OH3 Expire to set STRING to ""

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 5:56am

Hi All

I am, trying to clean up my rules and wanted to replace the following snippet with EXPIRE:

    Alarm_Feedback.postUpdate("Alarm is already ARMED")
            createTimer(now.plusSeconds(5), [
            Alarm_Feedback.postUpdate("")
        ])

From what I have been reading this Timer will hold the rule thread for 5 seconds?

I can however not work out how to clear the item state to “” with EXPIRE.

I End up with:

""
NULL
UNDEF

But can’t get the string just EMPTY

Any suggestions please?

Cheers
Mark

rossko57 · April 30, 2021, 8:46am

This was working in OH2, more than likely it’s a UI limitation. You might try escaping quotes \"\"

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 8:53am

Hi. No luck. Seems to use exactly what is put in the field

Result:

rossko57 · April 30, 2021, 9:03am

I suppose it’s doing its own escaping. And of course if you literally have the input field empty you get the default UNDEF I suppose?
Distinguishing empty string from real null is always a pain.

Circumvent by expiring to"BANANAS" or “idle” or something, and adjust your rules?

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 9:20am

Thank you.

Will have to get my mind around modifying text: =items[props.alarmFeedback].state to only work if items[props.alarmFeedback].state != "CLEAR"
Will do some research
Appreciate the assistance.

rossko57 · April 30, 2021, 9:23am

For visuals, “-” or “…” might be acceptable.

A thought though - you might find you can directly edit the Item’s expire metadata for the empty string “”

This is not the case, by the way. createTimer() does what it says - creates an free-standing Timer for later execution and then immediately moves on to the next line in the “parent” rule.

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 9:41am

So there would be no real advantage to using EXPIRE in this case? It would be more portable to have the rule clear the state for my use case - if there is no real advantage to using EXPIRE in this case?

rossko57 · April 30, 2021, 10:07am

Well, expire is (usually!) simpler to use.
It’s deliberately unsophisticated - but it does do more than your rule.
This rule blindly sets “” after 5 secs.
But expire will reset its timer every time the Item is updated (to something other than “”). That’s to say, if you post a second message within the 5 secs, it does get not blotted out by the timer from the previous message.

You can modify your rule to offer the same effect, of course, see “motion timer” examples.

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 10:11am

OK Cool. Will see if I can get my display condition to work correctly. Not really 100% clear on the syntax, so battling…

Doesn’t work as required. I am getting the condition wrong somehow - the result is working

 text: '=!(items[props.alarmFeedback].state) ? "-" : (items[props.alarmFeedback].state)'

Appreciate the feedback.

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 10:50am

I have tried the example straight out of the docs:

      config:
        text: =(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === 'ON') ? 'f7:lightbulb_fill' : 'f7:lightbulb'
        raised: true
        large: true
        textColor: white
        bgColor: gray
        style:
          position: absolute
          left: 103px
          top: 60px
          width: 150px
          z-index: 999

But get:

All collection items must start at the same column at line 108, column 9:

        text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === '-') ? "" : (items[props.…

What am I doing wrong?

hmerk · April 30, 2021, 11:10am

You have the wrong quotes in your bracket, please try

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 11:35am

Thank you.

Tried:

=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === "ON") ? 'f7:lightbulb_fill' : 'f7:lightbulb'

Which gives me the following error now:

Nested mappings are not allowed in compact mappings at line 108, column 15:

        text: =(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === "ON") ? 'f7:lightbulb_fill…
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

Think I copied /pasted the incorrect error on my last try, so here for clarity (example direct from docs (used my Props):

=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === 'ON') ? 'f7:lightbulb_fill' : 'f7:lightbulb'

Same error:

Nested mappings are not allowed in compact mappings at line 108, column 15:

        text: =(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === 'ON') ? 'f7:lightbulb_fill…
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

Also Tried:

= (items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === '-') ? '' : (items[props.alarmFeedback].state !== '') ? '(items[props.alarmFeedback].state)'

Gives:

Nested mappings are not allowed in compact mappings at line 108, column 15:

        text: = (items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === '-') ? '' : (items[props…
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

And

= (items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? '' : (items[props.alarmFeedback].state !== "") ? '(items[props.alarmFeedback].state)'

Gives:

Nested mappings are not allowed in compact mappings at line 108, column 15:

        text: = (items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? '' : (items[props…
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

Cheers
Mark

hmerk · April 30, 2021, 11:40am

You are not trying what I quoted. I only changed this part :

=== "-")

The rest was unchanged…

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 11:44am

Sorry, I am not clear which of my attempts you were quoting as it was only a portion.

hmerk · April 30, 2021, 11:45am

Mark_VG:

But get:

All collection items must start at the same column at line 108, column 9:

        text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === '-') ? "" : (items[props.…

What am I doing wrong?

Change to

        text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === "-") ? "" : (items[props.…

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 12:02pm

I think I messed up my copy paste earlier and pasted incorrect error with one of the expressions.

Anyway so have now chnaged to:

text: =(items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? "" : (items[props.alarmFeedback].state !== "") ? '(items[props.alarmFeedback].state)'

Which is I hope what you meant?

And get error:

Nested mappings are not allowed in compact mappings at line 108, column 15:

        text: =(items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? "" : (items[props.…
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

hmerk · April 30, 2021, 12:04pm

This is not what I quotet, now you are missing the

at the beginning and probably the end…

        text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state === "-")

              ^                                        ^ ^

rossko57 · April 30, 2021, 12:05pm

I realise this has become an interesting trail to follow now … but did you try directly editing Item’s expire metadata with empty string “” (not blank)? Set up an expire for “-” or whatever from UI, then you have a pattern to edit.

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 12:25pm

So I now have:

text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? "" : (items[props.alarmFeedback].state !== "") ? '(items[props.alarmFeedback].state)''

which gives

All collection items must start at the same column at line 108, column 9:

        text: '=(items[props.alarmFeedback].state  === "-") ? "" : (items[props…
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…

Mark_VG · April 30, 2021, 12:27pm

Sorry, I am not clear on what you mean…