Example of posting to FB chat (Messenger) USER or GROUP from OH2 rule

Tutorials & Examples
1

First go here an/or here and/or here.

When it works from within python or running python from the login shell, we need to tweak things a bit in order to run it from a rule.

sendFBchatMsg.py:

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/omr/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages')

import fbchat
from fbchat import Client
from fbchat.models import *

thread_id = sys.argv[1]
if (len(sys.argv) > 3):
    thread_type = ThreadType.GROUP
else:
    thread_type = ThreadType.USER

chatMsg = sys.argv[2] # de-qoute string from OH2
if chatMsg.startswith('"') and chatMsg.endswith('"'):
    chatMsg = chatMsg[1:-1]

#print "Params"
#print "argv1:", sys.argv[1]
#print "argv2:", sys.argv[2]
#print "chatMsg:", chatMsg

client = Client('<yourFBid>','<yourFBpassw>')
client.send(Message(text=chatMsg), thread_id=thread_id, thread_type=thread_type)
client.logout()

My ssh login on Ubuntu is /home/omr you must tune into yours.
Also, the path to /home/omr/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages (where pip installs fbchat) needs to be
chown to openhab:youruser and chmod to +r & +x (all path items). This is because executeCommandLine from OH2 starts without much of an environment.

In OH2:
We want the uid to be globally available:
.items

String USERfbChatUid
String GROUPfbGroupChatUid

.rules

var String msg = "'System started. Stand by'"  // note: double quoting!
var String msgGroup = "'System just restarted!'" // note: double quoting!
var String test = "" 

rule "System start"
when
        System started
then 
    logInfo("System", "System started (or a rule changed)");    
    USERfbChatUid.postUpdate("1234567...")  // you must obtain your own uid
    GROUPfbGroupChatUid.postUpdate("89101112...")  // you must obtain your own uid 

    test = executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/python /home/omr/sendFBchatMsg.py " + USERfbChatUid.state.toString + " " + msg, 10000)
    logInfo("fbchat", "sendFBchatMsg returned:" + test);  

    test = executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/python /home/omr/sendFBchatMsg.py " + GROUPfbGroupChatUid.state.toString + " " + msgGroup + " " + "GROUP", 10000)
    logInfo("fbchat", "sendFBchatMsg returned:" + test);  
end

This will trigger as soon as you save the rules file:
image

It is also possible to answer back from messenger back into OH2, but I leave that to the ones who need it.

2

Nice, thanks for posting!

For those who are already using MQTT, MQTTWarn supports FB Chat if you don’t want to go through executeCommandLine.

I really like the idea of being able to receive commands from the chat. I hope someone completes the tutorial with that. :slight_smile: