Mt Fromme Gate — Home Assistant

A Home Assistant integration and sensor for the current parking lot closing time at Mt Fromme (District of North Vancouver), so you can use it on dashboards, notifications, or countdown automations.

UPDATE JULY 2026: Fixed, and rebuilt as a proper HACS custom integration. DNV rebuilt their site as a client-rendered React app (SimpliCity CMS), so scraping the rendered HTML no longer worked. The integration now calls the CMS's underlying JSON API directly (simplicity-api.dnv.org/public/webpage/path/detailed/...) instead of scraping HTML. GitHub Issue Link

There are two ways to use this repo:

• HACS custom integration (recommended) — install through HACS, configure via the UI, no scripts or YAML editing, no Python dependencies to manage inside the container.
• Legacy command_line script — the original standalone fromme.py, for anyone who'd rather not add a custom integration.

How it works

Both the integration and the standalone script request DNV's page-content API for the "Hiking and cycling trails in parks" page, find the "Parking at Fromme Mountain" table in the returned JSON, and resolve today's (and tomorrow's) applicable closing time from the listed date ranges — correctly handling ranges that wrap around New Year's (e.g. October–February).

Installation (HACS, recommended)

1. Add this repository to HACS as a custom repository:

   • HACS → the ⋮ menu (top right) → Custom repositories
   • Repository: https://github.com/vancityactivist/mtfromme_gate-HA
   • Category: Integration
   • Click Add

2. Install the integration. Find "Mt Fromme Gate" in HACS → Integrations, click Download, then restart Home Assistant (Settings → System → Restart, or restart the container: docker restart homeassistant on unRAID).

3. Add the integration via the UI. Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → search for "Mt Fromme Gate" → follow the prompt. No configuration is required — it just creates the entity.

4. Verify it worked. You'll get a sensor.mt_fromme_gate_closing_time entity with:

   • State: a timestamp — the next upcoming gate closing (today's if it hasn't passed yet, otherwise tomorrow's), so Lovelace can render it as "in 3 hours" and automations can trigger relative to it.
   • Attribute today_closing_time: today's closing time as HH:MM.
   • Attribute schedule: the full date-range → closing-time table, as fetched from DNV.

   If the entity doesn't appear or shows unavailable, check Settings → System → Logs for mt_fromme_gate errors.

Legacy installation (command_line script)

If you'd rather not add a custom integration, fromme.py is a standalone script you can run via a command_line sensor. These steps assume Home Assistant is running in Docker on unRAID with its config directory mapped to a host path such as /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant.

1. Find your HA config share. In the unRAID UI, go to the Home Assistant container's settings and note the host path mapped to the container's /config (typically /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant).

2. Create a scripts folder and copy the script in. Using the unRAID terminal, a file manager plugin (Krusader), or an SMB share to that path:

   mkdir -p /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant/scripts
   cd /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant/scripts
   curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vancityactivist/mtfromme_gate-HA/main/fromme.py

3. Verify requests is available inside the container. The official Home Assistant image already ships requests (HA core depends on it), but it's worth a quick check from the unRAID host:

   docker exec -it homeassistant python3 -c "import requests; print('ok')"

   If that fails, install it inside the container's Python environment:

   docker exec -it homeassistant pip3 install requests

   Note this won't survive a container recreation/update.

4. Add the sensor to configuration.yaml. Edit /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant/configuration.yaml (same folder as scripts/) and add:

   command_line:
     - sensor:
         name: mt_fromme_gate_closing_time
         command: "python3 /config/scripts/fromme.py"
         scan_interval: 86400

   Note the path is /config/scripts/fromme.py — that's the path inside the container, which is where /mnt/user/appdata/homeassistant is mounted.

5. Restart the Home Assistant container to apply the change.

6. Verify it worked. Developer Tools → States → sensor.mt_fromme_gate_closing_time should show a time like 21:00.

Legacy script troubleshooting

• Run it manually first.

  docker exec -it homeassistant python3 /config/scripts/fromme.py

  This should print a time like 18:00. Any traceback points at the real problem (missing requests, network/DNS issue, or the DNV API shape has changed again).
• scan_interval: 86400 means Home Assistant only refreshes this sensor once a day — restart HA or call homeassistant.update_entity on the sensor to force an immediate refresh.
• Sensor stuck on unknown usually means the command exited non-zero or printed nothing — check Settings → System → Logs for command_line errors.

Repository structure

custom_components/mt_fromme_gate/   HACS-installable integration
fromme.py                           Standalone script for the legacy method
hacs.json                           HACS repository metadata

Risks

Both the integration and the script call an undocumented internal API used by the DNV website's CMS (SimpliCity), not an official public API. This may break at any time if DNV changes their CMS, API, or page structure, with no advance notice.

Contributing

Feel free to fork the project, make improvements, and submit pull requests.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for the full text.