Rules API

The rules API provides a manes of interacting with Rules in the Hue Bridge.

Rules are complex event triggers that consist of a one or more conditions that must be satisfied, which when they are will trigger one or more actions for devices connected to the bridge.

The Actions can consist of Group, Light or Sensor state changes.

It is possible to build up some very complex logic/triggering with the use of rules, and with the use of CLIP Sensors you can potentially build up some interesting automation scenarios.

The Rules API interacts with specific Rule objects from the Bridge.

• getAll()
• getRule(id)
• getRuleByName(name)
• createRule(rule)
• deleteRule(id)
• updateRule(rule)

getAll()

The getAll() function will obtain all the Rules that are defiend in the Hue Bridge.

api.rules.getAll()
  .then(allRules => {
    // Display the Rules
    allRules.forEach(rule => {
      console.log(rule.toStringDetailed())
    });
  });

This function call will resolve to an Array of Rule objects.

A complete code sample for this function is available here.

getRule()

The getRule(id) function will obtain the specified Rule with the given id.

• id: The id for the rule, or a Rule instance to get from the Hue Bridge.

api.rules.getRule(1)
  .then(rule => {
    // Display the Rule
    console.log(rule.toStringDetailed());
  });

This function will return a Rule object for the specified id.

A complete code sample for this function is available here.

getRuleByName()

The getRuleByName(name) function will obtain all the Rules from the bridge that have the specified name.

• name: The name of the Rules to get from the Hue Bridge.

api.rules.getRuleByName('Opened door')
  .then(allRules => {
    // Display the Rules
    allRules.forEach(rule => {
      console.log(rule.toStringDetailed());
    });
  });

This function will return an Array of Rule objects for all of the Rules that matched the specided name.

A complete code sample for this function is available here.

createRule()

The createRule(rule) function will create a new Rule in the Hue Bridge.

• rule: The Rule that is to be created in the Bridge, consult the documentation on Rule objects to work out how to define a Rule

// You need to have created the myRule instance using code before invoking this
api.rules.createRule(myRule)
  .then(result => {
    // Will get an instance of a Rule object 
    console.log(`Created Rule: ${result.toStringDetailed()}`);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(`Rule was not valid: ${err.message}`);
  });

The function will return the created Rule object, otherwise will throw an ApiError.

Note: It is not possible to completely validate all the possible combinations of attributes in a Rule as to whether or not it is valid before trying to create it in the Hue Bridge. The library will perform a number of checks around eliminating common and obvious issues when building a Rule, but the ultimate check is made by the bridge, but I have seen some very generic error messages in testing when there are issues in the Rule definition.

A complete code sample for this function is available here.

deleteRule()

The deleteRule(id) function will delete the specified rule from the Bridge.

• id: The id for the Rule to remove or the Rule instance that you previously obtained from the bridge via a getAll() or get(id) call

api.rules.deleteRule(id)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Deleted Rule? ${result}`);
  });

The function will return true upon successful deletion.

A complete code sample for this function is available here.

updateRule()

The updateRule(rule) function allows you to modify an existing Rule in the Hue Bridge.

• rule: The Rule that you wish to update, with the modifications already performed on it, this would have been retrieved previously from the Hue Bridge

// The rule instance should have been retrieved and modified before calling this code
api.rules.updateRule(rule)
  .then(result => {
    // show the updated attributes on the rule
    console.log(`Updated Rule Attributes: ${JSON.stringify(result)}`);
  });

Note: The library will not perform checks currently against the existing state of the Rule on the Bridge and the provided Rule and will update the name, actions and conditions to match the rule state passed in.

The only attributes of an existing Rule that you can update currently are:

• name: limited to 32 characters, will be truncated if it exceeds this length
• actions: The RuleActions for the Rule, all previous values will be overwritten
• conditions: The RuleConditions for the Rule, all previous values will be overwritten

The function will return a JSON object consisting of the attributes it updated along with a Boolean value if the field was updated:

{
  'name': true,
  'actions': true,
  'conditions': true
}