Flipdot-display/docs/web-ui.md

# Web UI

[← Back to the README](../README.md)

Open `http://<ESP32 IP>/` (e.g. <http://10.1.1.198/>) in a browser. At the top is a live
view of the display: it shows what the dots show right now, updated every 1.5 s. Each tab
has its own address, e.g. `http://10.1.1.198/#schedule`; `#pages/<page name>` opens a page
in the editor.

The screenshots are made with `python tools/make_webui_screenshots.py` (Edge or Chrome in
headless mode).

## Show

Choose what the display shows during the day: a dynamic page (e.g. the built-in Clock:
Pikachu with the time) or any bitmap (not the [icons](#icons)), and what is left on the dots when the display
switches off. With a [schedule](#schedule), a page chosen here (or with the Home Assistant
"Mode" dropdown) is shown until the next block starts; "Back to schedule" ends it earlier.
Bitmaps that pages or rules use are in their own subsection.

![Show](../Pictures/web-ui/show.png)

## Pages

Dynamic pages: a background per time of day, a bitmap or an [icon](#icons) (e.g. Pikachu
from 00:00, yawning Pikachu from 17:00) with up to 16 elements on top. The preview is drawn by the ESP32, so it
is exactly what the display shows; drag the elements on it, or select one and use the
arrow keys. The Clock page (Pikachu, the default) is a normal page that can be changed;
its Reset button brings back the original. See the [pictures of the pages](pages.md).

| Element | Options |
|---------|---------|
| Clock | `08:05`, `8:05`, optionally with seconds |
| Date | 7 formats, Dutch or English (`do 15 okt`, `15 oktober`, `donderdag`, ...), today or up to 7 days ahead (the weekdays of a forecast) |
| Home Assistant value | An entity or attribute (also a path into lists, e.g. `forecast.1.temperature`), text before and after. Shown as a number (multiplier, decimals, auto unit `1257 W` → `1.3 kW`, without minus sign), a duration (`2h 21m`, `2:21:00`, `2:21`, `2 uur`), a time from an HA timestamp (`23:07`, `do 23:07`, `15-10 23:07`, `over 34 min`) or with own texts per state (`printing=Bezig, standby=Klaar`) |
| Text | Up to 32 characters |
| Countdown | To a date and time: smart (`12 dagen`, `5 uur`, `34 min`, `0:45`), days, `12d 04:05`, with seconds; a text when it has passed |
| Stopwatch | `4:05`, `0:04`, `0:04:05`; started in the [Stopwatch](#stopwatch) tab or Home Assistant |
| Image | An icon (or a bitmap) at a position, fixed or chosen by a Home Assistant state (`weer ` + `cloudy` = the icon `weer cloudy`, `weer default` when there is none) |
| Progress bar | Filled from the left by a Home Assistant number: value x multiplier / "full at" (a percentage: full at 100). Width, height, with or without a frame. Optionally the percentage on top (e.g. 42%, rounded down, in the chosen font): its dots invert the bar, so it stays readable on the filled and the empty part; left out when it doesn't fit inside (Small needs a height of 7 with a frame) |

Every element has a position, alignment, font and overlay (on top, box that clears the
dots behind it, inverted). Entity ids can contain `{plex_user}`, replaced by the Plex user
of the Home Assistant tab (e.g. `sensor.{plex_user}_state`). Texts can scroll in a window at a chosen speed (0.05-30 dots per second, e.g. 0.25 = one dot every 4 s) and can contain
the degree sign. Fonts: Small (3x5), Normal (5x7), Large (5x7 doubled), Full height (19 dot
digits), and your own: upload a TTF/OTF, choose the height in dots, the browser converts
it.

Each page can have its own refresh effect (e.g. Clock: sparkle, Weather: wipe), or use the
one from Settings. It is used when the page appears and for its own changes, like the
clock's minutes. A schedule block that switches instantly and rules still switch
instantly; "small changes only" and the effect time stay global settings. The ESP32 sends
it to the Nano without storing it in the Nano's EEPROM (`E` with flag 2), so switching
pages often doesn't wear the EEPROM.

![Pages and the page editor](../Pictures/web-ui/pages.png)

## Schedule

What is shown when, every day: blocks from a start time until the next block, each with up
to 6 pages or bitmaps that rotate (each for its own time, 5 s to 1 hour), switching with
the refresh effect or instantly.

Rules bring a page to the front from a Home Assistant state (an entity or attribute, `=`,
`is not`, `above`, `below`): they show it while the state is true, add it to the rotation
while it is true, or show it for a while when it becomes true. Each rule is read at its own
interval (2-600 s) and can be limited to some of the blocks. The first rule that shows a
page wins. A rule can leave a page chosen by hand alone (untick "also over a page chosen by
hand"): it then waits until that pick ends (the next block or "Back to schedule"). A rule
with "show at once in slow mode" ticked brings its page right away in
[slow mode](#settings), and the display works normally while that page is shown. The display schedule ([Settings](#settings)) still decides when the display is on.

![Schedule](../Pictures/web-ui/schedule.png)

## Stopwatch

Start, stop and reset the stopwatch that pages can show (also in Home Assistant).

![Stopwatch](../Pictures/web-ui/stopwatch.png)

## Bitmaps

All bitmaps with a preview: show one as the page, send it live, open it in the editor,
export or delete it. The built-in one (Nintendo) can't be
deleted, nor can a bitmap that a page, the schedule or a rule uses. "Make icon" turns a
bitmap that is only part of pages into an [icon](#icons).

![Bitmaps](../Pictures/web-ui/bitmaps.png)

## Icons

Small images (1 x 1 up to 84 x 19 dots, each its own size) for dynamic pages: an Image
element, or a background (drawn at the top left). Icons are never shown on their own, so
they are not in the page lists (Show, Schedule, rules, Home Assistant "Mode"). Each icon
shows its size and the pages that use it. The editor: draw dots, change the size (the dots
stay at the top left), crop to the dots, clear, invert, load an image (scaled to the icon
size), show it on the display. "Make bitmap" turns an icon into a full screen bitmap. The two Pikachus of the Clock page are built into the
firmware: they are stored as icons at boot and can be edited, the firmware keeps the
originals.

Firmware 2.10.0 made icons of all uploaded bitmaps that only pages used (backgrounds and
images, not shown by the schedule, a rule, the chosen page or the off image), once, after
the new firmware was marked as good. They keep their names and land on the same dots, so
the pages didn't change.

![Icons](../Pictures/web-ui/icons.png)

## Draw / Live

Draw on an 84 x 19 canvas (click or drag), or load an image: it is converted in the
browser (threshold, invert, dithering, fit / fill / stretch). "Show on display now" sends
it to the display right away (*live mode*); with "live while drawing" every change appears
on the dots. Save it as a bitmap with a name, or as an icon (only the area with dots).

![Draw / Live](../Pictures/web-ui/draw.png)

## Settings

The display schedule (on/off, when the display is on, when it switches off); slow mode
(also a Home Assistant switch: the display only changes every 1-60 minutes, on the clock,
and is switched off in between, for less noise); the "No WiFi" screen; the flip time, the pause after each pulse,
pulses per dot and the refresh effect (instant, sparkle, wipe, rain, from the middle out,
diagonal, spiral, flip all then reveal, push, random; optionally only for small changes
like the clock's minutes; pages can choose their own effect); how often every dot is flipped again ("Dot refresh", default
2 min) and how often the whole image is sent again ("Image resync", default 10 min; 0
switches either off); test patterns; the status LED.

![Settings](../Pictures/web-ui/settings.png)

## Home Assistant

MQTT: on/off, broker, port, user, password (changing these restarts the ESP32; an empty
broker uses `secrets.h`). The URL and long-lived access token for the values on dynamic
pages and the rules (REST API, plain http; empty URL: `http://<broker>:8123`). The Plex
user for `{plex_user}` in entity ids. See [Home Assistant](home-assistant.md).

![Home Assistant](../Pictures/web-ui/home-assistant.png)

## System

Firmware status, uptime, WiFi, storage; restart; start the [recovery app](recovery.md).
**Loop:** how busy the ESP32 is: `loop()` passes per second and the average and longest
pass over the last 10 s (and the longest since boot; a Home Assistant request can take a
few seconds). `loop()` never sleeps, so a CPU percentage would always say 100 %.
**Frame check:** how many checks of the Nano's image matched, differed or got no answer,
how often the image was repaired, Nano restarts and `ERR` replies (with the last one).
**Memory:** free heap now and the lowest since boot.

**Backup:** export everything (settings, the schedule and rules, your bitmaps, icons,
pages and fonts; the MQTT password and HA token only when ticked) to one JSON file, and
import a file: choose which items and which parts of the settings. Imported items are
added (a taken name gets a number) unless you give them an existing name. Pages, bitmaps
and icons also have their own Export button, e.g. to share one page (with the bitmaps,
icons and fonts it uses).

![System](../Pictures/web-ui/system.png)

## Good to know

**Live mode** shows the image at once, also at night or before the time is known. It
ends with "Back to normal", or 30 minutes after the last image. The Home Assistant Power
switch still wins: when it is off, nothing is shown.

**Bitmaps, icons, pages and fonts** are stored on the ESP32 (LittleFS, 320 KB; up to 200
bitmaps, 200 icons, 50 pages, 20 fonts). Pages, bitmaps and icons share their names. They need
the new flash layout from the [one-time installation](recovery.md#one-time-installation-usb);
before that, only the built-in ones are available.

**Moving pages** (scrolling text, seconds, a running stopwatch) send a frame whenever the
content moves, without the refresh effect (`D1`, needs the Nano firmware from version
2.5.0), and only the dots that changed, not faster than the Nano can flip them: with 3
pulses and a 300 µs gap a 1-dot scroll step of a line of text takes about 0.1-0.2 s.

**Settings** are stored in the ESP32's NVS. The defaults are the original behaviour. There
is no login: anyone on your WiFi can use the page, as with OTA.