Newbie, almost ready to quit on Designer

Questions
#1

I have Hubitat and have been searching for a great dashboard. I literally spent the whole day playing with half a dozen, only to realize one key feature was missing. THR is definitely the dashboard I want to learn but I’ll admit, I’m very confused by the Home Remote Designer Software. I’m not a computer novice by any means but somehow I’m just not seeing how devices, groups (including home), and pages all work together.

Here’s where I’m at so far

  1. I’ve connected HRD to my Hubitat and can see devices thru Maker API.
  2. I can add my Hubitat devices to the home group, but that’s about all I’ve figured out.
  3. I can make a basic UI using just groups (eg Groups > Home, Groups > Cameras, Groups > Weather, etc), but this doesn’t seem like the right way to build this UI, or at least severely limiting without using any pages.

I guess I’m so used to other Dashboard builders where you just drag out objects and then create links to other pages or dashboards.

Can someone explain the best way to use and understand all of the main elements available in Designer?

#2

Each Device object generated has 2 associated pages: a TileTemplate & a DetailsTemplate. Those are the pages you need to edit or create. Do you understand that part of it?

If you don’t like Tile based layouts you can start from scratch kind of like how Brian does in his how-to videos. For newbies though I strongly recommend understanding the basics of the default Tile based system. That will save you time in the long run if you have a lot of devices.

#3

I guess conceptually, but not seeing that terminoloy in the app.
So as an example Devices > Hubitat > FrontDoorSwitch…that device has a Tile Template (how it looks on the screen), and a DetailsTemplate (what it can do and how it behaves).

Maybe what I’m most confused to begin with is why MainPage.xaml has no ability to add Controls (they are greyed out).

#4

MainPage.xaml is just a menu. It’s the flyout menu on the left. The only thing you can add to it are menu items (aka links to other pages).

#5

Trying the newbie approach…click backup in mobile app, file (Invalid).zip is saved. Emailed to my desktop, downloaded, changed .zip to .HRP, then tried to Open it in designer. The file upload doesn’t see the file.

#6

The Designer can’t open the file even after you changed the extension to HRP?

#7

Nope, It doesn’t show any valid file types in the windows file explorer upload window

#8

I’m not for sure what you mean by “upload” window. You should download the file onto your PC. You need to change the extension on your PC. I don’t think you’ll be able to change the extension on your Android.

#9

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Still shows the file type as zip, but as you can see the extension is .HRP

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As you can see, HRD Open window doesn’t show that file as an option to open. It can see two other .HRP files that I was messing around with.

#10

Windows is hiding the file extension from you so you aren’t actually changing it. In the top toolbar of Window Explorer, make sure the “File Name extensions” option is checked.

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#11

:rofl: yep that was it. Newbie mistake. I’ll play around with this mobile dashboard and then see if I’m ready to build my own.

Appreciate your help!

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#12

Two more quick general questions while I have your attention

  1. Why is it necessary to create two folders under Groups? Eg Home > HomeGroup, or Weather > WeatherGroup?

  2. I set orientation to Landscape, but I get the sense it doesn’t flip the Width/Height input boxes. Meaning the app always treats height/width as if it’s referencing portrait mode?

#13

  1. Each sub-folder represents a tab. So “Home” can have multiple tabs if you like.

  2. Those dimensions at the top are the size when in portrait.

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