Feature Request - Setting to allow email notification based on multiple parameters

[stefanbagnato]

Jachym,

I was wondering if you have considered adding an option to allow more email notifications besides the few "warning" options in the Main Setup. I purchased a Wemo Smartplug and am working with IFTTT so that certain winter weather parameters (namely temp and humidity) will trigger the switch to turn on my station heater. What is needed is an email notification (with the email subject able to be specified, along with the email address of course) to be sent each time a parameter is met, such as the temp went below 32 and humidity above 75%, or the temp went above 32 (and the humidity doesn't really matter in this case). Ideally, the option to create multiple "recipes" with multiple parameters would be best.

Let me know if something like this might be possible. I have determined that Cumulus does not have this capability.

[Jachym]

Hi,
I went into quite some detail about this 2yrs ago on the wxforum and about a week ago here on the forum. The problem is in the conditions. It is practically impossible.
Just think about a scenario where the temperature fluctuates around the threshold. You would be getting emails every 5 mins.
People also asked for example for email when an extreme is reached. But again, there is a problem. If an extreme value is reached, we send an email, what if the temperature keeps rising. Next minute you have another record. And you would have two options - send another email (not very practical to be getting emails every minute) or not send anything and set some minimum interval between emails - in which case it is also not ideal because you wont be notified about this new record and previous email would be misleading

[iatros]

Do you use meteobridge? You can set up as many email alerts from there as you want!
Cheers, Martin

[Jachym]

I wonder how MB works, because for example if you set an alert to be sent when the temperature drops below freezing point, what is going to happen on a day when the T is between -1 and +1°C is hundreds of emails.

[iatros]

no, not hundreds of emails! You set a trigger event for e.g. Temp. < 0.1° AND a "clear" Temp. > 3°, you will get a new email only if the temperature raises over 3° and then falls again below 0.1° ! Works fine for me for frost warnings.

[stefanbagnato]

Hm, I will have to see what I can figure out then.
I am not against getting many emails, as I can figure out a way to stop that, plus these emails will only be for triggering IFTTT, I could filter them to a random folder.
I do not have Meteobridge, so that would not help me.
In the end, it is not about the number of emails, but about the right combination of parameters to trigger the heater to come on. While this issue of oscillating around a parameter is certainly a potential issue, I could probable write something into the IFTTT "recipe" to not trigger more often than every 5 minutes, for example.

[stefanbagnato]

Doing some research, it looks like Weather Display allows push notifications via email or SMS. Does anybody have experience using this? If so, maybe I will go this route, as I do not want to complicate or cause issues for you Jachym, especially with confusing people with new settings and whatnot.
Just to clarify, switching from Cumulus to Weather Display, NOT ditching my Meteotemplate site!

[polbrieuc]

In the end, it is not about the number of emails, but about the right combination of parameters to trigger the heater to come on.

Hi Stefan,

For the Meteotemplate app, I will also need some kind of trigger plugin so the site owners can define alerts that would send a notification in the app.
I am working on one right now which would allow multiple parameters, using PHP syntaxis :

I am still developping it but the idea is that it outputs a JSON file with the list of triggers and their current status (and time they were triggered)
It would not solve completely your issue but would give a base with a list of muti-parameters triggers. One could develop a second plugin that uses the info from the trigger plugin do perform some actions (send email, twitter, etc). This second plugin would have to implement the necessary safeguards to avoid spam when values are oscillating around the thresold though.
For now, it is just an idea in early development stage but I will post more info when I have a reliable version.

Cheers,

Pol-Brieuc

[stefanbagnato]

Pol-Brieuc, that sounds awesome. Yes, the other plugin would still be needed, but this sounds like a good start.
I purchased a Belkin Wemo switch and installed that in front of the heater switch, so now I can at least turn on the heater from anywhere in the world and not have to leave it on when it doesn't need to be (although I live in North Carolina, we don't get that much snow to start with)