Dashboard Creation

UI

Dashboard Creation

Dashboard configuration is simple yet very powerful. Dashboards can be created in single files or made modular for reuse of blocks of widgets. Dashboards are configured using YAML.

We will start with a simple single file configuration. Create a file with a .dash extension in the dashboards directory, and pull it up in your favorite editor.

Main Settings

A top level dashboard will usually have one of a number of initial directives to configure aspects of the dashboard, although they are all optional. An example is as follows:

##
## Main arguments, all optional
##
title: Main Panel
widget_dimensions: [120, 120]
widget_size: [1, 1]
widget_margins: [5, 5]
columns: 8
global_parameters:
    use_comma: 0
    precision: 1
    use_hass_icon: 1
    namespace: default
    devices:
      media_player:
        step: 5

These are all fairly self explanatory:

title - the name that will end up in the title of the web page, defaults to "HADashboard".
widget_dimensions - the unit height and width of the individual widgets in pixels. Note that the absolute size is not too important as on tablets at least the browser will scale the page to fit. What is more important is the aspect ratio of the widgets as this will affect whether or not the dashboard completely fills the tablets screen. The default is [120, 120] (width, height). This works well for a regular iPad.
widget_size - the number of grid blocks each widget will be by default if not specified
widget_margins - the size of blank space between widgets.
rows - the total number of rows in the dashboard. This will help with spacing, but is optional for dashboards with fewer than 15 rows
columns - the number of columns the dasboard will have.
scalable - if set to False this parameter will disable resizing and double tap zooming on iOS devices, default is to not disable zooming.
global_parameters - a list of parameters that will be applied to every widget. If the widget does not accept that parameter it will be ignored. Global parameters can be overriden at the widget definition if desired. This is useful for instance if you want to use commas as decimals for all of your widgets. This will also apply to widgets defined with just their entity ids so they will not require a formal widget definition just to change the decimal separator. The namespace parameter will be explained further in the namespace section of this document. Within the global paraemeters it is also possible to set parameters at the device level by including a device entry (see above for an example). Under device you can add an entry for any widget type, then under that, list global parameters that will be applied to just that widget type. For instance, in the example above, the default step size for the all media players is set to 5% rather than the default 10%.

The very simplest dashboard needs a layout so it can understand where to place the widgets. We use a layout directive to tell HADasboard how to place them. Here is an example:

layout:
    - light.hall, light.living_room, input_boolean.heating
    - media_player(2x1), sensor.temperature

As you can see, here we are refering directly to native Home Assistant entities. From this, HADashboard is able to figure out the right widget type and grab its friendly name and add it to the dasboard. For the clock and weather widgets there is no associated entity id so just your clock.clock or weather.weather.

The layout command is intended to be visual in how you lay out the widgets. Each layout entry represents a row on the dashboard, each comma separated widget represents a cell on that row.

Widgets can also have a size associated with them - that is the (2x1) directive appended to the name. This is simply the width of the widget in columns and the height of the widget in rows. For instance, (2x1) would refer to a widget 2 cells wide and 1 cell high. If you leave of the sizing information, the widget will use the widget_size dashboard parameter if specified, or default to (1x1) if not. HADasboard will do its best to calculate the right layout from what you give it but expect strange behavior if you add too many widgets on a line.

For a better visual cue you can lay the widgets out with appropriate spacing to see what the grid will look like more intuitively:

layout:
   - light.hall,       light.living_room, input_boolean.heating
   - media_player(2x1),                   sensor.temperature

... and so on.

Make sure that the number of widths specified adds up to the total number of columns, and don't forget to take into account widgets that are more than one row high (e.g. the weather widget here).

If you want a blank space you can use the special widget name spacer. To leave a whole row empty, just leave an entry for it with no text. For instance:

- light.hall, light.living_room, input_boolean.heating
-
- media_player(2x1), sensor.temperature

The above would leave the 2nd row empty. If you want more than one empty line use empty as follows":

- light.hall, light.living_room, input_boolean.heating
- empty: 2
- media_player(2x1), sensor.temperature

This would leave the 2nd and 3rd rows empty.

And that is all there to it, for a simple one file dashboard.

Detailed Widget Definition

The approach above is ok for simple widgets like lights, but HADashboard has a huge range of customization options. To access these, you need to formally define the widget along with its associated parameters.

To define a widget simply add lines elsewhere in the file. Give it a name , a widget type and a number of optional parameters like this:

weather_widget:
    widget_type: weather
    units: "&deg;F"

Here we have defined a widget of type "weather", and given it an optional parameter to tell it what units to use for temperature. Each widget type will have different required parameters, refer to the documentation below for a complete list for each type. All widgets support ways to customize colors and text sizes as well as attibutes they need to understand how to link the widget to Home Assistant, such as entity_ids.

Lets look at a couple more examples of widget definitions:

clock:
    widget_type: clock

weather:
    widget_type: weather
    units: "&deg;F"

side_temperature:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Temperature
    units: "&deg;F"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_temp_corrected

side_humidity:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Humidity
    units: "%"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_humidity_corrected

andrew_presence:
    widget_type: device_tracker
    title: Andrew
    device: andrews_iphone

wendy_presence:
    widget_type: device_tracker
    title: Wendy
    device: wendys_iphone

mode:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: House Mode
    entity: input_select.house_mode

light_level:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Light Level
    units: "lux"
    precision: 0
    shorten: 1
    entity: sensor.side_multisensor_luminance_25_3

porch_motion:
    widget_type: binary_sensor
    title: Porch
    entity: binary_sensor.porch_multisensor_sensor_27_0

garage:
    widget_type: switch
    title: Garage
    entity: switch.garage_door
    icon_on: fa-car
    icon_off: fa-car
    warn: 1

Now, instead of an entity id we refer to the name of the widgets we just defined:

layout:
    - clock(2x1), weather(2x2), side_temperature(1x1), side_humidity(1x1), andrew_presence(1x1), wendy_presence(1x1)
    - mode(2x1), light_level(2x1), porch_motion(1x1), garage(1x1)

It is also possible to add a widget from a standalone file. The file will contain a single widget definition. To create a clock widget this way we would make a file called clock.yaml and place it in the dashboard directory along with the dashboard. The contents would look something like this:

widget_type: clock
widget_style: "color: red"

Note that the indentation level starts at 0. To include this file, just reference a widget called clock in the layout, and HADashboard will automatically load the widget.

A file will override a native entity, so you can create your dashboard just using entities, but if you want to customize a specific entity, you can just create a file named <entity_name>.yaml and put the settings in there. You can also override entity names by specifying a widget of that name in the same or any other file, which will take priority over a standalone yaml file.

And that is all there to it, for a simple one file dashboard.

Advanced Dashboard Definition

When you get to the point where you have multiple dashboards, you may want to take a more modular approach, as you will find that in many cases you want to reuse parts of other dashboards. For instance, I have a common header for mine consisting of a row or two of widgets I want to see on every dashboard. I also have a footer of controls to switch between dashboards that I want on each dashboard as well.

To facilitate this, it is possible to include additional files, inline to build up dashboards in a more modular fashion. These additional files end in .yaml to distinguish them from top level dashboards. They can contain additional widget definitions and also optionally their own layouts.

The sub files are included in the layout using a variation of the layout directive:

layout:
    - include: top_panel

This will look for a file called top_panel.yaml in the dashboards directory, then include it. There are a couple of different ways this can be used.

If the yaml file includes its own layouts directive, the widgets from that file will be placed as a block, in the way described by its layout, making it reusable. You can change the order of the blocks inclusion by moving where in the original layout directive you include them.
If the yaml file just includes widget definitions, it is possible to perform the layout in the higher level dash if you prefer so you still get an overall view of the dashboard. This approach has the benefit that you can be completely flexible in the layout wheras the first method defines fixed layouts for the included blocks.

I prefer the completely modular approach - here is an example of a full top level dashboard created in that way:

title: Main Panel
widget_dimensions: [120, 120]
widget_margins: [5, 5]
columns: 8

layout:
    - include: top_panel
    - include: main_middle_panel
    - include: mode_panel
    - include: bottom_panel

As you can see, it includes four modular sub-dashes. Since these pieces all have their own layout information there is no need for additional layout in the top level file. Here is an example of one of the self contained sub modules (mode_panel.yaml):

clock:
    widget_type: clock

weather:
    widget_type: weather
    units: "&deg;F"

side_temperature:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Temperature
    units: "&deg;F"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_temp_corrected

side_humidity:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Humidity
    units: "%"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_humidity_corrected

andrew_presence:
    widget_type: device_tracker
    title: Andrew
    device: andrews_iphone

wendy_presence:
    widget_type: device_tracker
    title: Wendy
    device: dedb5e711a24415baaae5cf8e880d852

mode:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: House Mode
    entity: input_select.house_mode

light_level:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Light Level
    units: "lux"
    precision: 0
    shorten: 1
    entity: sensor.side_multisensor_luminance_25_3

porch_motion:
    widget_type: binary_sensor
    title: Porch
    entity: binary_sensor.porch_multisensor_sensor_27_0

garage:
    widget_type: switch
    title: Garage
    entity: switch.garage_door
    icon_on: fa-car
    icon_off: fa-car
    warn: 1

layout:
    - clock(2x1), weather(2x2), side_temperature, side_humidity, andrew_presence, wendy_presence
    - mode(2x1), light_level(2x1), porch_motion, garage

Now if we take a look at that exact same layout, but assume that just the widget definitions are in the sub-blocks, we would end up with something like this - note that we must explicitly lay out each widget we have included in the other files:

title: Main Panel
widget_dimensions: [120, 120]
widget_margins: [5, 5]
columns: 8

layout:
    - include: top_panel
    - include: main_middle_panel
    - include: mode_panel
    - include: bottom_panel
    - clock(2x1), weather(2x2), side_temperature, side_humidity, andrew_presence, wendy_presence
    - mode(2x1), light_level(2x1), porch_motion, garage
    - wlamp_scene, don_scene, doff_scene, dbright_scene, upstairs_thermometer, downstairs_thermometer, basement_thermometer, thermostat_setpoint
    - obright_scene, ooff_scene, pon_scene, poff_scene, night_motion, guest_mode, cooling, heat
    - morning(2x1), day(2x1), evening(2x1), night(2x1)
    - load_main_panel, load_upstairs_panel, load_upstairs, load_downstairs, load_outside, load_doors, load_controls, reload

In this case, the actual layout including a widget must be after the include as you might expect.

A few caveats for loaded sub files:

Sub files can include other subfiles to a maximum depth of 10 - please avoid circular references!
When layout information is included in a sub file, the subfile must comprise 1 or more complete dashboard rows - partial rows or blocks are not supported.

As a final option, you can create widget definitions in the main file and use them in the layout of the header/footer/etc. For example, if you have a header that has a label in it that lists the room that the dashboard is associated with, you can put the label widget definition in the header file but all the pages get the same message. If you put the label widget definition in the main file for the room, and reference it from the layout in the header, each page has the right name displayed in the header.

For example:

clock:
    widget_type: clock
layout:
    - label(2x2),clock(2x2)

In this example of a header, we reference a clock and a label in the layout. We can re-use this header, but in order to make the label change for every page we use it on we actually define it in the dashboard file itself, and include the header in the layout:

title: Den Panel
widget_dimensions: [120, 120]
widget_margins: [5, 5]
columns: 8

label:
    widget_type: label
    text: Welcome to the Den

layout:
    - include: header

Widget Customization

Widgets allow customization using arbitary CSS styles for the individual elements that make up the widget. Every widget has a `widget_style argument to apply styles to the whole widget, as well as one or more additional style arguments that differ for each widget. To customize a widget background for instance:

clock:
  widget_type: clock
  widget_style: "background: white;"

As is usual with CSS you can feed it multiple parameters at once, e.g.:

clock:
  widget_type: clock
  widget_style: "background: white; font-size: 150%;"

You can use any valid CSS style here although you should probably steer away from some of the formatting types as they may interact badly with HADasboards formatting. Widget level styles will correctly override just the style in the skin they are replacing.

In the case of the clock widget, it also supports date_style and time_style to modify those elements accordingly:

clock:
  widget_type: clock
  widget_style: "background: white"
  date_style: "color: black"
  time_style: "color: green"

Since date_style and time_style are applied to more specific elements, they will override widget_style. Also note that some widget styles may be specified in the widget's CSS, in which case that style will override widget_style but not the more specific styles.

State and state text

Some widgets allow you to display not only an icon showing the state but also text of the state itself. The following widgets allow this:

scene
binary_sensor
icon
switch
device_tracker
script
lock
cover
input_boolean

In order to enable this, just add:

state_text: 1

to the widget definition. This will then make the widget show the HA state below the icon. Since native HA state is not always very pretty it is also possible to map this to better values, for instance in a different language than English.

To add a state map, just add a state_map list to the widget definition listing the HA states and what you actually want displayed. For instance:

state_map:
  "on": Aan
  "off": Uit

One wrinkle here is that YAML over enthusiastically "helps" by interpreting things like on and off as booleans so the quotes are needed to prevent this.

Icons

Widgets that allow the specification of icons have access to both Font Awesome and Material Design Icons. To specify an icon simply use the prefix fa- for Font Aweesome and mdi- for Material Design. e,g,:

icon_on: fa-alert
icon_off: mdi-cancel

In addition, the widget can be configured to use whatever icon is defined for it in Home Assistant by setting the parameter:

use_hass_icon: 1

This can also be set at the dashboard level as a global parameter.

External Commands

The dashboard can accept command from external systems to prompt actions, such as navigation to different pages. These can be achieved through a variety of means:

AppDaemon API Calls
HASS Automations/Scripts
Alexa Intents

The mechanism used for this is HASS custom events. AppDaemon has its own API calls to handle these events, for further details see the AppDaemon API Pages. The custom event name is hadashboard and the dashboard will respond to various commands with associated data.

To create a suitable custom event within a HASS automation, script or Alexa Intent, simply define the event and associated data as follows (this is a script example):

alias: Navigate
sequence:
- event: hadashboard
  event_data:
    command: navigate
    timeout: 10
    target: SensorPanel
    sticky: 0

The current list of commands supported and associated arguments are as follows:

navigate

Force any connected dashboards to navigate to a new page

Arguments

target - Name of the new Dashboard to navigate to, e.g. SensorPanel - this is not a URL. timeout - length of time to stay on the new dashboard before returning to the original. This argument is optional and if not specified, the navigation will be permanent.

Note that if there is a click or touch on the new panel before the timeout expires, the timeout will be cancelled.

timeout - length of time to stay on the new dashboard return - dashboard to return to after the timeout has elapsed. sticky - wether or not to reyurn to the original dashboard after it has been clicked on. Default behavior (sticky=0) is to remain on the new dashboard if cliked and return to the original otherwise. With sticky=`, clicking the dasboard will extend the amount of time but it will return to the original dashboard after a period of inactivity equal to timeout.

Namespaces

For a full explanation of namespaces see the Writing AppDaemon Apps Section of the guide. Namespaces may be ignored in HADashboard if only one plugin is in use.

If multiple namespaces are in use, HADasboard is able to specify either at the dashboard level or the widget level which namespace to use. This is achieved by use of the namespace parameter. This parameter may be specified for each individual widget if desired. If it is specified as one of the global paraneters, it will apply to all widgets but may be overriden for individual widgets. If not specified as a global parameter, the default namespace will be used for any widgets that do not override it. For example:

##
## Main arguments, all optional
##
title: Main Panel
widget_dimensions: [120, 120]
widget_size: [1, 1]
widget_margins: [5, 5]
columns: 8
global_parameters:
    use_comma: 0
    precision: 1
    use_hass_icon: 1
    # Not setting namespace here so the default namespace is used

# Clock has no namespace
clock:
    widget_type: clock

# side_temperature doesn't specify a namespace so will use the default
# If we specified a different namespace in the global options it would use that instead
side_temperature:
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Temperature
    units: "&deg;F"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_temp_corrected

# side_humidity overrides the default and uses the hass2 namespace
# It will use hass2 regardless of any global setting
side_humidity:
    namespace: hass2
    widget_type: sensor
    title: Humidity
    units: "%"
    precision: 0
    entity: sensor.side_humidity_corrected

One caveat to namespaces is that the RSS widget always works with the default namespace - since the RSS feeds are supplied by AppDaemon itself, and not one of the plugins.

Widget Reference

Here is the current list of widgets and their description and supported parameters:

clock

A simple 12 hour clock with the date. Not currently very customizable but it will be improved upon.

Mandatory arguments:

None

Optional Arguments:

time_format - set to "24hr" if you want military time/24 hour clock
show_seconds - set to 1 if you want to see seconds on the display
date_format_country - Format the clock in the style of a specific country. This can take a simple value like us or more complex parameters as described here.
date_format_options - if using date_format_country you can also add additional options for formatting as described here.. For example:

clock:
    widget_type: clock
    date_format_country: "ro"
    date_format_options:
      weekday: "short"
      day: "numeric"
      month: "numeric"

Style Arguments:

widget_style
time_style
date_style

weather

Up to date weather reports. By default it's configured to work with dark sky sensor. To use all the features you need to add these sensors to monitored_conditions:

temperature
apparent_temperature
temperature_min
temperature_max
humidity
precip_probability
precip_intensity
precip_type
wind_speed
wind_bearing
pressure
icon

To have the forecast displayed set show_forecast to 1. For it to work you additionally need to add the forecast option in dark_sky Home Assistant configuration.

forecast:
  - 1

Mandatory arguments:

None

Optional Arguments:

title
show_forecast - show the forecast
prefer_icons - use icons instead of text
forecast_title - title of the forecast if enabled
sensors - list of sensors used by the widget

You can change the entities used by the widget by overwriting their values in the sensors key in configuration.

Example with default values:

sample_weather:
  title: Today
  show_forecast: 1
  prefer_icons: 1
  forecast_title: Tomorrow
  sensors:
    icon: sensor.dark_sky_icon
    temperature: sensor.dark_sky_temperature
    apparent_temperature: sensor.dark_sky_apparent_temperature
    humidity: sensor.dark_sky_humidity
    precip_probability: sensor.dark_sky_precip_probability
    precip_intensity: sensor.dark_sky_precip_intensity
    precip_type: sensor.dark_sky_precip
    pressure: sensor.dark_sky_pressure
    wind_speed: sensor.dark_sky_wind_speed
    wind_bearing: sensor.dark_sky_wind_bearing
    forecast_icon: sensor.dark_sky_icon_1
    forecast_temperature_min: sensor.dark_sky_daily_low_temperature_1
    forecast_temperature_max: sensor.dark_sky_daily_high_temperature_1
    forecast_precip_probability: sensor.dark_sky_precip_probability_1
    forecast_precip_type: sensor.dark_sky_precip_1

Cosmetic Arguments:

widget_style
main_style
unit_style
sub_style
sub_unit_style
title_style

weather_summary

An icon and summary reflecting the weather forecast. Requires dark sky to be configured in Home Assistant and expects to be used with one of the following sensors:

sensor.dark_sky_daily_summary
sensor.dark_sky_hourly_summary
sensor.dark_sky_summary

Mandatory arguments:

entity - the entity to be monitored

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile

Cosmetic Arguments:

state_text_style
text_style
title_style
widget_style

london_underground

A widget to report on the status of a London Underground line and provide the reason for delays if there are any. Requires the London Underground sensor to be configured in Home Assistant. This widget is designed to be a 2x2 tile.

It is recommended to update the background style to reflect the color of the underground line. An example would be as follows:

widget_style: "background-color: #0098D4"

The colors of the various lines are: - Bakerloo: #B36305 - Central: #E32017 - Circle: #FFD300 - District: #00782A - DLR: #00A4A7 - Hammersmith & City: #F3A9BB - Jubilee: #A0A5A9 - London Overground: #EE7C0E - Metropolitan: #9B0056 - Northern: #000000 - Piccadilly: #003688 - Victoria: #0098D4 - Waterloo & City: #95CDBA

For smaller dashboards the Description text can be too long to fit in the widget properly. In that case hide the text as follows:

state_text_style: "display: none"

Mandatory arguments:

entity - the entity to be monitored

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile

Cosmetic Arguments:

state_text_style
text_style
title_style
widget_style

sensor

A widget to report on values for any sensor in Home Assistant

The widget will detect whether or not it is showing a numeric value, and if so, it will use the numeric style. If it is showing text it will use the text style, which among other things makes the text size smaller. To display an attribute of a sensor rather than the state itself add the attribute to the end of the sensor name. For example, to display the description of the sensor.dark_sky_summary sensor you would use the following entity definition: "sensor.dark_sky_summary.Description".

Note that you can define a sub_entity to be an attribute of the entity using the entity_to_sub_entity_attribute argument, or an entity as an attribute of the sub_entity using the sub_entity_to_entity_attribute.

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the sensor to be monitored

OR - sub_entity - the entity_id of the sensor to be monitored

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
units - the unit symbol to be displayed, if not specified HAs unit will be used, specify "" for no units
precision - the number of decimal places
shorten - if set to one, the widget will abbreviate the readout for high numbers, e.g. 1.1K instead of 1100
use_comma - if set to one`, a comma will be used as the decimal separator
state_map
sub_entity - second entity to be displayed in the state text area
sub_entity_map - state map for the sub_entity
entity_to_sub_entity_attribute - the attribute of the entity to use as the sub_entity
sub_entity_to_entity_attribute - the attribute of the sub_entity to use as the entity

Style Arguments:

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
value_style
text_style
unit_style
container_style

input_select

A widget to display and select values from an input_select entity in Home Assistant.

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the sensor to be monitored

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text

Style Arguments:

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
select_style
selectcontainer_style

rss

A widget to display an RSS feed.

Note that the actual feeds are configured in appdaemon.yaml as follows:

hadashboard:

  rss_feeds:
    - feed: <feed_url>
      target: <target_name>
    - feed: <feed url>
      target: <target_name>

      ...

  rss_update: <feed_refresh_interval>

feed_url - fully qualified path to rss feed, e.g. http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss
target name - the entity of the target RSS widget in the dashboard definition file. This must be an arbitary name prepended by rss. - e.g. rss.cnn_news
feed_refresh_interval - how often AppDaemon will refresh the RSS feeds

There is no limit to the number of feeds you configure, and you will need to configure one RSS widget to display each feed.

The RSS news feed cannot be configured if you are still using the legacy .cfg file type.

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the name of the configured feed - this must match the target_name full target name configured in the AppDaemon configuration e.g. rss.cnn_news
interval - the period between display of different items within the feed

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
recent - the number of most recent stories that will be shown. If not specified, all stories in the feed will be shown.
show_description - if set to 1 the widget will show a short description of the story as well as the title. Default is 0

Style Arguments:

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
text_style

gauge

A widget to report on numeric values for sensors in Home Assistant in a gauge format.

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the sensor to be monitored
max - maximum value to show
min - minimum value to show

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
units - the unit symbol to be displayed, if not specified HAs unit will be used, specify "" for no units

Style Arguments:

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
low_color
med_color
high_color
bgcolor
color

Note that unlike other widgets, the color settings require an actual color, rather than a CSS style.

device_tracker

A Widget that reports on device tracker status. It can also be optionally be used to toggle the status between "home" and "not_home".

Mandatory Arguments:

device - name of the device from known_devices.yaml, not the entity_id.

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
enable - set to 1 to enable the widget to toggle the device_tracker status
state_text
state_map
active_map

Active map is used to specify states other than "home" that will be regarded as active, meaning the icon will light up. This can be useful if tracking a device tracker within the house using beacons for instance.

Example:

wendy_presence_mapped:
  widget_type: device_tracker
  title: Wendy
  title2: Mapped
  device: wendys_iphone
  active_map:
    - home
    - house
    - back_yard
    - upstairs

In the absence of an active map, only the state home will be regarded as active.

Style Arguments:

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style
state_text_style

label

A widget to show a simple static text string

Mandatory Arguments

None

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
text - the text displayed on the tile

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
text_style

scene

A widget to activate a scene

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the scene

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Style Arguments:

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

script

A widget to run a script

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the script

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Style Arguments:

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

mode

A widget to track the state of an input_select by showing active when it is set to a specific value. Also allows scripts to be run when activated.

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the input_select
mode - value of the input select to show as active
script - script to run when pressed
state_text
state_map

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text

Style Arguments:

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

switch

A widget to monitor and activate a switch

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the switch

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

lock

A widget to monitor and activate a lock

Note that unlike HASS, Dashboard regards an unlocked lock as active. By contrast, the HASS UI shows a locked lock as "on". Since the purpose of the dashboard is to alert at a glance on anything that is unusual, I chose to make the unlocked state "active" which means in the default skin it is shown as red, wheras a locked icon is shown as gray. You can easily change this behavior by setting active and inactive styles if you prefer.

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the lock

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

cover

A widget to monitor and activate a cover. At this time only the open and close actions are supported.

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the cover

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

input_boolean

A widget to monitor and activate an input_boolean

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the input_boolean

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style

binary_sensor

A widget to monitor a binary_sensor

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the binary_sensor

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_on
icon_off
widget_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
title_style
title2_style
state_text_style

icon

A widget to monitor the state of an entity and display a different icon and style for each listed state, and is configured in a similar manner to the following:

icon:
  title: icon
  widget_type: icon
  entity: binary_sensor.basement_door_sensor
  state_text: 1
  icons:
    "active":
      icon: fa-glass
      style: "color: green"
    "inactive":
      icon: fa-repeat
      style: "color: blue"
    "idle":
      icon: fa-frown-o
      style: "color: red"
    "default":
      icon: fa-rocket
      style: "color: cyan"

The icons list is mandatory, and each entry must contain both an icon and a style entry. It is recommended that quotes are used around the state names, as without these, YAML will translate states like on and off to true and false

The default entry icon and style will be used if the state doesn't match any in the list - meaning that it is not necessary to define all states if only 1 or 2 actually matter.

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the binary_sensor
icons - a list of icons and styles to be applied for various states.

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
state_text
state_map

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
state_text_style

light

A widget to monitor and contol a dimmable light

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the light

Optional Arguments:

icon_on
icon_off
title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
on_attributes - a list of supported HA attributes to set as initial values for the light.

Note that rgb_color and xy_color are not specified with list syntac as in Home Assistant scenes. See below for examples.

e.g.

testlight2:
    widget_type: light
    entity: light.office_2
    title: office_2
    on_attributes:
        brightness: 100
        color_temp: 250

or:

testlight2:
    widget_type: light
    entity: light.office_2
    title: office_2
    on_attributes:
        brightness: 100
        rgb_color: 128, 34, 56

or:

testlight2:
    widget_type: light
    entity: light.office_2
    title: office_2
    on_attributes:
        brightness: 100
        xy_color: 0.4, 0.9

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
icon_on
icon_off
icon_up
icon_down
title_style
title2_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
text_style
level_style
level_up_style
level_down_style

input_number

A widget to monitor and contol an input number

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the input_number

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
units - the unit symbol to be displayed
use_comma - if set to one, a comma will be used as the decimal separator

Cosmetic Arguments

title_style
title2_style
minvalue_style
maxvalue_style
value_style
slider_style
slidercontainer_style
widget_style

input_slider

An alternate widget to monitor and contol an input number, using plus and minus buttons instead of a slider.

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the input_number

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
units - the unit symbol to be displayed
use_comma - if set to one, a comma will be used as the decimal separator

Cosmetic Arguments

title_style
title2_style
minvalue_style
maxvalue_style
value_style
slider_style
slidercontainer_style
widget_style

climate

A widget to monitor and contol a climate entity

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the climate entity

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
step - the size of step in temperature when fading the slider up or down
units - the unit symbol to be displayed
precision - the number of digits to display after the decimal point

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
icon_up
icon_down
title_style
title2_style
text_style
level_style
level_up_style
level_down_style

media_player

A widget to monitor and control a media player

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the media player

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
truncate_name - if specified, the name of the media will be truncated to this length.
step - the step (in percent) that the volume buttons will use. (default, 10%)

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
icon_on
icon_off
icon_up
icon_down
title_style
title2_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
text_style
level_style
level_up_style
level_down_style

group

A widget to monitor and contol a group of lights

Mandatory Arguments

entity - the entity_id of the group

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text
monitored_entity - the actual entity to monitor

Groups currently do no report back state changes correctly when attributes light brightness are changed. As a workaround, instead of looking for state changes in the group, we use monitored_entity instead. This is not necessary of there are no dimmable lights in the group, however if there are, it should be set to the entity_id of one of the dimmable group members.

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
icon_on
icon_off
icon_up
icon_down
title_style
title2_style
icon_style_active
icon_style_inactive
text_style
level_style
level_up_style
level_down_style

navigate

A widget to navgigate to a new URL, intended to be used for switching between dashboards.

Mandatory Arguments

None, but either url or dashboard must be specified.

Optional Arguments:

url - a url to navigate to. Use a full URL including the "http://" or "https://" part.
dashboard - a dashboard to navigate to e.g. MainPanel
title - the title displayed on the tile
args - a list of arguments.
skin - Skin to use with the new screen (for HADash URLs only)

For an arbitary URL, Args can be anything. When specifying a dashboard parameter, args have the following meaning:

timeout - length of time to stay on the new dashboard
return - dashboard to return to after the timeout has elapsed.
sticky - whether or not to return to the original dashboard after it has been clicked on. Default behavior (sticky=0) is to remain on the new dashboard if clicked and return to the original otherwise. With sticky=1`, clicking the dashboard will extend the amount of time but it will return to the original dashboard after a period of inactivity equal to timeout.

Both timeout and return must be specified.

If adding arguments, use the args variable. Do not append them to the URL or you may break skinning. Add arguments like this:

some_widget:
    widget_type: navigate
    title: Amazon
    url: http://amazon.com
    args:
      arg1: fred
      arg2: jim

or:

some_widget:
    widget_type: navigate
    title: Sensors
    dashboard: Sensors
    args:
      timeout: 10
      return: Main

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_active
icon_inactive
widget_style
title_style
title2_style
icon_active_style
icon_inactive_style

reload

A widget to reload the current dashboard.

Mandatory Arguments

None.

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_active
icon_inactive
widget_style
title_style
title2_style
icon_active_style
icon_inactive_style

javascript

A widget to run an arbitary JavaScript command.

Mandatory Arguments

command - the JavaScript command to be run.

e.g.

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text

Cosmetic Arguments

icon_active
icon_inactive
widget_style
title_style
title2_style
icon_active_style
icon_inactive_style

iframe

A widget to display other content within the dashboard

Mandatory Arguments

url_list - a list of 1 or more URLs to cycle though. or
img_list - a list of 1 or more Image URLs to cycle through.

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
refresh - (seconds) if set, the iframe widget will progress down its list every refresh period, returning to the beginning when it hits the end. Use this in conjunction with a single entry in the url_list to have a single url refresh at a set interval.

For regular HTTP sites, use the url_list argument, for images the img_list argument should work better.

Example:

iframe:
    widget_type: iframe
    title: Cats
    refresh: 60
    url_list:
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-and-white-short-fur-cat-104827/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/eyes-cat-coach-sofa-96938/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-tabby-cat-lying-on-brown-wooden-surface-126407/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/kitten-cat-rush-lucky-cat-45170/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-fur-kitten-127028/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/cat-whiskers-kitty-tabby-20787/
      - https://www.pexels.com/photo/cat-sleeping-62640/

Content will be shown with scroll bars which can be undesirable. For images this can be alleviated by using an image resizing service such as the one offered by Google.

weather_frame:
    widget_type: iframe
    title: Radar
    refresh: 300
    frame_style: ""
    img_list:
      - https://images1-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=https://icons.wxug.com/data/weather-maps/radar/united-states/hartford-connecticut-region-current-radar-animation.gif&container=focus&refresh=240&resize_h=640&resize_h=640
      - https://images1-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=https://icons.wxug.com/data/weather-maps/radar/united-states/bakersfield-california-region-current-radar.gif&container=focus&refresh=240&resize_h=640&resize_h=640

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
title_style

camera

A widget to display a refreshing camera image on the dashboard

Mandatory Arguments

entity_picture

This can be found using the developer tools, and will be one of the parameters associated with the camera you want to view. If you are using a password, you will need to append &api_password=<your password> to the end of the entity_picture. It will look something like this:

http://192.168.1.20:8123/api/camera_proxy/camera.living_room?token=<your token>&api_password=<redacted>

If you are using SSL, remeber to use the full DNS name and not the IP address.

Optional Arguments:

refresh - (seconds) if set, the camera image will refresh every interval.

Cosmetic Arguments

widget_style
title_style

alarm

A widget to report on the state of an alarm and allow code entry

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the alarm to be monitored

Optional Arguments:

title - the title displayed on the tile
title2 - a second line of title text

Style Arguments:

widget_style
title_style
title2_style
state_style
panel_state_style
panel_code_style
panel_background_style
panel_button_style

Temperature

A widget to report display a temperature using a thermometer styke view

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the alarm to be monitored
settings - a list if values describing the thermometer with the following entries:
minValue - minimum value to display
maxValue - maximum value to display
width - width of the widget, set this to the same width as your cell size or less
height - height of the widget, set this to the same height as your cell size or less
majorTicks - Where to mark major values, a list
highights - color ranges, a list

See the example below:

your_temperature:
  widget_type: temperature
  entity: sensor.your_sensor
  settings:
    minValue: 15
    maxValue: 30
    width: 120
    height: 120
    majorTicks: [15,20,25,30]
    highlights: [{'from': 15, 'to': 18, 'color': 'rgba(0,0, 255, .3)'},{'from': 24, 'to': 30, 'color': 'rgba(255, 0, 0, .3)'}]

Optional Arguments:

None

Style Arguments:

None

Radial

A widget to display a numeric value as a gauge

Mandatory Arguments:

entity - the entity_id of the alarm to be monitored
settings - a list if values describing the gauge with the following entries:
title - title of the guage
minValue - minimum value to display
maxValue - maximum value to display
majorTicks - Where to mark major values, a list
highights - color ranges, a list

See the example below:

your_radial:
  widget_type: radial
  entity: sensor.your_sensor
  settings:
    title: any title
    minValue: 0
    maxValue: 100
    majorTicks: [0,20,40,60,80,100]
    highlights: [{'from': 0, 'to': 18, 'color': 'rgba(0,0, 255, .3)'},{'from': 25, 'to': 100, 'color': 'rgba(255, 0, 0, .3)'}]

Optional Arguments:

None

Style Arguments:

None

Skins

HADashboard fully supports skinning and ships with a number of skins. To access a specific skin, append the parameter skin=<skin name> to the dashboard URL. Skin names are sticky if you use the Navigate widet to switch between dashboards and will stay in force until another skin or no skin is specified.

HADasboard currently has the following skins available:

default - the classic HADashboard skin, very simple
obsidian, contributed by @rpitera
zen, contributed by @rpitera
simplyred, contributed by @rpitera
glassic, contributed by @rpitera

Skin development

HADashboard fully supports customization through skinning. It ships with a number of skins courtesy of @rpitera, and we encourage users to create new skins and contribute them back to the project.

To create a custom skin you will need to know a little bit of CSS. Start off by creating a directory called custom_css in the configuration directory, at the same level as your dashboards directory. Next, create a subdirectory in custom_css named for your skin.

The skin itself consists of 2 separate files:

dashboard.css - This is the base dashboard CSS that sets widget styles, background look and feel etc.
variables.yaml - This is a list of variables that describe how different elements of the widgets will look. Using the correct variables you can skin pretty much every element of every widget type.

Dashboard.css is a regular css file, and knowledge of CSS is required to make changes to it.

Variables.yaml is really a set of overrise styles, so you can use fragments of CSS here, basically anything that you could normally put in an HTML style tag. Variables .yaml also supports variable expansion to make structuring the file easier. Anything that starts with a $ is treated as a variable that refers back to one of the other yaml fields in the file.

Here is an example of a piece of a variables.yaml file:

##
## Styles
##

white: "#fff"
red: "#ff0055"
green: "#aaff00"
blue: "#00aaff"
purple: "#aa00ff"
yellow: "#ffff00"
orange: "#ffaa00"

gray_dark: "#444"
gray_medium: "#666"
gray_light: "#888"

##Page and widget defaults
background_style: ""
text_style: ""

##These are used for icons and indicators
style_inactive: "color: $gray_light"
style_active: "color: gold"
style_active_warn: "color: gold"
style_info: "color: gold; font-weight: 500; font-size: 250%"
style_title: "color: gold; font-weight: 900"
style_title2: "color: $white"

Here we are setting up some general variables that we can reuse for styling the actual widgets.

Below, we are setting styles for a specific widget, the light widget. All entries are required but can be left blank by using double quotes.

light_icon_on: fa-circle
light_icon_off: fa-circle-thin
light_icon_up: fa-plus
light_icon_down: fa-minus
light_title_style: $style_title
light_title2_style: $style_title2
light_icon_style_active: $style_active
light_icon_style_inactive: $style_inactive
light_state_text_style: $white
light_level_style: "color: $gray_light"
light_level_up_style: "color: $gray_light"
light_level_down_style: "color: $gray_light"
light_widget_style: ""

Images can be included - create a sub directory in your skin directory, call it img or whatever you like, then refer to it in the css as:

/custom_css/<skin name>/<image directory>/<image filename>

One final feature is the ability to include additional files in the header and body of the page if required. This can be useful to allow additional CSS from 3rd parties or include JavaScript.

Custom head includes - should be a YAML List inside variables.yaml, e.g.:

head_includes:
  - some include
  - some other include

Text will be included verbatim in the head section of the doc, use for styles, javascript or 3rd party css etc. etc. It is your responsibility to ensure the HTML is correct

Similarly for body includes:

body_includes:
  - some include
  - some other include

To learn more about complete styles, take a look at the supplied styles to see how they are put together. Start off with the dashboard.css and variables.yaml from an existing file and edit to suit your needs.

Example Dashboards

Some example dashboards are available in the AppDaemon repository:

Dashboards

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Dashboard Creation