I'm fairly new to HE and RM and am trying to set up a future date rule trigger. For example, I thought that I could just use the following 5.1 RM actions to define a trigger one week in the future:
Set WeekTrigger to current date(2023-06-11)
Set WeekTrigger to WeekTrigger(2023-06-11) plus 10080 minutes
But the minutes offset doesn't work -- WeekTrigger's value remains (2023-06-11). I'm surprised that the minutes offset can't use (seems like a bug to me). In any case, I've been racking my brain trying to come up with an alternative...any ideas out there?
Thanks! But I still had a difficult time finding a way to do what I need. I want to be able to input a DateOnly value by way of a dashboard Variable tile. Then, I want to trigger a rule at a certain time a certain # of days before that date. I can create a DateOnly dashboard tile (see below). But I can't then shift it by the needed days. The dashboard tile's variable must be DateTime in order for it to be shifted/offset. That causes two problems: the dashboard tile shows and requires input of an irrelevant time value, AND the irrelevant time component later causes trigger and comparison headaches. There must be a way; so did a deep dive...
In systematically exploring this problem I found C-8 HE's (with RM 5.1) handling of date-only & date+time variables a bit of a mess. To wit, it took me lots of experimentation to discern:
Creating a new DateTime Hub Variable requires both an initial date AND time value.
A DateTime variable can be changed to DateOnly variable by:
Manually clicking on its value in Hub Variables and clearing the time component (note: you can't clear date component).
A "Set Variable to Current Date" rule action.
A "Set Variable A to Variable B" rule action where var B is DateOnly.
A DateTime variable can be changed to a TimeOnly variable by:
A "Set Variable to Current Time" rule action.
A "Set Variable A to Variable B" rule action where the var B is TimeOnly.
Existing DateTime and TimeOnly values can be modified with a minutes Offset (e.g., "Set Variable to Variable plus" or "Set Variable Time Offset". Both negative & positive Offsets allowed. Applying an Offset to an existing DateOnly variable has no effect.
Variable assignment also assigns both type and value. That is, you can't assign just the DateOnly or TimeOnly components.of a DateTime variable. Therefore, you can't "retype" a DateOnly value into a DateTime for Offset modification.
Variable comparison between DateTime, DateOnly, & TimeOnly variables, although always allowed, can be a little weird --- an equality test between a DateOnly and a DateTime is NEVER true, even if date components agree; > & < comparisons between DateOnly & DateTime variables seem to work as expected. It appears that DateOnly values are treated as 12:00AM on that day.
Whew, so I can shift/Offset the current DateTime value and then compare that to the dashboard inputted DateOnly value. That way, only a date needs to be supplied via a dashboard and I can later compare it against a date shifted/offset value.
