Feature Request: datetime Entity Node

[joaopedros2]

Summary

I'd like to request a new Entity Node for datetime, similar to the existing time-entity node, but supporting a combined date and time value — equivalent to Home Assistant's input_datetime helper with has_date: true and has_time: true.

Motivation

Currently, the package has a time-entity node (Entity Nodes section) that creates a time entity in HA, but it only supports the HH:mm:ss format — no date component.

To expose a full date+time picker editable from the HA dashboard via Node-RED, users have to manually create an input_datetime helper in HA (via UI or configuration.yaml) and then interact with it using the Action node. There is no way to create and manage it directly from Node-RED like the other entity nodes.

Proposed Behaviour

A new ha-datetime-entity Entity Node with:

• listen mode — outputs a message when the value changes in HA
• get mode — returns the current datetime value on input
• set mode — sets the entity value (format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss)

The entity would appear in Home Assistant as a datetime entity, showing a full date+time picker on the dashboard.

Example Use Case

Being able to set a future event date+time directly from the HA dashboard (e.g. a scheduled irrigation date, a reminder, an alarm with date), and have Node-RED react to it or control it programmatically.

References

• Existing time-entity node: https://zachowj.github.io/node-red-contrib-home-assistant-websocket/node/time-entity.html
• Home Assistant datetime entity: https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/entity/datetime/

Thank you for the great work on this package!