Instant Switches! (and Spacer Improvements)

We’re excited to announce the next SharpTools.io Release! (Tap below to play video clip!)

https://imgur.com/BNJlsAM

Instant Switches

This release includes optimistic status changes for Switch tiles - what we lovingly refer to as “Instant Switches”. When tapping on a switch tile, the tile will instantly change to reflect the new status providing a more fluid and smooth experience.

This feature applies to Switch Tiles, Switch Level Tiles, and Color Control Tiles.

Long Press Action

We’ve introduced an additional way to bring up dimmer and color picker dialogs. You can now long-press on a Switch Level or Color Control tile to bring up the dialog! :sunglasses:

Tap Action (New Option)

We’ve also introduced new option in Switch Level and Color Control tiles to choose what action should be taken when the tile is tapped.

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This allows you to choose between toggling the light on/off or displaying the dialog to dim the light / change the color.

Color Tile - Default Action Changed

By popular request, we’ve changed the default action on Color Control tiles to toggle the light on/off. If you prefer the previous action (showing the color picker), you can use the new Action (Tap) setting.

Spacer Improvements

This release includes a number of enhancements around Spacer tiles - including how they are automatically injected and a new prompt to remove excess Spacers.

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While we’ve heard feedback that the automatic Spacer tile injection makes it much easier to build dashboards, we’ve also heard feedback that Spacer tiles can continue to add up after several edits and can become a burden (especially with smaller tile sizes).

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  1. The first enhancement we’ve made is to only inject spacers up to the last real tile which should prevent extra spacers being added at the end of your dashboard next to other existing spacer tiles.
  2. The second enhancement we’ve introduced is a new prompt which shows up if there are excess spacer tiles at the end of your dashboard. This will let you delete all the extra spacer tiles with a single click.

Having lots of excess Spacer tiles in your dashboard can slow things down, so be sure to try saving your dashboard and let it remove those Spacers for you!

Bug Fixes and Enhancements

  • Added new Back and Forward navigation tiles (under Dashboard in Add Items)
    • Especially helpful if you have multiple dashboards that link to another dashboard and you want to easily navigate back
    • eg. A, B, C → D.
      Then have a back button on D to go back to which ever dashboard you came from
  • Added security options to Hyperlink and Dashboard tiles
    • Important: if you have a dashboard level security setting applied, you may have to override the security on each ‘Dashboard’ tile and change it to Control to mimic the previous default security setting.
  • Added default attributes for Color Control devices in Hero Attribute Tiles
  • Improved rule post saving process
  • Exposed the Pandora (music) icon in the icon picker
  • [Fix] Battery tile now shows red for 0% (showed green inadvertently)
  • [Fix] Layout picker was empty on Album Art Tile
  • [Fix] Clamped # of lines on Album Art Tile
  • [Fix] Calendars and News Feeds can be repositioned on touch devices.
2 Likes

I’m seeing a huge speed increase while using the dashboard. Nice! Thanks!

2 Likes

It is possible to disable instant switch on specified tile?

Not directly on the Switch Tile layout.

As a workaround, you may be able to use the Hero Attribute tile. Tradeoffs being that you’ll have to display the state as text (optionally alongside an icon) and will lose the glowing effect… but you’ll retain switch control, active/default tile color indication, and the state will only change when reported by the platform/device.

Can you help me better understand the use-case for disabling instant switch state?

Thnx, works perfect as Hero tile. Basically, I have a switch that opens the front door, it changes its state only for 1 second, instant switch forces tile to show wrong state.

1 Like