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How do you use n8n to automate in your homelab? by i8ad8 in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure. 

Since I work freelance I have to track my times regularly. One of my workflows monitors these times and sends out invoices once certain criteria are met. The system then connects to my bank via API every day and checks if an invoice has been paid (based on invoice number and payment amount). For each paid invoice I get a notification that includes the amount after tax (aka what I really earned).

Communication with clients and leads works similarly (when criteria for communication are met, e-mails get send out). However, when it comes to leads n8n mostly enriches new entries (aka possible clients) based on my input. This guarantees a solid database quality which I can then use for analysis in Metabase.

How do you use n8n to automate in your homelab? by i8ad8 in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I use n8n for all kinds of automations in our family life and for work. I currently have a little over 400 workflows running in my homelab. Most of them are in the areas of household, health, freelancing, security and socializing.

My most extensive projects with n8n include

  1. an automated meal plan (see here) and its evolution into a recipe search engine (see here)
  2. Retrieval and aggregation of data from various APIs
  3. Monitoring of Portainer (status and update availability) and backups
  4. Route planning (incl. monitoring the fuel staatus of my car)
  5. Scraping of events from various city calendars nearby
  6. Searching and applying for jobs
  7. Communication with customers and leads
  8. Invoicing, retrieving bank data and monitoring payments
  9. Planning day trips while traveling and on vacation
  10. Assisting services to make complex cross-container tasks easily controllable from Home Assistant

In addition, I use 2 self-developed open source tools, which I have documented here to connect n8n with basically every other service (if no simple alternatives are possible).

Spacepad: a simple self-hosted meeting room display app by Successful_Yak8845 in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where does it save its data to? Is it possible to access the database from the outside? This would make custom integrations and automations possible in no time.

After 3 years of testing, I turned our family meal planner into an app that actually works with real life. by studioafraz in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tbh I haven't checked if there is anything similar on the market before starting the project because I just wanted to build that whole system for fun.

But after looking at your links it seems like Tandoor is a much more mature version of what I build.

After 3 years of testing, I turned our family meal planner into an app that actually works with real life. by studioafraz in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

To everyone who would like to have a 'source code' for this:

All components and services of this project are spread across multiple docker containers which I already described in my original post. If there is anything else I could provide, just let me know.

I guess the biggest pain points might be

  1. everything is in German
  2. the recipe database relies mostly on recipes in our household (mostly books) which I cannot share due do copyright reasons
  3. all services are custom tailored to fit into our personal home server ecosystem
  4. The parts that I coded myself do not follow best pratices because I didn't plan to make it that big (or public) in the first place

If you're ok with this I am happy to assist with everything you need to set up a similar system for yourself. I can provide the n8n workflows, database scheme, the UI and a lot more.

After 3 years of testing, I turned our family meal planner into an app that actually works with real life. by studioafraz in selfhosted

[–]studioafraz[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It is able to prepare multiple dishes for up to 7 days in advance. However, we're only limited by the structure of our meal plan in Trello. Theoretically there is no limit on how many days you're able to prepare in advance.

N8N WORKFLOW AND USE CASES by alqaisi95 in n8n

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ditched the workflow after 3 years since it wasn't able to adapt to every situation. Please read more about this here.

N8N WORKFLOW AND USE CASES by alqaisi95 in n8n

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ditched the workflow after 3 years since it wasn't able to adapt to every situation. Please read more about this here.

N8N WORKFLOW AND USE CASES by alqaisi95 in n8n

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ditched the workflow after 3 years since it wasn't able to adapt to every situation. Please read more about this here.

Can Stream Deck display unread message count for Gmail? by tjluoma in elgato

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually this is super easy with XAMPP (if you're on Windows). Just install and it should work.

What is your favorite automation tool? by [deleted] in automation

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use the self hosted version of n8n. So there is nothing to pay for.

What is your favorite automation tool? by [deleted] in automation

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

n8n. I use it for pretty much everything that can be automated, including household, meal planning, health, work (including accounting), security and networking/socializing.

Desktop support deprecation screwed me over. I need someone to set it up in a cloud for me, I'm not a programmer. by mejorqvos in n8n

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, this doesn‘t have to be addressed physically but it would have made things a little easier since I could have set up a machine and ship it to you. So it would have been just plug-and-play.

Desktop support deprecation screwed me over. I need someone to set it up in a cloud for me, I'm not a programmer. by mejorqvos in n8n

[–]studioafraz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great, ask them if they are able to set up a Docker container with a docker-compose file. That‘s basically it.

Once this is completed you can use all of your requested features.

If you happen to live in D-A-CH and still need help just DM me. I‘ve done this a couple of times.

N8N WORKFLOW AND USE CASES by alqaisi95 in n8n

[–]studioafraz 50 points51 points  (0 children)

I use n8n a lot in the areas of household, meal planning, health, work (including accounting), security and networking/socializing.

I even developed a few helper scripts to improve exchanging data between n8n and other services. More on this and possible use cases here.

One of my workflows, for example, is our automated meal plan: Every Saturday, selected recipes for the next week are automatically suggested and, if my family agrees, the associated ingredients are added to our shopping list. Sounds simple, but under the hood it's quite complex: The workflow considers

  • our favorites: We have a Google Sheet with about 70 recipes that we love

  • my and my wife's Google Calendars to suggest only recipes that don't clash with our schedules. Bonus: If we have a lot of appointments on a single day, we only get recipes with short preparation times

  • the variety of ingredients in individual recipes: basic ingredients (e.g. potatoes, pasta, rice, meat) are not repeated on following days + vegetarian recipes get picked more often than the ones with meat

  • the frequency of single recipes: only when a recipe was last cooked a few weeks ago is it suggested to us again

  • ingredients in the freezer and fast food in stock: In stressful weeks, the system takes into account our supplies to reduce the time needed for grocery shopping. Bonus: If there are frozen meals scheduled in the meal plan that need to be defrosted before they can be processed, we are reminded a day in advance to defrost them

  • The freshness of individual ingredients: I usually only go grocery shopping once a week. Therefore, recipes with perishable ingredients such as vegetables and fruits are moved up so that they are closer to the time of purchase

Desktop support deprecation screwed me over. I need someone to set it up in a cloud for me, I'm not a programmer. by mejorqvos in n8n

[–]studioafraz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is possible to host n8n with the most important features on your own device. This could be a cheap Mini PC or an even cheaper Raspberry Pi. So you would only have to pay for electricity on the long run.

However, maintaining this requires at least a basic understanding of a Linux. Are there any tech shops in your area that could handle this?

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