Dashboard Web interface - bug in back button

Hey guys.

Just a small bug - if you go to a LOCAL dashboard, and then click on the back button on the top left, it moves you out of the local links, and pushes you to the cloud links.

Given that for some reason, the cloud links are MUCH slower to render, that's a bit tedious.

-- Jules

Must admit I never use the back button.
I have defined a tile on each dashboard that when selected takes me back to my Home Dashboard.
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I know this is not the answer to your query but if you haven't done this it might be worth considering.
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Nope. I'd never used it, either.

But... as with all things, it's all about WAF. Guess how long my other half spent playing with the dashboard before falling foul of it?

I wouldn't mind, but the delay in loading the cloud dashboards got a 'totally unacceptable' sort of response from her. Not an easy audience.

-- Jules

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This one's been reported a bunch of times. Don't know if it's ever going to get addressed.

OK. Well... fair enough. Like most bug reports, it's offered in good faith, on the basis that they can't fix what they don't know about. It may well be, though, that Hubitat is already a complicated enough product that a public bug tracker is the way to go. At least that way people trying to report issues can avoid keep reporting duplicate issues.

The forums are all quite good fun, but they're fundamentally a crappy way of finding out if issues have already been raised.

I've got to say... I don't really use the dashboards much myself - I tend to favour the view that if the automation is doing the right thing, there should be relatively little I need to do manually, and what I DO need to do I can probably ask a voice interface to sort out.

The other occupant, however, and I suspect this will be true for most households, is much less bought into the whole thing, and would like all the overrides at her fingertips. I suspect that Hubitat are going to run into the standard problem that most software products eventually hit when they start up - for casual acceptance, it's more important to LOOK good than it is to BE good. The silly thing is that in most cases, it's also EASIER to look good than to be good, it's just that it needs a different skill set (UX experts, graphic designers, good QA) than the sort of hard-core engineers that form the bulk of startup employees.

Ah well. I've been there, and I know it's not easy.

-- Jules

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Notice the same behaviour too.

Also, when I put a dashboard in read-only, then why back button disappear?

The back button was requested in the beginning as a way to get back to the cloud menu.

Then because some people wanted the back button to not be on the dashboard it was added to the readonly flag to remove it. So you can't get back to a list of all your dashboards.

In the future, dashboard will be more customizable and handle options like menu returning and such much better.

As for bug reports and feature requests or feature changes, I capture every thing on the forums and track them.

The dashboard back arrow wasn't considered a high priority because, well to be honest, the browser has a back button functionality that already takes you where you came from.

Your feedback is noted and valuable. Dashboard is currently being worked on and new features are being added. As, always, we don't offer ETAs but appreciate your patience.

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Not if you are on a dedicated tablet running in kiosk mode - like almost every dedicated control tablet I've even seen....

Hi Patrick.

I'm not having a pop - I've absolutely no doubt that you guys are conscientious at monitoring the forums - you've only got to watch for a few days to see the amount of effort that you guys put into responding.

My only suggestion at all on bug tracking is that if that list/interface was available to forum members, we could avoid re-entering duplicate entries, you guys could avoid having to intervene in the conversation all the time ;), and 3 guys wouldn't have to tell me that it's been reported before :wink:

Anyway... as ever... keep up the good work... and I'll keep on raising issues if I see any that I'm sure are wrong.

-- Jules

And if you are running kiosk mode you probably don't want someone editing a dashboard.

Like I said, we will be expanding the functionality and options.

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No worries, that is why I have MENU dashboard tile on every screen.

I was just playing devil's advocate on why "the browser has a back button" is not a very good reason to not fix the back arrow on the screen.

Thanks!

Not true...I use Fully Kiosk on an Amazon Fire, I just have to swipe up from the bottom to get controls which allow me to go back.

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Yes, which is a non-starter for MANY non-techie people. You simply can't expect people that don't use it every day to know "oh gee, I guess maybe I need to swipe up to get to a tiny back button...". The system needs to work for (almost) everyone, not just techies.

But, that is why I put a big "MAIN MENU" (or similar) button on my kiosk control pages.

If people are non-techie why would they have a hubitat??

I was just pointing out that what you said was not true...I showed my husband how to find the back button and he didn't think it was something techie! And you get the typical three Android buttons when you swipe up, not a "tiny back button".

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What I said is true, at least how I look at it. There is no back button available / on the screen without doing some action. Just because there is one if you remember the magic finger action doesn't change my point at all.

But I see your point. There IS a back button (technically), even if it isn't visible/shown at all times.

I have a Hubitat but my wife is a non-techie.