Home Assistant Buttons for "Today", "Last Week", or "Last Month"

[sapnho]

@helgeerbe Your integration of Pi3D PictureFrame into Home Assistant last year was another milestone for this project. I was wondering about a use case that I actually have quite often and how to make it happen.

I often want to show images only of "Today", "Last Week", or "Last Month". So in Home Assistant, I manually set the FROM date. Is it possible to have buttons that send a FROM DATE MQTT message which is calculated automatically? How would that work?

Thanks!

[helgeerbe]

Hi @sapnho,

that should doable.

One could create 3 buttons triggering an automation. Based on the entity-Id of the buttons an automation could calculate the mqtt message.

To calculate today

{{ (now().strftime("%Y/%m/%d")) }}

To calculate last week one could use timetelda()

1. Get today
2. get weekday (%w) weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].
3. get first day of last week->today - timedelta(day=weekday, week=1)
4. get last day of week-> first day of week + 6 days

To calculate last month:

1. Get today
2. Get last day of last week = timedelta(day=day of the month)
3. Get first day of last month = set day of month to 1

[helgeerbe]

Just tested the calculation:

Today
{% set today = now() %}
{{ (today.strftime("%Y/%m/%d")) }}

Last week:
{% set first_day_of_week = (today.strftime("%w")) | int %}
  day of week: {{ first_day_of_week }}
  first day of week: {{ as_timestamp(today - timedelta(days=first_day_of_week, weeks=1)) | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}
  last day of week: {{ as_timestamp(today - timedelta(days=first_day_of_week - 6, weeks=1)) | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}

Last month:
{% set day_of_month = (today.strftime("%d")) | int %}
  day of month: {{ day_of_month }}
  last day of last month: {{ as_timestamp(today - timedelta(days=day_of_month)) | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}
  first day of last month: {{ as_timestamp(today - timedelta(days=day_of_month)) | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/01")}}

output:

Today

2022/06/13

Last week:

  day of week: 1
  first day of week: 2022/06/05
  last day of week: 2022/06/11

Last month:

  day of month: 13
  last day of last month: 2022/05/31
  first day of last month: 2022/05/01

[helgeerbe]

Create 3 helper input buttons

Edit Filter Card:

type: vertical-stack
cards:
  - type: entities
    entities:
      - entity: sensor.picframe_image_counter
        name: Bilder
      - entity: select.picframe_directory
        name: Directory
      - entity: input_text.picframe_tags_filter
        name: Stichwortsuche
      - entity: input_text.picframe_location_filter
        name: Ortssuche
      - entity: input_text.picframe_date_from
        name: Bilder ab (TT.MM.JJJJ)
      - entity: input_text.picframe_date_to
        name: Bilder bis (TT.MM.JJJJ)
    show_header_toggle: false
    theme: Backend-selected
    title: Filter
    state_color: true
  - show_name: false
    show_icon: true
    show_state: false
    type: glance
    entities:
      - entity: input_button.picframe_date_today
        tap_action:
          action: toggle
      - entity: input_button.picframe_date_last_week
        tap_action:
          action: toggle
      - entity: input_button.picframe_date_last_month
        tap_action:
          action: toggle
    state_color: true

Create new automation:

alias: picframe_quick_date_select
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - input_button.picframe_date_today
    id: today
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - input_button.picframe_date_last_week
    id: last_week
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - input_button.picframe_date_last_month
    id: last_month
condition: []
action:
  - if:
      - condition: trigger
        id: today
    then:
      - service: mqtt.publish
        data:
          topic: picframe/date_to
          payload_template: '{{ now().strftime("%Y/%m/%d") }}'
      - service: mqtt.publish
        data:
          topic: picframe/date_from
          payload_template: '{{ now().strftime("%Y/%m/%d") }}'
    else:
      - if:
          - condition: trigger
            id: last_week
        then:
          - service: mqtt.publish
            data:
              topic: picframe/date_from
              payload_template: >-
                {% set first_day_of_week = (now().strftime("%w")) | int %} {{
                as_timestamp(now() - timedelta(days=first_day_of_week, weeks=1))
                | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}
          - service: mqtt.publish
            data:
              topic: picframe/date_to
              payload_template: >-
                {% set first_day_of_week = (now().strftime("%w")) | int %} {{
                as_timestamp(now() - timedelta(days=first_day_of_week - 6,
                weeks=1)) | timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}
        else:
          - condition: trigger
            id: last_month
          - service: mqtt.publish
            data:
              topic: picframe/date_from
              payload_template: >-
                {% set day_of_month = (now().strftime("%d")) | int %}  {{
                as_timestamp(now() - timedelta(days=day_of_month)) |
                timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/01")}}
          - service: mqtt.publish
            data:
              topic: picframe/date_to
              payload_template: >-
                {% set day_of_month = (now().strftime("%d")) | int %}  {{
                as_timestamp(now() - timedelta(days=day_of_month)) |
                timestamp_custom("%Y/%m/%d")}}
mode: single

[helgeerbe]

Found a bug. The date filters are not updated correctly. But setting the dates works. I have to check this.

[sapnho]

Thanks, @helgeerbe! Will also give it a try and let us know, once you have found the bug.

[sapnho]

When I paste the automation I get the error "Message malformed: template value should be a string for dictionary value @ data['action'][0]['else'][0]['else'][1]['data']".
Maybe that helps to trace the bug?

[helgeerbe]

When I paste the automation I get the error "Message malformed: template value should be a string for dictionary value @ data['action'][0]['else'][0]['else'][1]['data']". Maybe that helps to trace the bug?

No, this seems to be a copy error. I edited the yaml code. Could you try it again

[helgeerbe]

I had to edit the home assistant blueprint code. The easiest way to update is to delete the automation and to delete the blueprint. Then import the blueprint again and create the automation from the blueprint.

Since release 2021.10 Home Assistant requires default values in some time manipulation to create date objects from string. Without default values an exception is thrown.