Dashboards allow you to build customized views of your HomeSeer devices, events, cameras and more. You can add, configure, drag and resize widgets of different kinds to create an experience that is unique to your home configuration. This section explores in detail all the options available when working with dashboards.
Managing local dashboards
HSBuddy lets you create, edit and delete dashboards which get stored locally on your device. If you have multiple phones/tables with HSBuddy installed, each device can have a different set of dashboards configured. You can also share dashboards across devices using your HomeSeer server - more on that in the section Managing remote dashboards
Creating a new dashboard
There are a few different ways in which you can create a new dashboard in HSBuddy:
- The first time you enter the Dashboards section of the app you will see the following screen, giving you an option to create a new dashboard or download dashboards from your HomeSeer server. Tap the New dashboard option to create your first dashboard
- From any dashboard, you can tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Manage dashboards from the pop-up menu. Then, select New dashboard
Now you need to do is give your new dashboard a name. Although you can have multiple dashboards with the same name, it’s better if you give your dashboards unique names to help differentiate between them later.
That’s it! You’ve created your a new dashboard on your device. Now you can add to your dashboard different sections and widgets. For more on that, see the Editing dashboards section
Switching between dashboards
From the dashboards section of the app, you can switch between dashboards by tapping on the tab with the name of your dashboard. The tab bar displays at the top of the screen in Android, and at the bottom on iOS. The tabs can be scrolled left and right by swiping on them, in case you have more dashboards than the number of tabs your device can display within the screen.
Rearranging dashboards
You can change the order in which the tabs with your dashboard names are shown. To do this:
- From any dashboard, you can tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Manage dashboards.
- From the screen that shows up, look for your dashboards under the Local dashboards section.
- You can reorder them by dragging each item from the handle that shows on the left.
Duplicate, rename and delete dashboards
You can perform additional management actions on dashboards from the local dashboard manager. To do this:
- From any dashboard, you can tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Manage dashboards.
- From the screen that shows up, look for your dashboards under the Local dashboards section.
- Swipe left on the dashboard that you want to manage. The following controls are revealed:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
 |
Creates a duplicate of the dashboard |
 |
Renames the dashboard |
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Uploads the dashboard (see Managing remote dashboards) |
 |
Deletes the dashboard |
There is an alternate way to delete a dashboard. If you are currently viewing the dashboard you want to delete, you can tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Delete dashboard from the available options.
Working with sections
Dashboards contain one or more sections. Each section can contain one or more widgets. To add widgets to a dashboard you have to add at least one section to the dashbaord. Sections are displayed stacked vertically and show header with the name of the section (optional).
Creating a section
When you first create a dashboard, the only thing you will see is an empty dashboard screen with a single option to create a New section. Tap on this button to add your first section to this dashboard.
You will now be asked to give your section a name. Sections display this name as a header (this can be disabled later).
At any time while editing your dashboard you can add new sections by tapping again on the New section button.
Rearranging sections
You can change the order of the sections in the dashboard. To do this:
- From the dashboard view tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Manage sections.
- In the screen that shows up, an item for each sections in your dashboard will show under Sections.
- You can drag each item from the handle that shows on the left.
Duplicate, rename and delete sections
You can perform additional management actions on sections from the section manager. To do this:
- From the dashboard view tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choose Manage sections.
- In the screen that shows up, an item for each sections in your dashboard will show under Sections.
- Swipe left on the section that you want to manage. The following controls are revealed:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
|
Creates a duplicate of the section |
|
Renames the section |
|
Deletes the section |
Editor controls
From any dashboard you can enter the editor by tapping on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner and choosing Edit dashboard. Once in the editor, each section in the dashboard will show a top and bottom row of controls.
The following are the controls available:
| Button | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 or  |
Switch between and floating modes (read more below) | |
 |
Enable or disable display of the section header | |
 |
Insert an extra column for padding (read more below) | Rename the section |
 |
Duplicate the section | |
 |
Delete the section | |
 |
Create a new widget | |
 |
Add a new section | |
 |
Paste cut or copied widgets |
Sticky mode
In this mode, the widgets within the section’s grid will be compacted, such that there is as little space between widgets as possible. When the grid is in sticky mode, widgets have to be placed next to another widget in the grid.
Floating mode
In this mode, widgets can be placed freely anywhere within the grid, and they don’t have to be next to each other. In other words, widgets can ‘float’ anywhere within the grid.
Extra column padding
This option allows you to add 1 extra column to the grid of a section. Do this if you want to arbirtarily change between an even or odd number of columns. Most people use this option to set their columns to an even number so they can create symmetrical dashboards.
Working with widgets
There are 4 kinds of widgets that can be added to a dashboard:
- Device widgets display the state and/or history of a device, and allow you to control the device.
- Event widgets allow you to run an event when tapped.
- Camera widgets display the image from a camera.
- Group widgets allow you to display multiple widgets as a single group. For more information, see Working with groups
You will find detailed information on how to configure device, event and camera widgets in the Widgets page.
Adding widgets
When editing a dashboard, you can add widgets to any section of the dashboard by tapping on the New widget button:
From the pop-up that shows, select the kind of widget that you want to add. That will take you to the widget editor where you can configure the appearance and behavior of the widget.
For more information on the different types of widgets, read the Widgets page.
Once you finish configuring the widget and select Save, the widget will be placed in the section. Continue reading for more information on how to edit and rearrange widgets within a section.
You can also add a device widget to a dashboard from the device details view. At the bottom of the view, under Settings tap on the button Add to Dashboard. You will then have to select the dashboard and section where you want the widget to be added.
Interaction mode
When editing a dashboard, you can be in one of 3 different editing modes:
- Single-select mode. In this mode you can tap on any widget to change its configuration. You can also tap-and-hold on any widget to enter multi-select mode.
- Multi-select mode. In this mode you can tap on any widget to add it or remove it from the selection.
- Rearrange mode. In this mode you can drag a widget to rearrange it within the section. You can also resize the widgets by grabbing them from the lower-right corner.
Changing modes
There is a sub-title bar at the top of the dashboard editor that shows you the current mode with an icon at the right side of the bar:
| Icon | Mode |
|---|---|
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Single-select mode |
 |
Multi-select mode |
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Rearrange-select mode |
Multi-select controls
When in multi-select mode, a footer bar will show at the bottom of the dashboard editor that gives you access to the following controls:
| Button | Control |
|---|---|
 |
Cut the selected widgets |
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Copy the selected widgets |
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Group the selected widgets (read more) |
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Ungroup selected widgets |
|
Delete selected widgets |
 |
Cancel selection mode |
Working with groups
You can group multiple widgets within a section together. Grouped widgets can be moved together. Widgets within a group will not display borders between them, making them appear as a single combined widget.
For example, in the following picture, there are no widget groups created. Pay attention to the arrow widgets next to the thermostat setpoints. These widgets display a gap and border between them:
The following picture shows the same dashboard after creating 2 groups, one for each setpoint, combining the arrow widgets with the value display:
Creating a new empty group
You can create a new empty group on the dashboard using the New widget button from the dashboard editor. In the popup menu that shows up, choose the Group option. This will place on the section a new empty group widget. Now you can tap on the group widget to add widgets to it.
Creating a group from existing widgets
You can create a new group by joining together widgets that have already been placed in the dashboard. To do this, switch the editor Interaction mode to Single-select mode, then long-tap on the first widget you want to be part of the group. This will switch the Interaction mode to Multi-select mode. Now tap on the rest of the widgets you want to be part of the group. When you are done selecting widgets to include in the group, from the [Multi-select-controls] bar that shows at the bottom, choose the Group selected widgets button:
Group operations
While on Single-select mode, tapping on the group widget will bring up the Group operations popup menu:
From these menu you can choose any of the following options:
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Add widget | Adds a new widget to the group |
| Edit contents | Allows you to edit and rearrange widgets within the group (read more below) |
| Ungroup | All widgets that form part of the group are placed in the section and the group is removed |
| Delete | Deletes the group and all the widgets contained in it |
Edit and rearrange group widgets
When you select the Edit contents from the Group operations menu, the contents of the group will be highlighted in the screeen. You can now interact with the widgets inside the group. While editing the group, you can change Interaction modes the same way you did when editing non-grouped widgets (although you cannot multi-select widgets within a group).
To stop editing the group simply tap on any of the area outside of the group.
Managing remote dashboards
You can store your dashboards on your HomeSeer server to back them up, or to share them across multiple devices. To do this, from any dashboard view, tap on the context menu (···) in the top-right corner, and choose Manage dashboards from the popup menu.
This functionality requires installing the HSBuddy plugin on your HomeSeer server, as detailed in the Installing HSBuddy section.
Every dashboard has a unique identifier. This identifier is different than the name you give to the dashboard. When copying dashboards between the app and your server, any dashboard with the same identifier will be overriden if it already existed in the destination.
Global actions
The first section of the Dashboard manager presents you with the Actions section which gives you access to 2 remote dashboard management operations:
- Upload dashboards will upload to the server all the dashboards currently available locally on your device.
- Download dashboards will download into your device all the dashboards currently stored in the server.
Local dashboards
The next section of the Dashboard manager shows you all Local dashboards. These are the dashboads that exist in your device.
At the right end of each dashboard item you may see the icon of a cloud. This icon indicates that the dashboard also exists in the remote server:
You can expose the contextual actions for each local dashboard by sliding the item to the left. These actions are explained in detail in the Duplicate, rename and delete dashboards section above. Within those options you will find a button that allows you to upload the dashboard to the remote server:
Remote dashboards
The next section of the *Dashboard manager shows you all Remote dashboards. These are dashboards that exist in your HomeSeer server.
At the right end of each dashboard item you may see the icon of a folder. This icon indicates that the dashboard has been downloaded to this device:
You can expose the contextual actions for each remote dashboard by sliding the item to the left. You will find the following actions:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
 |
Downloads this dashboard into your device |
|
Deletes the dashboard from your remote server |
Fullscreen Mode
Dashboards support going in and out of fullscreen mode. While in fullscreen mode, the dashboard area occupies the entire device screen, removing the menu bar, the tab bar, if one was present. Optionally, the device’s status bar may be hidden while in fullscreen mode. This is the area where the device usually displays information about remaining battery, signal strength, notifications, etc.
Fullscreen Toggle Widget
In order to toggle a dashboard between fullscreen and normal mode, you will need to add a special widget. See the Adding widgets section for more information on how to add widgets to a dashboard. When selecting the type of widget from the popup-menu, choose Other, then Fullscreen toggle.
In the widget editor that shows up next, you will be presented with 2 options:
- Hide status bar - if selected, the device status bar will be hidden while in fullscreen mode.
- Use a custom icon - select this to assign a custom icon to the widget.
Launching app in Fullscreen Mode
If you use the Shortcuts feature of the app to launch directly into a dashboard, you will have the option to select whether to launch the dashboard in fullscreen mode at the time the shortcut is used. The same applies when setting a dashboard as the Home screen for the app.