Events

What is an event?

An event is something which would be of interest to the user. For example, an event may be something like a door opening, the cat being fed, a light turning on, and so on.

Events are currently consumed by automate for two purposes.

• Email alerts
• History log

How do I log an event?

Using MQTT publish a topic with the prefix, /event to the automate system.

Examples:

• /event/DoorOpened
• /event/LightTurnedOn

Overload via the message body in json format:

{   
  eventName, // the name that will show up to the user via guis
  value: // the value, for example you could say lightState as the event name, and on/off here
}

What is a good event

Events can be used as seen fit, but it is recommended to use events to communicate significant system happenings.

For example

Good Events

• Door opened
• Cat fed
• Light turned on in the office
• Temperature limit exceeded

Bad Events

• Humidity: 63 degrees (overly specific, probably too frequent)
• Time: 6pm (overly specific, probably to frequent)
• DoorState: on (non-user friendly text, and what is DoorState actually mean?)
• dataSource:null (what is dataSource and what does it mean for it to be null here?)