Upcoming Features

[Tommy]

Awesome job guys!

Look forward to updating everything!

[Gilbert_Tunmer]

Honestly @josh you guys have outdone yourselves. The only thing left in my opinion is text wrapping or font scaling, or even the possibility to choose your font size. Once this is done, you guys have a far better product than “the other guys”
Everyday Im either moving pistons to rule engine or tablets over to you from them.

Seriously, congrats!

[Robert_P]

Hello,
I am new so maybe I have not yet read. Do you plan to add color support and CT to Philips Hue tiles?

[josh]

@Robert_P

Do you plan to add color support and CT to Philips Hue tiles?

Yes, we plan to add better support for color controllable devices. Surprisingly, we haven’t received a lot of requests for it yet, so we have prioritized other enhancements. Thanks for voicing your support though as it helps us prioritize what features should be implemented!

The SharpTools.io Rule Engine supports controlling color on devices, so if you have a few specific color settings that you’d like to use you could setup rules to change to your desired color and then add Rule Tiles to your dashboard. One benefit of this approach, is you could coordinate a color change of multiple devices at once. (The obvious downside being that you couldn’t dynamically select the color when tapping on a single tile)

[Dan_Fox]

Josh,
Could you put an option in for hyperlinks to open them in a new window?

[josh]

Yes. It should be pretty straightforward. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Robert_P]

1. Will be possible to change the background of the main screen to custom in the future?
   For example: red, green, other color or own jpg + RSS Fead (at the top, bottom of the screen - in kiosk mode there is a place for it)

2. Can you add other features to the player tile?

@Robert_P

Could you add the ON/OFF function to the media player?
It can be helpful when I turn on the media player and my amplifier can turn on too and other operating buttons.

3. Is it possible to add a change in the tile attribute (change layout) so that it will not display ON / OFF for the URI Switch (for example, useful for Volume UP, Volume Down where the tile does not need to display the status has only the function of a momentary button)

4. Can you add “Drag and Drop” tile to another which is a link to another dashboard (clone tile to other dashboard)?

[Gilbert_Tunmer]

For a while I also wanted the ability to custom the background. However I found out that because there is no way to force a new line and you have to use spacers to do this, you would almost never see the background. Its maybe something to look at from a theme perspective, but Im not sure having a jpg background is really worth looking at? I think its likely relatively easy to do though.

Cloning a dashboard, I think is worth investigating? Im sure they will add this at some point, although it might be lower on the priority list depending on the work flow that the guys currently have.

Im interested to find out how many people are using a media tile for songs/movies etc. So far Ive found them almost not worth it and still rather open spotify etc. But I think this especially as I need to push it from the app to my amp. Would love to know how you are doing the above and how useful youve found it. I have a few Pi’s lying around so I might start investigating

[josh]

@Robert_P

Will be possible to change the background of the main screen to custom in the future?
For example: red, green, other color or own jpg + RSS Fead (at the top, bottom of the screen - in kiosk mode there is a place for it)

If you are referring to the background color of the dashboard, you can change that today on each dashboard.

1. Open the ... menu in the bottom-right and select Configuration.
2. Check the box to Override Default Colors
3. Select your desired Background Color and tap Save

I’ll look into adding images as the background as well.

@Robert_P

2. Can you add other features to the player tile?

Can you send me a link to the device handler? What features in specific are you interested in using? Note that you can create a rule which runs whatever action(s) you desire via the Rule Engine and then create a Rule Tile to execute that rule.

For example, in your situation, you might create a rule which runs preset 1 and then create a rule tile letting you run that specific preset.

@Robert_P

3. Is it possible to add a change in the tile attribute (change layout) so that it will not display ON / OFF for the URI Switch (for example, useful for Volume UP, Volume Down where the tile does not need to display the status has only the function of a momentary button)

Is there a specific device handler you are using here? Perhaps if I could see it, it would help me better understand how it’s being used. I’m guessing it’s something like a momentary switch which implements the on() command, but it also automatically turns itself off (rather than using a Button device handler)?

I have been thinking about adding some more options in the Tile Editor for different tile types, so perhaps an option to hide/show the attribute value in the tile footer could be added. Would that help?

@Robert_P

4. Can you add “Drag and Drop” tile to another which is a link to another dashboard (clone tile to other dashboard)?

As Gilbert noted, we have a request in to clone a whole dashboard. Perhaps an option to copy a tile to another dashboard makes sense as well… I’ll need to think about the UI flow for this though as I don’t want to overly clutter the UI with options that are less frequently used.

[Tommy]

@josh the check marks when you click on something is awesome. Is there a way to click it again and it unchecks(removes). Not a big deal but was adding something and clicked the wrong thing a few times and it added it 3x. Just a thought, not huge deal.

[josh]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestion. At this point, I’d like keep that action on that screen consistent: adding items to the dashboard. (That being said, it might change in the future as we continue to add more features, so I appreciate the feedback!)

You may have noted that the checkmark animates a second time to indicate that another copy of the item has been added to the dashboard.

Also note that many people add devices to their dashboard multiple times, so it’s a desired behavior for many. For example, you might add a thing once just to get the default Thing tile and then a few more times so you could use Hero Attributes layouts to display different values from a thing on a dashboard.

[Tommy]

@josh

For example, you might add a thing once just to get the default Thing tile and then a few more times so you could use Hero Attributes layouts to display different values from a thing on a dashboard

That makes perfect sense. Thx.

[Robert_P]

I will refer only one thing (I have go to work).
I presented one of the necessary functions:

in that place in this picture (in red) “active color”, “default color” and “selected icon” will remain unchanged.

edit:

That’s all because you do not need to display “ON / OFF” when you press “Volume Up” or “volume down”. You do not need to highlight the loudspeaker icon for a long time because it is only a temporary operation. The backlight can be for 1 second.

Please, think about adding the third attribute of silent mode or hidden mode:
a) without backlighting the icon or chile backlight, e.g. 1 second
b) without displaying the on / off status
c) “active color”, “default color” and “selected icon” will remain unchanged

DRAG & DROP:

Background:

In the kiosk mode at the bottom of the dashboard, there is a large space for static text or an RSS feed, or maybe as the picture information from the player

Background and JPG - in fact, let’s forget about it.

PLAYER TILE:

“Other Actions” - other tiles to attach

Weather:

@josh, @Gilbert_Tunmer, @Tommy - thank you for active discussion in this topic.

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@Gilbert_Tunmer

But I think this especially as I need to push it from the app to my amp. Would love to know how you are doing the above and how useful youve found it. I have a few Pi’s lying around so I might start investigating

It’s nothing special:
picoreplayer
https://www.picoreplayer.org/main_howto.shtml

Picoreplayer and Smartthings integration:

Osram Plug (Sylvania Plug):
https://www.amazon.de/Osram-schaltbare-fernbedienbar-Lichtsteuerung-kompatibel/dp/B074PZLX2P

Uri Switch for Smartthings:

[OBSOLETE] URI Switch -- Device Handler for controlling items via HTTP calls

examples:
Play - plugins/Favorites/index.html?action=play&index=1.3&p0=mixer&p1=volume&p2=60
Volume Up - status.html?p0=mixer&p1=volume&p2=%2B8
Volume Down - status.html?p0=mixer&p1=volume&p2=%2D08
Pause - status.html?p0=pause
Play Next - index.html?p0=button&p1=jump_fwd
Play Prev. - index.html?p0=button&p1=jump_rew

presset (1,2,3 - the hearts visible in the picture) music - Virtual Switch Device for Smartthings…

… and Core or WebCore or Rule Engine (sharptools)

regards,
Robert

EDIT:

The “power” button will be probably made by the author of the “Smartthings-SqueezeBox-Control” application. So probably at this point without changes.

[ATN]

Is there any plans to be able to customize the text on the tiles, or at least so that sharptools automatically wrap long names so its visible… its a pain in the xxx to work with tiles 1x1 size

Oh, and copy a dashboard? (i know it has been asked about before, but it’s a REALLY useful feature

[josh]

Can you clarify what you are looking for with the ability to customize the text on tiles? You can already edit what text is displayed for the label by editing the tile:

1. Open your desired dashboard
2. Tap the ... in the bottom right corner of the dashboard and select Edit
3. Tap the ... in the top-right corner of your desired tile and select Edit
4. In the Tile Editor, check the box for Label
5. In the field that appears, enter your desired new label
6. Tap Save to close the Tile Editor
7. Tap the orange save icon in the bottom-right corner of the dashboard

Before:

After:

Note that you can use any valid text supported by your browser (like an emoji in my example above).

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Regarding the ability to allow text to wrap instead of truncate, it’s on my hit list to add it as an optional setting. Here’s a discussion thread with a mockup that shows some of the side effects:

Tile Security, Dashboard Customizations, Thermostats, and Fullscreen

I’d be pretty hesitant to adjust the positioning of the icon/main content as vertical centering is a pretty core component of getting a consistent look and feel. Mockups without title truncation Here’s some examples of what text looks like when it wraps rather than truncates on various tile sizes: Medium Tile Size (160px) [Default] [image] Small Tile Size (120px) [image] Tiny Tile Size (80px) [image] Granted, my example text is probably much longer than most long device names, but it…

And the ability to copy a dashboard is on the short list. Thanks for voicing your support!

Edit: I just checked and we have tile label wrapping and dashboard cloning tentatively included in the next sprint. We are wrapping up the current sprint which will release in early January and will start on those features next.

[ATN]

Fantastic
Are different tile sets within a dashboard also something You have planned? (easier to separate different categories within one dashboard)

[ATN]

I have about a thousand suggestions on things to add, and a few to change
Able to add color to blank tiles
Change size of icons
2 icon switching, on icon for active, and one for default
More icons: 3d printer, printer, laser, different animals,more human icons, children,adults etc, light tube, downlights, spotlights, different switches,

If i can help on the icons i would be happy to, if so i need the size and characteristics of hte layout

[josh]

Yes, we are looking into a few different options for grouping and separating potentially including groups, label tiles, and/or new layout options.

Color to blank tiles was recently suggested, so hearing another vote for it helps us understand the importance to the community.

Thanks for the specific icon suggestions! Can you clarify what you are looking for with light tubes, down lights, and lights?

Regarding changing the size of icons, what would you be looking for here? The icons automatically scale with the size of the smallest dimension of the tile. So if you have a 1x1 tile, the icon is 1x1 (in relative terms)… whereas if the tile was 2x2 the icon would scale to 2x2 (relative). If the tile was 2x1 or 1x2 the icon would stay 1x1 to fit the smallest dimension. The icons also scale dynamically with the tile size set in your dashboard settings.

[ATN]

Regarding icons for lights… ordinary long light tubes, just to separate from hanging lamps, standing lamps etc
different spotlights/downlights… again to separate from other type lamps…
Regarding icon resizing: Could be nice to have the ability to have bigger (or smaller) icons for the important tiles (or not so important tiles)
Just thought of another thing… would it be an idea to ad icons through media system? I.e small pictures, gifs, jpgs, photos, pure text etc…

[josh]

@ATN

Just thought of another thing… would it be an idea to ad icons through media system? I.e small pictures, gifs, jpgs, photos, pure text etc…

Yes, you could link media and icons through the media system. One difference is our icons are scalable vector graphics, so they can scale infinitely without losing quality. A JPEG on the other hand would stretch as the tile gets bigger, so you would want an image for your specific tile size.