Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Creating a modular dashboard platform similar to MM
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If this is inappropriate for this forum, please feel free to delete. I really like the MM platform, having created my own projects on it, but it has some limitations and I’m looking to break free from them.
I’m considering starting a modular dashboard board creation platform, similar to MM, but with full touchscreen support and more modern software technologies/practices. My current side-project is the creation of a dashboard for my family, with calendar and todo-list capabilities where the adults can add/remove/modify calendar entries and kids can mark off stuff on their chore list.
Is there anyone at all interested in such a project? I could just create the dashboard according to my personal needs, but I’m open to making something more.
Please feel free to share your thoughts.
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@wfsaxton Pretty sure MM will do what you describe. What limitations are do you see with MM? Calendars not my cup of tea but I’ve seen some pretty awesome calendar setups using MM.
There are several Calendar modules in the 3rd Party module section and some are better than others.
It can be a challenge picking the right 3rd Party module, whether calendar or not because they are made by different individuals and in that group of module builders some do better at maintaining their modules than others.Several years ago a stumbled across this commercial product, DAKBOARD, which is a paid subscription based service similar to MM. I rapidly got frustrated with DAKBoard because for a paid service their customer service STANK.
Magic Mirror doesn’t have customer service per se but they have a ton of folks who can usually answer questions or suggest alternatives.
I took a crack at MM and have not regretted that decision in the slightest.
Just my opinion but looking at DAK Board and MM I doubt you will find many/any takers because when you look at the number of available modules and the hours put in to create a module, that is a vast amount coding hours
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@ankonaskiff17 Thanks for the feedback. My thoughts:
The focus of MM is displaying data, not interactivity. I would want a “touch-first” type of platform. It is also written in javascript which is a difficult language to use. Compare that to something like react with JSX and typescript.
Regarding modules: one of the things that would be a high priority feature could be support for existing MM modules.
Again, I think MM is wonderful and Dakboard certainly has its place.
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One thing your post did give me some thought about: what if the MM “engine” were re-written to support things like react/JSX/typescript but still supported the existing modules. Then you could have the best of both worlds.
One thing that might be an issue would be code-size. Some of these newer technologies come with some overhead and one of the benefits to MM might be the ability to run on less powerful hardware.
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@wfsaxton Good luck.
IMO, Dak board, as a user for probably 9 months, is that it is garbage.
It was garbage because they didn’t do all the customer service stuff you commit to with a retail product.
My opinion, and you know what they say about opinions, is the 3 or 4 people that seemed to be running it when I was a subscriber saw MM and said “We can make these for money.” but found out there’s a lot more to it when you sign up to make, sell, warranty, deal with customers and all that touchy-feely stuff.
Maybe make the bad to the bone calendar, or make a dozen modules to show everyone, then ask.
I’m not sure but I suspect a lot of the folks making the modules and manage back end stuff have day jobs.
People like me with my questions make them go prematurely grey. -
MM is a platform, a composite info panel platform…
not very many of us are professional programmers… we wrote what we wrote for US… not for anyone else.
and we offered them up for others…
no commitment for support, … this is open source… if its broken, and you want it fixed, and the original author doesn’t then have at it…
there is NO support for any particular package of mm plus modules x,y,z
the forum here is community… those that want to help do.
I do the installer, updater, and couple of my own modules… (and I try hard to provide support, but enhancements take time… ) this is all volunteer, time as availableI have a personal project that I am working on unrelated to MM, and it takes a bunch of time…
I am also a moderator here, and try to watch out for recurring problems, and get them fixed. I also provide help for new authors.
my past professional job was systems engineer, big stuff.
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@sdetweil Hit the nail on the head.
These things more oriented to the do-it-yourselfer community.
I was paying Dakboard and it was always “on the next release”. I’m thinking “Dude, I’m paying you. Chop Chop. Get a move on.”
Here, I bust it, I have to sort it out myself but large community of people to help answer my questions. -
@wfsaxton I had also faced this problem and have already built my own solution with React and Node, over the past year and continuing, as I had to learn all the front end technologies. It’s been a great project and I’ve included all touch features on it, and it’s currently running on a touch screen monitor in my living room, and visitors get awestruck when they see such a thing, and some have even said that I’m living in the future! 🤣 I am also including a boatload of features to it, which I will disclose elsewhere. This is not the place to sell such a thing, buddy.
