How to Display a Grafana Dashboard on Digital Signage?

How to Display a Grafana Dashboard on Digital Signage?

This guide shows you how to display your Grafana dashboards on the big screen, perfect for visualizing time-series data, monitoring system observability, and tracking operational metrics in real-time.

Prerequisites:

  1. A Grafana account (Grafana Cloud or self-hosted) with access to the dashboard.
  2. Email and password login available for that account.
  3. The full dashboard URL you plan to display.
Warning
This integration requires a direct Grafana account login with an email and password. Federated login methods, such as signing in with a Google or other SSO provider, are not compatible with this setup. Please ensure you use an account with basic authentication credentials.
Idea
For security, create a dedicated user in Grafana with "Viewer" permissions for the specific dashboards you want to display. Use this account's credentials for Pickcel.

Step-by-Step Configuration:

1. Create the Dashboard App in Pickcel:

  1. Log in to the Pickcel Console and navigate to Apps. Search for the Dashboard app and click on it. Then, click Create App.


  2. Give a name to the app instance based on the dashboard you are configuring (e.g., "API Performance - Grafana").

  3. Now, select Grafana from the dropdown menu. The fields required for configuring your Grafana Dashboard will open on the right-hand side.

2. Fill in the Fields for Grafana Dashboard Configuration:

This section requires precise information to generate a correct and secure Auth Token.

  1. Grafana Login URL: Go to your Grafana instance's login page. Copy the entire URL from the browser's address bar (e.g., `https://yourcompany.grafana.net/login`) and paste it here.




  2. Email:  Enter the email address that you use for logging in to your Grafana account.

  3. Password: Enter the password for that account.

  4. Dashboard URL: Log in to Grafana and navigate to the exact dashboard you want to display. Copy the entire URL from the address bar and paste it here.





  5. Click Generate Auth Token. The token will be generated and automatically pasted into the Auth Token field on the left.


Enter Screen Selection Code (Optional): If you want to display only a specific portion of the dashboard (like a specific set of panels), use the Pickcel Dashboard Screen Mapper Extension. Select the area you want to display, and upon confirming the selection, the code will be copied to your clipboard. Paste this code into the Screen Selection Code field.

3. Set Refresh Interval and Session Expiry:

  1. Refresh Interval: This setting defines how often the dashboard screenshot is updated. For real-time operational metrics, a short refresh interval of 5-10 minutes is recommended.

  2. Session Expiry: This forces a fresh login to prevent session timeouts from the service provider. A value of 5-8 hours is recommended for continuous display during a workday.


4. Enable Scroll Option for the Dashboard:

There are two ways to scroll through your entire dashboard:
  1. Enable Auto Scroll: This lets you set a scroll duration in seconds. For example, if you set it to 60 seconds, the entire dashboard will scroll from top to bottom over 60 seconds.

  2. Enable Auto Scroll Height: This lets you set a scroll height in pixels. The screen will scroll down by the defined pixel height.


5. Create and Publish:

  1. Once you are done with the configuration, click Create App. This successfully creates the app instance, which will be available to view in the Media section.


  2. To preview the dashboard, go to Media, find the app instance by the name you created (e.g., "API Performance - Grafana"), and click on its thumbnail (magnifier icon). This will display a preview. If you are content with the result, assign it to your digital signage screens.


Here's the preview:


  1. The output is visible as a preview in the media section as shown above. It may take some time for the dashboard screenshot to load, depending on the dashboard app that is configured.
  2. If the password or any other credentials are incorrect, the process will stall on the login screen, displaying the login screen instead of the dashboard.

That's a wrap! 🎉

Notes
What's Next?
Your Grafana Dashboard App is now ready. For further reading:

To create a multi-zone layout: Learn about Compositions.
To send it to your screens: Learn how to Publish or Schedule Content.

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