webRemote/Housebot WebServer - March Release

[Timoh]

I think I'm going to backtrack on that last comment...
I had thought the swRemote was able to compensate/understand Themes folder within a Themes folder. But in testing it appears it does not.

I tried reproducing your setup, so I created a "Themes" folder under my "Themes" folder. So my test setup was...
C:\Program Files\HouseBot\Config\Themes\Themes\Common
and
C:\Program Files\HouseBot\Config\Themes\Common

My XML contained two images...
<File PATH="Themes\Common\Panel Transparent.bmp"/>
<File PATH="Common\Panel Transparent.bmp"/>

Like you, I made it so that the image only exists in the Themes folder setup and not the Themes\Themes folder setup. Based on your response, I expected both images to load, but in reality only the 2nd image loaded from Themes. The first image in Themes\Themes does not load since it does not exist.

This tells me that the SWRemote is not doing anything special with the Themes folder or a Themes\Themes folder. In other words, if your "Themes\CEBotics Red\HBR_ListBar.png" image does not exist ( c:\Program Files\Housebot\Config\Themes\Themes\CEBotics Red) and is actually in c:\Program Files\Housebot\Config\Themes\CEBotics Red, it is probably not loading in the SWRemote. The difference between SWRemote and webRemote is that SWRemote will ignore and continue to load... The webRemote will halt so you're more likely to notice.

I'm going to change so it will notify you, press OK, and then move onto drawing the theme.

Tim

[Timoh]

Quick update done to the javascript/webRemote. Download the original file in this thread for the update.

When a dependency load fails, a button will appear at the bottom of the dependency page saying the load has failed.

There is no longer a pop-up. If nothing has happened for 30 seconds, check the bottom of your page for the button.

Clicking on the button, will allow the theme to "attempt" to be loaded. Depending on what was missing from the dependencies, your mileage will vary.

Tim

[Steve Horn]

It "works" as you describe - the theme eventually loads but the result is not pretty: lots of left over images scattered about (out side of the panel area). But the home panel seems to all be there. Unfortunately, this panel has a dynamic image (weather radar) that is overlaying much of the buttons. So the transparency issue is still an issue. But the time-of-day is being updated. Of course, none of the buttons work but I didn't expect them to. Should they? At this point I'm not sure I know what should be functional and what is on the punch list.

[Steve Horn]

In addition,
1) during the load I got 1 or more of these:

2) and several other themes I tried - as simple as one panel in one case - did not load at all. Go figure...

[kilowatt]

I just got back from vacation and found this update.

My themes all display well now. The only difference I'm seeing from the SWRemote is that some text I have defined as center justified is displayed left justified. Not at all a big problem...

The update rate is very slow now. It seems to refresh about every 36 seconds even though I'm using Refresh=5000.

The properties values are updated when I push a button (after the long refresh delay) and the property updates are also displayed on the SWRemote (immediately). But, HouseBot is not sending out the updates to the actual device i.e. my light doesn’t turn on or off.

This is now getting very close to the functionality I need. Thanks so much for putting this together.

Mark

Edit: I looked at the text centering a little more: My "Property Lable" text is not centered when I select "Alignment:Centered" on the position tab. My "Multi State Button" text is centered when I have "Center Vertically" is checked but "Center Horizontally" is not checked on the position tab. As I said before, I'm not too worried about this but figured I could help investigate incase your going to attempt to fix it.

[Timoh]

Hi Mark,
Whooops... I forgot to add text positioning to my todo list. It's not a bug... Just not done!

The default refresh is 36 seconds.... And the parameter is case sensitive... So make sure you setting Refresh=5000, and not refresh=5000.

Very odd on the the property change not actually doing anything. As soon as it changes in HB, HB should work it's magic. I'll do some other testing, but very strange indeed. What about something that's tied to a task? ie: A task that executes based on a certain property value... Does the task execute?

Tim

[edgar]

Hi Tim,

My Themes seem to load ok (again formating is an issue but I am guessing when you develop themes you will need to use actual size images, vice scaling them in the theme?). I did find what I think is a bug in HB that may/may not have been found before. If you rename a Theme or Copy a Theme in HB, the xml file name does not change in the config/themes folder.

With reference to the buttons they did not work for me and did crash Housebot server which in my recent experience with modifying the TCP/Client script happens very easily of HB is presented with something it does not like.

v/r

Kevin

[kilowatt]

Tim,

I found the refresh issue was mine. The Firefox bookmarks I had saved to bring up my theme had a space between the '&' and 'Refresh'.

I tried one of my buttons that changes a property that would trigger a task to run and the task ran as expected. It seems the problem only shows up for buttons that change a property which should fire off a hardware responce like sending out an X-10 or Insteon command.

In poking around some more I also noticed that my execute task buttons don't do anything yet.

Mark

[Timoh]

Task buttons are on the todo list. Something I don't use in my themes, so weren't/aren't a priority. They will be around in the next release.

Very strange on the property changes only not working with x10 and Insteon. The only way to make a property change call is via the Scottbot provided and approved programming call in the developers kit. And I bet that every property change call in Houseboat is made the same way. I don't really have a solution for you except to crank up tracing on the device and hardware interface.

Kevin, it's most likely something in the json processing on the websever that is causing the crash. I haven't been the best on error checking, so will take a look.

Thank
Tim

[kilowatt]

Has anyone who tested this been able to get it to control a simple light without using a task?

I've tested it a bit and it the light device (X10 or Insteon) is behaving like it has received a property state update from the device so it doesn't send out the light control signals through the hardware interface.

If I look at the history tab for the Power State property of the device is shows "Changed By Device" when the webRemote updates the property. When the property is modified by the software remote it displays "Changed By Software Remote..." When changed by the user interface it displays "Changed by User Interface". For a task update is displays "Changed By Task.."

It seems to me when it thinks it is "Changed By Device" the control signals are not sent to the light because it assumes the light has already been updated.

I could modify my theme so all buttons would fire off tasks that update the desired property but that means the webRemote really is not going to be a plugin replacement for the swRemote.

Mark

[Timoh]

Hi Mark,
That's some pretty comprehensive testing.

It definitely sounds like something I'm not doing correctly in my plugin. Let me do some PMing with Scott and I'll keep you posted.

Tim

[Timoh]

Hi Mark,
I think I found my problem.
I've updated the plugin. Let me know if it works.
Thanks
Tim

[kilowatt]

That's great. I'm out of town for a few days but will test it when I get back.

Mark

[kilowatt]

Tim,

I was able to do a quick test today and your fix worked. Thanks. I'm now able to control at least an Insteon light. I would expect the X10 to work also but won't have a chance to confirm that for at least a few more days.

Mark

Edit: I tested X10 today and that also now works.

[Steve Horn]

Timoh, can you sum up where the webserver project is at this point? From my recent thread reading, it appears that the only item you mentioned as on the to-be-done list is task button support.
I recently created a smaller theme for use by my smartphone and Firefox. My experience with it, both using it via FFox on the smartphone as well as FFox on a PC is that HB periodically, but not always crashes. Have not found anything in the debug actions (&Debug=true, &ThemeXML=<theme XML>, or accessing the theme XML directly with Firefox) to show a cause for the crash. And the log file just has several entries for favicon.ico not found. But I do have several buttons that trigger tasks. Could those cause a crash or do they just do nothing?
Also, what are others experiencing with reaction time? I read up there that refresh default is 36 secs. That seems l o n g. Never have been able to view the help so I don't know what setting &Refresh to something other than 5000 will do. And is that 36 secs just to refresh the panel's properties or does that factor into button presses, panel changes, etc?
This seems to have potential from a smartphone/HB standpoint. I've tried, with limited success, using Remote Desktop to a SWremote running on the HB server. But I haven't found a good RDP client yet.