Introduction to Dashboards

Dashboards provide an intuitive way to visualize and control your smart home devices.

SharpTools dashboards are commonly used in either wall mounted displays (tablets) or on mobile devices like your phone or tablet. SharpTools dashboards display real-time status of smart devices in your home – enabling you to quickly see if your lights are on, doors are locked, garage doors are closed, and more!

Looking for inspiration to create your dashboard? Try one of our built-in Themes or check out the Show off Your Dashboards thread in the community!

In addition to interacting with your smart home devices, you can:

Control 'location' features like Scenes, Modes, and Routines
PIN protect important resources on your dashboard
Integrate cameras and other media sources
Display weather information, traffic, and more
Link to other apps on your phone / tablet
Display your calendars and news feeds

Create a Dashboard

To get started creating a dashboard, open the Dashboard tab within SharpTools.io and tap the green + button.

Enter a dashboard name and optionally adjust the target device type that you plan on displaying the dashboard on before tapping Create.

Note that you can ultimately view the dashboard on any device type, but the 'Target Device' selection will adjust the default number of columns that are displayed in a row making it easier to design your dashboard for the selected device type.

You can also adjust the number of tiles that are displayed in each row later from the Dashboard Settings → 'Number of Columns Wide'.

Edit Dashboard

Once you've created your dashboard, you'll be taken to the dashboard editor. You can tap the green + Add Tile button in the middle of the screen to begin adding tiles to your dashboard.

At any point in the future, if you'd like to edit your dashboard or add more tiles, select the `...` icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and then Edit. While in edit mode, additional buttons appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. You can tap the green + button to add items to your dashboard or the amber save icon to save your edits.

At this point, you'll be presented with the Add Item screen. You can either use the search field at the top of the screen or tap each of the categories to expand them and see their content.

Tapping an item in any of the categories will add it to your dashboard. Once you're done adding items from the Add Item screen, either tap Done at the bottom or tap anywhere outside of the box to close it.

Editing Tiles

Once you've added some tiles to your dashboard, you can adjust their settings. While editing a dashboard, you can adjust a tile's settings by tapping the `...` in the top-right corner of a tile and then selecting Edit. The settings generally include:

Label - customize the label shown at the top of the tile
Dimensions - adjust the size of the tile
Icon - adjust the icon shown on the tile
Style - adjust the style of the tile (color / look)
Security - apply security restrictions to the tile (learn more)
Additional Options - adjust settings specific to the tile type

*Note that not all tiles will show all of the above options.

In addition to adjusting a tiles settings, you may also be able to change the layout (or 'template') that a tile is using. For example, most Thing tiles will have a Change Layout option in the tiles `...` menu.

See the Change Tile Layout article for more details, including insights into the Hero Attribute layout which enables you to display custom attributes from a smart.

Dashboard Settings

In addition to customizing each individual tile, you may wish to adjust settings that apply to the dashboard as a whole. To access the Dashboard settings, tap the `...` in the bottom right corner of a dashboard and then select the Configuration icon. Dashboard settings include:

Dashboard Name - the name shown in the dashboard list
Sizing Approach - adjust between Scalable (default) and Reflowing
- Number of Columns - for scalable dashboards, adjust how many columns are in each row
- Tile Size - for reflowing dashboards, adjust the target size of a 1x1 tile
Theme - adjust the overall look and feel of a dashboard (learn more)
Security - apply dashboard wide security settings (learn more)

You can also toggle the Advanced switch in the top-right corner of dashboard settings on and access other settings like the 'Tile Space', 'Truncate Tile Labels' and 'Background Image'

Themes are an excellent way to adjust the look and feel of your dashboards! Be sure to check out the Introduction to Themes article for more details! Try the Themes → Official Themes option in your dashboard settings to quickly try some of our built-in themes!