I'm working on a script to send weather alerts directly to an app like Telegram or Discord, especially since I often go camping where I can receive texts, but the weather radar apps don't refresh properly. My main concern is figuring out the best way to ensure I only send new unique alerts. I was thinking about combining a few fields to create a hash, then saving those details along with the hash to a CSV file. Before sending a notification to Telegram, I could check if the hash already exists. However, I'm open to suggestions if there are better methods for achieving this. Thanks, RogueIT!
5 Answers
I plan on sharing my weather script that outputs to a CSV on Monday. My script currently pulls alerts and hashes the fields, but I'm looking for a better strategy to ensure I don't get repetitive alerts. I mean, I'd rather not send the same alerts every 15 minutes if they've already been notified. I’ll have more details when I'm back at my computer!
If you have a home lab setup, running an n8n server locally might be worth exploring. You can connect it to your Telegram bot or Discord for managing alerts more efficiently.
You could utilize Sort-Object with a calculated property like this:
```
$list | Sort-Object -Unique -Property { $_.Category + $_.Type }
```
This way, you can sort your alerts and only get unique results. It might be a good fit depending on how your script is structured.
I just worry about the scenario when I pull from that list again in 15 minutes — how can I avoid seeing the items I’ve already processed?
You could consider piping data into Select-Object -Unique before sending out your alerts, but even then, if you pull the data again, how do you make sure to avoid sending the same alerts after 15 minutes?
It really depends on how you define 'unique.' You might consider setting up a database to track results and use an API to pull fresh alerts. Group the results by relevant properties to filter out duplicates. Also, think about how you're sending those texts and why you're using PowerShell for this task. What do you have set up so far?
I can send texts to Telegram without an issue; I just need to figure out how to prevent resending the same alerts every 15 minutes when I fetch from the alerts API again. I'm definitely going to check out n8n — sounds interesting!