Grouping pushover notifications

[paulbates]

I'm adding pushover notifications to my ISY. I have it technically working, what I'm looking for is approaches to organizing notifications. My requirement is the ability to group the notifications; sprinkler, hvac, firstalert, etc. Today I group different types of notifications in email folders using filters.

 

I want to keep this model in the pushover app, and I can do that in pushover: 

• define my own pushover apps for each of those groups
• name them accordingly,
• use the appropriate app token/key in separate network resources on the ISY to send the notifications

Before I head down the 'grouping by app' path,  I'm looking to see if there are other approaches that can be shared, or if anyone had experience with the many predefined pushover apps might help?

 

Paul

[bgav]

Have you seen Pushover's email gateway app? I think you might be able to use your existing email notification groups with it using ISY email groups/recipients. 

 

https://pushover.net/faq#technical-email

[paulbates]

bgav

 

So I keep the same notification model, and add a email address to my groups in the admin console. That's pretty easy, I will give that a try

 

Thanks! 

 

Paul

[bgav]

bgav

 

So I keep the same notification model, and add a email address to my groups in the admin console. That's pretty easy, I will give that a try

 

Thanks! 

 

Paul

Sure thing! I just did a quick test, seems like it should work like a charm and save you a *lot* of time that would otherwise be spent creating new Pushover apps, ISY Network Resources, and editing all of your program notifications.

[paulbates]

Sure thing! I just did a quick test, seems like it should work like a charm and save you a *lot* of time that would otherwise be spent creating new Pushover apps, ISY Network Resources, and editing all of your program notifications.

 

Thanks bgav! I tested too. Also, the user key can be replaced with the group key, that works.. and removes the need for maint on the ISY as mobile devices are added, replaced etc. The notification comes through quickly too.

 

However, to keep the groupings I want, I need to add the  +a=<apptoken> to the email address. When I do that, the ISY sends the message out, pushover counts it, but it never makes it to the device. :S

 

Paul

[bgav]

Thanks bgav! I tested too. Also, the user key can be replaced with the group key, that works.. and removes the need for maint on the ISY as mobile devices are added, replaced etc. The notification comes through quickly too.

 

However, to keep the groupings I want, I need to add the  +a=<apptoken> to the email address. When I do that, the ISY sends the message out, pushover counts it, but it never makes it to the device. :S

 

Paul

Hi Paul,

 

Do you have any other options appended after your user key? I just did a test email with the app token and it appears that it fails (message delivery subsystem - address not found) when it isn't appended as the first option immediately after your user key. Once I changed the email address so that the app token came immediately after my user/group key, it worked for me. Give that a try if you haven't done so already.

 

Brian

[paulbates]

Hi Brian-

 

Good catch. I only had one option, a=xxxxx. It looks like I had entered something incorrectly, as it works for user and group keys now and comes under the defined app. If I don't specify app a=xxxxx, PO creates and app entry for 'E-mail Gateway' and all mail messages go there, no grouping.

 

Whether Network resource or email group, it looks like I still need to define multiple PO apps to group the messages. The trade off then is between creating new network resources per PO group, or creating new isy email groups per PO group. These will be the paths for the different methods:

 

ISY Network Resource -> PO 

ISY Notification -> gmail -> PO

 

I'll have to touch the programs either way. Probably easier to go direct from the network resource?

 

Paul

[bgav]

Hi Paul,

 

PO says that option order doesn't matter as long as the user key is first, so I might have had something entered wrong at first as well..

 

OK, I *think* I know what you're trying to do, but could you provide a couple examples of triggered notifications with grouping and email filtering using folders that you'd like to replicate using PO? Are you currently using email filtering as a way of maintaining organized email logs of events? 

 

Edited to add: I see Pushover as a great way to push a limited number of priority notifications of certain events (ie geofence events, water/temp sensor warnings, alarm events, etc) which could be used to supplement other notifications (email groupings) that would email lower priority events to email for organized logging purposes. If you use Pushover for everything on an extensive install, you'll get bombarded with push notifications.

 

Brian

[paulbates]

Hi Brian, sure

 

I currently have email notifications, but looking to move to something else like PO. It's strictly an activity log that I review by group. In today's world, I have the following email folders in outlook, with outlook filters to direct the notifications based on subject line cues:

 

Folder                     Function

ISY First Alert          Programs that monitor the first alert smoke bridge post notifications here (no actuals to date, but tests go here)

ISY HVAC Log         Programs the monitor my thermostats for runtimes and errors post notifications here

ISY Sprinkler Log     Programs that monitor forecast, amount of on property rain, defer or run schedules- post notifications here

ISY Critter Detector The program the monitors motion under our deck and turns on a flood light posts notifications here

 

The separate PO apps I create will be used to group the notifications, that's how I want to manage the bombardment of notifications.. I can look in time order, or look under the each app

 

Once I'm sure I have PO setup right, I will eventually stop emailing.

 

 

Paul

 

 

[MWareman]

I do Pushover by API - and have defines separate apps (each with their own API key and icon) to group them.. In fact I hit Pushover app limit... Not sure how to get around that...

[paulbates]

I do Pushover by API - and have defines separate apps (each with their own API key and icon) to group them.. In fact I hit Pushover app limit... Not sure how to get around that...

 

Thanks Michael, just finished that for my programs. The api is a grouping,like sprinklers, and then different types of messages are sent there... skipped, completed cycle etc.

 

Do tell, the api limit is xx APIs?

 

Paul

[MWareman]

I have 16 Pushover 'Apps', and a few weeks ago I tried adding another one, and got a message I was at the limit.

 

However, I just tried adding one more just now, and it let me... Not sure what that means though.

 

Michael.

[paulbates]

Michael

 

I don't expect to get to 16, so I'm good. 

 

Thanks to you and Brian for your responses and help thinking it through.

 

Paul

[bgav]

Thanks Paul, got it. Now that I fully wrapped my brain around the idea, grouping PO notifications using Apps is fantastic. I also like how you can customize notifications using these variables:

 

 

 

• device - your user's device name to send the message directly to that device, rather than all of the user's devices (multiple devices may be separated by a comma)
• title - your message's title, otherwise your app's name is used
• url - a supplementary URL to show with your message
• url_title - a title for your supplementary URL, otherwise just the URL is shown
• priority - send as -2 to generate no notification/alert, -1 to always send as a quiet notification, 1 to display as high-priority and bypass the user's quiet hours, or 2 to also require confirmation from the user
• timestamp - a Unix timestamp of your message's date and time to display to the user, rather than the time your message is received by our API
• sound - the name of one of the sounds supported by device clients to override the user's default sound choice

   

 

[paulbates]

Yep, 

Customizing sounds helps things like smoke alarms stand out, and network resource variable substitution puts the icing on the cake...  notifications can have some quantitative info in them

 

Thanks Paul, got it. Now that I fully wrapped my brain around the idea, grouping PO notifications using Apps is fantastic. I also like how you can customize notifications using these variables:

[MWareman]

 

 

Customizing sounds helps things like smoke alarms stand out, and network resource variable substitution puts the icing on the cake... notifications can have some quantitative info in them

I love the feature as well - my Elk pings me when it's armed with just a notice, a non-urgent 'ding' when it's disarmed, and a siren if it's set off - all in the same app profile with appropriate icon.

 

Same with my garage door. Simple quiet notice for open or close - but an audible notice with an attached picture from my camera if it's left open.