SHAC email function -

I have my SHAC generated email working as a straight bit of text. Where do I find how to format things to include some variables from my system? (I am wanting to export my power consumption data each month via email and have the data as a CBus measurement)

This is the first time I have asked for help as it has (until now) been solved by someone before me!

 

I've made some progress and now my request is far more specific. This is an extract of the message part of an email generated by the SHAC and work fine but I have 2 asks. The first is to have each meter reading on a new line (the currently appear as a single sentence. The second is to get more detail on the quantities (they currently appear as integers and I want 1 decimal place).

"
subject = 'Electricity Meter Readings'
message = 'Hi, Here are the most recent meter readings from your house:'

..string.format('grid peak ') ..string.format('%d', pcumgrid) ..string.format(' kWh; ')
..string.format("grid off-peak ") ..string.format("%d", opcumgrid) ..string.format(" kWh; ")
..string.format("total usage peak ") ..string.format("%d", pcumelec) ..string.format(" kWh; ")
..string.format("total usage off-peak ") ..string.format("%d", opcumelec) ..string.format(" kWh; ")
..string.format("hotwater peak ") ..string.format("%d", pcumhotwater) ..string.format(" kWh; ")"

 

To add a line break in a string just include the \n sequence

To format decimals you need to use the floating point formatter f, not d

e.g. %.1f will give you one decimal point.

 

thanks Ashley - formatting decimals worked a treat! However, would you mind showing exactly where to drop the \n sequence into my script? I've tried everything I can think of without success and I know the answer will be something simple.
cheers

 

You're right. \n doesn't work in mail messages.

You have to use the \012 instead of \n

This is a mime requirement as \n means different things in different systems

e.g 'Line 1\012Line 2'

 

You can also simplify all your format statements.

e.g.

..string.format('grid peak ') ..string.format('%d', pcumgrid) ..string.format(' kWh; ')

can become

..string.format('grid peak %.1f kWh ', pcumgrid ) etc

You can also use any number of % specifiers in one format statement. Just include all the values in a list

e.g.

string.format('Value 1 %d, value 2 %d, value 3 %d', 10, 20, 30) etc

or

string.format('Value 1 %d\012 value 2 %d\012 value 3 %d', 10, 20, 30) to put then on seperate lines

 

thanks for all that - I have tried the \012 and now get a bold up arrow in the spot where the \012 has been inserted??

 

Post the exact code you are using.

 

I've only added the \012 to the first line

"subject = 'Electricity Meter Readings'
message = 'Here are the most recent meter readings from your house:'

..string.format('grid peak \012 ') ..string.format('%.2f', pcumgrid) ..string.format(' kWh; ')
..string.format("grid off-peak ") ..string.format("%.2f", opcumgrid) ..string.format(" kWh; ")
..string.format("total usage peak ") ..string.format("%.2f", pcumelec) ..string.format(" kWh; ")
..string.format("total usage off-peak ") ..string.format("%.2f", opcumelec) ..string.format(" kWh; ")"

 

I think what is happening is the string.format is converting the \012 into a single ascii new line character that the email mime encoding won't recognise. Try moving the \012 outside of the string.format

i.e.

..string.format('grid peak ') ..'\012'..string.format('%.2f', pcumgrid) ..string.format(' kWh; ')

Of course you don't need the string.format for simple strings.

So

.. 'grid peak\012'..string.format('%.2f', pcumgrid) ..'kWh;'

 

thanks again Ashley, still no luck with the new line however the "short" version worked fine. back to the drawing board!. btw I cut and pasted your text directly into my message so I have it as you intended. I tried both the \n and the \012

 

I just tried this and it worked fine for me:

string.format('grid peak \012%.2fkWh', pcumgrid)

I set pcumgrid to 123.456 and received

grid peak
123.46kWh

 

i copied that exactly and got the up arrow again and no new line. I wonder if it is a quirk with gmail?

 

I just tried it via smtp.gmail.com and it worked fine.

Post your mail function (but hide the password )

 

here's the mail function from the user function library - anything look screwy?

-- user function library

-- send an e-mail
function mail(to, subject, message)
-- make sure these settings are correct
local settings = {
-- "from" field, only e-mail must be specified here
from = '[email protected]',
-- smtp username
user = '[email protected]',
-- smtp password
password = 'xyz123',
-- smtp server
server = 'smtp.gmail.com',
-- smtp server port
port = 465,
-- enable ssl, required for gmail smtp
secure = 'sslv23',
}

 

Have you set up secure apps password in gmail, I had to do that to get Shac to send an email,

 

Yes. I created a secure app password to test gmail in the SHAC. Works fine for me.

You only posted half of the email function you are using.

 

sorry - I thought that was all - here is the complete function from the "common functions" scripting tab

-- send an e-mail
function mail(to, subject, message)
-- make sure these settings are correct
local settings = {
-- "from" field, only e-mail must be specified here
from = '[email protected]',
-- smtp username
user = '[email protected]',
-- smtp password
password = '1234554321',
-- smtp server
server = 'smtp.gmail.com',
-- smtp server port
port = 465,
-- enable ssl, required for gmail smtp
secure = 'sslv23',
}

local smtp = require('socket.smtp')

if type(to) ~= 'table' then
to = { to }
end

for index, email in ipairs(to) do
to[ index ] = '<' .. tostring(email) .. '>'
end

-- message headers and body
settings.source = smtp.message({
headers = {
to = table.concat(to, ', '),
subject = subject,
['Content-type'] = 'text/html; charset=utf-8',
},
body = message
})

-- fixup from field
settings.from = '<' .. tostring(settings.from) .. '>'
settings.rcpt = to

return smtp.send(settings)
end

 

Can't see any problems there.

Post the whole script you are using and I'll try it from here.

If you give me your e-mail address I can try sending mine that works to you, and we can figure out which end is the problem.

 

just to confirm, the email and information is being sent and received fine. It is the formatting of the email that is the problem. I am only want to add a new line for each meter reading. my email is [email protected]