Background images on Dashboards

[MarkMeader]

Looking for some advice on the best way to incorporate a background image on a dashboard.

Say for example you want to have a nice Splash screen that has a nice background image that fills the whole dashboard. Layered on top of that dashboard could be a label and a few buttons taking user to other dashboards.

I can see its possible to add background color to a dashboard in formatting settings but not an image

[JackLacava · Accepted solution]

Set your dashboard layout as Canvas, then add an Image component, with Dock Position set to Left. Then add the other component docked where you want them (i.e. use absolute positioning with Left and Top). You might want to play with Display Format options on the Image to achieve the perfect result.

[RoryCraggs]

This was very helpful, thank you.

Is there a way to dynamically set the width and height of a canvas dashboard layout to fill the screen?  I could only get this to work by hardcoding the width and height of the Image component, with Dock Position set to Left. This works fine on one screen but if the dashboard is opened on a smaller screen then I need to scroll in order to see the full image.
Couldn't find a solution using the Display Format options of the Image either.

[JackLacava]

Sadly I don't know a way to achieve that sort of resizing. We don't have access to the size of the screen. Hopefully this will be addressed by the new UI system currently being tested.

[Qiniso]

Hi Jack, does OS dashboard support resizeable when viewing in different size of screens?

[wnindl]

Thank you Jack for posting your advice.  But embarrassed to admit that i have tried to figure out forever how to do that.  Canvas never came to mind. Maybe time for me to go beyond Grid layout :D.

[TGG_Alex]

Some food for thought:

If, like many other places, the dimensions of the dashboard component can accept XFBR or parameter, then you could potentially call upon VB.net to obtain the screen sizes and make it dynamic since it is part of the Screen Class:

Dim screenWidth as Integer = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width
 Dim screenHeight as Integer = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height

Sadly, we tried, and it seems those fields are still waiting for a "number" instead of accepting XFBR or parameter.

Cheers,

A.

[DanielWillis]

Think the challenge is you don't really want to lock it to a size, you want it to resize dynamically on and after load as windows and panels are resized. I believe the provided solution is the only way although it is not ideal and somewhat limiting. Feels like there is an easy win for the devs to just allow for a dashboard component (and perhaps some other components) to have a background image property.

[TGG_Alex]

Right - if it needs to follow the size of the window and pane then perhaps (if permissible):

• Bring in System.Windows.Form
• Use screen.primaryscreen.workingarea = size of window
• If a re-size action happens, I am not sure if there is an event handler that would detect this

Still doesn't get the size of the pane from within the window.  Agree that if this option is available, it would be easiest.

Cheers,

A.

[MarkMeader]

I believe some steps have been taken to get closer to achieving this in v8.0.

The new Dynamic dashboards functionality allow you to set dashboard height/width/position programmatically which is a big step forwards. However i still only think that this will be achievable when the dashboard loads or is refreshed and not dynamically when a window is resized. 
I've not had a chance to test it yet though.

[TGG_Alex]

Team will look to take that aspect for a spin in 8.2.1.  Will keep folks posted.

Cheers,

A.

[BenvanBergen]

I was looking at this, but couldn't get it to work. With help of @MichaelTyc it is working now.

My settings: 

Image format: HorizontalContentAlignment = Stretch, ImageStretch = UniformToFill, IsVisible = True, VerticalContentAlignment = Stretch, File Source is Application Database File

Image settings on the dashboard:

Dashboard looks like this, will be further refined For each item the Position left and from Top was defined. If these overlap a bit it's not possible to make the selection:

Kind regards

Ben