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Dashboard

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 www/community/ in your Home Assistant configuration directory.

Special notes about downloaded dashboard elements

When a .js file is downloaded, a compressed .gz version of it will be created. This file (assuming it exists) will be served to the requester to save transfer size/time.

If you make local changes to a dashboard element in the .js file, delete the .gz variant to have HACS serve up that one.

At the bottom of every page for dashboard elements, it will state how you should add it to your dashboard configuration.

Custom view (/hacsfiles)

HACS has a custom view/path/endpoint for serving up dashboard elements /hacsfiles/. 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 will have 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 101kB. However, if you use HACS and reference the dashboard with /hacsfiles, it will serve the 20kB .gz version automatically (sizes 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.