Apple Shortcut to Disable Pi-Hole for Specified Time

With the recent changes made to how the API operates, the old method for disabling no longer works.

The instructions below will provide guidance on how to use Apple Shortcuts to create a button which can disable the Pi-hole temporarily.

1. Navigate to “Apple Shortcuts” and create a new shortcut. Set the name by touching the “New Shortcut” at the top and selecting “Rename”. Choose a new name or call it “Disable Pi-hole.”
2. Go to “Search Actions” and look for “Dictionary”. Select it and touch “Add New Item.”

3. Several items are going to be added, all of which will be of value “Number.” Enter the following values as shown below. These can be changed based on your own preference.

   Key	Number
   1min	60
   5min	300
   30min	1800
   60min	3600
   240min	14400

   An example of what this should look like when you’re done is below:

   

4. The initial request to authenticate with the server needs to be created. Search for “Get Contents of URL”. Setup the options as demonstrated below.

   Get contents of http://pi.hole/api/auth/.

   Method: POST

   Headers:

   Key	Text
   Content-Type	application/json
   accept	application/json

   Request Body: JSON

   Key	Text
   password	ADMIN_PIHOLE_PASSWORD

   When you have completed the steps you should see something similar to below:

   

5. Now a new block will be added to gather the session information from the response. Search for “Get Dictionary Value.”

   “Get Value for session in Contents of URL”

6. With the session information collected specific values need to be parsed. Search for “Get Dictionary Value” and configure it as follows:

   “Get Value for sid in Dictionary Value”

7. Finally, the sid is going to be assigned to a variable. Search for “Set Variable” and configure it with:

   “Set variable SID to Dictionary Value”

   After following the steps above, the following should be preset.

   

8. A new block will be setup to allow the selection of a time which will be used as a parameter in the next API call. Search for the block called “Choose from List.”

   Configure it to choose from the dictionary created in step 3, which contained the time and seconds.

   After selecting the dictionary, touch the word “Dictionary” and change it to the variable name of Time.

   

9. Setup a new “Get Contents of URL” block and configure it as follows:

   Get contents of http://pi.hole/api/dns/blocking.

   Method: POST

   For the value X-FTL-SID the variable SID is selected.

   Headers:

   Key	Text
   Content-Type	application/json
   accept	application/json
   X-FTL-SID	SID

   Request Body: JSON

   Key	Boolean
   blocking	False

   For the timer option, the value being used is the item selected in step 8 by the user on runtime.

   Key	Number
   timer	Selected Item

   When you have completed the steps you should see something similar to below:

   

10. A “Play Sound” block is added, but not required.

11. Lastly, a notification is displayed to the user with “Pi-Hole Disabled for Selected Item seconds” which is option.

    

With everything in place, a widget can be added to your home screen to simply push it, select the time, and disable the Pi-hole for the duration selected.

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