Manual Coordinator Refresh Action

[Jawar19]

Integration name

rejseplanen

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/rejseplanen/

Describe the enhancement

Add a service/action rejseplanen.refresh that allows users to manually trigger a data refresh from the Rejseplanen API outside of the standard polling interval. This action would force the coordinator to immediately fetch new departure data and update all associated sensor entities.

The action should:

• Accept an optional config_entry_id or device_id parameter to refresh specific stops or the entire integration
• Respect API rate limits by implementing a minimum cooldown period between manual refreshes (e.g., 30 seconds)
• Return confirmation when the refresh completes successfully
• Update the last_update_success_time on the coordinator
• Trigger state updates for all sensors associated with the refreshed stops

This would be implemented as a service registered during integration setup, calling the coordinator's async_request_refresh() method with appropriate rate limiting checks.

Use cases

Public transport departure times have varying relevance throughout the day. A 5-minute polling interval is appropriate for general monitoring but becomes insufficient during active commute scenarios.

Specific scenarios where manual refresh is valuable:

1. Pre-departure preparation: User has an automation that triggers 10 minutes before leaving for work. The automation can refresh departure data immediately to show the most current real-time information, delays, or cancellations before the user walks out the door.

2. Peak hour monitoring: During morning rush (7:00-9:00) and evening commute (16:00-18:00), buses and trains are more prone to delays and schedule changes. An automation can increase refresh frequency to every 2 minutes during these windows while maintaining the standard 5-minute interval during off-peak hours.

3. Event-driven updates: When a user's location tracker shows they're approaching a station or bus stop, trigger a refresh to display the most current departure information on a dashboard or send an actionable notification.

4. Weekend/holiday scheduling: During weekends when services run less frequently, users may want updates only when they're actually planning to travel, triggered by calendar events or manual dashboard buttons.

Example automation:

automation:
  - alias: "Refresh departures before leaving"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "07:50:00"  # 10 minutes before usual departure
    action:
      - action: rejseplanen.refresh
        target:
          device_id: device_id_of_my_station
      - delay: "00:00:05"
      - action: notify.mobile_app
        data:
          message: "Next train: {{ states('sensor.station_line') }} at {{ states('sensor.station_departure_time') }}"

This approach respects API rate limits (staying well within 50,000 calls/month) while providing real-time data exactly when users need it most, improving the practical utility of the integration without placing unnecessary load on the API during periods when departure information isn't actively being used.

Anything else?

No response

[github-actions[bot]]

🏷️ I've automatically added the integration: rejseplanen label to help categorize this feature request.

[mib1185]

There is already a common (not integration specific) method available, by using the homeassistant.update_entity action. Further here you will find a how-to for defining custom polling intervals

[Jawar19]

That is a very good answer, i applaud you.

I might just add this to the documentation of the integration. I am the new maintainer of the integration and needed to have a trace of the features I want to make for users/devs to find it in an organized way.

I might still want to make an alias for it for the integration. but now it is a lower priority than before.

[mib1185]

you can add the following section to your integration docs, which will automatically integrate the how-to in your docs (eq the ping integration does)

### Defining a custom polling interval

{% include common-tasks/define_custom_polling.md %}