Table of contents
💳 Note: TV Dashboards are available on all Fugo plans, with varying support for features - such as more frequent refresh intervals - on each plan. Please refer to our pricing page or contact sales@fugo.ai to determine which plan might be best for you.
Cloud hosted dashboards vs. locally hosted dashboards
When Fugo introduced its TV Dashboard service, it quickly became the solution many enterprises needed to display their cloud-hosted data on TV screens securely. By eliminating the risks of exposing login credentials, disabling critical browser protections, or relying on less secure hardware and software solutions, Fugo offered a safer way to share data.
This cloud-based service uses a Chrome browser extension that records your login process to the desired URL and captures real-time screenshots of the data you want to display, all without storing your browser data. Fugo then replicates these steps within a secure, isolated server environment, automatically generating snapshots of your dashboard for you to preview and publish on screen.
Now, Fugo has expanded its capabilities to display dashboards and reports accessible only from your local network. The setup process is nearly identical to connecting a cloud dashboard: you'll record the steps to authenticate into your dashboard and instruct Fugo on how to capture and send screenshots of your data to your connected TV screens at set intervals.
The key difference? These steps are executed directly on your player, rather than in Fugo's cloud server, ensuring your data & credentials don't leave your local network.
❗ This is currently only supported on Windows devices. So if you want Fugo to execute the dashboard steps on your player, you'll need a Windows device like the Fugo NUC or any other mini PC.
You can also run Fugo's dashboard service on your own on-premise server.
Best practices for using the TV Dashboards service
We’ll get to the walkthrough in just a second - but first, let’s go over a couple of best practices that we recommend following whenever you’re connecting any third-party dashboard service with your Fugo CMS account:
1. Create a service account
To ensure the utmost security for your sensitive data, we recommend setting up a 'least privileged' service account in your dashboard account. This typically means using an account with read-only permissions for the dashboards you want to display.
Using a service account not only enhances security but also prevents potential interruptions in your account like unexpected logouts or excessive security notifications. Additionally, full-access user accounts often come with associated phone numbers, which gets in the way of Fugo's authorization process.
You can read more about how to set up a service account with Google here.
2. Have your dashboard URL(s) handy
Because Fugo is going to record & repeat the steps you take to access your dashboard, we want to eliminate any unnecessary steps in the process that will slow Fugo down when accessing your dashboard, such as starting from the homepage of your platform and navigating to your chosen dashboard.
You'll need the URL of your specific dashboard that you want to display on screen ready when you start the process of capturing it with Fugo. Copy that URL and have it ready to paste into Fugo's Dashboards Step Recorder.
TV Dashboard set up instructions
💡 Note: Below we've outlined the general steps for using Fugo to access your dashboards. In our example, we've used Salesforce, but the steps should be similar no matter what platform you're using Fugo to access.
Get a Secret Key from your SSO or dashboard provider account
If your organization uses SSO or 2FA to log in to your required dashboard, then you'll require a Secret Key from your login service to input during your dashboard configuration.
This Secret Key is an alphanumeric code that essentially allows Fugo to act as a trusted user to access your dashboard.
You'll either get the Secret Key from your SSO provider, or you'll get it directly from your account in Salesforce, Tableau, etc...
Below are the currently supported SSO providers with links to our instructions for getting the Secret Key from them:
There are various other 2FA or SSO providers your organization may be using. We welcome you to try them with Fugo - at a baseline, your provider needs to have the option to set up a Time-based One Time Password (TOTP) in order to get your Secret Key.
If your organization needs additional support for an SSO provider, contact us using the info below in the "Help" section. Let us know which dashboard tool and SSO provider you want to use.
The Secret Key that you generate from following our 2FA instructions will be used later in the dashboard setup process (for the sake of this guide, step 15).
Configure your dashboard in Fugo
💡 Note: If you want to see your dashboard on screen at the end of configuration, make sure it's connected to Fugo CMS. If you haven’t connected your screen(s) yet, you can find the instructions for your preferred device in our hardware collection.
1. Log into your Fugo Account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can start your 14-day free trial here.
2. Click Dashboards in the top navigation bar to go to your Dashboard library. If you haven't created any dashboards yet, this page will be empty.
Click Create Dashboard to get started.
3. This will launch a New Dashboard pop up window.
Choose Add a local network dashboard from the options under Connect from a local server.
4. This will take you to the dashboard's On-Premises tab.
You'll see that the setting for Use player for running steps is automatically toggled on. This is going to instruct Fugo to run your dashboard login & screenshot steps on your local player rather than our cloud server.
5. Now, go back to the dashboard preview page by clicking the Home tab.
You're ready to start the recording process. Enter your dashboard or report URL in the URL field and click Go.
6. If you're creating a dashboard for the first time, you'll be prompted to configure your Chrome browser to allow our recorder extension to run in incognito mode.
If you’ve done this before, you can skip to step 13.
7. First, you'll need to install the Fugo Dashboard Recorder Chrome Extension.
8. This will open the Chrome Web Store in a separate tab. Click Add to Chrome to install the extension.
9. Go back to your tab with Fugo CMS. You will see a little blue checkmark on this step once you complete it.
10. Now you'll need to enable the extension to run in Incognito mode. Click Enable Allow In Incognito.
💡 Note that skipping this step will likely cause the TV Dashboards feature to break, so we don't recommend opting to skip it.
If you do have to skip it, make sure to logout from your dashboard before starting the recording process.
11. This will open the Extensions manager. Toggle on the Allow in Incognito option.
12. Back in your tab with Fugo CMS, you'll see both blue checkmarks now completed. Click Continue.
13. A pop-up window with our recorder will appear and prompt you to log into your dashboard. Enter your login credentials as you normally would.
💡 Note: If you use Single Sign On (SSO) to log into your account, the recorder will work automatically without any additional login configuration at this step. However, if you use 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) to log into your account, then you'll need to input your 2FA key in the recorder now.
You can find those full instructions in the guides for Google 2FA & Microsoft 2FA.
14. Once you’re signed in, your dashboard will load in the recorder window. It's at this point that you'll instruct Fugo how to take the screenshot of your data.
You have three options:
Option 1: Capture Dashboard
Clicking Capture Dashboard will take a full screenshot of everything in your dashboard URL.
Option 2: Element Eraser
Use the Eraser tool to get rid of certain elements on your dashboard that you don't want crowding your screenshot.
💡 Make sure to hit Finish Erasing when you're done.
Option 3: Element Screenshot
Use the Element Screenshot tool to take a screenshot of isolated elements, such as particular charts or graphs, that you want to display.
💡 You have to be a bit careful when selecting an element of the page with this tool: it might not always be intuitive. We are still working on a better way to implement capturing dashboard elements in the future. If this is a priority for you, please get in touch with us at support@fugo.ai.
If the element capture feature isn't working with your dashboard, don't worry - you can always use the cropping tool in the Design Studio to achieve the same isolation of the element. Check out how here.
15. The recorder will now close & take you back to the Dashboard preview page.
It's at this point that you'll need to enter the Secret Key (discussed in the previous 2FA section) into Fugo.
Depending on your login method, you'll either be prompted to input the secret key into a pop up window:
Or, you'll see the red prompt Enter secret key under the Pass 2-Factor Authorization step in the Recorded Steps panel.
Click this and enter the secret key that you generated from your login provider.
16. You’ll now see a “loading” screen while Fugo runs through your steps (logged in the right-hand panel) and captures a screenshot of your dashboard.
It can take some time depending on how many steps were involved - so don’t sweat it if it takes a minute or two!
17. Voila! Your dashboard should be rendered in the preview area.
💡 Note: If you see an error message you can read the reason for the error and see the screenshot of the last step where the recording process failed.
Reach out to support@fugo.ai or write to us in the chat box if you need help.
18. If it all looks good, you can go ahead and publish it, or save it for later using the Publish or Save buttons in the bottom right corner.
You can publish it directly by choosing a screen, screen group, channel, or playlist to publish to.
Check out our collection on Playlists to learn more about how publishing works.
If you're not happy with how the dashboard rendered, read on to discover how you can customize the look of your dashboard with Fugo's design tools or troubleshoot some common issues.
Customizing your dashboard display in the Design Studio
Not all dashboards are automatically "screen friendly," as we say at Fugo. Some might be too long, cluttered with small elements, or packed with too much data, making them hard to read from a distance.
In Fugo's Design Studio, you can use the cropping tool to break your dashboard into more manageable sections or tailor it for a cleaner display on screen.
You can also customize your dashboard further with any content sources or settings available in the Design Studio—adding your company logo, brand colors, additional apps, scrolling tickers, and more.
We do a deep dive into your options here and you can check out our handy video below.
Advanced dashboard settings & troubleshooting
In order to help your dashboards connect & display correctly, you'll find a couple of helpful settings in your dashboard's Advanced Settings tab:
Pause: Tell Fugo how many seconds to wait before taking the screenshot of your capture. This is helpful if your dashboard is slow to load & you frequently see loaders in your screenshots.
Scroll: Tell Fugo what Pixel length to scroll to on screen. This is helpful if you have particularly long dashboards that get cut off at the bottom of the screen.
Need more help?
If you have any additional questions or feedback on using the dashboards service, please feel free to reach out to our support team at support@fugo.ai. We’re always happy and quick to help!
You can also book in a dashboard support call with our engineering team here if you need some help getting this feature set up.
Happy publishing!