Since 1.8.0 of Dashboard 2 I notice that the home screen shortcut to the dashboard on my Android phone, created using Add to Home Screen in the Brave browser no longer works, it just shows a blank screen.
If I browse to the dashboard in Brave then the Add to Home screen option is no longer shown, but there is an Install App option which does basically the same thing, but I presume is using the PWA feature.
In Chrome I also now see Install App.
The App does appear to function well, I think it loads rather quicker than the browser link, but it does seem to have some disadvantages. I don't seem to be able to setup a shortcut to a particular page, but also I can't see how to rename it. I will have dashboards on multiple systems and need to be able to identify them individually. How do I do that?
I kind of feel your pain.
I don't use Brave.
Just asking, have you tried other browsers?
It is the same in chrome.
I use neither of them.
I just tried with my browser.... Yeah, it is a problem renaming the shortcut.
If the path was known, you could rename it that way.
But if I select the shortcut, it works.
Searching suggests that it is not possible, at least with the standard launcher.
Well, here's a twist
On my phone I am looking at my page.... Click the men, select add to home screen.
THERE is where I can rename the widget.
Does that help?
(Samsung S21)
Are you using the latest version of Dashboard 2? D2 has implemented PWA functionality, which has changed the way this works.
No, I am using an older dashboard.
I don't understand the PWA thing.
But I am talking about naming the widget on the phone's screen.
I fear we have our wires crossed.
I just checked my palette manager and checked the dashboard.
3.5.0
Shrug
Sorry, still confused.
(Not trying to annoy you with silly off topic questions.)
Oh sorry,
Back to something else I just noticed and so the question is there begging.
So when the blank screen loads:
Do you see the IP address (etc?)
What happens if you press refresh on the browser at that point?
See Add PWA Functionality by cgjgh · Pull Request #708 · FlowFuse/node-red-dashboard · GitHub for further discussion of this.
Seems WAY above me.
So, no other progress?
One of the PWA requirements is https, browser vendors could choose to omit this requirement or validate/ignore self signed certs ?
Having PWA NEED https seems stupid for just the case here.
(Not at anyone. Just stating how I see it.)
Having PWA NEED
httpsseems stupid for just the case here.
Well it is not, because there is more to PWA's than meets the eye - another requirement is that it can work offline, meaning all assets, like images and javascript libraries will be included when it is installed (ie. it keeps working without internet), once internet becomes available, it will/can synchronize back to the server - this traffic you want to have encrypted. It behaves like an app and is not just some 'add to homescreen' feature.
Ok, thanks. Seems I am still not understanding the entire thing.
But that's ok.
Though that is not much use in the particular case of the node-red-dashboard, as it can't do much if it cannot access the node-red server. However, it should mean that it opens more quickly, and this does seem to be the case.
You just need to remember this. A PWA has a LOT more access to your device. So you want to try to make sure that nothing is intercepting and stuffing malware when you load it. That's the real reason to use HTTPS for it.
Indeed, unless you were able to squeeze the Node-RED runtime into the PWA as well. 
Though an SPA will usually be quite self-sufficient in many ways so if you write your D2 dashboard correctly, it will be able to do quite a bit. But still not much help if you are doing an IoT dashboard and so needing to rely on regular data from NR.
One thing if you DO use the PWA version - can it notify the front-end code if it goes offline? If not, it would be worth adding at least a custom event so that you could write dashboard code to detect that and inform the user(s).
I don't think one has a choice, on Android anyway. The Add to Home screen option is no longer present when viewing the new dashboard on an https connection.
Correct. The chrome menu shows:
- "Add to Home screen" for non PWA and HTTP
- "Install App" for PWA+HTTPS
I don't see that it matters that much to be honest. You aren't really loosing anything. Just not (yet) gaining much. 
