HouseBot

Nice job, Tim, It looks very good.

Happx Xmas,

Jacco

Any progress during the holly-days?

Hi folks,
No progress during the holidays. In fact, for the most part, I didn't go anywhere near a computer.

I'm now starting work on the back-end, so there will be less eye candy & visible progress. It's also been years since I've written anything in C, so I suspect that will slow things down a bit as well. But now I'm getting back into the groove of things, I'll be keeping everyone updated.

Tim

Hi folks,
Good progress this week.
The web server is up and running as a device! It appears as a plugin, you add it like any other device. Very cool indeed.
I still have to work on some properties to allow for some specific configs on the webserver, but that should not be too bad.

After the web server is stabilized 100%, it will be time to work on delivering the theme xml file and images to the browser from the server.

Progress is good and moving along.

Tim

Hi Tim,
do share your intermediate results as well?
peter

Hi Peter,
Typically no, I won't share until there is actually something to share!

The UI/javascript client is useless as it is right now... It needs the Housebot webserver I'm developping.
The Housebot webserver is not ready yet, and I don't want to share it until it's more complete. I don't want to be distracted by questions while still trying to complete the project.

Tim

Weekend update...

I will probably share the HB webserver in a week or two. This is purely a web server, with no support for the javascript client (yet). It integrates with HB by appearing as a device in HouseBot; all config is done Housebot, as well as starting/stopping the server. The is no other integration with HB at this point. That being said, there is still the option is use the HB external control as a CGI processor for the HB Web Server. So if someone is using there own webserver+HB external control(CGI)+html pages, it can be replaced by the HB Web Server device.

The HB web server will *not* serve active pages (java, asp, etc), just static html.

Since I do plan on offering up the plugin to the community, I will let the cat out of the bag on the web server technology. The plugin is based on mongoose webserver (http://code.google.com/p/mongoose/). Once I have Mongoose fully integrated into HB (HB Web Server), I will then start adding in the code for handling the javascript client.

Tim

Slow slow slow progress this week.

Doing callbacks in C++ was something new to me. Sprinkle in the fact that the webserver is written in C and I had a week of ultimate frustration.

However, the C++ part of Housebot is now happily talking to the C part of Mongoose. So hopefully the rest of the web server integration should go quickly. I still should have the web server out in the next week or two. It will be useful for those that have written their own Housebot HTML pages and are using the CGI Housebot gateway. It will permit them to replace the web server they are currently using with a light weight web server controlled/configured by HB.

Tim

Folks,
The HouseBot Web Server should be released within a week. I wouldn't call it "alpha" code, but it's definitely beta, so there could be a few small bugs and weirdness in it.

This is *just* the web server portion. There is no Housebot client functionality built into this release.

The webserver can be start/stopped though Housebot, all errors and web page logs go to Housebot.
The webserver will support the following features:
IP Access Control Lists
Authentication (mandatory at this point)
CGI
Configurable root directory
Configurable index files
Configurable server side includes
Configurable server port
Allow/Deny directory listing

The webserver does *NOT* support https yet. Although I do have this planned for a future release. There is a property for SSL certificate, but it is not used.

In "theory" you could do task based control using just this webserver. Since all web page accesses are logged in a property, you could trigger a task whenever HB sees a specific URL the property. It's an idea if folks want to play.

Of course this release should support the hb external control running as CGI interpreter. I have not tried it.

Next release will incorporate the web based client & xml/web services requests.

I'll start a new thread when the web server plugin is posted. It will be a simple dll you drop into you device plugins folder.

Tim

The HouseBot Web Server has been released!

What I am calling version 0.5 is now available in the plugins forum.

Tim

Another HouseBot Web Server version has been released!

What I am calling version 0.6 is now available in the plugins forum.

Tim

Hi folks,
I'm back working on the javascript/browser client side.
Previously I had tested with my theme only, and now I am testing with the sample theme in housebot and working out some bugs.

I will probably have a "non-communicating" release out in the next week or two. By "non-communicating" I mean it will not talk to any devices or properties in HB. It will just have panel functionality for testing layout, visuals and moving between panels. This next release will not support transparencies (panels or buttons) and will not support panel open styles.

Tim

Quasi weekly update...
Slow progress this week. While the javascript client worked well with my theme, it had a few things missing to allow it to work well with more complicated themes.
I've spent the few hours this week adding those bits & pieces of display functionality and hopefully should have something out within the next week for folks to try their themes on.
Tim

Finally!!!

I really can't wait to see your creation in action.
Thank you for starting this project.
At last I can use my ipad with housebot, I've already started to create a theme for the ipad and iphone.

Hope to hear more from you soon.

Patrick

Update...
As with everything, the devil is in the details. These details are all the little bits of "support code" to make the solution work seemlessly.
I thought the code to allow people to select and determine which theme they want would be easy. While it is, it's still a few more lines of code towrite & test... Sigh.

I was hoping to get the latest test release out last week, but obviously that did not happen. I'm still plugging away at it... Hopefully sometime this week.

The bad news... The intial release will *not* work on Internet Explorer. There is some css & javascript styling which behaves differently on different platforms. That being said, it may not work smoothly on some other platforms as well. I am testing it on Firefox, which should mean it will work well on Opera, Safari, Chrome. Which I believe are all fairly consistent in their javascript & css implementations.

Stayed tuned & check back often.

Tim