Problems Installing any Plugin

General HouseBot discussion. Any issues that don't fit into any of the other topics belong here.
Post Reply
raptor_demon
Senior Member
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:55 pm
Location: NC

Problems Installing any Plugin

Post by raptor_demon »

Ok,

I gotta be missing the plot here...

i ahve downloaded a few plugings from the housebot website and there are no readme files for guidenace and the forum come sup blank.

Yahoo Weather for instance, contains 2 files, ConfigExport.xml and YahooWeather.vbs. When i try to do an import configuration it looks for a HBX file. I tired renaming the xml file and nothing.


This is the same with every plugin i try to install.

What am i missing....

Please help.
Raptor
roussell
Advanced Member
Posts: 268
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:07 am
Location: Pelham, AL

Re: Problems Installing any Plugin

Post by roussell »

The file you downloaded for Yahoo Weather should have been a .hbx file. Make sure your browser isn't doing you any favors by automatically uncompressing the file an just giving you the contents. That's the behavior of Safari for example. If that is what's happening do this - take the two files you ended up with: ConfigExport.xml and YahooWeather.vbs and place them in a .zip file. Rename the .zip file to something like yahooweather.hbx and then import that from file-->import configuration in Housebot. You'll need to restart HB after the import and answer a few questions upon restart but that should do it.

As you can tell from the above - an .hbx file is just a zip file with a renamed extension. Your best bet is to turn off the "feature" on your browser that is automatically recognizing the .hbx as a compressed archive and extracting the contents for you so you'll be able to more easily download and install HB plugins.

Terry
raptor_demon
Senior Member
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:55 pm
Location: NC

Re: Problems Installing any Plugin

Post by raptor_demon »

Great! that works!

I would have had no idea without you telling me.

Maybe we could add a peice of text on the downloads page to first time users don't have this issue.

Raptor
roussell
Advanced Member
Posts: 268
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:07 am
Location: Pelham, AL

Re: Problems Installing any Plugin

Post by roussell »

Good, I'm glad you got it working. To be honest, I wouldn't have realized that was the problem if I hadn't been on my MacBook when I read your post and tried re-downloading the YahooWeather plugin myself.

Hang in there, it gets easier. I've found that HouseBot is extremely versatile and with a little creativity, it can match or exceed the capabilities of packages costing 10 times more. Post here with any hang-ups you run into and someone will help out.

Terry
raptor_demon
Senior Member
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:55 pm
Location: NC

Re: Problems Installing any Plugin

Post by raptor_demon »

Yes,

it seems very capable, i was testing homeseer and while it was easier to use at first i think in the end house bout will do what i need.

next i need to interface to my IP camera and then buy some more gear!

Thanks for your help.
Raptor
Post Reply