modules day and time Depending represented

[bjoern]

Ok!

i have seen that by the cron Expressions i can only set the startTime and not the EndTime. it’s right?

[strawberry 3.141]

@bjoern you can make another cron task on the endtime

[ianperrin]

So, my current thinking is based around the following config

{
	module: 'MMM-ModuleScheduler'
},
{
	module: 'calendar',
	position: 'top_left',
	classes: 'scheduler',
	config: {
		// Show at 9:00 and hide at 18:00 every day from Monday through Friday
		module_schedule: {from: '0 9 * * 1-5', to: '0 18 * * 1-5'}
	}
},
{
	module: 'MMM-soccer',
	position: 'top_right',
	classes: 'scheduler',
	config: {
		// Show at 9:00 on Saturday and hide at 20:00 on Sunday
		module_schedule: {from: '0 9 * * SAT', to: '0 20 * * SUN'}
	}
}

Modules would then be shown and hidden based on the addition of a specific class classes: 'scheduler' and a module_schedule config option containing the cron expressions which control when the module should be shown (from) and hidden (to).

How does that sound?

p.s. here’s another useful cron resource - http://crontab.guru/

[bjoern]

YES! That’s gerat!

[KirAsh4]

You can easily have another module (module_scheduler?) keep track of time and when require, it can call another module’s .hide() or .show() routine. And you’d want to check on the other module every so often, in case the mirror restarted and re-displayed it.

[ianperrin]

@bjoern - I have created an initial version of MMM-ModuleScheduler and pushed it to github -https://github.com/ianperrin/MMM-ModuleScheduler

If you would like to test it, feel free to install it on your Mirror and report back here.

However, please remember that this is work in progress and has not yet been fully tested, so please do use with care.

[cowboysdude]

Seems to work pretty well! I did load it to test it to turn off at 7:50 and it took a while for the mirror to load but I assumed it was the cron preparing itself. The module is indeed off… it didn’t load the Holidays or News feed it just said loading…

So I stopped the mirror and restarted it. It loaded quicker [still slow so people don’t freak out :)]… the Holiday and News Feed did indeed load …

So the only thing NOT on the screen is the thing I attached to the scheduler… so it’s working… Only thing I can see wrong is the speed [decreased] of loading the mirror! BUT it’s not like you start and stop the mirror daily anyway so once it loads it works :)

I like it!! Thank you!!!

[cowboysdude]

It’s turning anything off with 'classes: ‘scheduler’, attached no matter what time you set it for ;)

[ianperrin]

@cowboysdude said in modules day and time Depending represented:

Only thing I can see wrong is the speed [decreased] of loading the mirror!

As part of the install process, npm install needs to be run to install the dependency on node-cron. This can take a little time, but is only required once. Having completed the install, I’m not seeing the performance issues you mention so we might need to look into that a little further.

[ianperrin]

@cowboysdude said in modules day and time Depending represented:

It’s turning anything off with 'classes: ‘scheduler’, attached no matter what time you set

The expected functionality is that the module is shown between the dates specified, so once the module has done it’s thing, it hides the modules and they are not shown until the next ‘from’ date.

In more detail, it should follow the following process once it receives the notification (DOM_OBJECTS_CREATED) that all modules have been loaded:

• It checks each module to see if it contains the ‘scheduler’ class
• If yes, it checks whether the module config includes the ‘module_scheduler’ option
• if yes, it checks whether the option includes the ‘from’ and ‘to’ properties
• if yes, it creates the cron jobs to show (‘from’) and hide (‘to’) the module
• if the next show (‘from’) date for the module is in the future and less than the next hide (‘to’) date, it hides the module
• when the ‘from’ cron job is triggered, it sends a notification to show the module
• when the ‘to’ cron job is triggered, it sends a notification to hide the module

Now, as this is work in progress I haven’t had time to check all permutations of modules and cron expressions. However, it’s logging is rather verbose so please do check out the console log (pm2 logs mm) to see what it thinks it is doing!

If you find problems, can you post your config (or at the least, which module you are trying to schedule and the values for the module_scheduler option?

Thanks

[ianperrin]

Earlier versions of the module would create duplicate cron jobs if the Mirror recreated the modules (e.g. after a page refresh in the browser). The current version attempts to resolve this.

Trailblazers who’ve already grabbed a copy of the module please run git pull from the module directory - see https://github.com/ianperrin/MMM-ModuleScheduler#updating for more details

[cowboysdude]

@ianperrin said in modules day and time Depending represented:

@cowboysdude said in modules day and time Depending represented:

Only thing I can see wrong is the speed [decreased] of loading the mirror!

As part of the install process, npm install needs to be run to install the dependency on node-cron. This can take a little time, but is only required once. Having completed the install, I’m not seeing the performance issues you mention so we might need to look into that a little further.

No no it’s only an issue one time … after it loads the first time it’s fine thereafter :)

[cowboysdude]

Did the git pull and it’s working to perfection… Thank you!!!

[cowboysdude]

Now here’s a challenge for you LOL

Say you’d like a module to appear at 7 am until 8 am then again at 5pm until 11pm could it be worked so it could be set up like this:

{
module: ‘calendar’,
header: ‘US Holidays’,
position: ‘top_left’,
classes: ‘scheduler’,
config: {
// DISPLAY THE CALENDAR BETWEEN 09:00 and 18:00 ON WEDNESDAYS
schedule1: {from: ‘0 7 * * 3’, to: ‘0 8 * * 3’ },
schedule2: {from: ‘0 17 * * 3’, to: ‘0 23 * * 3’ },
calendars: [
{
symbol: 'calendar-check-o ',
url: ‘webcal://www.calendarlabs.com/templates/ical/US-Holidays.ics’
}
]
}
},

Just a thought but it could be useful :) My other thought was to enter the module twice and run it the way it’s written… going to test that :)

I tested that and that works ! :) The logic of the mirror just loads the modules [if in the config correctly] will load it as many times as you want! So I had it come on at 7 and go off at 8:30 then back on at 8:32 and that worked great! Not sure how hard it would be to change it to work but could just add another layer to the module :)

[ianperrin]

@cowboysdude - rather than add two instances of the module, try the following expressions:

module_schedule: {from: '0 7,17 * * *', to: '0 8,23 * * *'}

This should create a schedule with jobs to show the module at 07:00hrs and 17:00hrs, and jobs to hide the module at 08:00hrs and 23:00hrs

I can see there are use cases where multiple schedules might be required, so I’ve created an enhancement request on github to cover that one - https://github.com/ianperrin/MMM-ModuleScheduler/issues/2

[cowboysdude]

@ianperrin Thank you! I’ll give that a go when I get home from work. This module is just about the handiest things I have seen!!!

I guess had I investigated cron I could have found that out myself… sorry.

With this I no longer wish the pi to ‘go to sleep’… I just show certain things at certain times and always leave the time and date on… it’s just amazing!!! You don’t realize how useful and important something sometimes until you have it!

Thanks again!

[shashank]

@ianperrin I installed this modules and it found working fine.

[ianperrin]

@shashank - great to hear - and thanks for the feedback.

[ianperrin]

@cowboysdude said in modules day and time Depending represented:

I guess had I investigated cron I could have found that out myself… sorry.

Glad to help and no need to apologise at all

[Mitchfarino]

Not implemented this yet @ianperrin , but this is an incredible contribution. We can make much more use of the modules now, rather than being limited to a certain number