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Viewing dashboards in /dash

Besides the console, the instance serves a separate dashboard viewer at /dash/. It shows a published dashboard and nothing else: no sidebar, no editor, no draft. Use it for a wall display in a control room, for a bookmark that opens straight onto one board, or for people who only need to look at a dashboard. This chapter is for anyone who opens it, and for whoever sets up a wall display.

Dashboards themselves are built and published in the console; see Dashboards.

Signing in​

The viewer has its own sign-in form, with Email, Password, Sign in and Sign in with SSO, and a language switch. For single sign-on, type your email address first, then choose Sign in with SSO. If your account belongs to several tenants, the viewer asks you to choose one.

The /dash sign-in card with an Email field holding sam.rivera@widgetlab.example, an empty Password field, a Sign in button, a Sign in with SSO button, and EN English and ES Español language buttons.

The viewer keeps its session in the page's memory only. It does not share the console's session: being signed in to the console does not sign you in here, and signing out of one leaves the other alone. Reloading the page, or opening /dash/ in another tab, asks you to sign in again.

Loading a dashboard​

After you sign in, Load a dashboard asks for a Dashboard token. Type the token of a dashboard, which you can copy from its page in the console, and choose Load published. The viewer fetches the version that was last published. A dashboard that has never been published cannot be opened here; the viewer asks you to have an author publish it.

The Load a dashboard page. The Dashboard token field holds wl-gallery, with the hint Fetches the version of this dashboard that was last published, and a Load published button. Below, under Or paste an exported definition, are a Definition (JSON) box, a Binding manifest (JSON, optional) box with a sample of its shape, and a Render button. The header has the language buttons and Sign out.

The lower half takes a dashboard you exported from the console instead: paste the definition and, optionally, a binding manifest that points its slots at particular devices, then choose Render. See Exporting and, for binding manifests, Embedding.

The board​

The loaded board fills the page under a slim header. The header shows the dashboard's title and offers the language switch, Dark theme (or Light theme), Change, which returns to the load form, and Sign out.

The Widget Lab board in the /dash viewer, light theme. The header shows Widget Lab and the buttons English, Español, Dark theme, Change and Sign out. Below: a title card, a temperature readout of 35.0 C, a temperature gauge, an Active alarms count of 2 with worst severity Major, an image, a line chart of temperature and humidity, a Latest values table, an Alarms table with two Major active alarms and Ack and Clear buttons, and a Setpoint command form with a Send Set Setpoint button.

The widgets are live: values, charts and alarms update as data arrives. The viewer cannot change the dashboard, but widget actions still work for those allowed to use them. Someone whose role grants alarm:write can acknowledge and clear alarms from the board, and someone with command:write can send commands to real devices. The server checks those rights for every action. See Actions and permissions.

Dashboard and widget titles are text the dashboard's author wrote, so they stay as written whatever language the viewer is set to.

Light and dark​

The theme button switches the board between light and dark, and this browser remembers your choice for next time.

The same Widget Lab board in the dark theme: dark backgrounds, light text, the header button now reading Light theme, and the charts, gauge, alarm table and command form restyled for the dark background.

The viewer's address can carry parameters, so a bookmark or a wall display opens the right board in the right mode:

/dash/?dashboard=<token>&kiosk=1&theme=dark
ParameterValuesEffect
dashboarda dashboard tokenLoads that dashboard straight after sign-in, including after single sign-on.
kiosk1 or trueKiosk mode: hides the header and its controls, and shows a Fullscreen button instead.
themedark or lightSets the theme. Unlike the theme button, the parameter is not remembered.
densitycompact, comfortable or wallAccepted, but it does not change the layout yet.

A parameter with a value the viewer does not recognise is ignored, and the other parameters still apply.

In kiosk mode the board takes the whole page. The only control is Fullscreen in the top right corner, which turns into Exit fullscreen; it is hidden if the browser cannot go full screen. There is no sign-out control in kiosk mode, so a wall display stays on its board.

The Widget Lab board in kiosk mode: no header, the title card at the top with a Fullscreen button in the top right corner, and the same live widgets below, including the alarm table with Ack and Clear and the Setpoint command form.

Staying signed in​

A wall display can run unattended for days, so the viewer renews its session on its own, a couple of minutes before it would expire. A network blip, such as a Wi-Fi reconnect, does not end the session: the viewer keeps retrying until its current access lapses.

If the session cannot be renewed, because the sign-in was ended on the server or the outage lasted too long, the board is replaced by a full-screen Your session has ended notice with a Sign in again button. The display never sits frozen on old values. When the address carries a dashboard parameter, signing in again brings the same board straight back.

More detail is in Session refresh and kiosk mode.

  • Dashboards: building, publishing and exporting dashboards in the console.
  • Dashboards: widgets, data sources, versioning and embedding.
  • Signing in: the console's own sign-in.