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.
A Grafana account (Grafana Cloud or self-hosted) with access to the dashboard
Email and password login available for that account
The full dashboard URL you plan to display
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.
Best Practice: 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.
Log in to the Pickcel Console and navigate to Apps. Search for the Dashboard app and click on it. Then, click Create App.
Give a name to the app instance based on the dashboard you are configuring (e.g., “API Performance - Grafana”).
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.
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.
Email: Enter the email address that you use for logging in to your Grafana account.
Password: Enter the password for that account.
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.
Click Generate Auth Token. The token will be generated and automatically pasted into the Auth Token field on the left.
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.
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.
Session Expiry: This forces a fresh login to prevent session timeouts. A value of 5-8 hours is recommended for continuous display during a workday.
4
Enable Scroll Option for the Dashboard (Optional)
Enable Auto Scroll: Set a scroll duration in seconds. For example, at 60 seconds, the entire dashboard scrolls from top to bottom over 60 seconds.
Enable Auto Scroll Height: Set a scroll height in pixels. The screen scrolls down by the defined pixel height.
5
Create and Publish
Once the configuration is complete, click Create App. The app instance will be available in the Media section.
To preview, go to Media, find your app instance by name, and click its thumbnail. If you are happy with the result, assign it to your screens.
Preview of the Grafana Dashboard
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.
Click Generate Auth Token. The token will be generated and automatically pasted into the Auth Token field on the left.
To preview, go to Media, find your app instance by name, and click its thumbnail. If you are happy with the result, assign it to your screens.
