2022.12.0-beta2

Note: this is a beta release!

---

The main addition of this release is the new 'webview' component. It uses Edge's engine to display webpages, without having to launch a full fledged browser. You need Microsoft's webview runtime, but the installer will take care of that for you - or, if you install manually, you'll get the option to download when first using it.

It's of course implemented in a new command: WebView. You can easily configure what url to show, its location, size and some other settings. Use the new configure command parameters button when adding a webview command.

The second implementation is that you can now configure the tray icon's right mouseclick-button to show a webview instead of the menu. Use this to for instance easily show a dashboard! Check out the new Configuration -> Tray Icon page for all options.

The quickactions also received some love: the creation page has its layout refreshed, and you can now directly bind your own commands to a quickaction. This means that either through the quickactions popup, or a hotkey, you can trigger any command you've configured. Because it doesn't go by Home Assistant, it's really fast :)

The next beta will be focussed on bugfixes and small additions, so let me know if there's something not working / missing! Consult the 'Planned For Next Release' section of the issue tracker to see what's currently planned (that list is always subject to change though): https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud/

Oh and a fyi: the new HASS.Agent MediaPlayer integration has been approved by HACS, so it should now show up in the 'new repositories' list. Please note that since HA's latest release (2022.5) breaks a lot of media_player stuff, you need to install yesterday's release of the integration for it to work. But if you're not on 2022.5 yet, please stay on the previous version of the integration (since the new one won't work there).

---

Features & improvements

• New command: WebView

  • Can be used to show any webpage, without having to launch a full-fledged browser
  • Use the new configure command parameters button to easily configure what where and how to show
  • Also usable through an Action (so you can set what url to show dynamically in HA)

• The tray icon's right mouseclick can be configured [#59] (thanks @paccerdk)

  • By default, it shows an options menu
  • You can now configure it to show a webview page
    • For instance, a HA dashboard (your HA url is set by default)
    • Enable keep page loaded in the background to make sure it shows up instantly
    • If you resize the webview, it'll store the new size as its default
  • Configurable through the new Configuration -> Tray Icon page

• The QuickAction add/modify window has been updated

• You can now bind your own commands to a QuickAction

  • Choose the new HASS.Agent Commands domain to show your entities

• The tray icon's default theme has been aligned with the rest of HASS.Agent

2022.12.0-beta1

Note: this is a beta release!

---

This beta release adds support for the new mediaplayer integration! You can now control your device as if it were a regular mediaplayer, regardless of what application's actually playing. It has support for 'currently playing' info, but only if the application uses it (e.g. Spotify does, VLC doesn't).

And: you can also now use your PC as a text-to-speech device!

Since the new integration's awaiting HACS approval (which can take quite some time), if you want to toy with it, just manually add this repo to HACS:
https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent-MediaPlayer

Make sure to check the new wiki page for info on how to configure and use.

---

Features & improvements

• Add media_player capabilities to HASS.Agent [#31] (thanks @DeftNerd)

  • Since this can't be done through the websocket API, it requires the new MediaPlayer integration
  • For configuration info, check the new wiki page:
    • https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent/wiki/MediaPlayer-Usage-&-Examples

• The 'Notification API' has been renamed to 'Local API'

  • This is to reflect the fact that the API now has multiple uses
  • Onboarding and configuration has been changed accordingly

• New command: SendWindowToFront (thanks ChrisRosenkreuz23)

  • Can be used to force a specified process to the foreground
  • Usable as a regular command, or as a new action command

v2022.11.4

Hotfix for 2022.11.3:

• Changing an existing command's entity type results in two entities in HA (and neither work 'til HASS.Agent restarts) [#56] (thanks Chreece)

---

Took a while, but here's the next release! It's an 'in between' release: no big new features, but a bunch of tweaks, bugfixes and improvements. Still nice though, you can for instance now attach variables to your commands when triggering them from HA (e.g. an URL you want to have opened) - there are examples in the wiki. And more: commands can have their entity type set from within HASS.Agent, you can see your sensors' latest values, new test buttons for your wmi/ps querys, ..

HASS.Agent now supports localization, with @LeandroIssa kicking things off with his beautiful Portuguese (BR) translation. A bunch of other languages are in progress, read below on how you can help out (if you want).

Not as interesting, but noteworthy (because it means older versions will stop receiving 'update available' messages): from now on HASS.Agent follows a different versioning schema, to allow me to better plan releases. Simply put: this is release 2022.11.3 - released in the year 2022, the 11th release of the year (already!), and the 3rd revision of that release. The next beta will be noted as 2022.12.0-beta1. If you're that bored, you can read more on the 'why' below.

Speaking of being bored, you can now follow what I'm working on, what's planned for the next release and what's on the backlog, on the new issue tracker: https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud. It's read-only, please keep using GitHub for new tickets.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who's been taking the time to post bug/issue/idea tickets, and all beta testers. I really appreciate it!

---

Features & improvements

• You can now choose the command entity type

  • Currently supported: button, light, lock, siren and switch
  • The selected type doesn't change the way the command is handled

• You can now send additional variables to commands

  • I'm using HA's 'action' MQTT topic, so I called them actions
  • Currently supported: Custom, Custom Executor, Launch Url and Powershell
  • You can use an action (the name works out) in your HA automations and scripts to publish the variables
    • For examples and info on how you can easily get the right MQTT topic, check the wiki page:
    • https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent/wiki/Command-Actions-Usage-&-Examples
  • This will trigger the command to run the specified value
  • You can either pre-specify a command in HASS.Agent, or leave the command field empty (so what you send will be executed as-is)
    • Either way, it's up to you to define the correct (escaped) quotes

• Added localization support

  • Thanks @LeandroIssa for all your help, effort and patience during my first localization attempt ever!
  • Translators: @LeandroIssa (Portuguese BR), Neilge (French), @Syntoxr (German), AirChreece (Greek), Łukasz (Polish) and Nejc (Slovenian)
  • If you want to help them out, or start translating another language, you can easily do so here:
    • https://poeditor.com/join/project/R7HIVG0wie

• You can now select a specific network-card for the Network multivalue-sensor

  • This should drastically decrease the amount of entities added
  • If you've already added the sensor, 'All' is selected by default

• New sensor: GeoLocation (thanks Neilge)

  • Returns a comma-seperated value: {lat},{lon},{alt}
  • Make sure you've enabled Location Services in Windows

• The sensor window now shows the current value of your stored sensors

  • You have to store new sensors and reopen the window before its value is shown
  • The list refreshes itself every 5 seconds
  • Only applies to single-value sensors

• Added test wmi query and test performance counter to the new-sensor window

  • Useful when you want to test whether your settings are ok, and what value they return

• Setup an issue-tracker to centrally manage all open tickets and requests

  • URL: https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud
  • You can see which tickets are open, which are scheduled for the next release, what's being worked on and what's done
  • Also, for good measure, some graphs
  • It's readonly, please use GitHub or Discord to open new tickets
  • Thanks JetBrains for providing the free service :)

• New versioning schema

  • Previous schema: {year}.{month}.{day}.{releasenr}
    • Makes it easy to see when a version was released
    • But I don't know whén a version will be released, so doesn't work well with issue-trackers
  • New schema: {year}.{releasenr}.{revision}
    • Since this is the 11th release, it's 2022.11.0
    • If I release a fix for this version, it'll be 2022.11.1, etc
      • Betas will now have -beta{nr} appended to the version
      • So the next beta will be 2022.12.0-beta1
  • Important:
    • After this release, older versions will no longer receive an 'update available' popup!
    • They won't understand the new schema and drop it
    • This is released as 2022.11.3, only to be backwards compatible - for the next release, betas won't count as revisions

• Satellite Service now follows HASS.Agent's enable extended logging setting

  • This (currently) only applies when you manually launch instead of as a service
  • Right-click HASS.Agent.Satellite.Service.exe and select Run as Administrator
  • By default, the executable can be found in: C:\Program Files (x86)\LAB02 Research\HASS.Agent Satellite Service
  • Only relevant when debugging

• Task-specific child applications now create their own logfile (for instance when restarting HASS.Agent)

• Added option to change the interface language to Configuration -> General

• Added option to change the interface language to the onboarding welcome page

• Added option to ignore certificate errors for notification images [#42] (thanks @andystewart999)

Bugfixes

• Modifying a stored QuickAction now correctly loads its domain and entity

• Execute port reservation doesn't run under expected elevation [#48] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• LastSystemStateChange sensor doesn't change under Satellite Service [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• Satellite Service doesn't clear its entities when receiving an empty list [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• HASS.Agent freezes when selecting a folder or file (thanks Nejc)

• Home Assistant API connection isn't properly restored when it isn't accessible on HASS.Agent startup [#51] (thanks @VNRARA)

• When port reservation fails in the configuration screen, the wrong command is copied to the clipboard [#55] (thanks @mdrichardson)

• The show mqtt action topic button when creating an actionable command doesn't work

v2022.11.3

Took a while, but here's the next release! It's an 'in between' release: no big new features, but a bunch of tweaks, bugfixes and improvements. Still nice though, you can for instance now attach variables to your commands when triggering them from HA (e.g. an URL you want to have opened) - there are examples in the wiki. And more: commands can have their entity type set from within HASS.Agent, you can see your sensors' latest values, new test buttons for your wmi/ps querys, ..

HASS.Agent now supports localization, with @LeandroIssa kicking things off with his beautiful Portuguese (BR) translation. A bunch of other languages are in progress, read below on how you can help out (if you want).

Not as interesting, but noteworthy (because it means older versions will stop receiving 'update available' messages): from now on HASS.Agent follows a different versioning schema, to allow me to better plan releases. Simply put: this is release 2022.11.3 - released in the year 2022, the 11th release of the year (already!), and the 3rd revision of that release. The next beta will be noted as 2022.12.0-beta1. If you're that bored, you can read more on the 'why' below.

Speaking of being bored, you can now follow what I'm working on, what's planned for the next release and what's on the backlog, on the new issue tracker: https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud. It's read-only, please keep using GitHub for new tickets.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who's been taking the time to post bug/issue/idea tickets, and all beta testers. I really appreciate it!

---

Features & improvements

• You can now choose the command entity type

  • Currently supported: button, light, lock, siren and switch
  • The selected type doesn't change the way the command is handled

• You can now send additional variables to commands

  • I'm using HA's 'action' MQTT topic, so I called them actions
  • Currently supported: Custom, Custom Executor, Launch Url and Powershell
  • You can use an action (the name works out) in your HA automations and scripts to publish the variables
    • For examples and info on how you can easily get the right MQTT topic, check the wiki page:
    • https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent/wiki/Command-Actions-Usage-&-Examples
  • This will trigger the command to run the specified value
  • You can either pre-specify a command in HASS.Agent, or leave the command field empty (so what you send will be executed as-is)
    • Either way, it's up to you to define the correct (escaped) quotes

• Added localization support

  • Thanks @LeandroIssa for all your help, effort and patience during my first localization attempt ever!
  • Translators: @LeandroIssa (Portuguese BR), Neilge (French), @Syntoxr (German), AirChreece (Greek), Łukasz (Polish) and Nejc (Slovenian)
  • If you want to help them out, or start translating another language, you can easily do so here:
    • https://poeditor.com/join/project/R7HIVG0wie

• You can now select a specific network-card for the Network multivalue-sensor

  • This should drastically decrease the amount of entities added
  • If you've already added the sensor, 'All' is selected by default

• New sensor: GeoLocation (thanks Neilge)

  • Returns a comma-seperated value: {lat},{lon},{alt}
  • Make sure you've enabled Location Services in Windows

• The sensor window now shows the current value of your stored sensors

  • You have to store new sensors and reopen the window before its value is shown
  • The list refreshes itself every 5 seconds
  • Only applies to single-value sensors

• Added test wmi query and test performance counter to the new-sensor window

  • Useful when you want to test whether your settings are ok, and what value they return

• Setup an issue-tracker to centrally manage all open tickets and requests

  • URL: https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud
  • You can see which tickets are open, which are scheduled for the next release, what's being worked on and what's done
  • Also, for good measure, some graphs
  • It's readonly, please use GitHub or Discord to open new tickets
  • Thanks JetBrains for providing the free service :)

• New versioning schema

  • Previous schema: {year}.{month}.{day}.{releasenr}
    • Makes it easy to see when a version was released
    • But I don't know whén a version will be released, so doesn't work well with issue-trackers
  • New schema: {year}.{releasenr}.{revision}
    • Since this is the 11th release, it's 2022.11.0
    • If I release a fix for this version, it'll be 2022.11.1, etc
      • Betas will now have -beta{nr} appended to the version
      • So the next beta will be 2022.12.0-beta1
  • Important:
    • After this release, older versions will no longer receive an 'update available' popup!
    • They won't understand the new schema and drop it
    • This is released as 2022.11.3, only to be backwards compatible - for the next release, betas won't count as revisions

• Satellite Service now follows HASS.Agent's enable extended logging setting

  • This (currently) only applies when you manually launch instead of as a service
  • Right-click HASS.Agent.Satellite.Service.exe and select Run as Administrator
  • By default, the executable can be found in: C:\Program Files (x86)\LAB02 Research\HASS.Agent Satellite Service
  • Only relevant when debugging

• Task-specific child applications now create their own logfile (for instance when restarting HASS.Agent)

• Added option to change the interface language to Configuration -> General

• Added option to change the interface language to the onboarding welcome page

• Added option to ignore certificate errors for notification images [#42] (thanks @andystewart999)

Bugfixes

• Modifying a stored QuickAction now correctly loads its domain and entity

• Execute port reservation doesn't run under expected elevation [#48] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• LastSystemStateChange sensor doesn't change under Satellite Service [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• Satellite Service doesn't clear its entities when receiving an empty list [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

• HASS.Agent freezes when selecting a folder or file (thanks Nejc)

• Home Assistant API connection isn't properly restored when it isn't accessible on HASS.Agent startup [#51] (thanks @VNRARA)

• When port reservation fails in the configuration screen, the wrong command is copied to the clipboard [#55] (thanks @mdrichardson)

• The show mqtt action topic button when creating an actionable command doesn't work

b2022.11.2

Note: this is a beta release!

---

Features & improvements

• Satellite Service now follows HASS.Agent's enable extended logging setting

  • After you've enabled extended logging, restart the service to activate

• Task-specific child applications now create their own logfile (for instance restarting HASS.Agent)

Bugfixes

• 'Execute port reservation' doesn't run under expected elevation [#48] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)
• LastSystemStateChange sensor doesn't change under Satellite Service [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)
• Satellite Service doesn't clear its entities when receiving an empty list [#46] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)
• HASS.Agent freezes when selecting a folder or file (thanks Nejc)

b2022.11.1

Note: this is a beta release!

---

Bugfixes

• QuickActions aren't able to fetch their HA entities anymore [#47] (thanks @nrsfhass and Chreece)
• HASS.Agent keeps reporting the same available beta update, even though it's already installed
• 'Execute port reservation' doesn't run under expected elevation [#48] (thanks @Aidan-Chey)

b2022.11.0

Note: this is a beta release!

---

Features & improvements

• Localization support has been completed for both HASS.Agent and the installer

  • Thanks @LeandroIssa for all your help, effort and patience!
  • Currently, Neilge is working on French and @Syntoxr on German
  • If you want to help them out, or start translating another language, you can do so here:
    • https://poeditor.com/join/project/R7HIVG0wie

• You can now select a specific network-card for the Network multivalue-sensor

  • This should drastically decrease the amount of entities added
  • If you've already added the sensor, 'All' is selected by default

• Setup an issue-tracker to centrally manage all open tickets and requests

  • URL: https://lab02research.youtrack.cloud
  • You can see which tickets are open, which are scheduled for the next release, what's being worked on and what's done
  • Also, for good measure, some graphs
  • It's readonly, please use GitHub or Discord to open new tickets

• New versioning schema

  • Previous schema: {year}.{month}.{day}.{releasenr}
    • Makes it easy to see when a version was released
    • But I don't know whén a version will be released, so doesn't work well with issue-trackers
  • New schema: {year}.{releasenr}.{revision}
    • Since this is the 11th release (already!), it's 2022.11.0
    • If I release a fix for this version, it'll be 2022.11.1, etc
      • Betas will now have -beta{nr} appended to the version
      • So this is release 2022.11.0-beta1
  • Important:
    • After this release, older versions will no longer receive an 'update available' popup!
    • They won't understand the new schema and drop it

• New sensor: GeoLocation (thanks Neilge)

  • Returns a comma-seperated value: {lat},{lon},{alt}
  • Make sure you've enabled Location Services in Windows

• The sensor window now shows the current value of your stored sensors

  • You have to store new sensors and reopen the window before its value is shown
  • Only applies to single-value sensors

• Added test wmi query and test performance counter to the new-sensor window

  • Useful when you want to test whether your settings are ok, and what value they return

• Notifications: you can now opt to ignore certificate errors [#42] (thanks @andystewart999)

Bugfixes

• Opening a stored QuickAction now correctly loads its domain and entity

b2022.4.2

Note: this is a beta release!

---

Localization has been added to HASS.Agent and it's started off with a really beautiful language; @LeandroIssa translated everything into Brazilian Portugese!

If you want to help out translating into your (native) language, there's now a wiki page on how to get started:

https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent/wiki/Translating

No coding knowledge required, everything can be done online.

---

Features & improvements

• Added localization support

• Added language: pt-BR [#43] (thanks @LeandroIssa)

• Added option to change the interface language to Configuration -> General

• Added option to change the interface language to the onboarding welcome page

• Added option to ignore certificate errors for notification images [#42] (thanks @andystewart999)

b2022.3.31

Note: this is a beta release!

---

This beta contains some much requested love for commands: you can now choose the entity type as which the command will be added to Home Assistant, and you can send custom data!

There's a wiki page dedicated to command actions, containing extra screenshots, info and examples - so it's worth having a look:

https://github.com/LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent/wiki/Command-Actions-Usage-&-Examples

---

Features & improvements

• You can now choose the command entity type

  • Currently supported: button, light, lock, siren and switch
  • The selected type doesn't change the way the command is handled

• You can now send additional variables to commands

  • I'm using HA's 'action' MQTT topic, so I called them actions
  • Currently supported: Custom, Custom Executor, Launch Url and Powershell
  • You can use an action (the name works out) in your automations and scripts to publish your variables
    • For examples and info on how you can easily get the right topic, check the wiki page
  • This will trigger the command to run the specified value
  • You can either specify a command in HASS.Agent, or leave the command field empty (so only your arguments will be passed)
    • Either way, it's up to you to define the correct (escaped) quotes

v2022.3.27

The first .NET 6 version, ánd this release contains the new 'satellite service'!

You can use the satellite service to run commands and sensors without having to be logged in, and configure sensors that require elevated privileges (not added yet, but the first round will be hardware-info sensors like CPU temp, etc.).

I tried my best to make it really easy to use, all through HASS.Agent's own UI. If you use the installer (which by now is recommended), everything will be setup for you. There are two places where you can tinker with it:

• Main window -> new 'Satellite Service' button

  • Configure the fun stuff, ie. the sensors and commands, and the not-so-fun (MQTT) configuration
  • Use the 'copy from hass.agent' button on the MQTT tab to easily copy the current configuration (will use its own client id)
    • Remember to always click 'send and activate' afterwards

• Configuration window -> new 'Satellite Service' tab

  • Configure the service itself, ie. start/stop/disable/reinstall
  • Normally you shouldn't have to use this, only when debugging
  • Use the 'open service logs folder' to go to the service's logs

Some notes:

• You can optionally set an 'auth ID'

  • When configured, only HASS.Agents that have to correct ID set can communicate with the service
  • Leave empty to allow all instances to connect (which is the default)
  • Only relevant when you use multiple HASS.Agent instances on the same PC

• Not all sensors and commands can be executed through the service

  • The 'create new command/sensor' windows will tell you what's possible
  • Note that you have to think about this yourself when setting a custom command

• All settings on the 'general' tab of the new service window are optional

• The service installs into your ProgramFiles directory

• You can choose to disable the service through Configuration -> Satellite Service

  • If you don't configure the service, it'll do nothing, but you may still want to disable to save cpu/battery
  • Don't uninstall; if you do, it will be reinstalled during the next update (if you use the installer)

If something goes wrong, please send me as much info as possible, and the logs of both HASS.Agent and the satellite service. Thanks!

---

Features & improvements

• User interface improvements!

  • Manage commands/sensors/quick actions:
    • Cleaner way to show the stored items
    • Naming has been simplified and made more human-readable
  • Add commands/sensors:
    • Easier to see which commands/sensors are available
    • Naming has been simplified and made more human-readable
  • Multiple tweaks throughout

• Added 'open logs folder' to Configuration -> Logging

• Added 'execute port reservation' to Configuration -> Notifications

  • This will recreate the firewall rule en port reservation
  • Use this to make sure your PC can be contacted, normally done through onboarding

• Added 'show test notification' button to Configuration -> Notifications

  • This will show a test notification, to make sure Windows is configured correctly
  • This does not prove your PC can be contacted

• Added show/hide password buttons to password fields

• Added 'close without saving' button to Configuration

• The wiki received some much needed attention

  • Contains troubleshooting help, examples and general info
  • Anything to add? Anyone with a github account can edit, or just tell me - thanks!

Known bugs

• I've spent many hours trying to get DPI scaling to work nicely, but it just won't look completely ok since switching to .NET 6
  • So for now, I've reverted to basically no scaling
  • If you have Windows set to 100% scaling, there's no difference
  • But otherwise, the interface will be a bit blury instead of crisp (like a badly resized picture)
  • This is really annoying, and I'll keep working on it, sorry

Bugfixes

• When using automated updating, HASS.Agent now removes its icon from the tray (thanks Nejc)

  • Manually updating will still leave a ghost icon in the system tray

• The custom executor command now correctly shows its description in the info pane

• Not really a bug, but Coderr has been removed

  • The logs provide more info than a single exception report
  • Wasn't really comfortable with anything being sent from your PC, even if it was opt-in