ActionTiles Dashboard Custom styles

​Hi Guys,

Just posted this in AT forum but also would like to hear any potential future users here.

This is more a suggestion/idea to which I would like to hear from you your feedback.

Disclaimer: I’m in no way affiliated with Actiontiles or any developers.

I have heard one of the Actiontiles staff referring several times that they are a small company, that there are so many feature requests and limited manpower to address it all (hence why is important to vote as this will help them prioritize their workload).

Taking into consideration that we pay a just one off fee that is relatively low, I don’t even now how can they financially survive.

The thing that I hear the most in smarthing forum related to actiontiles as a request is for action tiles allow tiles and background costumisation.

I’m one of them.

I’m conscious that this will require a theme engine to be created specifically to the actiontiles platform. That is not an easy task and will require an incredible amount of coding hours.

Therefore I would like to ask who would be willing to support this development (maybe allowing them to hire a little help specifically for this) by donating a few quids.

The idea I would like to suggest to AT is for them to come up with a target budget for this development and launch a kickstarter style campaign that when we reach the pledged goal they would immediately prioritise this development.

I would be willing to give a few $€£ to get this prioritise.

What you guys think?

Been discussed already in other active ongoing AT topics in the community. You will also find that there are people building custom themes (LCARS) already and incorporating AT within. Do a quick a little search and you will see those ongoing conversations.

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And here’s the official thread for ActionTiles (within SmartThings) to post all your questions in :slight_smile:

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@WB70 if you read my post careful I’m suggesting a native to action tiles theme engine.

I’m aware of Lcars. Lcars requires a webserver to host the PHP files.

I’m looking for a solution that works out of the box and has all users in mind and not only developers or enthusiastic that are willing to learn to manage and setup webserver.

As such what I’m suggesting in particular is nowhere to be found!

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@WB70 I’m aware of all those threads. But also believe this requires a separate thread as it is generic to the platform and not to version xyz

And if you do a little searching this has been discussed in the community around people suggesting that they go the Kickstarter route and build a native based themes engine.

I do not believe it requires a separate thread / topic. You can post this in the main ActionTiles thread and im sure @tgauchat and @625alex would be more than happy to have that conversation. :slight_smile:

Its the only official AT community thread. Not multiple active threads on different versions. Just FYI.

LCARS is not server needed… the php files are not integrated yet. And they will be an option, not requirement. PHP will only be used for floorplan layout.

:slight_smile: it’s not what everyone wants, but it’s close until we get customizable ActionTiles

And LCARS is easily changeable to any style or theme. As long as you know CSS, or have a friend that does.

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As for wanting to see ActionTiles grow to something huge and have all this additional functionality and enhancements, I’m totally onboard like you. To go that route though, it’s easier said than done and various conversations have transpired over time. Didn’t mean to make it sound like I was trying to be rude if it got taken that way. :slight_smile:

In my opinion, it would take a serious upfront investment for them to drop the jobs they currently have and venture into the unknown and solely work on ActionTiles where they are still at the mercy of whatever SmartThings plans to do now, or in the future.

@Evasilisin how you can say is not server based? As far I understood if you want to do any changes you need to host.
As far I understood what was released was a specific web wrapper with the LCARs layout. That if you want something different you will need to customise and for that you need a server.
Did I miss something?

@WB70

Didn’t take it the wrong way. :wink:

I just feel that all under the same thread will make this wash away between everything else that is discussed there. When the solely objective of this is to gauge this specific topic and just this one :wink:

Good to know that you would also support :wink:

Sure, I’d chip in. But I really don’t see them doing this.

You can host on the local machine… the machine you use it on. Raspberry Pi, PC, Android, etc. It doesn’t NEED a server, just needs to be on the device you use…
So your browser can point to it. And it’s KB, not that large. Obviously a server would be more convenient if you have multiple devices, but it’s not necessary.

You are definitely welcome to see where it goes and what kind of responses others will have.

Being an ActionTiles customer pretty much from day one and seeing the enhancements as they have been rolled out all along and knowing that ActionTiles is tied specifically to how SmartThings functions today, I can almost guarantee that you are most likely never going to see some sort of campaign launched for this. Instead, ActionTiles will continue to grow at a pace where time permits and where the developers see that a solution/enhancement is viable, profitable and makes sense to the continued growth/success of the product. If they see that Themes is something they are able to build natively into ActionTiles, they will build it, period.

We would all love to see that and I know those guys would too. But this isn’t going to happen because of a fundraiser. JMO.

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@Evasilisin

Local or on a cloud, VPN or dedicated server a webserver is always a webserver and needs to be hosted so you always need some knowledge of Linux, xampp, or whatever webserver you will need to use.

So bottom line you always need a server… A webserver to be more precise!

I agree with you.
As you said let’s see where it goes.
Maybe and this is a big maybe if enough people are willing to commit some they can see the benefits of putting it in place.
It would help them greatly with user adoption.

Let’s see where it goes!

I don’t think you know what I mean by host locally… download the files to android or raspberry or pc… And then point browser to C:\Documents\etc\etc\index.html - so you’re not running a server. But like I said, it’s more feasible on a server

The background customization is clear to me, but what do you mean by tiles customization?

Well if it is pure html (without any other language) than it will work as you said.
I didn’t look at the code. But without any scripting language seems odd.

Thanks for clarifying. I will give a look into the code.

For tiles:
Setting fonts, icons, size of fonts, and individual tile background.

For background:
The overall background for all tiles :wink:

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You are purchasing ActionTiles for what it can do today, not what you hope it does tomorrow. If Themes is a deal breaker, you don’t have to purchase it and find something that better suits your needs.

I have plenty of Echos throughout my house, but you know what I’m disappointed about? It’s doesn’t allow me to natively change Alexa’s voice to another gender or another name like Sylvia or another personality. I purchased it for what it had at the time it was released and I hope that they release this enhancement in the future. However, it didn’t have it when I purchased it so that may not be something that ever gets released, but overall, the devices serve the overall purpose they were intended for, so if they don’t implement that, it isn’t what I paid for with my one time cost.

I have a thought. To get Themes implemented, how about you manage a fundraiser with all $$$$$$ or invest your own money. And if you could, direct some of that money over to the Alexa team to get my wish list taken care of. :slight_smile:

If you can get it to $250k, I will kick down $$$$.