Widget Forge – Flow-driven dashboard widgets for Homey

[Pascal_Nohl]

Hi everyone,

I’ve released a new Homey app called Widget Forge and wanted to briefly introduce it here.

The main idea came from my own dashboard use: quite often I wanted widgets that are not tied to one specific device or one hardcoded purpose.
Sometimes I just want to display exactly the information I need, formatted the way I want, and update it through flows.

So Widget Forge is basically my attempt to make that possible.

It is meant to provide custom dashboard widgets that can be filled and updated with Flow Cards.
That means the widget itself is more like a visual container, while the actual logic and data come from your own flows.

My goal is to keep it:

• flexible

• easy to understand

• visually clean

• and useful in real dashboards

The first widget concepts are focused on things like structured lists, large value displays, grouped data blocks and similar elements.
So not a widget for one specific app, but a small toolbox for building your own dashboard style inside Homey.

I’m trying to make it useful for many kinds of scenarios, like status overviews, energy values, room information, reminders, warnings, or just nicely formatted custom text/data.

The app is available here: Widget Forge | Homey

A guide can be found here: Pascal Nohl

I’d be happy to hear from you.

[J273]

Looks great, Will give it a try.

Would it be possible to have say a camera snapshot sent to the widget and displayed?

[Pascal_Nohl]

Interesting idea. I think the first thing to check is whether your camera app exposes the snapshot as an image tag in Homey Flows.

If yes, then a dedicated snapshot widget could in principle be possible.

If not, it would likely require camera-specific handling, and that would be outside the concept of Widget Forge.

So do you actually see a snapshot/image tag from your camera in Flows?

[J273]

Yeah my reolink doorbell exposes a camera snapshot tag

[Pascal_Nohl]

Version 1.1.0 is already done. It includes a new widget that was also shown in the preview images, but until now it was still in an alpha stage and not yet ready for release.

Once version 1.1.0 is online and certified, I can take a closer look at camera snapshots.

In the meantime, you’re welcome to try the current version and later also version 1.1.0. After that, it would really help if you could describe a bit more precisely how you would expect camera images to appear in a widget while still fitting the style of the widgets already featured — for example with or without a frame, a title, separators, or maybe additional information. That would help me assess both the feasibility and how well it could fit into the current concept.

Also, could you send me a screenshot of the Flow card with the image tag selected? That would be very helpful.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Thank you, but what I meant is a flow card with an Image Tag. Something like this card

, but instead of #Temperature, your snapshot. If that does not work, Widget Forge would not be able to show it, as the data source must be a Homey tag. Anyway, Widget Forge can only display data not interact with devices.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Version 1.1.0 is available as test version during certification: Widget Forge | Homey

[Pascal_Nohl]

Version 1.2.0 is now online and features the following:

• Added the new Message widget for true status messages.
• Big Display (similar to Big Data List with one line only) and its flow card are now deprecated, but remain functional in existing flows. Superseded by Message widget.
• Added new THEN flow cards for offset-based zeroing, numeric and boolean color grading
• Added line existence check AND cards for Styled List and Big Data Block. This allows flows that create lines if not existent and apply color grade if they exist.
• Added an option in the widget settings to change the appearance of boolean values.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Widget Forge may seem complex at first. That is why I created this user guide here:

Pascal Nohl

[Morgan]

Thank You for your promising project!

As I understand is Big data block replacement for Big display. It’s alright because I can make 1-line data list, but I cannot figure out to change data blocl whole background for same appearance like Big display.

I am missing scope “background” to set color.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Hello,

The big data block is not a replacement for big display. The fact is simply, that aside the background, a one line big data block was very similar to big display.

Message is the replacement for Big Display, as Big Display was initially intended to be a message or alert box.

Now, every widget has a clear role. Message for messages and alerts, Big Data Block as large value display, and Styled List as a kind of structured report.

Only the message widget has a background color property. The idea is to keep widgets clean and styled and not a colorama.

If you think that the Big Data Block should have a background color, you can make an official suggestion. I’ll then check the global interest in that feature. I’m always open for suggestions for other widgets or widget features.

I hope this is clear and helps.

[Morgan]

I think I am looking for a combination of Sharptools dashboard and Widget Forge and thought that Big display could replace Sharptool tiles. Now I understand that Widget Forge has a clear purpose and it’s good to keep it simple.

I think Widget Forge is wonderful as is!

[Pascal_Nohl]

Preview of version 1.3.0

I am currently preparing version 1.3.0, which adds 4 new helper cards to Widget Forge:

• Invert number
• Invert boolean
• Boolean to text
• Simple math

The first two are very small cards, but in my opinion very useful ones. They cover situations that come up quite often in flows and can help reduce unnecessary extra logic.
A simple example would be when you want to use a card like “If X is lower than Y”, but your value is always negative and you first need the inverted number. The same principle also applies to boolean values. These cards are meant to make flows a bit easier to build and easier to read.

The Boolean to text card takes a boolean value or boolean tag and two text parameters: one for true and one for false.
For example, a window contact can return open / closed instead of true / false. But it can just as well be used for on / off, heat / cool, or any other matching pair.

The fourth new card is Simple math. It accepts a mathematical formula made of numbers, numeric tags, the operators +, -, *, /, and parentheses. Decimal values are supported with a dot as decimal separator. This allows small calculations to be done directly inside Widget Forge and should avoid some of the usual workaround flows.

In addition, Simple math can also directly compare the result of a formula with a value and return true or false. This makes it useful not only for calculations, but also for compact flow logic.

These cards are global helper cards, so they are not limited to widgets and can also be useful for other flow scenarios.

I hope these additions will make Widget Forge a bit more flexible and practical in everyday use.

[Pascal_Nohl]

I did not submit 1.3.0 for certification as 1.3.1 is already available for test. It features also a conditional card that accepts a simple math formula.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Preview of version 1.4.0
I am currently preparing version 1.4.0, which:

• adds titles to the ‘Big Data Block’ widget with the same styling possibilities as the ‘Styled List’ widget.
• adds a ‘normal’ font size for values to the ‘Big Data Block’.
• reorders cards in the selector to group them by widget or helper.

[Pascal_Nohl]

Preview of version 1.6.0:

The cards “Calculate Formula” and “Conditional Comparison” now support formulas as comparison values instead of only single fixed values.

Two new comparators have also been added: “less than or equal to” and “greater than or equal to”.

In addition, formulas now support deadband logic. A deadband defines a numeric range that is treated as zero, which helps prevent values from rapidly switching back and forth near zero. Deadbands are written with curly braces and semicolon-separated parameters using the format {value; min deadband value; max deadband value}. If the value falls within the defined range, the result is 0; otherwise, the original value is returned.

THEN card

AND card

[Olivier67]

Hello Pascal,

Thank you for this beautiful application that allows us to further customize our dashboards.

Small question I try for example to give another color the value and the icon in a Big Data Block, I do not see in the flow the notion of numerical value state but only boolean. Or maybe I saw wrong. Otherwise possibility to add this.

Example PV value if higher than 0 then put in yellow or otherwise in white.

Another point, can you add icons for washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, heat pump?

Thanks again.
Olivier (another homey app developer)

[Pascal_Nohl]

Hello Oliver,

Thank you for your feedback.
You can simply overwrite the same line, like this:

The three conditions write different data — such as colors, values, and text — to the same line. In my example, the displayed text and color change depending on the battery state: no activity, charging, or discharging.

That said, I also implemented a new card in a later version that may fit your requirement even better:

With this card, you only need to pass the widget ID, the line, and the value. In the following parameters, you can define thresholds and colors. You do not have to use all fields.

For example, if you set Threshold 1 to 50, the color below the lowest threshold to red, and Color 1 to green, values from 1 to 49 will be shown in red, while values from 50 upwards will be shown in green.

In the scope setting, you can choose whether this affects the value color, the icon color, or both.

I hope I understood your request correctly and that this helps. If not, please feel free to contact me again with a few more details.

Regarding icons: this is definitely doable, but it is quite a bit of work. Homey does not allow card lists to be generated dynamically. This means that new icons first have to be created in SVG format, then added to every relevant card, and finally the icon list has to be updated in two places for each card.

I am happy to do this, especially if I can add a larger batch of icons in one update. I will add your requested icons to my to-do list.

Best regards,
Pascal

[Olivier67]

hello Pascal,
Thank you for your quick response, I will test this using the logic at this time, and I look forward to an update for the icons. have a good end of the day.