History

Logging of the state history in files

Current Release
5.0.1
Developer
bluefox, hobbyquaker, Apollon77
License
MIT

Description

This adapter saves state history in a two-staged process.

  1. At first data points are stored in RAM
  2. as soon as they reach maxLength they will be stored on disk

Adapter configuration

Storage-Settings

Adapter-Settings

Storage directory Path to the directory, where the files will be stored.

The directory will be created relative to the default directory /opt/iobroker/iobroker-data.

This directory will contain a new subdirectory for every new day, which contains the logged information.

Without a path definition, data will be stored to the default location /opt/iobroker/iobroker-data/history

Absolute paths like /mnt/history (Linux) or D:/History (Windows) are also supported

Please DO NOT store the data in any node_modules directory!

Store origin of value Defines, if the "from" attribute will be stored, too.

Store acknowledge of value

Write NULL values on start/stop boundaries

Default settings for states

There are the default settings for every new state which should be logged. Every value can be changed individually for each state afterwards.

Default-Settings

Debounce Time Protection against unstable values to make sure that only stable values are logged when the value did not change in the defined amount of Milliseconds.

Blocktime Defines for how long after storing the last value no further value is stored. When the given time in Milliseconds is over then the next value that fulfills all other checks is logged.

Still record the same values (seconds) When using "Record changes only" you can set a time interval in seconds here after which also unchanged values will be re-logged into the DB.

Minimum difference from last value When using "Record changes only" you can define the required minimum difference between the new value and the last value. If this is not reached the value is not recorded.

Storage retention How many values in the past will be stored on disk. Data is deleted when the time is reached as soon as new data should be stored for a datapoint.

Maximum datapoint count in RAM Define how many number of values will be hold in RAM before persisting them on disk. You can control how much I/O is done. This can be useful for systems which uses a SD card for storage to extend the life time.

On query round numbers to Define how many digits should be rounded to when querying the values.

Disable charting optimized logging of skipped values ??

Enable enhanced debug logs for the datapoint If you want to see more detailed logs for this datapoint, you can enable this option. You still need to enable "debug" loglevel for these additional values to be visible! This helps in debugging issues or understanding why the adapter is logging a value (or not).

Settings for States

The settings of the states which should be logged are defined in the "objects" tab. Use the cog symbol in the very right column to configure the logging settings.

Object-List

The following dialog opens:

Object-Settings

Enabled Activate the logging of the state

Debounce Time Protection against unstable values to make sure that only stable values are logged when the value did not change in the defined amount of Milliseconds.

Blocktime Defines for how long after storing the last value no further value is stored. When the given time in Milliseconds is over then the next value that fulfills all other checks is logged.

Record changes only This function make sure that only changed values are logged if they fulfill other checks (see below). Same values will not be logged.

Still record the same values (seconds) When using "Record changes only" you can set a time interval in seconds here after which also unchanged values will be re-logged into the DB.

Minimum difference from last value When using "Record changes only" you can define the required minimum difference between the new value and the last value. If this is not reached the value is not recorded.

Ignore values below Do not log values which are smaller than this value.

Ignore values above Do not log values which are bigger than this value.

Ignore 0 or null values (==0) This option prevents the storage of the values 0 or null into the database.

Disable charting optimized logging of skipped values ??

Alias-ID You can define an alias for the ID. This is useful if you have changed a device and want to have continuous data logging.

Storage retention How many values in the past will be stored on disk. Data is deleted when the time is reached as soon as new data should be stored for a datapoint.

Maximum datapoint count in RAM Define how many number of values will be hold in RAM before persisting them on disk. You can control how much I/O is done. This can be useful for systems which uses a SD card for storage to extend the life time.

On query round numbers to Define how many digits should be rounded to when querying the values.

Enable enhanced debug logs for the datapoint If you want to see more detailed logs for this datapoint, you can enable this option. You still need to enable "debug" loglevel for these additional values to be visible! This helps in debugging issues or understanding why the adapter is logging a value (or not).

Usage

History data

A click on the cog symbol of the object opens the settings. You can find the stored history history data in the tab "history data":

State-History

Chart

For numeric states you can also use the "chart" tab, which will display the data as a graph.

State-Chart

Enable logging for multiple states at once

To enabled logging for multiple states at once, you can filter the object list by type "state". After that, you can enable logging for all states at once.

Atention: Big installations can contain thousands of states. It can take a lot of time to enable the logging for many states at once. The following process is just an example!

  1. Switch to the list view in the objects tab
  2. Filter for type "state"
  3. Click the wrench symbol in the top right to open the configuration of log parameters
  4. Enable the logging
  5. Configure additional parameters like "record changes only"
  6. Save the configuration

State-Settings

Access values from Javascript adapter

The values can be accessed from the installed JavaScript adapter. Examples:

  • Get 50 last stored events for all IDs
sendTo('history.0', 'getHistory', {
    id: '*',
    options: {
        end:       Date.now(),
        count:     50,
        aggregate: 'onchange',
        addId:     true
    }
}, function (result) {
    for (var i = 0; i < result.result.length; i++) {
        console.log(result.result[i].id + ' ' + new Date(result.result[i].ts).toISOString());
    }
});
  • Get stored values for system.adapter.admin.0.memRss in last hour
var end = Date.now();
sendTo('history.0', 'getHistory', {
    id: 'system.adapter.admin.0.memRss',
    options: {
        start:      end - 3600000,
        end:        end,
        aggregate: 'onchange'
    }
}, function (result) {
    for (var i = 0; i < result.result.length; i++) {
        console.log(result.result[i].val + ' ' + new Date(result.result[i].ts).toISOString());
    }
});

Available options:

  • start - (optional) time in ms - Date.now()'
  • end - (optional) time in ms - Date.now()', by default is (now + 5000 seconds)
  • step - (optional) used in aggregate (max, min, average, total, ...) step in ms of intervals
  • count - number of values if aggregate is 'onchange' or number of intervals if other aggregate method. Count will be ignored if step is set, else default is 500 if not set
  • from - if from field should be included in answer
  • ack - if ack field should be included in answer
  • q - if q field should be included in answer
  • user - if user field should be included in answer
  • comment - if c field should be included in answer
  • addId - if id field should be included in answer
  • limit - do not return more entries than limit
  • round - round result to number of digits after decimal point
  • ignoreNull - if null values should be included (false), replaced by last not null value (true) or replaced with 0 (0)
  • removeBorderValues - By default additional border values are returned to optimize charting. Set this option to true if this is not wanted (e.g. for script data processing)
  • returnNewestEntries - The returned data are always sorted by timestamp ascending. When using aggregate "none" and also providing "count" or "limit" this means that normally the oldest entries are returned (unless no "start" data is provided). Set this option to true to get the newest entries instead.
  • aggregate - aggregate method (Default: 'average'):
    • minmax - used special algorithm. Splice the whole time range in small intervals and find for every interval max, min, start and end values.
    • max - Splice the whole time range in small intervals and find for every interval max value and use it for this interval (nulls will be ignored).
    • min - Same as max, but take minimal value.
    • average - Same as max, but take average value.
    • total - Same as max, but calculate total value.
    • count - Same as max, but calculate number of values (nulls will be calculated).
    • percentile - Calculate n-th percentile (n is given in options.percentile or defaults to 50 if not provided).
    • quantile - Calculate n quantile (n is given in options.quantile or defaults to 0.5 if not provided).
    • integral - Calculate integral (additional parameters see below).
    • none - No aggregation at all. Only raw values in given period.
  • percentile - (optional) when using aggregate method "percentile" defines the percentile level (0..100)(defaults to 50)
  • quantile - (optional) when using aggregate method "quantile" defines the quantile level (0..1)(defaults to 0.5)
  • integralUnit - (optional) when using aggregate method "integral" defines the unit in seconds (defaults to 60s). e.g. to get integral in hours for Wh or such, set to 3600.
  • integralInterpolation - (optional) when using aggregate method "integral" defines the interpolation method (defaults to "none").
    • linear - linear interpolation
    • none - no/stepwise interpolation

The first and last points will be calculated for aggregations, except aggregation none. If you manually request some aggregation you should ignore first and last values, because they are calculated from values outside of period.

storeState

If you want to write other data into the history DB you can use the build in system function storeState. This function can also be used to convert data from other History adapters like History or SQL.

A successful response do not mean that the data are really written out to the disk. It just means that they were processed!

The given ids are not checked against the ioBroker database and do not need to be set up or enabled there. If own IDs are used without settings then the "rules" parameter is not supported and will result in an error. The default "Maximal number of stored in RAM values" is used for such IDs.

The Message can have one of the following three formats:

  1. one ID and one state object
  2. one ID and array of state objects
  3. array of multiple IDs with one state object each
// 1.
sendTo('history.0', 'storeState', {
    id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx',
    state: {
        ts: 1589458809352,
        val: 123,
        ack: false,
        from: 'system.adapter.whatever.0'
    }
}, result => console.log('added'));

// 2.
sendTo('history.0', 'storeState', {
    id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx',
    state: [
        {
            ts: 1589458809352,
            val: 123,
            ack: false,
            from: 'system.adapter.whatever.0'
        },
        {
            ts: 1589458809353,
            val: 123,
            ack: false,
            from: 'system.adapter.whatever.0'
        }
    ]
}, result => console.log('added'));

// 3.
sendTo('history.0', 'storeState', [
    {
        id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx',
        state: {
            ts: 1589458809352,
            val: 123,
            ack: false,
            from: 'system.adapter.whatever.0'
        }
    },
    {
        id: 'mbus.0.counter.yyy',
        state: {
            ts: 1589458809353,
            val: 123,
            ack: false,
            from: 'system.adapter.whatever.0'
        }
    }
], result => console.log('added'));

Additionally, you can add attribute rules: true in message to activate all rules, like counter, changesOnly, de-bounce and so on.

Delete states

If you want to delete entries from the database you can use the build in system function delete:

sendTo('history.0', 'delete', [
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx', state: {ts: 1589458809352}, 
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.yyy', state: {ts: 1589458809353}
], result => console.log('deleted'));

To delete ALL history data for some data point execute:

sendTo('history.0', 'deleteAll', [
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx'} 
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.yyy'}
], result => console.log('deleted'));

To delete history data for some data point and for some range, execute:

sendTo('history.0', 'deleteRange', [
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx', start: '2019-01-01T00:00:00.000Z', end: '2019-12-31T23:59:59.999'}, 
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.yyy', start: 1589458809352, end: 1589458809353}
], result => console.log('deleted'));

Time could be ms since epoch or ans string, that could be converted by javascript Date object.

Values will be deleted including defined limits (ts >= start AND ts <= end).

Update states

If you want to change values, quality or acknowledge flag in the database you can use the build in system function update:

sendTo('history.0', 'update', [
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.xxx', state: {ts: 1589458809352, val: 15, ack: true, q: 0}, 
    {id: 'mbus.0.counter.yyy', state: {ts: 1589458809353, val: 16, ack: true, q: 0}
], result => console.log('deleted'));

ts is mandatory. At least one other flags must be included in state object.

History logging management via Javascript

The adapter supports enabling and disabling of history logging via JavaScript and also retrieving the list of enabled data points with their settings.

Enable

The message requires to have the id of the datapoint. Additionally, optional options to define the datapoint specific settings:

sendTo('history.0', 'enableHistory', {
    id: 'system.adapter.history.0.memRss',
    options: {
        changesOnly:  true,
        debounce:     0,
        retention:    31536000,
        maxLength:    3,
        changesMinDelta: 0.5,
        aliasId: ''
    }
}, function (result) {
    if (result.error) {
        console.log(result.error);
    }
    if (result.success) {
        //successfull enabled
    }
});

Disable

The message requires to have the id of the datapoint.

sendTo('history.0', 'disableHistory', {
    id: 'system.adapter.history.0.memRss',
}, function (result) {
    if (result.error) {
        console.log(result.error);
    }
    if (result.success) {
        //successfull enabled
    }
});

Get list of enabled states

The message has no parameters.

sendTo('history.0', 'getEnabledDPs', {}, function (result) {
    // result is an object. Example:
    {
        "system.adapter.history.0.memRss": {
            changesOnly: true,
            debounce: 0,
            retention: 31536000,
            maxLength: 3,
            changesMinDelta: 0.5,
            enabled: true,
            changesRelogInterval: 0,
            aliasId: ""
        }
    }
});

Migrate history data to SQL or InfluxDB

General idea

When you have more data over time then the history adapter may not be the best choice and a real database is better. For this there are more adapters for data storage. E.g. for SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MS-SQL, MySQL, SQLite) and InfluxDB. With this change the question comes up how to convert the collected data from the past to these new adapters.

For this some converter scripts have been placed in the directory /opt/iobroker/node_modules/iobroker.history/converter that can help and do the job. These scripts are called from the command line with node.

Best practice when executing the conversion

If you move from one history method to another I propose the following process:

  1. Activate the new history method (sql/influxdb) for the relevant states and start logging and check that this works as expected. This means you log "twice" (in history and the new target).
  2. Run the analyze scripts to get the "cut off" points where the duplicate logging started.
  3. Stop the history adapter and execute the migration (this can take some time). So the older values will be added to the new ones.
  4. When you are sure you did anything and also checked the error files: Delete the history data to get some space back.

Step 1: Prepare and analyze existing data in transfer target

When converting data only those data should be transferred that are not already there. Therefor the first set of scripts exists called analyze.js. This script should be executed once at the beginning to collect some data for existing data and store them in local .json files to be used by the real converter script.

Two kind of data are collected:

  • earliest value for datapoint ID: The timestamp of the very first entry for each existing datapoint is stored and is used by imported to ignore all newer values by default. The assumption is that the data are filled completely beginning with this first entry and all earlier values would else be duplicated. This assumption can be overwritten on import by parameters.

  • existing values per day per datapoint ID: The existing data are analyzed on a per-day basis and each day is stored where data exist already. This can be used as alternative to the first data to be able to also fill "holes" in the data.

analyzeinflux.js

This script collects the mentioned data for an InfluxDB instance.

Usage:

node analyzeinflux.js [InfluxDB-Instance] [Loglevel] [--deepAnalyze]

Example:

node analyzeinflux.js influxdb.0 info --deepAnalyze

Parameters:

  • InfluxDB-Instance: which influxdb-Adapter instance should be used? (Default: influxdb.0) If set needs to be first parameter after script name.
  • Loglevel: Loglevel for output (Default: info). If set needs to be second parameter after script name.
  • --deepAnalyze: collect the existing values per day too, by default only the earliest value is queried.

The script will then generate one or three .json files with the collected data. These files are then used by the real converter script.

analyzesql.js

This script collects the mentioned data for an SQL instance.

Usage:

node analyzesql.js [SQL-Instance] [Loglevel]

Example:

node analyzesql.js sql.0 info

Parameters:

  • SQL-Instance: which SQL-Adapter instance should be used? (Default: sql.0) If set needs to be first parameter after script name.
  • Loglevel: Loglevel for output (Default: info). If set needs to be second parameter after script name.

The script will then generate two .json files with the collected data. These files are then used by the real converter script.

Convert History-Data to a DB

The script will directly use the generated JSON files from the history adapter on disk to transfer them into the Database. Additionally, it uses the pre-generated data files for already existing values in the target DB to only convert not existing data.

The script can be run without any analyze (step 1) beforehand then you need to set the startdata as parameter, and it will simply convert anything from that time point backwards in time.

When you have run an analyze before and the earliestDBValues.json file exists then only these data points are converted, unless you use parameters to change that.

When an analyze was run before and the datafiles are used, they are also updated with all converted data, so a second run will normally not generate duplicates.

To reset the data delete the File earliestDBValues.json, existingDBValues.json and/or existingDBTypes.json.

The Converter then goes backward in time through all the days available as data and will determine which data to transfer to InfluxDB.

If you want to abort the process you can press "x" or "".

The converter script itself should work with all History adapters which support the storeState method.

Note: Migrating many data will produce a certain load on the system, especially when converter and target database instance are running on the same machine. Monitor your systems load and performance during the action and maybe use the delayMultiplicator parameter to increase delays in the converter.

Usage:

node history2db.js [DB-Instanz] [Loglevel] [Date-to-start|0] [path-to-Data] [delayMultiplicator] [--logChangesOnly [relog-Interval(m)]] [--ignoreExistingDBValues] [--processNonExistingValuesOnly] [--processAllDPs] [--simulate]

Example:

node history2db.js influxdb.0 info 20161001 /path/to/data 2 --logChangesOnly 30 --processNonExistingValuesOnly

Possible options and parameters:

  • DB-Instance: DB-Instance to send the data to.Required parameter. Needs to be first parameter after script name.
  • Loglevel: Loglevel for output (Default: info). If set needs to be second parameter after script name.
  • Date-to-start: Day to start in format yyyymmdd (e.g. 20161028). Use "0" to use detected earliest values. If set needs to be third parameter after script name.
  • path-to-Data: Path to the datafiles. Default to iobroker-install-directory/iobroker-data/history-data . If set needs to be fourth parameter after script name.
  • : Modify the delays between several actions in the script by a multiplicator. "2" would mean that the delays the converted had calculated by itself are doubled. If set needs to be fifth parameter after script name.
  • --logChangesOnly [relog-Interval(m)]: when --logChangesOnly is set the data are parsed and reduced, so that only changed values are stored in InfluxDB. Additionally, a "relog-Interval(s)" can be set in minutes to re-log unchanged values after this interval.
  • --ignoreExistingDBValues: With this parameter all existing data are ignored and all data are inserted into DB. Please make sure that no duplicates are generated. This option is useful to fix "holes" in the data where some data are missing. By default, it only fills all data points with at least one entry in the DB. This can be overwritten by --processAllDPs
  • --processNonExistingValuesOnly: With this parameter the "existing data points by day" file from the analyze script is used and checked for each day and datapoint. In this mode the existing-DB-Values are always ignored, and also not updated, so please do another analyze run after using that mode!!!
  • --processAllDPs: With this parameter you make sure that all existing data points from the history files is transferred into the DB, also if these are not existing in that DB so far.
  • --simulate: With this parameter you enable the simulation mode, means that no real write happens and also the analyze-datafiles will not be updated on exit.

Changelog

5.0.1 (2026-08-26)

  • (@joltcoke) Fixed average and total returning null for every interval that contains a null value: parseFloat(null) is NaN and poisoned the sum of the whole interval (thanks to @joltcoke, ioBroker/ioBroker.sql#526). As the result was NaN and not null, ignoreNull could not act on it either
  • (@joltcoke) Fixed min returning a wrong value if the interval contains a null, minmax losing the minimum if the interval starts with a null, and percentile/quantile counting a null as 0

5.0.0 (2026-08-26)

  • (ioBroker-Bot) Adapter requires js-controller >= 6.0.11 now.
  • (simatec) Responsive Design added
  • (@GermanBluefox) Adapter requires node.js >= 22 now.
  • (@GermanBluefox) Added the data browser to the configuration, so the stored values can be viewed, edited and deleted.
  • (@GermanBluefox) The aggregation is used now from @iobroker/aggregate and is shared with the SQL and InfluxDB adapters.

4.0.0 (2026-03-10)

  • (iobroker-bot) Adapter requires node.js >= 20 now.
  • (@GermanBluefox) Migrated to TypeScript

3.0.1 (2023-10-24)

  • (tuxyme) activated the round option when averaging

3.0.0 (2023-09-19)

  • (foxriver76) fix history2db.js with controller v5
  • (bluefox) Minimal node.sj version is 16
  • (bluefox) Added support for count aggregate type on getHistory

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014-2026 Bluefox dogafox@gmail.com, Apollon77

Copyright (c) 2016 Smiling_Jack

Copyright (c) 2014 hobbyquaker

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.