Define custom ephemeris to use in rules

Setup, Configuration and Use Scripts & Rules
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1

Hi,

I want to create a schedule based on the time of the year. For example, let say I want my Christmas lights set to ON at sunset everyday but only during the following period: from December 15th to January 5th of every year.

I understand I can create a custom ephemeris file and use isBankHoliday(<datetime>, <file>) in a rule to check if the date is present in the custom file. Is there a way to do this from the configuration UI instead?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tns:Configuration hierarchy="ca" description="Canada"
    xmlns:tns="http://www.example.org/Holiday" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.example.org/Holiday /Holiday.xsd">
    <tns:Holidays>
        <tns:Fixed month="DECEMBER" day="15" descriptionPropertiesKey="Christmas" />
        <tns:Fixed month="DECEMBER" day="16" descriptionPropertiesKey="Christmas" />
        ...
        <tns:Fixed month="JANUARY" day="4" descriptionPropertiesKey="Christmas" />
        <tns:Fixed month="JANUARY" day="5" descriptionPropertiesKey="Christmas" />
    </tns:Holidays>
</tns:Configuration>

Hardware: armv7/1GB RAM/32GB SD
OS: openHABian 3.3.0
Java Runtime Environment: OpenJDK Runtime Environment Zulu11.43+88-CA (build 11.0.9+11-LTS)
openHAB version: 3.3.0

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2

No, not yet. Maybe not ever, it’s a hard thing to implement.

3

Thanks for the response Rich. At the very least, I can define at the rule level the script that will check for a holiday in a specific file with isBankHoliday(<datetime>, <file>)

4

Correct. In fact, that’s the only way you can check for your custom holidays. I don’t think any other part of OH will be aware of your custom file.

5

For the same use case (seasonally turning on my Christmas lights), I have used the Blockly Ephemeris “days until holiday named” Christmas block to make this work. I would show the Blockly but I haven’t figured out how to do it other than with a screen image, which I understand to be bad form in this forum. But I have an AND logic block with two comparison subblocks. The first compares the days until Christmas to 15 and the second to 353 (365-12). Seems a lot easier than the custom ephemeris file for this use.

The custom file should work well for another use case. I turn my outside lights to my alma maters colors on their game days. In the past I have either read my calendar using the icalendar binding or used a textual map file with the dates I manually entered. It should also be good for other dates that are celebrated but are not bank holidays, such as St. Patrick’s Day, when I turn my lights green or patriotic days that are not bank holidays such as Flag Day in the US. Thanks for sharing your approach

6

Click the Code tab and you will find the text of the rule. But for Blockly it’s often helpful to post both the YAML text and the screenshot.

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