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Read & Discuss

RELEASE v6.10.0: Enhanced Theme Builder: backgrounds, transparency, gradients! + Minor touches / fixes

Terry (ActionTiles) (Co-Founder) 5 years ago in Announcements / Release Notes updated by bilfrost 3 years ago 22

Major Release

Deployed August 15, 2019 - 1000h Pacific Time


Make your Panels prettier using the enhanced Theme Builder!

Visit the My Themes page to Build (+) a new Theme from scratch or a copy of an existing Theme; or to come back and edit your Themes.


Changes (may be updated):

  • Theme Builder:
    • Color Picker now is a an RGB color wheel with hue and transparency/opacity adjustment.
    • Transparency / Opacity for Tile backgrounds and content.
    • Gradients for Panel background and Tile background.
    • Blur and Opacity options for Panel background image (wallpaper) and Tile background images.
    • Background (wallpaper) images. Choose from a selection of included stock images or use a URL to an image (such as from a wallpaper or photo gallery site).
    • Tile background image.
    • Tile border color and width.

  • Panel and Tile backgrounds have 3 layers: color, image and gradient.
    Each layer is configured independently and each preference is optional.
    • Panel color (optional), defaults to black.
    • Panel background image (optional) can be selected from the provided gallery of stock images, loaded from URL or custom CSS property. This layer has preferences for image blur filter and opacity.
    • Panel gradient (optional) is applied on top of background image. It can be a selected from one of the preset values or loaded from a custom CSS property.
    • Tile backgrounds work the same way as Panel backgrounds.

  • New per Tile Styles (in Panel Builder / Tile Settings for each Tile):
    • Icon Animations: breathe, blink, bounce, nudge, pulse, shake, spin, spin fast, vibrate.
    • Icon Effects: glow, fade (fade is the default for the Normal Intention in all Themes).
  • Clock Tile: Option to hide AM/PM indicator.
  • Media Tile implementation change. Should help if media streams are unstable or freeze when zooming.
  • PIN Code can be entered using keyboard keys.
  • Smart Home Monitor (Classic) and Garage Door Tile: Added the option to select custom icons and Tile Intents.
  • Some Thermostat Tile changes (more coming).
  • Consolidated Panel Preferences and Tile Preferences pages.



We will update various open "Bug & Idea Topics" soon if their status has been affected.

Over time, we will post "Tips" in our Knowledge Base, Forum, and Social Media.

Enjoy!
...Terry & Alex.

Answers

+1
PINNED
Answer

Ooo... I forgot to link this new Gallery Topic!

Yes - Please share your Panel designs & Themes to the post linked below:


https://support.actiontiles.com/communities/12/topics/7023-show-me-your-panels-gallery-3-enhanced-themes

PINNED

Update v6.10.0+048 - Deployed

  1. Opacity (Transparency) slider selector of Color Picker was cut-off in widget on some screen sizes.
  2. Theme Import failed if any custom Tile radius, spacing, etc. were included.

Everyone will receive the update automatically. If necessary, please reload/refresh your browser.

PINNED

Update v6.10.0+045 - Deployed

  1. Fixes Android 4.x (KitKat) and some other fatal OS compatibility issues
    More info: https://support.actiontiles.com/communities/12/topics/7118-blank-screen-android-kitkat-and-fireos-v4x
  2. Restores default appearance of "faded" for Normal Icon intention in all stock Themes.

Everyone will receive the update automatically. If necessary, please reload/refresh your browser.

PINNED

Update v6.10.0+045 - Deployed

  1. Fixes Android 4.x (KitKat) and some other fatal OS compatibility issues
    More info: https://support.actiontiles.com/communities/12/topics/7118-blank-screen-android-kitkat-and-fireos-v4x
  2. Restores default appearance of "faded" for Normal Icon intention in all stock Themes.

Everyone will receive the update automatically. If necessary, please reload/refresh your browser.

PINNED

Update v6.10.0+048 - Deployed

  1. Opacity (Transparency) slider selector of Color Picker was cut-off in widget on some screen sizes.
  2. Theme Import failed if any custom Tile radius, spacing, etc. were included.

Everyone will receive the update automatically. If necessary, please reload/refresh your browser.

Hi Terry,

Seems to be an issue with the recent update on AT but no any media shortcut that I selfct used to open in fullscreen but now it just center the image/stream in the center.

Using Fully Kiosk browser and using both stream and still image getting the same results.

Tested on Windows 10 PC in Chrome and getting same results.

Hi Sam,

Thanks for letting us know of this experience. We have listed this as a Confirmed Bug. Please visit the Topic below to add your Votes and Follow.

...Terry.

Awesome release guys.  This has helped take my panels to the next level. 

I'm still wishing for "image tiles" that can open URLs (or conversely, shortcut tiles that can have pictures in them), so I can build a consistent navigation pane at the top...but I'm sure that will come some day :)


Update: Wait....I read the release notes again and now I have question.  Where do you access "Tile Backgrounds"?  I don't see that option.

Thanks for the compliments, JB. And yes - we want to offer the ability to pick unique images for specific Tiles, perhaps limited by Tile type. That's an existing Feature Request. The performance load is a bit of a concern, so we have to tread carefully.


Meanwhile, v6.10.0 permits a single Tile Background Image to be set for any Theme (in Theme Builder).

I was just trying to create an example, and the result isn't great. Might be a bug; we're looking into it.

+2

yeah boi!!! It's official, was holding off in purchasing a license til my trial expired  but who can resist a great app and service like this?! Thanks a lot!

+1

Hello - nice work! Speaking of Tile Background Image - is it possible to set the Theme's background image to be refreshed every X minutes (it seems to cache the image)? Background:


I currently have a media tile that points to a static path on my home network, in order to display a photo on a tile. I set up my Raspberry Pi to replace the photo file at that static path every 10 minutes. The refresh setting on a media tile makes it possible to then have a rotating image appear in one of my tiles.

I'd love to replace the photo Media tile completely with a refreshable background photo (to make more room for other tiles) but can't without the refresh setting. Is this possible?

+1

I have added this feature to my to-do list. Several users expressed interest in this features. My wife is one of those users, so this must be escalated 😁.

very interested in how you did this with a Raspberry Pi.

+1

Really great work guys. 

Love it.  However, it would be cool if the fan icon were centered.  Applying the spin animation to it makes it wobble (more apparent when spin-fast).

Anyone have any cool panels to share with the new features? Trying to see if I want to make use of any of the new features.

+1
PINNED
Answer

Ooo... I forgot to link this new Gallery Topic!

Yes - Please share your Panel designs & Themes to the post linked below:


https://support.actiontiles.com/communities/12/topics/7023-show-me-your-panels-gallery-3-enhanced-themes

I updated a few of my panels using the new visual features but soon after I noticed them crashing or freezing fully.  After some testing I think I discovered the culprit.  Animation.  I was curious if others noticed.


I started by adding animations to a 3 tiles, adding a background and making some tiles more transparent.  It looked very cool.  After some crashing I figured it was too much for my Fire Tablets so I removed the background image.  Still crashed\froze.  I then went to a standard theme.  Still crashed.  I then removed the animations and its been solid for 24 hours (or its recovering very cleanly)  

Setup:

Fire 10 Tablet (newest one) with 3 video camera feeds

Fire 8 HD Tablet 2 video camera feeds

Fully Kiosk (latest version)

No screen savers

To confirm my suspicious I will add back things (except animations)  I will report back but I am curious if others have seen this or am i special?

I have noticed some freezing too....but I chalked it up to my tablet (2012 Nexus 7) being pushed to the limits of it's usefulness.

I have also noticed a weird anomaly where the contents of the tile render really small (impossible to read), but when I refresh, they come back to regular size. 

Thanks for the reports, folks!

ActionTiles is just using standard HTML5 / CSS functionality for the animations and effects. But such features inevitably put pressure on the resources of the tablet and/or stability of the browser.

Hello Boy im loosing my head here, Actionntiles is great but im just a beginner, i have tried i don't know how many times to simply change the background on my panel, 

i can find the photos or background images and they are there / rite there in my themes, But i can't seem to change the background from plain black to a image, has anyone got a simple step by step how to do this. Will by you a pint lol Many thanks in advance 

+1

Go to the Themes page, go to the upper right and copy an existing theme or just edit an existing theme. Use the dropdown to select your image.

Then go to your panel, top right corner for panel settings, scroll down and select the theme you just created/edited.

I am not able to find a solution either, but only for the default "Elements" theme.


When I go to create a new theme based on ActionTiles themes, the default Elements theme is not there. It sounds simple and I may just be overlooking something really easy here.

Is there a way to copy the current default Elements theme and make changes to that, or does anyone have the properties?

I like to be able to create a theme based on an existing theme. But I would like to use the Default theme to start with, and that one is missing from the list of options.