Deep Dive: Polling & JSON

Static buttons are boring. Use Polling to make your interface come alive by fetching data from your devices and updating your buttons in real-time.

How it works

When you enable dynamic titles on an action, Control It sends the request repeatedly at a set interval (e.g., every 2 seconds). It then parses the response to extract a value.

Basic Parsing Modes

Status Code: Use the HTTP status code (e.g., 200 = Green, 500 = Red).
Full Response: Display the entire body text on the button.
JSON Key: Extract a specific value from a JSON response.
JSON Path: Use complex queries to find data deep within the response.

Mastering JSON Paths

Most modern APIs (Hue, WLED, Home Assistant) return JSON. Control It supports standard dot-notation and array indexing.

Simple Key

JSON: {"brightness": 128}

Path: jsonKey=brightness

Result: 128

Nested Object

JSON: {"state": {"on": true}}

Path: jsonPath=state.on

Result: true

Arrays

JSON: {"lights": ["Red", "Blue"]}

Path: jsonPath=lights[0]

Result: Red

Dynamic Styling

You can change the button's background color based on the parsed value.

Logic Rules

Numeric: > 50, < 10, == 100
Text: == "Running", contains "Error"
Boolean: true / false