Share a tag's live value as a badge
A live badge is a small image that shows one tag's current reading — like the version badges on a GitHub project, but with your boiler temperature in it. Anywhere an image can go, the reading can go: it refreshes itself, and nobody needs a Synacl login to see it.
One badge = one tag = one number. You choose which tags get a badge, and you can switch any badge off at any time.
Where it works
The badge is an ordinary image URL ending in .svg, so it works in:
- a GitHub / GitLab README or wiki page (Markdown image)
- Notion, Confluence or any wiki that embeds images by URL
- a shop-floor TV page or an internal status page (an
<img>tag) - Slack and Teams link previews, and an email signature or template
- anything else that fetches an image by URL
Create one
- Open the device and find the tag in its Tags list.
- Choose Share as live badge (the link icon at the end of the tag row).
- Give it a short label (up to 32 characters; the tag name is the default) and pick a style: flat (20 px, rounded) or for-the-badge (28 px, uppercase).
- Copy the snippet you need:
Markdown (README, wiki):
HTML (a web page, a TV dashboard, an email template):
<img src="https://api.synacl.com/b/<token>.svg" alt="Boiler temp">
Wrap it in a link to the badge's own page (https://api.synacl.com/b/<token>, no .svg) and a click opens a larger view: the value, its state, when it was last updated, and a 24-hour chart.
What the colours mean
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | The reading is inside the tag's limits |
| Yellow | The reading is in the tag's Watch band (early warning) |
| Red | The reading is in the tag's Alert band |
| Grey | Stale — the device has not reported for a while — or no data yet |
The bands are the ones you set on the tag (see Normal, Watch and Alert). A tag with no limits is always green while it is reporting.
A badge turns grey and reads "stale 14m" (14 minutes since the last reading) when the reading is older than twice the device's publish interval, and at least 5 minutes. A device that publishes every minute goes stale after 5 minutes; one that publishes every hour goes stale after 2 hours.
How fresh is it?
Each badge image is cached for about 60 seconds, so a page that is open all day costs the device nothing and a value is never more than a minute behind. Viewers do not need to refresh anything.
What the badge never shows
Only the label you typed and the value. It never names the device, the account, or any other tag, and the link cannot be used to reach anything else in Synacl. The URL contains a random token, not your account or device id.
Rotate or revoke
Anyone holding the URL can see the value, so treat it like a shared link.
- Rotate gives the badge a new URL with the same label and style. The old URL stops working within a minute. Use it when a page you shared with someone should stop updating.
- Revoke switches the badge off for good. The URL answers "not found" from then on. You can create a new badge for the same tag later; it gets a different URL.
- Deleting the device, or removing the tag from it, revokes its badges automatically.
Every account can have up to 20 active badges. Revoke one to make room for another; revoked badges do not count.
Other formats
Replace .svg in the URL with:
.txt— the message only, as plain text (42.7 °C,stale 14m,no data). Handy for scripts and spreadsheets..json— the reading in the shields.io endpoint format. Use it to restyle the badge with shields' own options:https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https://api.synacl.com/b/<token>.json&style=plasticThe colour in the
.jsonmatches the.svg, so a shields-rendered badge means the same thing.