Tile Security, Dashboard Customizations, Thermostats, and Fullscreen

[josh]

We are excited to announce a number of great features with today’s SharpTools.io platform release including new features for dashboard and tile security, enhancements to thermostats, and updates to fullscreen support.

• Dashboard and Tile Security
• Dashboard Customizations
• Thermostat Tile Improvements
• Fullscreen Improvements
• Other Enhancements

Dashboard and Tile Security

One of the most popularly requested features, PIN Protection, is now available as part of the new dashboard and tile security settings.

Once a PIN has been set in the dashboard’s settings, you can choose to either enable PIN protection for all tiles from the dashboard settings or individually enable PIN protection on each tile.

Alternatively, all tiles on a dashboard can be made ‘view only’ from the dashboard settings… or on each individual tile, you can choose to override the security settings and allow Control, View Only, Confirmation Prompt, or PIN Protection.

Dashboard Customizations

In addition to the new dashboard security settings mentioned in the previous section, this release also includes the ability to set the Background Color for a dashboard as well as an advanced setting for adjusting the Tile Spacing (Gutter).

To adjust the dashboard’s background color, simply open the dashboard settings and you’ll now find a ‘Background Color’ option alongside the Tile Default Color and Tile Active Color options. Be sure to check the ‘Override Default Colors’ option in order to set your custom colors!

In order to adjust the tile spacing (gutter), flip the ‘Advanced’ toggle on in the top-right corner of the dashboard settings and the Tile Space (Gutter) option will become available. This setting allows you to completely remove the tile spacing or adjust the amount of spacing between the tiles. This is especially helpful if you’ve reduced the tile size and would like to also reduce the space between the tiles.

Thermostat Tile Improvements

Thermostats now have support for active state coloring as well as an option for showing a red/blue color for heat/cool mode. Additionally, if the thermostat reports temperature values less than 50*, the tile will automatically enable 0.5 increments for Celsius users.

The new active state color for thermostats will automatically become available to you if you already have a active color set for either an individual thermostat or for a whole dashboard. When the thermostat operating state changes to ‘heating’ or ‘cooling’, the thermostat will be considered active and the active color will be displayed.

Note: If you prefer not to display an active color for your thermostat, simply set the tile’s active color to the same color as the default color.

Thermostats can also show a red color to reflect heating and a blue color to reflect cooling. In order to enable this feature, edit the thermostat and check the Show Heat/Cool Color option under Additional Options.

Fullscreen Improvements

This release includes several improvements around ‘fullscreen’:

• There is now a View (Kiosk Mode) option in the ... menu of the dashboard list which hides the top navigation bar and menu button
  • Additionally, you can append ?kiosk=true to a dashboard URL to have the dashboard automatically start in kiosk mode
• iOS devices will automatically use kiosk mode when the fullscreen button is pressed and a dialog will be shown showing how to use ‘Add to Homescreen’
• Fully Kiosk Browser users will be presented with the option of using Kiosk Mode when the fullscreen button is pressed
  • Note that the use of Fully Kiosk can only be detected if the Fully Kiosk Javascript API is enabled or on the (unreleased) Fully Kiosk version 1.27 and newer

Other Enhancements

• The Add Item list now shows checkmarks next to things as they are added to your dashboard
• Hero Attribute tiles now truncate decimals by default and have an option for choosing how many decimals are displayed
• The icon on the Hubitat Safey Monitor ‘Picker’ tile now reflects the currently active HSM state
• Improvements to platform pairing process
• Added a Set as Start URL option to the ... menu on the dashboard list (if using Fully Kiosk Browser with the JavaScript API enabled)
• Other enhancements and bug fixes

[RaY_Tavan_Ho]

Very nice update. It’s very usable and visually attractive on my wall mount tablet.

[josh]

Glad you like it! I’d love to see some photos of your setup in the Share your cool SharpTools project! thread!

[vjv]

Awesome update and thanks for taking our suggestions!

[josh]

Thanks for sharing your feedback! It’s always helpful to hear other people’s perspectives and better understand their needs/wants so we can build the best dashboard and home automation solution!

[Dan_Fox]

A small bug seems to have cropped up with this release. The default text on a hero layout for a switch shows NaN instead of ON or OFF.

[josh]

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll take a look and see what’s going on.

[josh]

The NaN issue on Hero Attribute tiles has been resolved in the latest deployment. Thanks for reporting!

[Dan_Fox]

Thanks for the prompt response, Josh!

[vjv]

@josh

Thanks for sharing your feedback! It’s always helpful to hear other people’s perspectives and better understand their needs/wants so we can build the best dashboard and home automation solution!

Hey Josh, after playing with new features I found some details that maybe you want to take care of them.

I have multiple water valves, there is no icons for valves, anyway I noticed when you change the layout to hero then the security option is not available and you can’t add an icon if needed. Only default let you add security and icons.

Another detail is on each tile there is an option to change the color and invert the active state, valves some are open the default so I had to change the color inverting them, the tile inverts the color but the icon glows, in this case for me should be when the valve is ON that’s ok, regular color and no glow icon should have, then if it’s OFF then different tile color and glow icon, apparently the icon is tied to the state of the device, if device is on then glow, but this is a main valve, it should be on all times unless a water leak detector is triggered. I have irrigation valves and default colors are ok but no icon available.

Not related with this update but they way the tiles move around I don’t like it, if you add a new tile and want it to move it in the first spot it will screw up a lot of everything else. For example, I like to organize my tiles in alphabetical order, if I move a tile from the bottom to the top depending of what column you moved the new tile that column will scroll down, that will get the order disorganized, but if the tiles moves from left to right and where you move a new tile just push all others to the next spot it will keep the alphabetical order. This is not a priority but I like to change and add new devices, now it cause me to delete the dashboard and create a new one because is easier than trying to move all the mess.

I just moved all my dashboards to Sharptools, I want to thank you, I know Sharptools is free but in the past I paid for other tiles for ST so I want to make you a donation but I don’t know where. Please let me know.

Thanks.

Edit: I also noticed that kiosk mode has the ability to swipe from the left side of the screen to the right and the Sharptools menu will show up, honestly I don’t want this happening because if I share a dashboard (even the dashboard for my wife) swiping can access my account and other dashboards. I’m not sure if I’m doing something incorrect with this or all of the above, if that is the case, please my apologies, let me know how to correct my procedures.

Thank you.

[josh]

@vjv

I have multiple water valves, there is no icons for valves

The default icon for valves should be a water droplet. Based on your other comments though, it sounds like the device may not be reporting itself as a valve or something else is going on.

@vjv

I noticed when you change the layout to hero then the security option is not available and you can’t add an icon if needed. Only default let you add security and icons.

Since the Hero Attribute tiles don’t currently have any actions available, there’s presently no need for a security option. Tiles which have actions have the security option (eg. thermostats, music player, rule tiles, etc) and display/link tiles don’t have the security option (eg. clock, media tile, dashboard link, etc).

Regarding icons on hero attribute tiles, how would you expect these to be displayed? The primary content on a Hero Attribute tile is the value of the attribute you’ve chosen and that is displayed in a large font which takes up the majority of the space.

@vjv

valves some are open the default so I had to change the color inverting them, the tile inverts the color but the icon glows

Thanks for mentioning this. I’ll look into inverting the ‘glow’ as well.

That being said, it sounds like your device is reporting itself as a switch rather than a valve as valves shouldn’t have the glow applied to them. If you want to PM me the device details, I’m happy to take a look.

@vjv

Not related with this update but they way the tiles move around I don’t like it…
…
For example, I like to organize my tiles in alphabetical order…

Thanks for the feedback and the specific example. One other user mentioned their distaste for the tile reordering and in their specific example, they effectively had their tiles ‘grouped’ together by different parameters. I’ve been thinking about adding tile rows/grouping and I think that would actually solve the root of his issue.

For your specific need, I’m wondering if a different list style UI for editing the tile order might be helpful to you so you could drag things up and down the list since your primary concern is the alphabetical ordering (and perhaps some tools for quick sorting). Or alternatively, some way to say move tile B before tile A or something along those lines.

I’m concerned that if I fundamentally change the tile packing algorithm, I’ll make one set of people happy and another unhappy. So I’m trying to find a middle ground that works best for everyone… or at least figure out what most people want!

Thanks for the desire to donate, but hold onto your money for now! We have plans to introduce a premium tier at some point and hopefully you’ll be enjoying things enough that you’ll find value in the new premium tier.

@vjv

I also noticed that kiosk mode has the ability to swipe from the left side of the screen to the right and the Sharptools menu will show up, honestly I don’t want this happening because if I share a dashboard (even the dashboard for my wife) swiping can access my account and other dashboards.

We went back and forth on this… and I still might end up hiding the left navigation in kiosk mode. Kiosk mode visually simplifies things and is one additional step in locking things down, but I wouldn’t really view it as securing the dashboard. We have plans to add a sharing / guest feature where you would be able to share an individual dashboard with someone directly. They would sign-in with their own account and would only have access to just the things you’ve shared with them.

[josh]

@josh

The default icon for valves should be a water droplet. Based on your other comments though, it sounds like the device may not be reporting itself as a valve or something else is going on.

I looked into it further and it looks like some of the valve device drivers for Hubitat report a switch attribute as well which is taking precedence. I’ll flip the order of precedence as a valve should be weighted heavier than a switch.

Also, I realized that the water droplet icon that’s used for valves isn’t exposed in the list of icons to choose from, so I’ll add it to the list of user selectable icons. If you have a specific valve type of icon in mind, send me a reference icon (image/screenshot) so I can get an idea of what you have in mind and I’ll see what I can do.

[vjv]

@josh

Since the Hero Attribute tiles don’t currently have any actions available, there’s presently no need for a security option. Tiles which have actions have the security option (eg. thermostats, music player, rule tiles, etc) and display/link tiles don’t have the security option (eg. clock, media tile, dashboard link, etc).

Regarding icons on hero attribute tiles, how would you expect these to be displayed? The primary content on a Hero Attribute tile is the value of the attribute you’ve chosen and that is displayed in a large font which takes up the majority of the space

This was based on my particular issue with the valve and the glowing icon, I changed to hero and swapped the colors, no security. I have this valve on my fire tablet in the wall and is not funny the kids trying when I’m in the shower… But yes, hero is not needed, probably fixing the glow will fix the problem instead changing the whole dashboard for me haha

@josh

I’ve been thinking about adding tile rows/grouping and I think that would actually solve the root of his issue.

For your specific need, I’m wondering if a different list style UI for editing the tile order might be helpful to you so you could drag things up and down the list since your primary concern is the alphabetical ordering (and perhaps some tools for quick sorting). Or alternatively, some way to say move tile B before tile A or something along those lines.

Any will work, you can leave the default way, the one we have now, but add those additional ways to select them if anyone want to use them.

@josh

Thanks for the desire to donate, but hold onto your money for now! We have plans to introduce a premium tier at some point and hopefully you’ll be enjoying things enough that you’ll find value in the new premium tier.

Ok, I will wait, thanks.

@josh

We have plans to add a sharing / guest feature

I will wait for this too, thanks.

@josh

If you have a specific valve type of icon in mind, send me a reference icon

Anyone of this:

@josh

That being said, it sounds like your device is reporting itself as a switch rather than a valve as valves shouldn’t have the glow applied to them. If you want to PM me the device details, I’m happy to take a look.

It’s a LeakSmart Zigbee valve:

The driver is here:

https://community.hubitat.com/t/compatible-devices-list/113/222

Thanks for taking time to answer, I know some of my stuff is nonsense sometimes.

[Keith_Smith]

Love the new update, especially being new to this. Seeing updates always make me know the dev cares. Question though, it seems to have borked the media images. I have links to photos and those are showing as broken even though the link is still good. Any ideas?

[josh]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the updates!

The media tiles weren’t modified as part of this release, so nothing should have changed with them. I make heavy use of media tiles in my dashboards and it’s all working fine on my end.

I would double check that the media source is available directly from the device that you view the dashboard on. What kind of media resource is it? (eg. local IP camera, photos on a NAS, photos on Flickr)

[Keith_Smith]

I have tried a couple of options. One is stored in my Google Photos the other on Dropbox. They have not been moved and when I right click the image on the dashboard and select “Copy Image Link” and paste it in a new tab the image is there.

[josh]

Can you PM me a sample link? The linked photo would need to be publicly accessible directly from the URL without logging in.

[Keith_Smith]

Can’t figure out how to PM on here but this image is ok to post on here. Dropbox - Gryffindor Common Room.jpg - Simplify your life

[josh]

Ah, yeah… that’s a quirk of Dropbox. When you share an image, by default it actually links to a web page which has the image in it. We need a link directly to the raw image rather than a page which has the image in it.

After sharing the image on Dropbox, you’ll need to change the ?dl=0 to ?raw=1 at the end of the URL so that you can directly view the image file (rather than the interstitial page which embeds the image)

[Keith_Smith]

Didn’t work. Let me try a different hosting service. I would like to use Google Photos but that one isn’t working either