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Dashboard

The term "Dashboard elements" in HACS refers to all types of dashboard elements, such as dashboards, views, cards, and more. It includes any element that you can add to Home Assistant under Settings > Dashboards > three dots menu > Resources

Aliases (old names)

As things move on, this type has also had some changes, it has previously been known as:

  • Plugin
  • Lovelace

Dashboard elements download location

Any dashboard element you download with HACS is stored in your Home Assistant configuration directory, under www/community/.

About downloaded dashboard elements

Typically, a dashboard element is a .js file. When a .js file is downloaded, HACS creates a compressed .gz version of it. This file is then served to the requester (instead of the .js file) to reduce size and and transfer time.

If you made local changes to a dashboard element in the .js file, delete the .gz variant. The .gz variant does not contain your changes.

For instructions on how to add a dashboard element to your dashboard configuration, refer to the instructions at the bottom of the page of that dashboard element.

Custom features for files stored under (/hacsfiles)

HACS has a custom path for serving up dashboard elements /hacsfiles/, also referred to as /hacsfiles endpoint. This works mostly the same way as /local but has some extra features.

  • The /hacsfiles endpoint does not cache anything; it will instruct your browser to fetch a new version on each load.
  • The /hacsfiles endpoint will try to serve a .gz variant of the element, making the element smaller and the transfer faster.
Nerd-mode
  • Every dashboard you have downloaded with HACS has an Open source option on the hamburger menu. This is useful when troubleshooting:
    • If you can see a code wall (the underlying .js file), everything is OK.
    • But if you get a 404, try downloading it again.
  • .gz example: CCH (Compact Custom Header) is a fairly popular element for Lovelace.
    • When you use /local, you will transfer the .js file, which is 101 kB.
    • However, if you use HACS and reference the dashboard with /hacsfiles, it will serve the 20 kB .gz version automatically. (Sizes are accurate for version 1.4.7 of CCH).
  • Your dashboard exists in www/community/dashboard/dashboard.js. You can use both /local/community/dashboard/dashboard.js and /hacsfiles/dashboard/dashboard.js to reference it, but only the /hacsfiles version will have the extra features that HACS offers.

Help and support

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