Universal script for Home Assistant notifications

By AdminHome Assistant

In my journey with Home Assistant, ensuring timely notifications has been crucial (to be informed of low battery in sensors or disconnected ZigBee devices). Initially, I opted for Telegram notifications (Home Assistant Telegram integration), as my Home Assistant setup was accessible only within my home network, limiting my options for push notifications.

However, as my system evolved, I sought a solution for remote access and secure push notifications. This led me to configure a free Dynamic DNS (DDNS for FREE with GoDaddy) service with GoDaddy and acquire a free SSL certificate (Get Free SSL certificate for your site ), granting secure access to my Home Assistant from anywhere.

Despite this progress, managing notifications remained cumbersome. When I upgraded my phone, I faced the daunting task of updating numerous automations and scripts to accommodate the change in push-notification destinations.

Determined to streamline this process, I devised a universal notification script. This ingenious solution centralized notification management, sparing me the need to update multiple scripts for every change.

With this universal script in place, adapting to future changes in notification channels or devices became a breeze, marking a significant milestone in my Home Assistant journey.

Table of Contents
    Add a header to begin generating the table of contents

    Universal script creation

    the logic of script usage

    The central concept revolves around creating two variables, or helpers, for message title and body. These helpers serve as repositories for storing essential information from any automation, facilitating their use in the notification script for subsequent actions.

    variables for a message title and body

    To create the helpers, navigate to “Settings” -> “Devices & Services” -> “Helpers”. Then, click on the “+ ADD HELPER” button in the bottom right corner, and select “Text”.

    Next, add the name “Notification_title”, choose an icon to enhance visibility, and click the “create” button.

    Repeat the same steps to create the helper “Notification_message”.

    As the result the two helpers are created.

    Notification script creation

    To create the notification script go to “Settings” -> “Automation & scenes” -> “Scripts”, click onto “”+ ADD SCRIPT” button in the bottom right corner, and choose “Create a new script”.

    Name your script and choose an icon to make it stand out in the list of scripts.

    It’s important to note that this script can be called simultaneously from several automations and other scripts. Therefore, the “Queued” mode is necessary to prevent loss of notifications.

    Additionally, consider adjusting the Queue length if you experience issues with notifications being lost.

    Next, click “+ ADD ACTION”, type “notify” in the search box and find your mobile phone or another notification channel: 

    Unfortunately, Home Assistant doesn’t provide possibility to get values of a helper (variable) directly from the UI.

    As a result, YAML code is necessary to retrieve values for a notification. So, click onto “triple-dot” menu button of your notification action (under Sequence), choose “Edit in YAML” menu, and use following code:

     

    service: notify.mobile_app_myphone
metadata: {}
data:
  title: "{{states('input_text.notification_title')}} "
  message: "{{states('input_text.notification_message')}} "

    Please pay attention to the notification channel name and the names of your helpers, as they may differ from those provided in the example above.

    Now, save your script and follow steps in the next chapter to use it.

    Notification script usage

    Let’s create a simple automation to notify about a new version of Home Assistant ready to install. The concept of the automation is to check every 12 hours if the available version for installation is the same as the installed one.

    To begin, navigate to “Settings” -> “Automations & Scenes”. Click on the “+ ADD AUTOMATION” button in the bottom right corner and select “Create new automation”.

    Next, click on “+ ADD TRIGGER”, type “Time” in the search box, and choose the “Time pattern” trigger.

    Configure your trigger to call the action every 12 hours:

    Please click “+ADD CONDITION” to check if a new version of Home Assistant is available, chose “template” type of condition and add following code:

    {{is_state('update.home_assistant_core_update','on')}}

    Next, click “+ ADD ACTION” and chose “Input text: Set”, click “+ Choose Entity”, find your “Notification_title” helper and add value “A new version of Home Assistant is available”

    It would be great to see which version is installed and which one is issued. So, click “+ ADD ACTION” again and chose “Input text: Set”, click “+ Choose Entity”, find your “Notification_message” helper. Unfortunately, there is no way to set value of a helper from another entity, so please click “tripple-dot” menu of the action and chose adit in YAML and add following code:

    service: input_text.set_value
metadata: {}
data: 
   value: >-
     A new version of HA available:
     {{state_attr('update.home_assistant_core_update','latest_version')}}

     Installed version:
     {{state_attr('update.home_assistant_core_update','installed_version')}}
target:
  entity_id: input_text.notification_message
    Please ensure to pay attention to the “entity_id” name in the code above, replacing it with the actual entity ID in your setup. Next, you should call your notification script to send a message. To do this, click on “+ ADD ACTION” again and select “Call service”. Then, choose your notification script from the list. Finally, click the “SAVE” button to save your automation.
    Now, you can check your configuration by clicking on the “triple-dot” menu of each action from top to bottom and selecting “RUN”. The most common source of errors is YAML syntax, especially the indentation of each block. Therefore, pay close attention to it.