
    "name": "Change Screen Brightness",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Dimmer#dimmer.position",
      "operator": "changed",
      "value": null
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "set-screen-brightness",
      "binding": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Dimmer#dimmer.position"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Change device volume based on dimmer position

"rules": {
  "change-volume": {
    "name": "Change Volume",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Dimmer#dimmer.position",
      "operator": "changed",
      "value": null
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "set-volume",
      "binding": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Dimmer#dimmer.position"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Show camera

Action show-camera needs a binding to an item with video URI (the same that would be used in Camera widget).

{
  "rules": {
    "camera-show": {
      "name": "Show camera",
      "condition": {
        "item": "integration.motion#motion-sensor.state.motion",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": "on"
      },
      "action": {
        "type": "show-camera",
        "binding": "integration.camera#camera.video-uri.video-uri"
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Hide camera

{
  "rules": {
    "camera-hide": {
      "name": "Hide camera",
      "condition": {
        "item": "integration.motion#motion-sensor.state.motion",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": "off"
      },
      "action": {
        "type": "hide-camera"
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Select dashboard

Action select-dashboard needs dashboard ID as its value, which can be found as a key in dashboards JSON object in Remote Admin editor.

{
  "rules": {
    "select-dashboard": {
      "name": "Select dashboard (HASS)",
      "condition": {
        "item": "integration.selector#selector.state",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": "hass"
      },
      "action": {
        "type": "select-dashboard",
        "value": "1ua161liuvy941owgls6fu2dfw"
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Speak a text message when garage door is opened

"rules": {
  "garage-door-opened": {
    "name": "Garage Door Opened",
    "condition": {
      "item": "test.device#contact-sensor.state.contact",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": "on"
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "speak-text",
      "value": "Garage door is open"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Launch Netflix on the device

"rules": {
  "launch-app": {
    "name": "Launch App",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Scene_General#number-value.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": 2
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "launch-app",
      "value": "com.nest.android"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Launch browser with URL

"rules": {
  "open-url": {
    "name": "Open URL",
    "condition": {
      "item": "1iewvtk7t49mk1muoklesjfcx8.Scene_General#number-value.state",
      "operator": "eq",
      "value": 3
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "launch-browser",
      "value": "http://example.com"
    },
    "enabled": true
  }
}

igor · March 13, 2021, 10:31pm

sucharz · March 14, 2021, 5:32pm

The rules are great! I tried them and it works!
Do you plan add more actions?
e.g. the action that maximizes / minimize the camera widget with video stream. That would be very useful if motion on camera is detected.
Thank you

igor · March 14, 2021, 5:36pm

@sucharz That’s great!
Yes, camera widget action is planned.

Connor_Thompson · March 14, 2021, 8:36pm

Any idea as to why I can’t access the remote config editor. I have it set-up, but the URL won’t work. I just get ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT.

I am almost certain I’ve accessed it previously.

igor · March 14, 2021, 8:40pm

@Connor_Thompson Can suggest trying few things:

try pinging device ip from command line (e.g. ping 192.168.x.x)
when you open the app, see if it shows a notification that it cannot start Remote Config
restarting the app completely (after closing from the recent apps screen)

Connor_Thompson · March 14, 2021, 8:42pm

I just tried to ping the device and apparently the host is unreachable, not quite sure why though.

igor · March 14, 2021, 8:44pm

both devices are on the same subnet?

Connor_Thompson · March 14, 2021, 8:50pm

Yup. I’ve tried to ping other devices such as my mobile, and they are responding. I am just gonna have to have a play around to see if I can fix it I think.

Just confusing.

Olymp · March 15, 2021, 3:00am

Thank! Turning on, turning off the screen, this is the most anticipated function of the program! Now I will save money for the premium version, I admit, it is very expensive for me, but I will save!

simondotau · March 16, 2021, 4:16am

This is great. I was able to get the sleep/wake process working well. However I wasn’t able to get the screen brightness to work at all (on my Lenovo Tab M8 running Android 9). It may be becaue I am using a Home Assistant .input_number.wall_panel_brightness#value.number and not a “dimmer”? If they aren’t already it’d be great if input_number entities can be supported.

I have one feature request for Rules: locking the app. I’d like to be able to have HomeHabit completely locked if a boolean is set to true. By locked I mean the entire app becomes a single non-responsive screen.

Similar to this it would be great to have the ability to lock all HomeHabit settings and dashboard customisation with a rule. When locked, you couldn’t modify dashboards/settings, and the config web server is switched off.

Down the track it’d be great if individual panels could be locked and unlocked with rules. This would make a great Premium feature. I could imagine this being useful, especially when tied to the homeowner’s presence. Perhaps I don’t want certain buttons to be available when I’m not there!

igor · March 19, 2021, 5:00am

What is the value range for input_number?

simondotau · March 19, 2021, 11:39am

The default for input_number is an integer between 0 to 100. I also tried customising it to be between 0 and 1 with a step of 0.01 but no luck there either.

You can generate an input_number very easily in Home Assistant. In settings, they’re called “helpers” for some reason. These are just raw entities which aren’t associated with any device, and don’t do anything on their own.

Lasek · March 19, 2021, 5:09pm

Oh, yeee! I have been waiting for it for about 3 years. But only the functions in rules work if HomeHabit is on top? Not in the background?

igor · March 19, 2021, 6:33pm

Yes, I was wondering if you have a non-default range set there. 0 to 100 is the supported range, so it should work. Will check on it.

Yes. The app does not keep connection to platforms when in the background.

simondotau · March 19, 2021, 11:26pm

Is there an Android system permission that HomeHabit is supposed to have in order to change screen brightness? I don’t think the app has asked for (or received) any special security permissions.

igor · March 19, 2021, 11:38pm

Permission is required only when changing system brightness (the same as through Android Settings). With rules, the app is changing brightness only while it is active, which doesn’t require extra permissions. Screen brightness will go back to its system setting when the app is closed.

waltervl · March 20, 2021, 4:42pm

Hmm, nice option for those who don’t have a rule system on their platform. For Domoticz users it is kind of an overkill as it has several rules options (Blocky, dzVents, Lua and Python scripts).

igor · March 20, 2021, 4:51pm

@waltervl The rules are not intended to replace automation that is done on a hub, like Domoticz. This is geared towards controlling UI behavior of the app itself based on the system state.
The rules will have a deliberately simple condition/action configuration, and users would rely on more powerful hub automations to do any complex logic to bring system into a desired state.