Add support for environment variables in characteristic properties

[sjorge]

It would be nice to have support for environment variables inside the characteristic properties section too. That way you can embed a service inside a subflow and configure it via some subflow variables.

https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/environment-variables

[Shaquu]

@sjorge thanks for a feature request.
Do you see it as a good feature actually that could be used wider?

I wouldn't be a problem to implement I guess but it might overcomplicate our plugin too much.
Also it could be added in #53

[crxporter]

This has been discussed twice that I remember - having homekit inside of a subflow. Up to now it’s been recommended as “probably don’t do this”

But I do see benefit of it for example if one has 15 identical switches around their house they can set up one flow and just put it in 15 times with different names for each switch.

[Shaquu]

Okay, I see an option to make it work for us. We would have to abandon current node id system in favor of our internal id generator in NRCHKB.

Th�en every service node would generate random id on first flow save but it would persist even in sub flows I guess? I have to look at this closer.

[sjorge]

Hmm yeah I hadn’t gotten to the part yet where that might still cause trouble :( But I do thing somehow being able to use them in sub flows is a good thing. I also discovered ${MY_VAR} seems to work for most fields but not the characteristic field. Seems fine to fix this when the other one gets tackled. ~ sjorge

…

On 1 Mar 2020, at 23:48, Shaq ***@***.***> wrote:  Okay, I see an option to make it work for us. We would have to abandon current node id system in favor of our internal id generator in NRCHKB. Th�en every service node would generate random id on first flow save but it would persist even in sub flows I guess? I have to look at this closer. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[Shaquu]

Standard fields are node-red fields. And characteristic field is JSON field so I guess it is the thing. I will look at this and see if it's ease to add it.

[sjorge]

They are supported in JSONata Expressions Parhaps there is a node-red json from string fucntion that takes care of that.

[crxporter]

@Shaquu is this request covered by the new “Wait for setup” feature?

[Shaquu]

To be honest. I did not checked

// Update: not yet

[Shaquu]

Also I tested with

Failed too.

Also it is causing some more problems during Bridge pair :)

[Shaquu]

I have tested in the subflow (with 1.4.0-dev.7).

{
    "Brigthness": {
        "description": "${test}"
    }
}

${test} got evaluated as 100 as I requested

[Shaquu]

@sjorge please test solution on dev branch

[sjorge]

Doesn't look available yet in the current release? But that is not showing 1.4.0 for me though.

[crxporter]

To install newest dev release from today:

1. Stop node-red
2. Backup ~/.node-red folder
3. cd ~/.node-red
4. npm i node-red-contrib-homekit-bridged@1.4.0-dev.11
5. Start node-red

[sjorge]

Not sure it's working for number values

{
    "On": true,
    "Brightness": true,
    "ColorTemperature": {
        "minValue": "${ctMin}",
        "maxValue": "${ctMax}"
    }
}

I had this on a bulb and I set ctMin=250,ctMax=454

And got:

What I expected and got with:

{
    "On": true,
    "Brightness": true,
    "ColorTemperature": {
        "minValue": 250,
        "maxValue": 454
    }
}

Edit: I tested with 'Service' I also noticed there was a 'Service 2' should I test with that one instead?

[TheNON75]

@sjorge would you mind coming to our discord (NRCHKB)? I would have a question in a different topic, but I can reach out to you only this way.

thank you

[sjorge]

@sjorge would you mind coming to our discord (NRCHKB)? I would have a question in a different topic, but I can reach out to you only this way.

thank you

I don't really use discord, but we could use the github discussion page?

[Shaquu]

I have tested using latest dev.

02 Oct 02:43:26 NRCHKB-Trace:CharacteristicUtils [Test:f9350f72.bee7] Evaluating value: +0ms
02 Oct 02:43:26 NRCHKB-Trace:CharacteristicUtils [Test:f9350f72.bee7] {    "On": true,    "Brightness": true,    "ColorTemperature": {        "minValue": ${ctMin},        "maxValue": ${ctMax}    }} +0ms
02 Oct 02:43:26 NRCHKB-Trace:CharacteristicUtils [Test:f9350f72.bee7] Evaluated as: +1ms
02 Oct 02:43:26 NRCHKB-Trace:CharacteristicUtils [Test:f9350f72.bee7] {"On":true,"Brightness":true,"ColorTemperature":{"minValue":250,"maxValue":400}} +0ms

Known issue. For some Characteristics value must be a number type.
So it cannot be "minValue": "${ctMin}" but has to be "minValue": ${ctMin}
With the second option, nodered will complain but nrchkb will work correctly.

[Shaquu]

I would say to go prod with that issue. Reasons:

1. It will be time-consuming to resolve it, probably custom editor required.
2. We have scheduled the current editor to be replaced with new table (non json, more user-friendly).