Simple(?) module to send a notification every x minutes?

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger no position, as there is no UI…

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger I ran your config in debug ( npm start dev) with a stop on the actual sendNotification and it happens once every minute.

I don’t have pages or carousel installed…

[sdetweil]

@MMRIZE said in Simple(?) module to send a notification every x minutes?:

But sending notifications is harmless, so I put it into start, just for example.

not harmless to the receiver if not setup yet

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
I’ve no clue how to run it the way you did with the stop and all, but I did start commenting out modules and it seems that MMM-pages is the culprit.

Without it, SendNotification works fine but when it’s active, SendNotification sends multiple notifications per second:

It may be that MMM-pages is suspending and resuming MMM-SendNotification with each change, even though it’s set as “fixed”, and maybe that’s triggering it?

It may be that this is just something that won’t work for me.

I really appreciate your help!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger ok, I’ll check it out… hang on…

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger ok… it was pages (for the error)

if you are using my fork

    cd ~/MagicMirror/modules/MMM-Pages
    git pull 

if u are NOT using my fork

cd ~/MagicMirror/modules

then rename the MMM-Pages folder out of the way (the command is mv)
then

git clone https://github.com/sdetweil/MMM-Pages

also, two parms need to be added

here is the updated config

			{
        module: 'MMM-Pages',
        config: {
                modules:
                    [[ "page1" ],
                     [ "page2" ],
                //     [ "page3"],
                    ],
                fixed: [ "fixed" ],
                hiddenPages: {
                    "screenSaver": [ "screensaver_page" ],
                    "admin": [ "admin_page" ],
                },
                animationTime: 10000,
                rotationTime: 10000,
        }
      }

rotationtime defaults to 0!!!

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
I switched to your fork and while it’s better, it’s still sending a notification every several seconds.
Here’s my config:

		{
			module: "MMM-Pages",
                        classes: "fixed",
			config:	{
				modules:[	[ "page1" ],
							[ "page2" ],
						],
				fixed: [ "fixed" ],
				rotationTime:	10000,
				animationTime:	10000,
			}
		},

and

        {
            module: 'MMM-SendNotification',
            classes: "fixed",
            config: {
                interval: 3600000, // 1 minute interval
                notification: 'PAGE_CHANGED',
                payload: 1,
            },
        },

(I upped the interval to see if that would do anything. It didn’t.)

I’ve commented out all the other modules except the clock, MMM-BackgroundSlideshow, and MMM-ViewNotifications.

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger ok, git pull the latest
and restart

I now check to see if the handler was turned off on resume, so don’t start another

lmk

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
That worked! Thank you so much!

Now I am just being cheeky but if you are bored and want to add a feature, it would be great to be able to reset the timer based on a notification. (In my case, if MMM-Keypress sends a PAGE_INCREMENT notification to change pages, restart the timer from that point.)

Anyway, I am getting really close to having everything the way I want it and am hoping that I can build an actual frame for the mirror and mount it next week and I couldn’t have done it without all your help (and so many others, like @MMRIZE and everyone who wrote the modules I’m using.) So, really, thank you!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger done, git pull to update

if the notification received matches the configured notification restart the timer

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
You truly are amazing!

Am I right in thinking that if I change this:

      } else if(topic==this.config.notification){

to this:

      } else if(topic==this.config.resetNotification){

and put this in the config:

resetNotification: "DIFF_NOTIF",

in addition to the notification: setting, then I can have it reset when a different notification is received? And I’m assuming all modules get all the notifications?

This would be so that if someone comes up and pushed the button to switch to the info display close to the end of the timer, it will reset it so they have time to look at what they want.

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
I made that change and it does indeed work as I’d hoped. This is totally awesome!

Thank you!

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger yes, make sure to add a default value in the defaults section

one could consider a list of notifications that cause reset, then you can search the list w includes()

as it’s a list, you could pre or postpend the notification to send to that list too

this stops the code from growing with other else clauses

resetNotifications:[]

in start maybe,
this.config.resetNotifications.unshift(this.config.notification)

that puts the actual notification of the front of the list

the in notificationReceived

if(this.config.resetNotifications.includes(notification)
resetTimer()

only one test

[sdetweil]

@UncleRoger said in Simple(?) module to send a notification every x minutes?:

And I’m assuming all modules get all the notifications?

yes, sendNotifications are broadcast to all modules

[UncleRoger]

@sdetweil
Do modules each have their own timer or does resetting the timer in one module affect another?

I ask because I have MMM-BackgroundSlideshow set to change pictures each hour and MMM-SendNotification set to send a notification to MMM-Pages to switch to page 1 every 5 minutes. But in this setup, the picture never changes. My hypothesis is that when SendNotification resets the timer after 5 minutes, that affects BGSS which then never gets to 1 hour to switch to the next picture.

If I change BGSS to change pictures every 1 minute (or less than 5 minutes), the picture does change as expected.

Mind you, it’s probably something I’ve done that’s screwed it up, but I figured I’d ask about this first just to eliminate it as the source of the issue.

[MMRIZE]

@UncleRoger
Unfortunately, BGSS is implementing suspend method to stop it’s timer. So when you page rotator hides BGSS, it’s timer doesn’t work.
If you have some knowledge of JS, you can make monkey-patch with MMM-ModuleMonkeyPatch to suspend method not to stop its timer.

[UncleRoger]

@MMRIZE
Hmmm… That’s actually a good behaviour, in my case. If it’s not being shown, there’s no need to be changing the picture.

But even when it’s not suspended, i.e., the picture is shown, it doesn’t change if its interval is greater than the SendNotification interval.

If i disable SendNotification and manually switch to the picture (i.e., unsuspend BGSS), it will happily switch pictures every hour.

[MMRIZE]

@UncleRoger
The module also implements “resume” method to reset timer, so if the module get shown, it may be reset.
But I’m not sure unless examining all three modules related.

[sdetweil]

@MMRIZE the sendnotification module implements both suspend and resume

[UncleRoger]

So a little more testing…

If the interval for BGSS is >= the interval for SN, BGSS never changes the image. That is, SN causes BGSS to be active so its timer should start and (assuming nothing else changes) it should switch pictures according to the set interval but it doesn’t.

If the interval for BGSS < the interval for SN, and BGSS is active, it changes the image as it should.

Suspending and resuming BGSS does reset its timer, but if it’s not suspended, and its interval is >= SN’s, then it doesn’t change the image.