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Still using a DIY method for displaying your dashboards on TV screens?
If you’ve ever been tasked with getting your business dashboards up on your workplace TVs, you’ve probably tried a method that goes something like this:
You connect a Mac mini or PC to a screen, then launch your dashboard in a browser after login. Then repeat these steps every time the dashboard session expires or the player is restarted or updated.
You won’t hear us tsk tsk-ing. Until now, there really hasn’t been an easier or better solution. But here are 3 reasons this DIY method for displaying TV dashboards won’t cut it:
It’s not secure: Your media players can be hacked, as they run outdated browsers with missing security patches, or hijacked, as they are exposed to high footfall areas.
It’s unreliable: Most dashboards are memory intensive and trying to put them on screens can cause inconsistent playback and rendering or even crash a player.
It’s not scalable: Displaying your dashboards this way requires expensive hardware and time-consuming manual maintenance interventions from the staff. And most businesses don’t have unlimited user seats for each department or branch to have their own TV dashboard using login credentials.
But there is a better way.
Fugo TV Dashboards is a feature of our digital signage CMS that allows you to display password-protected business dashboards and web pages to your workplace TV screens, using a secure service to keep your data safe at all times.
How does it work?
We use a Chrome browser extension that captures real-time screenshots of the data you want to display live on screen without storing your browser data.
The extension records your steps as you log in to the URL of your choice (such as Salesforce, for example) and open the dashboard you want to display. Fugo then runs your steps from inside a secure, isolated server environment, and renders an auto-updating snapshot of your dashboard for you to preview and then publish to screen.
Please note, the tool is not required for public or non password-protected web pages which can be displayed using our Web page app.
☝️ Note: You will need to use Chrome browser for this as our TV Dashboard feature does not yet work with other browsers.
Which dashboard services do we support?
Fugo should work with most dashboard services, but these are the ones we've tested and currently support:
Don't see your platform included in the list? We encourage you to try your preferred dashboard or link! If you’re unable to connect your service then please reach out to support@fugo.ai. Our team can help check if it’s compatible with our TV Dashboards feature or can be explored as a supported service.
💳 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.
On-premise dashboards
Our TV Dashboards feature can be run on your local servers to showcase self-hosted dashboards, reports & apps on screens too.
You can learn more here.
Best practices for using the TV Dashboards feature
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 Dashboards 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, Power BI, 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 14).
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 have not created any dashboards yet, this page will be empty.
Click Create Dashboard to get started.
3. This will launch a New Dashboard window.
💡 From here, you can choose how to connect your dashboard - by launching our TV Dashboards feature with your dashboard URL, or with one of our dedicated API integrations. For the purposes of this guide, we'll be demonstrating the TV Dashboards feature.
For help using our integrations, check out our app guides collection to find the guide for your preferred app.
4. First, you’ll need to enter the URL of your dashboard tool in the URL field and click Open Dashboard.
5. If you're creating a TV 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 12.
6. First, you'll need to install the Fugo Dashboard Recorder Chrome Extension.
7. This will open the Chrome Web Store in a separate tab. Click Add to Chrome to install the extension.
8. Go back to your tab with Fugo CMS. You will see a little blue checkmark on this step once you complete it.
9. 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.
10. This will open the Extensions manager. Toggle on the Allow in Incognito option.
11. Back in your tab with Fugo CMS, you'll see both blue checkmarks now completed. Click Continue.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. The recorder will now close & take you back to the Dashboard 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.
15. 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!
16. 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.
17. 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
Cropping your dashboards
Not all dashboards are necessarily screen ready or "screen friendly" as we say at Fugo. Some may be quite long, have several small elements that aren't visible from a distance, or overwhelm the viewer with too much data at once.
You can use the cropping tool in Fugo's Design Studio to crop dashboards into more digestible pieces or otherwise satisfy your requirement for displaying it nicely on screen.
Here's how:
1. Add your dashboard to the canvas on your slide from the Dashboards library in the left hand panel.
2. We suggest zooming out a bit to give you more space to work with when cropping. There is a zoom setting in the top navigation bar, and you can also use the trackpad on your laptop to zoom in & out.
3. Select the Crop icon from the top tool bar.
This will reveal two crop box outlines around your dashboard that enable different cropping functions.
The blue crop box can be used to crop out elements of your dashboard & set the frame for the image:
The purple crop box can be used to stretch and shrink your dashboard image and move it around to set its position within the frame:
Cropping is a great way to make your dashboards more digestible on screen without reconfiguring them or saving new dashboard views inside your data platform!
Check out the slideshow we created, showcasing each cropped chart individually 👇
Customizing your dashboard display
You can use any content source or setting available inside the Design Studio to further customize your dashboard display!
Just a few ideas are:
Add your company logo to your dashboard slides:
💡 Hint: You can easily upload your company to Fugo from right inside the Design Studio! Just drag and drop it onto your canvas or into Uploads in the left hand settings panel.
Incorporate other apps & integrations into the display, such as the World Clock app or CNN app to grab attention with live updating headlines:
💡 Hint: Each app can be configured in the settings panel that appears when you select the app. In our example above ☝️ we've cropped the World Clock app and given it a transparent background to better fit into the display. We've also added the CNN app at the bottom of the canvas and set its colors to match our brand.
Add QR codes to your display to create calls to action for your colleagues pertaining to your dashboards or workflows:
Add text boxes with important messages, reminders, or requests pertaining to your dashboards or data initiatives:
💡 Hint: You can easily create scrolling ticker texts using the animation settings in the left hand panel. Just make sure set the width of your text box to match the dimensions of the screen you'd like it to crawl (in our example above ☝️ we fit our text box to the width of our screen.)
Advanced dashboard settings & troubleshooting
In order to help your dashboards connect & display correctly, you'll find a few 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.
Memory: Some memory intensive dashboards will need to be captured on a higher memory server in order to run & display successfully. If you're noticing that the system is failing to capture your dashboard, try setting this option to High.
Re-use cookies: Because some platforms flag multiple authentication requests as suspicious, you may start to notice that your dashboard is not being accessed & captured. To help make sure this doesn't happen, we recommend toggling on the Re-use cookies setting so Fugo can re-use the cookies from the first authentication request.
Help! My dashboard screenshot isn't updating
If your dashboard screenshot doesn't appear to be updating, first double check that it's published to an active screen.
A dashboard screenshot won't be updated unless it's published to a screen that's currently active. In essence, we don't capture dashboards that aren't being viewed - this helps us keep our service efficient.
Here's how to check:
1. Click on the Playlists tab of your dashboard
2. If it's published to a playlist, it will be listed here.
3. Click on the playlist to open it in the playlist builder. Double check that the screen it's published to is listed as Active.
If your dashboard is published to an active screen but still isn't updating, reach out to us at support@fugo.ai or via our chat box.
Need more help?
If you have any additional questions or feedback on using the Dashboards feature, 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!