Simple Swipe Card: Set Default Card On Load

Have you ever found yourself using the simple-swipe-card in Home Assistant and wishing you could easily set a default card to start from? Well, you're not alone! Many users, like yourself, have encountered a small but noticeable limitation: the inability to designate a specific card as the default when the dashboard initially loads. This often means you're stuck swiping in just one direction to access your desired content, which can be a bit of a workflow hiccup, especially when you're trying to quickly manage different aspects of your smart home. This feature request aims to address that precise pain point, offering a more intuitive and flexible user experience.

The Problem: Limited Initial Navigation

The current implementation of the simple-swipe-card primarily focuses on its core functionality: swiping between cards. While this is incredibly effective for browsing through various entities and controls, the absence of a default card setting creates a minor friction point. Imagine you've meticulously arranged your cards, perhaps placing a frequently used thermostat control or a music player as the second card in your sequence. Without a default setting, the card that appears first is usually the very first one you added, regardless of its importance to your immediate needs. This forces you to perform an initial swipe – either left or right, depending on where your desired card is located – just to get to the screen you actually want to interact with. For frequent users, this small extra step can add up, making the interface feel less seamless than it could be. It's like opening a book to the first page when you always want to start reading from chapter two. While functional, it's not the most efficient path to information.

The Proposed Solution: Setting a Default Card

Our proposed solution is elegantly simple: introduce a default_card parameter within the simple-swipe-card configuration. This parameter would allow users to specify which card should be displayed by default when the dashboard initially loads. For instance, if you have a thermostat card that you frequently access, you could set its entity or a unique name as the value for default_card. Upon loading the dashboard, this specified card would be presented front and center, ready for interaction. This eliminates the need for that initial, often redundant, swipe. The benefits extend beyond just convenience; it enhances the overall usability and personalization of your Home Assistant interface. You can tailor the starting point of your swipeable cards to your most common use cases, making your smart home controls feel more responsive and tailored to your lifestyle. This isn't about reinventing the wheel; it's about adding a crucial customization option that significantly improves the user experience for anyone leveraging the simple-swipe-card.

Use Case and Benefits: Streamlining Your Smart Home

Let's dive deeper into a practical use case to really understand the value of this proposed feature. Consider a scenario where you have a simple-swipe-card configured with three cards: a media player for your bedroom music, a thermostat for climate control, and a humidifier. Typically, the media player might load first. However, your primary concern when you walk into the room might be adjusting the temperature. With the proposed default_card setting, you could designate the thermostat card as the default. Upon opening your Home Assistant dashboard or navigating to that specific view, the thermostat card would appear immediately. This means you can check and adjust the temperature without any preliminary swipes. If you then wanted to switch to your music or check the humidifier, you could simply swipe left or right as usual. The benefits are immediate and tangible: faster access to frequently used controls, a more personalized dashboard experience, and an overall smoother interaction with your smart home. This seemingly small addition can significantly improve the efficiency of your daily routines, especially if you rely heavily on Home Assistant for managing your environment. It’s about making your smart home smarter by making the interface work better for you. Imagine quickly glancing at your thermostat to set the perfect temperature without having to swipe through other controls first – that’s the power of a default card setting.

Example Configuration: Making it a Reality

To illustrate how this feature would be implemented, let's look at a potential configuration. The example provided showcases the power of the default_card parameter. In this YAML snippet, we're configuring a simple-swipe-card with three distinct cards: a media control, a thermostat, and a humidifier. The crucial addition here is the default_card: therm line. The value therm corresponds to the name attribute of the thermostat card. This tells the simple-swipe-card to display this specific thermostat card as the initial view when the dashboard loads. The other cards, brmusic (media control) and humid (humidifier), remain accessible via swiping, but the thermostat is now the starting point. This configuration demonstrates the flexibility and ease with which users could adapt their dashboards to their specific needs. It’s a straightforward modification that unlocks a significant improvement in usability. Whether you want to default to your security cameras, your lighting controls, or your energy monitoring dashboard, the default_card setting provides that essential customization. This makes the simple-swipe-card even more powerful and adaptable to the diverse requirements of smart home enthusiasts.

Version Information

This feature request is relevant for Simple Swipe Card Version 2.6.10 and future iterations. Ensuring this functionality is incorporated would greatly benefit users of this popular Home Assistant card.

Alternatives or Workarounds

Currently, there are no direct workarounds provided by the simple-swipe-card itself to set a default card on initial load. Users might attempt to work around this by reordering their cards to place the most frequently accessed one at the very beginning of the sequence. However, this is a suboptimal solution as it doesn't allow for true default selection and might disrupt the logical flow of other cards. The intended use case of the default_card feature is to provide a dedicated and configurable starting point, independent of the absolute order of the cards, offering a much more intuitive user experience than manual reordering.

Pre-Submission Checklist

• Feature Request Search: I have thoroughly searched the existing issues for the simple-swipe-card repository to ensure this feature has not been previously requested or implemented. My search did not reveal any existing requests for a default card setting.
• Clear Explanation: I have provided a comprehensive explanation of the proposed feature, detailing the problem it solves, the solution itself, and its tangible benefits for users of the simple-swipe-card.

For more information on Home Assistant customization and powerful card options, you might find these resources helpful:

• Explore the official Home Assistant Documentation for in-depth guides and information.
• Discover other fantastic custom cards and integrations in the awesome-ha community list.