Time-based automation

From the Scheduler page you can display, edit and create time-based events. Scheduler events can be used to trigger at a given time the execution of a scene, a program, or other automated workflows such as scheduling thermostat modes based on time slots and period of the year.

Event list

The list of events is organized into three sections. The first is the list of events actually scheduled on the selected day, which by default is today's date, and which can be modified clicking the calendar today button located at the end of the Scheduler title bar.
The "Other events" section lists the events enabled but not scheduled on the selected day.
The last section lists events that are disabled.

Each item in the list displays the event name, description and a time bar showing occurrences of the event over a 24-hour period.
On the right side of each item there is a menu button more_vert that can be used to edit, toggle or delete the event.
If the event also triggers an action, the action icon bolt will appear next to the menu button.
The link icon link will show the number of devices associated with the event.

Adding events

You can add a new event clicking the "event add" add_circle_outline button located at the end of the Scheduler title bar.
When adding or modifying an event the event wizard allows you to specify event schedule and optionally the modules/devices that are associated with it and an action to perform on every occurrence.

Schedule

Depending on the type selected, the schedule of an event can be defined in different ways.

Standard

A standard event can occur at exact times or within time slots, with the possibility to specify months, days, hours and minutes in which the event can be scheduled.
You can add times to the event schedule by clicking the "time add" more_time button as shown in the following picture.

Right below the schedule, a time bar will show occurrences of the event over 24 hours of the day. You can click the calendar today icon to select a different day to preview.

Date range

This is the same as a standard event, but it will only be valid during a configurable date range.

Enhanced cron expression

Events of this type use HomeGenie Scheduler's "native" method to describe time occurrences and which is based on the Unix cron format but with some additional features.

In this case, in fact, the event schedule is defined with a textual expression that can include references to other events and use a special set of operators to describe time intervals and combine them so that even a complex schedule can be defined with a short expression.

For example, the following event references other events and uses both arithmetic and logical operators to turn the lights on half an hour after the sunset and turn them off one hour before sunrise, excluding holidays.

(@SolarTimes.Sunset + 30 > @SolarTimes.Sunrise - 60)
 %
(@Holidays.Summer : @Holidays.Winter)

The built-in events "SolarTimes.Sunset" and "SolarTimes.Sunrise" return the value of sunrise and sunset times (that will be different from day to day), and considering that the symbol ">" means "until", the first part of the expression in this example basically says "from 30 minutes after sunset until 60 minutes before sunrise".
Since the symbol "%" means "except" and the symbol ":" means "or", the rest of the expression says "except summer/winter holidays".
You can find further information about cron expressions syntax in the paragraph at the end of this page.

Modules

An event can optionally specify what type of devices it can be used for. In the previous example, the "Light.Outdoor.On" event can only be used with lights.

The event can be associated with devices either from the modules list as shown in the above picture, or directly from the widget menu of devices matching selected types.

Action

Each time the event occurs it is possible to perform an action. This action can be selected from a list of pre-set actions or can be implemented writing a Scheduler Script which is simple JavaScript code that uses the Scheduler and HomeGenie APIs to implement the desired action.

Preset actions

Preset actions include common actions such as operating lights, thermostats, running a scenario or other programs, making HomeGenie say something using text-to-speech.

You can choose to run a preset action every time the event is scheduled, or when the event includes time slots, when a time slot starts and when a time slot ends.

Behind the scenes, preset actions are translated to JavaScript code that can be viewed and modified switching to "Custom action script" mode.

Custom action script

So, an event script is a simple JavaScript code that can use HomeGenie API Helper Classes which are exposed to the script through the following objects:

In addition to the above, the script can use the following objects and methods:

About cron expressions

Cron expressions are strings that are made up of five subexpressions which describe individual details of the schedule. These subexpressions are separated by whitespace and represent:

Individual sub-expressions can contain ranges (e.g. 8-22) and lists (e.g. 5,10,30,45).

Wild-cards (the '*' character) can be used to say “every” possible value of this field. Therefore, the '*' character in the Month field of the previous example simply means “every month”. A '*' in the Day-Of-Week field would therefore obviously mean “every day of the week”.

All fields have a set of valid values that can be specified:

The '/' character can be used to specify increments to values. For example, if you put '0/15' in the Minutes field, it means 'every 15th minute of the hour, starting at minute zero'. If you used '3/20' in the Minutes field, it would mean 'every 20th minute of the hour, starting at minute three' – or in other words it is the same as specifying '3,23,43' in the Minutes field.

Example cron expressions

Example 1 Every 5 minutes

0/5 * * * *

Example 2 Every even minute

*/2 * * * *

Example 3 Every odd minute

1-59/2 * * * *

Example 4 Every 5 minutes, Weekdays from 8am-5pm.

*/5 8-16 * * 1-5

Combining expressions

Cron expressions can also be grouped using parenthesis and combined using the following operators:

Example 5 From 11:20PM to 3:15AM

(20 23 * * *) > (15 3 * * *)

Example 6 From 11:20PM to 3:15AM except in May(5) and September(9)

((20 23 * * *) > (15 3 * * *)) % (* * * 5,9 *)

Example 7 At 11:20PM or 3:15AM in January(1) and December(12) every Sunday(0) and Tuesday(2)

((20 23 * * *) : (15 3 * * *)) ; (* * * 1,12 0,2)

Event variables, sum and subtract

An event can also be recalled in a cron expression by using the @ symbol followed by the name of the event.

Example 8 From 11:20PM to 3:15AM only during winter holidays

((20 23 * * *) > (15 3 * * *)) ; @Holidays.Winter

When the referenced event is an exact time, sum and subtract operator can be used to add or subtract certain amount of minutes to the recalled event. See the next example.

SolarTimes events

There are also a few built-in special events that can be used to reference sunrise and sunset times:

Example 9 From half an hour before sunrise to 45 minutes after sunset only during summer holidays

(@SolarTimes.Sunrise - 30 > @SolarTimes.Sunset + 45) ; @Holidays.Summer
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