On my office computer I have a screen that has a dashboard that shows my security cameras.
I installed that page as an app in Edge and set it to auto-refresh once an hour. There is an add-on for that.
On a pc reboot, it will automatically load that dashboard for me also.
Not much good for an android tablet though…
Solution to refresh Raspberry Pi 400 running chromium kiosk with 15" uPerfect touch screen Display. Via Node Red and SSH command to XDOTOOL.
CHROMIUM KIOSK Mark Watt Tech Tutorial.
uPerfect unify y Vertical Monitor
My Home Assistant Server runs on a Home Assistant Blue. My Raspberry pi400 utilises the full screen kiosk (above) to log into the server via Nabu Casa.
- INSTALL XDOTOOL
- INSTALL NODE RED if you do not already have it installed.
- INSTALL node-red-contrib-ssh-v3 node in Node Red.
The flow is very simple, consists of an inject node that injects the SSH command via msg.payload, every 10 minutes. This is so my Ventusky weather map shows the latest data, running in iFrame.
Below is the setup for the inject node.
msg.payload is set to (string)
The full SSH command is: Insert your own username.
export XAUTHORITY=/home/INSERT USERNAME/.Xauthority; export DISPLAY=:0; xdotool key ctrl+r
The part of the above that completes the virtual key press of ctrl+r is xdotool key ctrl+r
I discovered this command works directly after my other attempts failed. See this website XDOTOOL fails. Error: Can’t open display: (null)
Failed creating new xdo instance
I set repeat interval to 10mins.
Setup for the SSH V3 node is as below.
Hostname: The IP address of your Raspberry Pi
Port: 22 (default setting)
Username: The username you use to log into your Pi
Password: The password you use to log into your Pi
Ssh: Leave this as the default grey text, the msg.payload from the inject node needs no other file path.
Works perfectly. Basically my Home Assistant Blue, running Node Red is sending a keyboard shortcut ctrl+r to my Pi 400 every 10 minutes.
xdotool works properly for you with Wayland/Wayfire (default on Raspberry OS Bookworm), because I had no luck with it.
I am using Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm). I just checked raspi.config and I am running X11 Openbox window manager with X11 backend. I am unsure if you can set that and have your Pi run correctly?
See the below links for Wayland.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/u5mxzi/xdotool_alternative_for_wayland/
Yup, probably I saw that sometime ago, for sure I had no luck with ydotool. I switched to use JS to reload dashboard.
Xdotool won’t work with Wayland. On Wayland, the compositor cannot be tampered with or spied on by applications connecting to it.
I have what is the beginning of a tool you can use with KWin as a compositor on Wayland, right here:
It currently only knows how to raise a window, but KWin is pretty scriptable so you can hack it to make it do your bidding. The reason it works is because KWin is the compositor, so it can do whatever the føck it pleases.
Has anyone found a solution which works with the Android companion app? Thx
Tasker or ADB Command Maybe?
https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/kyzbeo/can_i_simulate_button_pressed_without_root/
https://groups.google.com/g/tasker/c/LJhmfxT2mj8?pli=1
https://flows.nodered.org/flow/7f35f7f413c7d4abd983e4ede0100ec7
After update to 2024.04 custom.js is stop refresh page after update.
Replace after === to your language
function refreshOnLovelaceChange() {
const ha = document.querySelector("home-assistant")
if (!ha || !ha.shadowRoot) return
const nm = ha.shadowRoot.querySelector('notification-manager')
if (!nm || !nm.shadowRoot) return
const haToast = nm.shadowRoot.querySelector('ha-toast')
if (!haToast) return
if (haToast.shadowRoot.firstElementChild.firstElementChild.firstElementChild.textContent === 'Конфигурация панели обновлена. Обновить, чтобы увидеть изменения?') {
console.log("Refreshing page...")
location.reload()
}
if (haToast.shadowRoot.firstElementChild.firstElementChild.firstElementChild.textContent === 'Home Assistant работает!') {
console.log("Refreshing page...")
location.reload()
}
}
setInterval(refreshOnLovelaceChange, 500);
1 Like
Update to my version of “refresh” to work with HA core v2024.4.2 & frontend v20240404.1:
if (haToast.opened && haToast.text.includes('dashboard was updated')) {
→
if (haToast.open && haToast.labelText.includes('dashboard was updated')) {
2 Likes
Thanks! This is the only version that doesn’t fill my logs with constant errors, let’s hope it also works on my tablet! 
EDIT: Yes, it works.
To keep it short, if you’re having issues on one of your devices (like I did), clearing the cache on that device (browser/app) should solve your problem.
I’ve just requested such feature: Automatic reload of dashboard
Please vote (unless they decide to close it if there is other such feature request and I failed to find it).
1 Like
As for me, i don’t use auto-refresh for some time now. The reason is quite simple: before i start “messing” with HA and i’m planning only to do a simple change, i open one tab (in chrome/edge) with dashboard i plan to change and leave it in the background, then i work in another tab. If anythig goes wrong i just save that first one and i’m back. OK, another way is to open raw editor and save contents to a txt file before start, but i do that only for bigger changes i plan to make.
I’ve made all my (manual) refreshes either via rest command when using fully kiosk, or via hass.agent command when using windows. So, when i work on a dashboard i leave all instances except the one i’m working on, and refresh them all only after i’m done (i made a script for that).
Ok, auto-refresh would be usable, but it would definitely had to be selective for each user: with option to have it turned on or off.
Voted good improvement
I might just be thick, but I don’t seem to have a config/www directory, so no custom JS file. Any reason why?
Do you have HACs installed?
I do indeed, it runs my Octopus Energy addon.
What editor are you using? For example with File Editor you should see WWW in the homeassistant folder
I’m using Studio Code, I will have try another editor if you think that might be the problem?
