It is frustrating that I have to launch a browser every time I just need to peek at the temperature in my wine cellar or check the state of the garage door. Or, for that matter: Switch off the light in the hall.
A browser is not a suitable client front end for a home automation system. What I want is to be able to drop “cards” directly on my desktop, anywhere, in any size and on any desktop, knowing that they will behave just like regular icons (or perhaps better; the abandoned gadgets (or widgets) that Windows used to have). All I want to be able to do, is to scale, move, delete and chose “stay-on-top”. Everything else can be just as regular Lovelace cards behave today.
Please, can someone with a bit of programming skills free us from the frustrating browser?
There are a few Projects as alternative to using your browser: Natifyer, a cli program to generate a native app out of browser apps; Home Assistant Taskbar Menu, a client for the taskbar with win 10 notification support, works best for having a peek at your temperature or quickly switch the lights; and an Elgato Streamdeck plugin which can display any sensor value onto a key or switch lights with a button press, executing services works also with Corsair keyboards.
These are the programs i know about and im using these in my setup, they might not be exaclty what you need/want, but its a start.
Maybe Applicationize can be of help for you.
It can generate Chrome Extensions of HA respectively to certain HA cards, which - after they have been installed as such - appear as Chrome Apps. From there you can generate desktop link(s):
I believe what you are envisioning is something like Android’s widgets that can both display information, perform actions and/or serve as links to an app. However, you expressed interest in having it work on a desktop operating system which is only possible if it offers such a capability (as far as I know, none of the desktop OS offer native widgets). The alternative is a custom application offering widget-like features (see tenn0’s post). BTW, which operating system do you use?
What is currently available is a link to a web-page. Most browsers, for desktop operating systems, allow you to create a desktop shortcut to a web-page that can lead directly to a desired view in your Lovelace UI.
This is exactly what I use. Edge, in my particular case, has the option to “install this page as an app.” So I navigate to the view I want to start in, install it as an app, and it gives me an independent, resizable windowed “app” that looks like this:
I can pin it to the task bar for quick access or even put a shortcut in the auto start if I want. HA has a semi-permanent location at the bottom right of my desktop so I’m just one click away from control and can instantly see state changes.
No, no - just launching a Chrome or Edge instance consumes hundreds of megabytes of memory, and blows all my 8 i7-cores to the roof for several seconds and I don’t want any “artificial frames” around my “widgets”.
My client PC is running Windows 10, and I use a small program named “Gadgets” (which was originally a part of Windows 7, but later removed). Here’s a samle set of “Widgets” as display by the Gadget App:
I don’t think so. The temperature gadget in the center is just using my Netatmo API (Just like Home Assistant does). HA has an API offering integration with all its entities. This should be fully doable for an experienced programmer.
Why not be supportive for my suggestion instead of being rejective to me ? Please don’t make things personal when you disagree on an issue.
I think something like this would bring HA to new heights in terms of user-firendliness UX
I never said I disagreed. I answered your question on “how hard it could be”. I’m a dot net programmer and I know how hard it can be, so I answered you. It’s a lot of work. You’re the one taking it personal.
I’ve seen all the fine support you’ve given to users here in this forum. I understand that you’re a skilled professional. Think about it, please. Maybe you can think of some ideas that could kick off and inspire an initiative in this direction for someone (I am regretfully not a programmer myself).
If not, keep up the good work anyway
The input control side of things (switching entities on and off for example) can easily be done with a simple webhook batch file and shortcut. And if you route it via a little bit of vbs in a 1-line file, then you can even suppress the terminal:
I use that one linked to a batch file that calls a webhook in HA via curl, with an icon in RocketDock to turn my study desk lamp on and off with a simple click of the icon.
Difficult to take you seriously when you make preposterous statements like that, or like this:
Or when you ask:
How hard can it be?
and then, without any apparent knowledge of application development, you claim “I don’t think so” when a dot net developer informs you it would be hard.
Good luck attracting developers to grant your wish.
TBH, i dont wanna sound rude, but asking for links for 3 programs that are easily findable on github and offloading such a simple task as using google to others (tbh, i also google them) is kinda lazy.
