Untill now I always started the configuration of my dashboard using the UI, which I find most of the time very handy.
But when a dashboard gets complicated it doesn’t work so well. My main limitations are :
some custom cards cannot be parameterized in the UI. When they include other cards (for example tabbed, swipe, stack-in), the included cards also cannot be UI edited anymore, so in the end it can be a lot of cards.
Impossible to reuse a card in a different dashboard (with custom:decluttering-card)
So now I am thinking to switch to a full YAML mode, with a sync on a git repository and using a proper IDE.
But when I try to find some information about it, I see many discussions saying “it’s the end of the YAML, Home Assistant wants to switch to UI only…etc”.
So I’m a bit lost, should I stay with the UI and face the limitations mentioned above ? Or should I switch the “old” YAML solution ?
I completely understand where you’re coming from… but there are many kinds of dashboards that can be created - they don’t have to be Lovelace UI… have you looked into ui minimalist which is great for cell phones (some examples of what I have are below):
If you want to switch to yaml mode then go ahead. I seriously doubt that a mandatory switch to UI only config for the dashboards will happen any time soon if ever.
Ok thank you for your advices.
I didn’t know minimalist UI, but I doubt it could solve my issues, I use some cards like frigate to communicate from a wall tablet to my intercom, advanced sets of custom cards to build a kind of media player connected to my Spotify playlists…etc
So I think I’ll give a try to the YAML mode, even better if I can keep one dashboard handled in the UI for testing.
Now how do you deploy your devs from VS Code (or any IDE) to your home assistant?