Release: Dashboard Backgrounds and Transparent Tiles

SharpTools.io (web) Announcements
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We are excited to announce another awesome SharpTools.io release - this one brings with it dashboard background images, transparent tiles, and a number of other great features!

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Dashboard Backgrounds

You’ll now find a Background Image option in your Dashboard settings which allows you to pick from the following background sources:

  • Editor Picks - a curated selection of backgrounds that change periodically
  • Media - select one of your Media items to use as a background
  • Bing - choose from Bing’s image of the day (or rotate between the images from the past week)

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Transparent Tiles

What good are background images if you can’t see them? This release also brings with it the option to use transparent and semi-transparent tiles.
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Other Enhancements

  • Touch indication on tiles
    • Tiles now show a waves-effect when they are touched and a small spinning indicator while actions are in progress
    • This provides immediate feedback that a touch was registered and that an action is in progress.
  • Improved device control speed
    • Added a background process to keep your device control tokens fresh which should mean more consistent fast device control.
    • Previously, if you hadn’t used your dashboard in a while, it may have taken an extra second or two for the initial device control to occur - the background refresh should improve the consistency of fast device control.
  • Dimensions of Music Player tiles can now be adjusted
    • This allows for 1x1 music player tiles as well as any other scale of music player tile
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  • Smart Hyperlink Routing
    • If a Media Tile or Hyperlink links to a SharpTools.io app page (open in same window), the system will attempt to route to it directly - this means much faster page navigation, no page reloads, and a more streamlined experience.
    • This is particularly helpful if you want to use Media Tiles as navigational elements. You can use whatever images you want in the Media Tile and then set the Media Tile action to Hyperlink to your desired dashboard.
  • postMessage API for iframe wrappers
  • Added support for tile color to media tiles (eg. for transparent images)
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  • Thermostat Tiles now have a ‘Transparent Heat/Cool Color’ option
    • This option will only show if the ‘Show Heat/Cool Color’ option is enabled on a thermostat tile
  • Tile Editor will reposition itself vertically to show on your screen
    • Especially on mobile devices, if you had scrolled down the page and then attempted to edit a tile, the Tile Editor would remain in its original position much higher up on the screen.
    • The Tile Editor will now reposition itself vertically when you edit a tile so it’s displayed within your scrolled viewport
  • Other minor bug fixes (progress bar position, repeating healthchecks)
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Great work, this looks awesome! Is there a topic on SmartThings community forum for SharpTools.io?

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Not yet. We were just talking about that this afternoon - we need to create a topic on the SmartThings community! :grinning:

Feel free to share as you see fit in the meantime!

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Here it is…

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Works great on 4.4.4 KitKat. Much faster and the key press notification is extremely helpful. Thank you!

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I tried updating the media to a background image I had downloaded onto my iPad. When I clicked on the media link it said “coming soon”. Has this feature not been turned on yet?

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It’s only the “Add Media” link from the Media Selector in the Dashboard Background setting that shows ‘coming soon’ (thanks for the reminder!). You can still manually add Media directly from your User Page and then it will show up as a selection for your dashboard background:

https://sharptools.io/user/resources/media

Note that the image would need to be hosted online somewhere. The following post has some details:

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I cannot get this to work, even with your instructions and the link to the other thread. I suspect the issue may be that I’m trying to copy a photo from my google photos account from the Safari browser on my iPad. I’ll try using my wife’s MacBook or my old as dirt Windows Vista laptop that’s laying around.

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Ok, that worked once I logged in with an actual computer and uploaded the image that way.

Admin Note: Post split to How to get screensaver completely black?

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Hello,

I can’t seem to find where to adjust the transparency on any of my tiles. I will keep searching the support boards. If someone has any idea? Thank you in advance you all for your insight.

Daniel

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When selecting a color for a Tile Style, the colors where you can see the checkerboard pattern shining through are the semi-transparent colors:

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And near the black and white color selections, you’ll see a variety of different white/black opacities:

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thank you for your quick help with this

Daniel

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