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.
@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.
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.
@wishmaster270 Thanks, I’ll check it out.
@sdetweil Can you give an example of another module that uses soft buttons/touch support? If I could modify the Todoist module to support the closing of tasks, the rest of my functionality could probably be had out of the box with MMM-pages…
@sdetweil What do you mean lack of general purpose touch screen monitors? Here’s a reasonably priced RPi supporting touchscreen.
I did think about keeping the MM display-only and using other interfaces to add/modify data (my phone, Alexa, etc) but I have a specific use-case where I want my kids to be able to each view their own schedule, chore chart, etc and check off items on their todolist. External buttons could certainly solve the problem of switching kid profiles, but checking off todoist items does require physical interaction.
I’m debating whether to use MM for this project. I love the community and modules that exist for non-interactive MM’s, but it doesn’t seem like touchscreen support is great, especially when it comes to using the existing modules.
Part of me is considering creating my own dashboard, using React and a full screen web browser. I’m a novice React developer looking to hone my skills so this could pay off. At the same time, I would like to have a finished product, and I’m nervous about implementing everything on my own, such as a calendar or Todoist module (both of which I’d like integrate).
Feedback would be appreciated!
Nice job on this. I was also thinking of going the tablet route with MM. I never thought of the server approach, which seems to make it a lot easier. Although I’m guessing streaming video wouldn’t work out so well (if I wanted to implement that).
Question: How did you set up the client on the tablet? Is it just a full-screen web browser?
@sdetweil That’s what I thought. Thanks for the reply.
I’d like to make an MM with touch screen with a calendar that I could interact with, similar to a regular calendar app (add event, modify event, etc).
How difficult would this be to implement in MM?