I have been using Losant Sandbox for a few weeks now and overall it is excellent.
Based on my usage, I have a few suggestions for dashboards and workflows as follows ;
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Is it possible to add copy/paste for individual or group of Nodes that make up a workflow ?
This would really speed up workflow builds as it pre-populates new nodes for further editing.
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The whole input/output graphic boxes in Dashboards look very basic. So, I suggest making these graphics more colourful and rounded eg. use proper switch and lamp symbols with internal leds on switches for feedback. At the moment on the dashboard, you cannot easily differentiate between input and output blocks and so you end up pressing on output blocks instead of switch blocks. Allied to this, is the fact that controls block is not centered. It would be better to have individual control blocks with better graphics as above.
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On the dashboard, Maps look very black when in Dark mode.
Hope this helps going forward as you build on the best IoT platform around.
Hi Sean,
Yes, it is possible to copy and paste individual and groups of nodes on a workflow and you can paste them across workflows. Just mouse drag over which ones you want to copy (their borders will get a little bolder) and then control + c or cmd + c to copy and control + v or cmd + v to paste.
As far as the input and output blocks are you referring to the input controls and indicator blocks? Could you possibly screenshot me your dashboard?
Thanks for the input! Glad you are having a great time on our platform!
Erin
Hi Erin,
Thanks for your response.
On the graphics feature update, I am referring to `input controlsandindicator`` blocks ok.
I attach screenshot of my dashboard and on it you can see a blue border rectangle which is needed to create one on/off switch with state feedback. My point is that these 3 boxes should be reduced to one compact centered switch with internal led graphic. It would look better if this single graphic would be 2D/3D representation of actual switch image with led on it which changes colour when switch is activated (independant led and switch colours).
Other indicator blocks as shown within yellow rectangle look very basic and could be replaced with more realistic graphic symbols that change colour like a lamp or led.
Sean
Sean,
Thanks for the screen shot and the details. If you would like really custom indicators on your Losant Dashboard I can have our Sales Department reach out to you. We have an entire solutions team dedicated to helping people achieve their custom dashboard dreams.
I will file a ticket to put rounded corners on the buttons and a drop shadow so they appear more pushable.
I hope you keep on enjoying Losant!
Erin
Hi Erin,
Thats fine - all I need is some way to differentiate between input switches and output indicators like lamps on the dashboard. So, if the switches are oblong like you say and lamps round shaped, that would help a lot. I do feel however, that you need some sort of feedback from the application to show the switch status visually on the dashboard and whether it is ON or OFF.
During further testing on the platform, I came across some other minor issues below ;
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the Event List and Open Events blocks do not auto refresh on my dashboard ?
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it would be useful if you could enable/disable event nodes individually in workflows. I had a sensor that was reading erratically and this caused multiple events and follow on alerts even when using a latch node. This enable/disable action should itself generate an event and should be indicated on the node and also stop further data flow to following nodes when disabled.
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Finally, do you plan to do an iOS/Android app for Losant dashboards ?
Hope this helps, Sean.
We have adopted locked toggle switch and an request action button.
The toggle switch state is set from the current device state. This means it always reflects current state and the request to perform an action must be specific.
We found this is important, to prevent accidental activation’s and repeated attempts from impatient users.
Tim,
Ok I understand your motive here. Basically, as seen above on my dashboard screenshot, one on/off switch with status feedback takes up 3 rectangular boxes which is hard to understand. I tried toggle switch but it is just not working out operation wise mainly due to problems setting it up. So, is there any other way to get the box count down just for a basic on/off switch ?
Rgds, Sean
Hi Sean.
Here is what we are using . (Yes I would like to get a lot of widgets smaller 
What sort of problems did you have setting this up. May be that is worth investigation further at the moment
Using an experience view you could then implement your own widgets. (Experience views don’t work for us ;-).
T
Hi Tim,
Thanks for this response. I must be doing something wrong as the toggle switch setup below does not work.
Attached are images of my switch setup which is similar to your image sent on.
I use toggle switch with button trigger and feedback indicator block.
You can see my settings for each block and I want to trigger a virtual button on a workflow to generate the webhook for my application action.
Basically, I need to transfer using the Button Trigger block the true or false status of the toggle switch (toggle-0 template) to Virtual Button 3 on my workflow. I tried sending the toggle switch status on the Button Trigger payload but with no success.
On the workflow, I intend to parse the payload to determine status of toggle switch.
Not sure will this work and whether your setup is different.
Any help appreciated.
Sean.
Thats pretty much what we are doing however we are sending a command in this example. (we trigger virtual buttons in workflows as well though as there is little difference between the two other than destination.).
So I would suggest the problem is probably in your workflow and how it is interpreting your payload.
First step would be to log the payload that is sent when you trigger the workflow.
T
Tim,
I logged the payload on workflow but nothing is being sent down when triggered from dashboard. Not even simple payloads created on the button trigger block. Other actions other than payloads seem to work ok when triggered ?
Sean.
Hi Sean
This is pretty fundamental behaviour.
Can I suggest you set up a simple workflow (with virtual button) with a debug.
And the simplest widget that triggers the workflow.
We do this all the time with no problems, so I believe you are just missing some minor (but important piece of the puzzle.
T
Tim, I have no problem with triggering Virtual button workflow from dashboard. The problem is when I add a simple payload to be sent with trigger which does not reach the workflow when I look for it on Debug.
Sean.
Hmm, like I said that is pretty basic functionality. I will set something up here that I can share with you to have a look at.
Sean, I invited you to our Losant Examples organization, where you can view a dashboard with an input controls block whose default values are populated by a device query.
You also have view-level access to the application containing the device being queried, the workflow that is being triggered by a button press and an unrelated workflow that is just generating random state data for the previously mentioned device.
This should give you an idea of how to accomplish what you’re trying to do.
I got the Toggle switch to work on my dashboard. Not sure what was wrong except to say I created the blocks again and followed the great advice from Tim and Dylan.
Many thanks guys for your help !
Sean
A feature that would be useful is to launch the relevant dashboard when you say double click on a map or position chart popup. Then you can create popups of all your devices on say a map and then launch its associated dashboard from here. Useful cover page for your dashboards.
That is actually pretty easy to do! You have full control over the contents of the popups for maps and position charts, and so can add links to the popups to go to wherever you would like. You can even use links with dashboard context, so you can create one dashboard that is a device “detail view” that you can reuse across multiple devices.
Ok Michael thanks for this.
