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RESTful Binary Sensor

The rest binary sensor platform is consuming a given endpoint which is exposed by a RESTful API of a device, an application, or a web service. The binary sensor has support for GET and POST requests.

Tip: If you want to create multiple sensors using the same endpoint, use the RESTful configuration instructions.

The JSON messages can contain different values like 1, "1", TRUE, true, on, or open. If the value is nested then use a template.

{
    "name": "Binary sensor",
    "state": {
        "open": "true",
        "timestamp": "2016-06-20 15:42:52.926733"
    }
}

Configuration

To enable this sensor, add the following lines to your configuration.yaml file for a GET request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT

or for a POST request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS/ENDPOINT
    method: POST

or a template based request:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource_template: "http://IP_ADDRESS/{{ now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}"

Configuration Variables

Looking for your configuration file?
resource string Required, default: string

The resource or endpoint that contains the value.

resource_template template (Optional)

The resource or endpoint that contains the value with template support.

method string (Optional, default: GET)

The method of the request.

name string (Optional, default: REST Binary Sensor)

Name of the REST binary sensor.

device_class string (Optional)

Sets the class of the device, changing the device state and icon that is displayed on the frontend.

value_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract the value.

payload string (Optional)

The payload to send with a POST request. Usually formed as a dictionary.

unique_id string (Optional)

An ID that uniquely identifies this entity. This allows changing the name, icon and entity_id from the web interface.

verify_ssl boolean (Optional, default: true)

Verify the certification of the endpoint.

timeout integer (Optional, default: 10)

Defines max time to wait data from the endpoint.

authentication string (Optional)

Type of the HTTP authentication. basic or digest.

username string (Optional)

The username for accessing the REST endpoint.

password string (Optional)

The password for accessing the REST endpoint.

headers list | template (Optional)

The headers for the requests.

params list | template (Optional)

The query params for the requests.

Examples

In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.

aREST sensor

Instead of using an aREST binary sensor, you could retrieve the value of a device supporting aREST directly with a REST binary sensor.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://192.168.0.5/digital/9
    method: GET
    name: Light
    device_class: light
    value_template: '{{ value_json.return_value }}'

Accessing an HTTP authentication protected endpoint

The REST sensor supports HTTP authentication and template-enabled customized headers.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/binary_sensor
    username: ha1
    password: test1
    authentication: basic
    headers:
      User-Agent: Home Assistant
      Content-Type: application/json
      X-Custom-Header: '{{ states("input_text.the_custom_header") }}'

The headers will contain all relevant details. This will also give you the ability to access endpoints that are protected by tokens.

Content-Length: 1024
Host: IP_ADDRESS1:5000
Authorization: Basic aGExOnRlc3Qx
Accept-Encoding: identity
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Home Assistant