Manual Setup

Manual setup consists of two steps:

  • Preparing your system

  • Installing Dashticz

System preparation

Since Beta 2.4.6 (October 2018) the installation instruction changed. Main reason is that for most functionality PHP support in the web server is needed. The Domoticz web server doesn’t support PHP. That means that Dashticz needs to be installed under a different web server with PHP enabled. The installation instruction consists in two steps:

Installation of a web server

This example shows installation of Apache on Raspberry in it’s most basic configuration: running at port 80. Besides Apache also PHP needs to be installed, since it’s used by the Calendar and Garbage module in Dashticz.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2 php php-xml php-curl libapache2-mod-php php-mbstring
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Note

On some Raspberry configurations the installation of php is failing. In that case you can try the alternative installs under Advanced Installation below

Now check whether Apache is running by browsing to http://<YOUR IP> You should see the Apache demo page.

Alternative installations

For debian/stretch:

Functionality that is lost without PHP:

  • the setup wizard, the Wizard mode editors and the Settings menu (they save their changes via PHP)

  • calendar

  • garbage

  • savings settings from Dashticz

  • version check

  • CORS proxy, which is used for TVguide, news, traffic info, frames, images in buttons (You can switch an external CORS proxy as well.)

Quick install for Synology NAS

  • Install Apache HTTP Server (Web Station will be installed too) and PHP

  • In Web Station configure your HTTP back-end server and PHP (PHP Extensions curl and openssl needs to be selected)

  • Download Dashticz ZIP file from GitHub https://github.com/Dashticz/dashticz (choose branch)

  • Create Dashticz folder on your Web Server

  • Unpack downloaded Dashticz ZIP file to your Dashticz folder

  • Copy CONFIG_DEFAULT.js to CONFIG.js

  • Edit CONFIG.js to your needs and set write permission

Dashticz installed on ISS

Dashticz Installation

Example for Raspberry PI running Apache web server: Assumption:

  • Apache is running at http://192.168.1.3 on the default port 80 (but this can be any IP:port address)

  • Domoticz is running at http://192.168.1.3:8084

First clone the dashticz repository to a folder of your choice:

cd /home/pi
git clone https://github.com/Dashticz/dashticz

If you prefer the development branch (might be less stable, but latest and greatest), then use the following git clone command:

git clone https://github.com/Dashticz/dashticz --branch beta

You don’t have to create a configuration file yourself: when custom/CONFIG.js doesn’t exist, Dashticz starts a setup wizard the first time you open it in the browser (see First start). Continue with the symbolic link and the permissions below.

If you prefer to write the configuration by hand (Custom mode), go to the /home/pi/dashticz/custom/ folder, copy the CONFIG_DEFAULT.js file to CONFIG.js (mind the CAPITALS!), and edit it with the basics:

cd dashticz/custom/
cp CONFIG_DEFAULT.js CONFIG.js
nano CONFIG.js

Example of CONFIG.js:

var config = {}
config['language'] = 'nl_NL'; //or: en_US, de_DE, fr_FR, hu_HU, it_IT, pt_PT, sv_SV
config['domoticz_ip'] = 'http://192.168.1.3:8084';
config['domoticz_refresh'] = '5';
config['dashticz_refresh'] = '60';

You can read more about the connection configurtion Connection.

Then create a symbolic link from the root of the www folder of your web server to the previously created Dashticz location:

sudo ln -s /home/pi/dashticz/ /var/www/html

Set the correct permissions to the files and folders:

chmod -R a+rX /home/pi/dashticz

The setup wizard, the Wizard mode editors and the Settings menu save their changes to CONFIG.js, custom.css and custom.js in the custom/ folder, so the web server needs write access to that folder. For Apache on a Raspberry Pi (web server account www-data):

sudo chgrp -R www-data /home/pi/dashticz/custom
sudo chmod -R g+w /home/pi/dashticz/custom

Dashticz checks this when it starts, and shows a message if it can’t write to custom/.

Now you can browse to the dashboard: http://192.168.1.3/dashticz/index.html Replace 192.168.1.3 with the IP Address (and Port number) for your web server, NOT your Domoticz IP!

The first time, the setup wizard starts. With a hand-written CONFIG.js without blocks, Dashticz shows all your Domoticz favorites on the dashboard.

Updating

Option 1 - From a terminal in the Dashticz folder, run sh update.sh (stable) or sh updatebeta.sh (beta), or simply git pull.

You can also update from the Info category of the Settings menu (see The Settings menu).

Option 2 - Download zip file from GitHub, copy and extract in your Dashticz folder. Create backup of your custom folder(s) first.

Troubleshooting

After updating my Ubuntu version I had to manually enable php7.3 on Apache:

sudo a2enmod php7.3
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Domoticz authorization error

You have to do all the following things:

In CONFIG.js add the Domoticz username and password, like

config['user_name'] = 'admin';
config['pass_word'] = 'domoticz';

In Domoticz->Settings->Security tab:

  • Tick ‘Allow Basic-Auth authentication over plain HTTP’ in Domoticz->Settings->Security->API protection

  • Fill in your local subnet in Trusted Networks

Example of Domoticz settings:

../_images/apiprotection2.jpg