Hide Supertiles Question Mark when loading

When loading a dashboard it doesn’t look great to have a bunch of question marks where the super tiles are loading. Even if the supertiles load quickly the question mark still shows briefly and can end up displaying over the tile label and ends up making the dashboard look less professional. My preference would be just to get rid of the question mark. However, if some folk prefer it maybe we could have either a global / per-dashboard / per-supertile preference to not show the questions marks whilst loading.

Maybe a more subtle loading indicator like a shimmer animation in the background of the tile instead of a question mark (or spinner) could be a good compromise?

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Edit: I should also add that I think there’s opportunity for improvement in the load time of Super Tiles. I suspect that we could do some work around caching the Super Tile structure client side which could speed up the perceived loading time. Since it would be cached (and the tile potentially could have been changed), we might still need some sort of visual cue like the shimmer animation above or graying out the content or something of that nature, but I believe the tradeoff would be worth it for the vast majority of cases. Here’s a relevant feature request:

:hourglass_flowing_sand: Improve Super Tile Fresh Load Time

2 Likes

+1 tho out of votes. I would favor no loading indicator at all, not even a subtle one.

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Thanks for the feedback. If this is a high priority for you, you can remove a vote from another request and move it here. :grinning:

I wondered if a bit of custom css in the dashboard theme could resolve it for users comfortable with the themes function. This works for me:

svg[data-icon="question"] { visibility: hidden }

(although I suspect this would hide the question mark if it was used as the intended icon
for a tile as well)

3 Likes

The custom css works perfectly for me so I’ve removed my vote for a change to the system for this. Just another example of the brilliant flexibility of SharpTools!

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This works great, Thanks

Would custom CSS also work to remove the (X) when using a Overlay

I tend to tap outside of the overlay to close it, just would be nice to remove the (X)

lol. I do exactly the same thing :smiley:
Try this:
.right.close { visibility: hidden }

2 Likes

Thanks again, worked great

Nice. Easy fix. Works for me!

Just added a vote for this as well. I think your solution for a shimmering effect would be a big improvement over a question mark.

The CSS code worked REALLY well. a question for you (xap) or Josh - if you are happening to check on these comments…

After adding the CSS code, I no longer see the question marks, however on my Amazon Fire tablet, I am thinking the overall load time is now taking longer.

Josh - will adding CSS code to themes add a lot of overhead and possibly slow down load time of screens?

I also have all Fire Tablet’s, I must admit I haven’t noticed them slowing down when using the CSS code, Could possible be a trick of the eye as you no longer see the ? And just a void

Personal I only use Super Tile’s and Variable Tile’s and the ? Is one of the best features of SharpTools

When using Super Tile’s/Variable Tile’s you can style the ? to suit your dashboard, this differently tricks the eye into thinking your dashboard is loading faster.

Basically you are replacing the ? with a style, which is already loaded on the page prior to being populated

I use mainly translucent tile’s with borders, but you can use any style to suit, when using Super Tile’s and Variable Tile’s

This is my style that replaces the ?

Once loaded

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I think this is a better solution than custom css to hide the question mark. Nice one.

1 Like