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Dashboards and panels
A dashboard is a grid of widgets bound to message names. It can show values and send controls across several flows. A panel assigns published dashboards to a paired screen, such as a wall tablet.
Building one
- Open Dashboards → New dashboard.
- Enter edit mode, choose Add widget and select a type.
- Bind the widget to a message in its settings. On desktop, drag and resize tiles on the grid.
- Publish when the dashboard is ready.
Edits stay in a draft; paired screens show the published version. On phones, tiles stack in one column and dragging is disabled, but settings remain editable.
Controls can publish real values while you edit, so choose their targets with care. Your new Switch may already be flipping something!
The widgets
Display
| Widget | Binds to | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Value | anything | formatted reading, unit and precision |
| Gauge | float, int |
reading within a min/max range |
| Chart | numeric messages, a query response or run metrics | up to five lines |
| Bar | float, int |
up to eight readings with separate scales |
| Icon | numbers, booleans or strings | a glyph selected from the value |
| Text | — | Markdown |
| Agenda | list |
upcoming items |
| Forecast | list |
an outlook strip |
| Notification | record |
title, body and severity |
| Media | image, audio, video, artifact |
image, audio or video |
| Player | record |
playback status and transport controls |
| Clock | — | current time |
| Website | — | embedded page or image |
Every widget has a title. Show title controls its visibility; the title still names the widget for accessibility and published values.
Input
| Widget | Publishes | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Button | fixed value | one-shot action |
| Buttons | a value per button | grid of actions |
| Switch | bool |
on/off |
| Slider | float, int |
min, max, step; horizontal or vertical; a reading beside it |
| Input | text or number | free entry |
| Selector | selected value | menu or row of choices |
| Colour | list or string | HSV, RGB or hex |
Colour defaults to [h, s, v]: hue 0–360°, saturation and brightness 0–100%.
Sends can select RGB ([r, g, b], 0–255) or hex ("#rrggbb").
HSV and RGB bind to list; hex binds to str.
Controls publish to their bound messages. The flow canvas shows them as endpoints feeding the nodes that consume those messages.
Bindings are checked in the editor and on the server. See Payload types.
A slider's reading
A Slider can also show what it sets against, such as the room's temperature
beside a setpoint: Beside it binds reading: {message, dtype, label} to a
float or int. The reading is only shown, never published. It is written in
the slider's unit and to its step's decimals (a step of 0.5 writes 21 as
21.0), as the slider writes its own value, so the two always match; —
stands in for the value until one arrives. On a round face it takes the middle
(see Round dashboards); in a tile it is a line under the
slider's value.
It is also marked where it sits on the slider's scale, as a thermostat marks the room's temperature: the handle is what is set, the dot what is. The dot is at the reading's fraction of the scale, (reading − min) / (max − min) held to 0–1, so a reading outside the range sits at that end. It takes no pointer, and there is none until a value arrives. See Dots on the track.
Sizes are CSS pixels of the canvas, as in the round geometry below. The slider's own value is at the tile's text size (14; 16 on a touch-friendly panel), centred on a line as tall as the control (32; 48 touch-friendly).
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| Line | 16 high, text 12: the label (muted, at most 96 wide, cut with an ellipsis), 6, the value (text colour), 6, the unit (muted). Without a label, the value and unit alone |
| Row | directly under the slider's value, right-aligned with it, in the column right of the track (12 apart). With ticks the line shares the ticks' row, so the tile grows no taller; without them it adds 16 |
| Row width | the value column is as wide as its wider line, but at most half the row; the track takes the rest. What does not fit is cut from the label; the value and unit never are |
| Fader | directly under the slider's value, both centred under the track, 8 below it; the line no wider than the tile inside its padding, cut from the label first |
Dots on the track
A slider's ticks, a selector's options on a round face and a slider's reading are dots inside the track, on its midline — on a round face the ring's centre line, radius c − 20. Each is drawn in the colour that reads on what covers it: the track, the value's fill, or the handle.
| Dot | Size, tile / ring | On the track | On the fill | On the handle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop: a tick, an option | half the track's thickness (4 on the 8 track) / 6 | --muted-foreground |
--primary-foreground at 70 % |
hidden under it |
| Reading | three quarters of the track's thickness (6) / 10 | --foreground |
--primary-foreground |
Fluksio --foreground, Material --primary-foreground, Glass black at 75 % |
The reading is the larger dot in the stronger colour, and it is the one dot that shows on the handle, so a reading at the setpoint is still visible.
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| Place (tile) | the dot's centre on the handle's travel: handle ÷ 2 + fraction × (track length − handle) from the track's left end (from its bottom end on a fader), so a dot and the handle line up at the same value |
| Place (ring) | the dot's centre at the fraction of the sweep, as the handle |
| Ticks | with ticks on (the default), n intervals of the scale — the steps when there are 5 or fewer, else the first of 4, 3 or 2 that divides the steps evenly, else 4 — and a dot at each i/n, both ends included. A row keeps its labels under the track; a fader has none |
| Options | a dot per option at i/(n − 1) of the sweep (one option: the middle). The selector's ring has a value arc from the start to the selected option, so the options up to it are on the fill |
| Colour change | where the fill or the handle covers a dot, that part of it takes the colour for the fill or the handle, so a dot changes colour as the fill's end or the handle passes over it, and follows them while they move. A device may instead switch a whole dot when the fill's end or the handle's centre passes the dot's centre |
| Order | track, dots, fill, the dots again over the fill, handle, the reading again over the handle |
| Locked | in a tile, the dots at 0.45 opacity, as the handle; on the ring, the whole ring at 0.45 |
Charts
Choose the chart's data source:
- Live: recent numeric message history, updated as values arrive.
- Query: publishes a
recordrequest containingrange_sandinterval_s, then draws a flow'sseriesresponse. Include those fields in the answer so the chart can reject responses for a different window. - Runs: compares a numeric metric from named runs, a sweep or the latest runs of a flow. See Runs.
Multi-line charts show a legend as well as different colours.
!!! tip "Skip the unfinished bucket"
If your query aggregates into time buckets, leave out the bucket still
filling. Otherwise an incomplete total can look like a sudden drop.
Media tiles
Media messages contain artifact references; the widget loads the bytes they name. Crop or fit controls image sizing. Play as it arrives enables autoplay, subject to the browser's rules for sound.
For local streams, volatile=True artifacts can be pushed over the websocket
with their message. Stored artifacts are fetched individually, as are frames
viewed through a portal. Use occasional snapshots for remote screens.
For continuous video, set Live stream to a browser-compatible camera URL. The browser must be able to reach that URL; enrollment does not expose the camera itself. See Media payloads.
Player tiles
A Player reads a status record and publishes commands to a separate str
message.
| Status field | Meaning |
|---|---|
title, artist, album |
track details |
status |
play, pause, stop, load or off |
position, duration |
seconds |
Controls send toggle, next, prev and seek:<seconds>. Your receiving
node translates those into device actions. The position advances in the
browser between readings and resets to each fresh reading.
Website tiles
Set Address to a page to embed, or choose Image for a snapshot or MJPEG URL. A website may refuse embedding.
Embedded pages run in a sandbox without cookies or storage by default. Trusted site permits the site's own origin, cookies and storage. Use it only for a trusted destination. The app blocks trusted embeds of its own origin, including the portal origin, to protect your session.
Dashboard settings
Open Dashboard settings from the dock. Each setting can hold a fixed value or follow a message chosen in Driven by. The fixed value is the fallback when no usable message value is available.
| Setting | Choices | Message type |
|---|---|---|
| Look | fluksio, material, glass |
str |
| Theme | system, light, dark |
str |
| Palette | ordered hex colours | list |
| Background | image URL | str |
| Lock | read-only on/off | bool |
To change one on a schedule, have a scheduled node publish its bound message.
Look and theme
Fluksio is the default look. Material uses flat tonal cards; Glass uses translucent tiles. Widgets work the same in all three.
Theme follows the chosen preference unless a palette sets the background colour.
Palette
Paste a colour list or a Coolors palette link. Colours have roles by position:
| Position | Role |
|---|---|
| 1 | background |
| 2 | widget surface |
| 3 | primary controls and first chart line |
| 4 | accent |
| 5 | text |
| 6+ | additional chart lines |
Missing roles are derived, so three colours are enough to get started. Rotate shifts their order. Text contrast is corrected automatically; failure and success indicators keep their status colours.
Background and lock
Background draws an image beneath the widgets. Lock disables publishing from controls and shows Read-only when viewing the dashboard. It does not restrict API permissions and does not disable controls in edit mode.
Round dashboards
For a round screen such as a rotary knob, set the canvas to Round in the
dashboard settings, or pick the Knob preset (360×360). A round canvas is
square (shape: "round" forces canvas_height to canvas_width), and nothing
outside its circle is drawn.
A round dashboard has no grid. It shows one widget at a time, each drawn as the
whole face, in the order of widgets; layout is not read. In the editor, the
faces are a row above the dock: press one to show it and open its settings,
drag it along the row (or Alt+←/→) to move it, and add more with Add widget.
A Slider, Selector, Colour or Gauge draws on the ring along the edge, which
a knob's own ring turns. In a browser, drag along the ring or use the mouse
wheel (or the arrow keys once it has focus): one notch is one step, one option
(no wrap) or one hue step (hue_step, default 5°, wrapping). The value moves
at once and is published once, 300 ms after the last notch or when the pointer
is released. A Gauge only shows. On any other face, turning a knob only wakes
the screen.
A Slider's reading (Beside it) is written large in the middle, under its label; the slider's own title and value move to the line in the ring's gap.
Value, Switch, Button, Clock, Icon, Notification and Text have faces of their own. Every other type is drawn as its rectangular body in the middle of the face, and the editor marks it Poor fit for round.
Moving between faces
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Swipe left / right | next / previous face of this dashboard; stops at either end |
| Swipe up / down | next / previous dashboard of the panel (/panel/{id} only); stops at either end |
| Page dot | that face |
| PageDown / PageUp | next / previous face |
| Shift+PageDown / Shift+PageUp | next / previous dashboard of the panel |
| Arrow keys | turn the ring, not the page |
A swipe is a drag of at least 40 canvas pixels, decided by its longer axis; a drag that starts on the ring turns the ring instead. A dashboard reopens on the face it was last left on in this session, otherwise on its first. Landing on another dashboard shows its title and icon in the middle of the face for one second; a round panel has no rail.
Geometry
Devices that draw dashboards natively use these numbers. They are canvas pixels, scaled with the canvas; S is the canvas width and c = S/2. Angles are degrees clockwise from three o'clock. Text sizes are font sizes; muted is the look's muted text colour.
| Part | Value |
|---|---|
| Face | circle of diameter S at (c, c) |
| Title | one line centred at y = c − 80, 15, muted, at most 200 wide; the widget's title, or the label of a slider's reading |
| Middle | a 240 × 128 box centred at (c, c); what a face draws in its middle is centred in it and clipped to it |
| Centre reading | centred at (c, c), line height 1, its unit after it at 0.4 em, muted. Size: 72, or 240 ÷ (0.6 × the characters written) rounded down where that is smaller, never below 24 |
| Ring band | 40 along the edge |
| Ring arc | start 120°, sweep 300° (ends at 60°), centre-line radius c − 20, stroke 16 with round caps |
| Slider | track over the sweep, value arc from the start to the value (none at the minimum), handle 28 across, its ticks as dots; the value as the centre reading |
| Slider with a reading | the reading as the centre reading; the gap line holds the title (muted) and the slider's value. The reading as a dot 10 across on the centre line at its fraction of the sweep (Dots on the track) |
| Selector | a value arc from the start to the selected option (none at the first), a dot 6 across per option at i/(n−1) of the sweep (one option: the middle), the selected one under the handle; its label as the centre reading, at most 36 |
| Colour | hue h at h/360 of the sweep in 150 strokes of 2°, red at both ends; the handle filled with the colour; a swatch 96 across in the middle, with a hairline border |
| Gauge | track and value arc, no handle; the value as the centre reading |
| Gap line | centred at y = S − 28, 13, at most 160 wide |
| Value | the reading as the centre reading, to its precision; a word shrinks like any other |
| Switch | a disc 128 across centred at (c, c): the look's button, filled when on and tonal when off, with a power glyph 40 over the word On or Off at 15; a press toggles |
| Button | a disc 128 across centred at (c, c), tonal, its label at 15 over at most three lines; a press sends its value |
| Clock | the time (hours and minutes, the device's locale) sized as a centre reading, over the date (weekday, day, month) at 15, muted, 4 apart; the pair centred at (c, c) |
| Icon | the glyph 96 across over its label at 15, muted, 4 apart; the pair centred at (c, c). Nothing matched: a dash at 72, muted |
| Notification | the title at 15, medium (an error in the destructive colour, led by ⚠), over the body at 15, muted; centred lines in the middle |
| Text | centred lines at 15: # at 1.35 em and ## medium, ### muted, list items led by a bullet; in the middle |
| Not wired | the problem, at 15, muted, in the middle; a ring type draws no ring |
| Any other type | its rectangular body, without a card, from y = c − 64 to c + S/(2√2), x = c ± S/(2√2) (Knob: 53–307 × 116–307) |
| Page dots | one per face, from two faces: dots 6 across on targets 16 apart (closer when more than 128 wide would be needed), centred at y = S − 12; the current one in the text colour, the others muted at half opacity |
| Dashboard name | a pill centred at (c, c), 36 high: the icon 16 and the title at 15, medium, at most 220 wide, on the frosted surface; for 1000 ms |
| Paging | faces slide sideways, dashboards up and down; see Motion |
| Locked | controls do nothing and read as disabled; the ring at 0.45 opacity |
Paint follows the look: Fluksio draws a muted track, a primary value and a handle of the ground colour ringed in primary; Material a tonal track and a primary handle; Glass a translucent track, a glowing value and a white handle. A Switch or Button face wears the look's own button.
Motion
How a dashboard moves, for devices that draw it natively. Distances are canvas pixels. Each look moves at its own spring; a device without springs runs the spring's closed form for the duration given and then sets the end value, or uses the cubic-bezier that stands in for it.
| Look | Spring (stiffness, damping, mass) | ζ, ω₀ | Duration (within 1 %) | Overshoot | Cubic-bezier stand-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluksio | 420, 34, 1 | 0.830, 20.49 s⁻¹ | 210 ms | 0.9 % | (0.26, 0.12, 0.25, 1.01) over 250 ms, at most 1.5 % off |
| Material | 550, 38, 1 | 0.810, 23.45 s⁻¹ | 270 ms | 1.3 % | (0.20, 0.11, 0.27, 1.19) over 260 ms, at most 1.7 % off |
| Glass | 320, 22, 0.8 | 0.688, 20.00 s⁻¹ | 330 ms | 5.1 % | (0.26, 0.20, 0.20, 1.33) over 320 ms, at most 1.7 % off |
From rest, a spring's progress is p(t) = 1 − e^(−ζω₀t)·(cos ω_d t + (ζω₀/ω_d)·sin ω_d t), with ω_d = ω₀·√(1 − ζ²). "Spring" below is the dashboard's look's.
| What | Moves | From → to | Timing | Input during it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Face paging (round) | the new face and the old | new: x +48 (next) or −48 (previous), opacity 0 → x 0, opacity 1; old: x 0, opacity 1 → x −48 (next) or +48, opacity 0. Both at once | spring | another page retargets: each face heads for its new end from where it is |
| Dashboard paging (round panel) | the new dashboard's face and the old | the same on y: the next rises from +48, the previous comes down from −48. One opened by its address only fades | spring | as faces |
| Page dot | the current dot and the last | muted at 0.5 opacity ↔ text colour at 1 | 200 ms, cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) | retargets |
| Dashboard name | the pill | opacity 0 → 1, held 1000 ms, 1 → 0 | in 200 ms, out 150 ms, cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) | — |
| Ring value set by a notch, a key or the engine | the value arc's end, the handle (slider, selector, colour) | from where it is drawn to the new fraction of the sweep | spring | each notch retargets from where it is, at the speed it has |
| Ring value set by a drag | the same | follows the pointer exactly | none | — |
| Hue across red | the colour handle | a change of more than half the sweep jumps to the other end | none | — |
| Slider's reading on the ring, gauge on the ring | the reading's dot; the value arc | from where it is drawn to the new fraction; a dot's colour follows the fill and the handle as they pass | spring | retargets |
| Numbers on the ring | centre reading, gap line | switch at once, with the notch | none | — |
| Value face, Value and Gauge tiles | the number | counts to the new value, written to its precision | spring | retargets |
| Slider tile set elsewhere | the fill's end, the handle, the reading's dot | from where it is drawn to the new fraction | spring | a drag or a key moves it at once |
| Gauge and Bar tiles | the value arc, each bar's fill | from where it is drawn to the new fraction | spring | retargets |
| Dashboard change (rectangular panel) | every tile | the old dashboard goes at once; each new tile opacity 0 → 1, y +8 → 0 | spring | — |
| Rail | the current entry's marker | slides to the new entry | spring | retargets |
With reduced motion asked for, nothing travels: pages and dashboards only cross-fade (opacity at the spring), and every value is drawn at its new place at once. The dot and the name pill, which only change colour or opacity, keep their timing.
A device may simplify where its hardware is slow, keeping the direction and the end state: a page may slide without the fade, fade without the slide, or cut; a retarget may restart the curve from where it is without carrying the speed; a counting number may switch; and the value arc may be redrawn each frame as an arc to the eased angle, which is what the browser's reveal amounts to.
Showing one
Open /view/{name} for a dashboard-only view with your normal session.
For a dedicated screen, pair a panel.
Panels: hanging a screen on a wall
As a superuser:
- Open Dashboards → Panels, add a panel and select its dashboards.
- Enable Touch friendly for larger controls.
- Open the displayed pairing link on the device. It shows a six-character code.
- Enter that code for the panel, check the device description, then press Pair device.
The screen collects its credential and shows the assigned published dashboards. Several dashboards get a navigation rail.
A panel credential permits its assigned dashboards, their bound messages and the artifacts they show. It also permits publishing from its controls and query charts. On a locked dashboard only the query charts may still publish.
Unpair screen revokes a locally paired credential and keeps the panel's dashboard assignments. Deleting the panel removes the assignment and its access.
A screen without a browser
The openpanel firmware, kept in its own repository, draws dashboards as native widgets on an ESP32-P4 wall panel (Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-7B, 1024×600). Once its config page points it at this instance, it shows the pairing code itself; enter it as in step 4. It reads the same published dashboards and live values and draws every widget type with two exceptions, both shown as a placeholder: a website tile that embeds a page (image tiles work), and a chart of runs, which a panel credential may not read. Media tiles play MJPEG streams, pushed frames, images, and H.264 Baseline or MJPEG clips up to 640×360. Re-encode other clips with the clip recipe.
The device decides what the panel's I/O port names
mean. openpanel serves gpio.<n>, backlight, touch, mic and speaker,
lists each one's config in its README and ignores any other name. A browser
screen serves none of them.
The device's own I/O
A panel can also act as a node. Under I/O, wire a port on the device to a message:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
port |
The device's name for it, such as gpio.4, backlight, touch, mic or speaker. Lowercase letters, digits, _ and . |
direction |
in: the device publishes to the message. out: the device follows it |
message |
A qualified flow.name. A flow must declare it, as for a control |
config |
A JSON object passed to the device unread, such as {"pull": "up", "debounce_ms": 50} |
The credential may publish to its in messages even when a dashboard is
locked, and may upload an artifact named after one
(PUT /artifacts?name=<message>), which is how a microphone sends a recording.
out messages are read only.
!!! note "If the local link is wrong"
Pairing links use `FRONTEND_HOST`. Set it to the app address reachable
from the screen's network.
A screen somewhere you cannot reach
An enrolled instance also shows a portal pairing link. Use that link on the remote screen, then approve its code in the same dialog. The device description says via portal.
The instance enforces the same dashboard and message limits. Remote credentials are issued by the portal, so Unpair screen does not revoke them; revoke them at the portal. Deleting the panel removes access on the instance.