SDK Questions

[roussell]

1. Have the HB SDKs have been modified (or do they even need to be) to support the new functinoality present in V3?

2. Is there such an animal as a SWRemote SDK in the works?

3. Any hope what-so-ever of an SDK that supports something other than C++? I know you don't like the .NET kool-aid, but would it be possible for one to write a C# or VB.NET plugin that would talk to HB? Any pointers to get me started? I've written a couple of C# apps that wrap the HB ocx, but that tastes funny and I'd like to develop a few actual plugins.

4. Lastly - Any good, free C++ dev tools for Windows? I can no longer find my copy of VC++ and the Express Edition of C++ from MS needs some other stuff added which never seems to work when I try installing/configuring it all.

TIA,
Terry

[ScottBot]

1. Have the HB SDKs have been modified (or do they even need to be) to support the new functinoality present in V3?

The SDKs that are downloadable from the web site are current with the V3 API. There really wasn't much new.

2. Is there such an animal as a SWRemote SDK in the works?

No. I know folks would like to add their own controls. Maybe some day there could be an ActiveX way to add new controls, but it's no where close to being able to do that in its current state.

3. Any hope what-so-ever of an SDK that supports something other than C++? I know you don't like the .NET kool-aid, but would it be possible for one to write a C# or VB.NET plugin that would talk to HB? Any pointers to get me started? I've written a couple of C# apps that wrap the HB ocx, but that tastes funny and I'd like to develop a few actual plugins.

You probably won't see that coming from me anytime soon, but it's not impossible for someone to add that layer them-selfs. A while ago someone had a somewhat working C# plugin working, but it never saw the light of day for some reason.

[ericvic]

If you can program in Java I have been working on an SDK interface to Java. I think it is pretty much working but I haven't had the time to look at it lately.

Eric

[allanstevens]

I have been able to communicate with Housebot using the External Control dll with c#. Works really well.

Code: Select all

HBControl hb = new HBControlClass();
// Connect to housebot
Console.WriteLine(hb.Connect(this.iHouseBotPort, this.sHouseBotIP, this.sHouseBotPassword));
// Update Lounge Light
hb.SetPropertyValue("Lounge Light","Power State","On");
...
...

Hope it helps.

[Richard Naninck]

Could something like this work in vbs?

Set hb = CreateObject("...")
hb.Connect bla bla

If so, what would be the ...?

Would be nice to talk the HB this way from other programs that support scripting. Now I use HBControl.exe

[allanstevens]

This works for me,

Code: Select all

Dim Obj
Set Obj = CreateObject("HBControlMod.HBControl")

wscript.echo  Obj.Connect( HouseBotPort, HouseBotIP, HouseBotPassword )
wscript.echo Obj.GetPropertyValue("Phone", "Last Caller")

Set Obj = Nothing

Make sure you register the hbcontrol.dll with regsvr32.

[Richard Naninck]

Many thanks!! I am sure this will come in handy some time!

Where do I find the hbcontrol.dll? All I can find is the HBControlMod.dll in the plugins\Devices\ExternalComControl directory.

EDIT:

Never mind, I needed the HBControlMod.dll. This was actually pretty obvious since lots of example (web asp) code is already installed.