Files Component

Custom Component for Home Assistant that reads a list of files from a directory into a sensor.

This was developed for use alongside the Gallery Card but may have other uses.

Installation

Files must be in the WWW folder, ideally in a subfolder. This component will periodically scan the folder for changes to the files, and is based on the built-in Folder component.

The component can be installed from HACS (use the Custom Repository option), but follow the below instructions to install manually.

1. Create a folder in your config directory (normally where your configuration.yaml file lives) named custom_components
2. Create a folder in your custom_components named files
3. Copy the 3 files (init.py, manifest.json, and sensor.py) into the files folder
4. Restart Home Assistant
5. Create a folder in your WWW folder named images (or any other name, but be sure to use the proper name below)
6. Add your images/videos to this folder
7. Add the files sensor to your configuration.yaml file

   - sensor
       - platform: files
         folder: /config/www/images
         filter: '**/*.jpg'
         name: gallery_images
         sort: date
         recursive: True

8. Restart Home Assistant
9. Check the sensor.gallery_images entity to see if the fileList attribute lists your files

Configuration Variables

Name	Type	Default	Description
platform	string	Required	files
folder	string	Required	Folder to scan, must be /config/www/***
name	string	Required	The entity ID for the sensor
sort	string	Optional	One of 'name', 'date', or 'size'; Determines how files are sorted in the Gallery, Default: date
recursive	boolean	Optional	True or False; If True, the pattern filter ** will match any files and zero or more directories, subdirectories and symbolic links to directories. Note: Using the ** pattern in large directory trees may consume an inordinate amount of time , Default: False

Force Reloading

The entity will automatically update on a schedule, however, if you need to refresh more often or at some event, you can use the update_entity service call.

action:
  - service: homeassistant.update_entity
    target:
      entity_id:
      - sensor.gallery_images

Credits

This component largely created from work done by @zsarnett in the slideshow card, from which other inspiration was also taken.