Change payload from string over to binary

[martinlindjarv]

I have a small problem that i'm not able to solve :(
There is a mqtt topic that receives idle/heat from device (not able to change on device side).
Now as i'd like to store the heat and idle in influx this needs to be binary (1 or 0).
I have tried to "convert it" with functions but seems my python/mqttwarn knowledge lacks ...

In mqttwarn.ini I have defined:

[z2m/0xa4c138d272f8dd7f/running_state]
format = convert_running_state()
targets = influxdb:floor_heating

And in samplefuncs.py I have tried different functions but the latest is

from mqttwarn.model import Service


def convert_running_state(topic: str, message: str, section: str, srv: Service):
  if message == 'idle':
    return 123

But that is wrong and gives python error ... no idea how to simply convert incoming payload 'heat'/'idle' to 1/0 ...

Anyone able to share some light how to achieve that :)?

[jpmens]

and the Python error is ...... ?

[martinlindjarv]

Apologies ... forgot it totally

2026-02-13 14:16:53,225 DEBUG    [mqttwarn.core             ] Processor #0 is handling: `influxdb' for floor_heating
2026-02-13 14:16:53,225 ERROR    [mqttwarn.core             ] Invoking function 'convert_running_state()' failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mqttwarn/context.py", line 153, in datamap
    val = func(data, self.srv)  # new version
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: convert_running_state() missing 2 required positional arguments: 'section' and 'srv'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mqttwarn/core.py", line 378, in xform
    res = context.invoker.datamap(function_name, transform_data)
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mqttwarn/context.py", line 155, in datamap
    val = func(data)  # legacy
          ^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: convert_running_state() missing 3 required positional arguments: 'message', 'section', and 'srv'
2026-02-13 14:16:53,226 INFO     [mqttwarn.core             ] Invoking service plugin for `influxdb'
2026-02-13 14:16:53,227 DEBUG    [mqttwarn.services.influxdb] *** MODULE=/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mqttwarn/services/influxdb.py: service=influxdb, target=floor_heating
2026-02-13 14:16:53,227 DEBUG    [mqttwarn.services.influxdb] http://x.x.x.x:8086/write?db=home&rp=&precision=ns
2026-02-13 14:16:53,227 DEBUG    [mqttwarn.services.influxdb] floor_heating,topic=z2m_0xa4c138d272f8dd7f_running_state value=convert_running_state()
2026-02-13 14:16:53,228 DEBUG    [urllib3.connectionpool    ] Starting new HTTP connection (1): x.x.x.x:8086
2026-02-13 14:16:53,236 DEBUG    [urllib3.connectionpool    ] http://x.x.x.x:8086 "POST /write?db=home&rp=&precision=ns HTTP/1.1" 400 134
2026-02-13 14:16:53,236 WARNING  [mqttwarn.services.influxdb] POST request failed: (400) {"error":"unable to parse 'floor_heating,topic=z2m_0xa4c138d272f8dd7f_running_state value=convert_running_state()': invalid boolean"}

I'm actually looking a way to change the incoming payload simply to int ... shouldn't be that hard I thought at first :)

[martinlindjarv]

All the examples I have found seem to deal with incoming payload as json ... not simple string that can be swapped out.

[jpmens]

It's been ages since I've done anything with mqttwarn as it just does what it should here for me, but maybe examples/zabbix-iot/ in this repo is along the lines of what you need.

[martinlindjarv]

I did try this:

def convert_running_state(topic, payload: str, srv=None):
  if payload == 'idle':
    return '0'
  else:
    return '1'

but it is always 1 ... so I'm sure that something is wrong with comparison of payload ... how could i "echo" that to console to be able to find out what is the value of payload ?

[jpmens]

there's a "log"-type function you can use; check the docs please