webRemote/Housebot WebServer - January Release

[Timoh]

Edit:
****** FILE REMOVED**** I have enough info to do the fixes for this this release! Thanks all!!!
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Hi folks,
Here is the latest webremote.
If you have previously used the plugin, drop the updated plugin into your devices folder and you should be good to go. If not, follow the instructions at the end of the post. (Please ensure there is only 1 hbwebserver DLL in your plugins folder.)

This should be a fairly functional "display only" release. ie Buttons won't work. This has only been tested on Firefox, use on other browsers may or may not work.

Things fixed in this version.
- Left shifting indicators
- Missing multi-state buttons
- Text colour & Text size
- Dynamic Image functionality
- More detail on "theme not loaded" errors

Usage has not changed... ?Theme=<your theme>&Refresh=<time in milliseconds>

As always, feedback is appreciated. Screenshots of themes/remotes are ideal.

Next on the todo list...
-Transparent colours
- Button functionality
- Expanded browser support

Thanks
Tim

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If this is the first time trying the plugin, follow these instructions...
Download the zip file...
1) Copy the dll to Housebot plugins/devices directory.
2) Copy the help file (.chm) to the Housebot help directory.
3) Restart Housebot.
4) Add a device, you should see the HB Web Server.
5) Set the "Server Running" property to yes.

If you now point your browser to the your IP and specified port (5025) you should get a directory listing.

Most errors are logged in the device log. The exception to this, are errors where the web server won't start. Those are logged in the file only. The Access Log property will show you every web page/resource accessed.

If you are having trouble, double check the IP Access Control list. The default is to deny the internet/every IP, then add in 192.168 networks (typically home network addressing) and the local PC/loopback (127.0.0.1).

All of the properties are described in the help.

[Richard Naninck]

This time HB doesn't crash..
After setting the device, most of the properties were blank. I copied the values from the help file.
I see the directory listing OK using IE8 but with http://192.168.0.3:5025/?Theme=XGA&Refresh=5000 I only see 4 random characters in the top left corner changing whenever the F5 Refresh button is pressed. So no display at all.
A logfile first said it was missing favicon.ico and after deleting it, a new one didn't get written.

[jacco van der Ven]

Hello Tim,

The sample theme is working, but my own theme not. Here are the screenshot's

SampleTheme.jpg (53.21 KiB) Viewed 10012 times

My theme / below the remote screenshot of this theme

MyTheme

firefox.jpg (45.66 KiB) Viewed 10012 times

Remote screenshot

Remote

Normal.jpg (61.95 KiB) Viewed 10012 times

[Timoh]

Richard, Your issues are probably due to IE8. There are no browser checks at all in the code, so mileage at this point will vary against browsers other than Firefox. I'll check out why the default values didn't show up... Strange because I know they're set in the plugin.

Jacco, It looks like I have some javascript that doesn't like your theme. What you see is typical when the javascript has failed 1/2 way through drawing the theme. You should be able to see the offending error message and javascript line in your error console for firefox.

That being said, I think it's time to add in some more robust (and user friendly) debugging methods. I think it's at the point where the development of functions will start going down and debugging start going up. If I want users to help me debug, I need to make it easy for you guys to help.

Tim

[Timoh]

Richard, I have reproduced your issue... It seems to have something to do with renaming the dll. Which I did right before I uploaded it.
Jacco, you might want to double check you plugins folder as well... It should only have 1 dll called hbwebserver.dll. If there is dll called hbwebserver0116.dll, delete it and also the hbwebserver.dll and drop in the new one from the zip.
Tim

[Richard Naninck]

Now that you mention it.
The very first time I installed the device, all properties came with values. The second time it didn't and it remained that way. I will await the next version. I bet my theme will give you many more issues

[jacco van der Ven]

I stopped Housebot and delete the hbwebserver.dll after that I copied the new one and renamed it in the old name, so I think that was correct?
But I will do it again, to be sure of it.

Regards, Jacco

[kilowatt]

Tim,

Great progress! My Themes are displaying pretty well now. They are pretty simple so I'm sure some of the fancy ones I've seen might still have issues.

A few remaining issues:
The multi-state buttons are not displaying the text. They all display "!No-default!".
Text I have as center justified is diplaying left justified.
Transparent parts of buttons display red ( I know this is on the next up list already)

I attached a picture of the theme I've attached before to show proof of the progress.

Mark

[Timoh]

Jacco, When you rename the file, make sure you rename the .dll part as well. If not, I suspect HB will still try and load the dll if it has the .dll extension. Also, if you can see if the page is generating an error in the Firefox error console, it would be appreciated.

Mark, !No_Default! can appear as a result of two possibilities...
1- when there is no default state specified on the multi-state button and the webremote has not yet received an update from the server.
or
2 - when there is no default state specified on the multi-state button and the webremote has received a value that does not correspond to state value in the webremote.

Had a refresh happened? Do the indicators make sense? It's also possible that the panel was drawn and then the client crashed and never pulled a value.

Tim

[Steve Horn]

Here is what I get when I pull my main theme:

MAIN1.JPG (38.99 KiB) Viewed 9973 times

The pink areas are background static images - basically boxes. The large gray box is a dynamic image - weather radar. I need to look at the XML file to see if the outlier 'Menu' and 'Home' buttons are orphaned and no longer applicable - that may be an issue on my end.
I tried to pull simpler, less busy themes but they would not display at all. Tried another - basic buttons. Got this:

web server version

THEATER1.JPG (24.89 KiB) Viewed 9973 times

Here is the SWremote rendering:

Correct rendering

THEATER2.JPG (51.5 KiB) Viewed 9973 times

For the themes not displayed, I tried to capture the error log entries, but the file was not being written. I had seen it before but had deleted it to get a fresh listing of errors. got none.
I could not access the help file. I suspect that IE is not configured to access help over the net. Need to look into that here...

FWIW

[Timoh]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for shots... I guess I still have lots of work to do on images.

The help file is only within Housebot for setting up the device. Likewise the log file errors in HB are only for the webserver. The errors for images or anything to do with the actual webRemote will be the usual Firefox error log.

Could you send the xml snippet for the images on the first panel?

And general question to all... What format are you guy using for images when there are issues? (not showing, box, etc)

Thanks
Tim

[Steve Horn]

Tim,
See the attached. I lifted out just the main/home page skin; also listed are the 'dependencies' files for this panel as well as all others. If you need anything else from the XML, let me know.

June06-2 Main only.zip

(3.14 KiB) Downloaded 374 times

edit: This is what it normally looks like:

SWRemote rendering

MAIN3.JPG (99.36 KiB) Viewed 9955 times

BTW, I was able to view the help file. Also (I meant to note earlier) that I was using Firefox to view the above themes.
Thanks for all your hard work on this!

[Timoh]

Thanks Steve. I was wondering what it looked like.
I suspect the buttons are getting drawn, but they are behind the pink boxes since I have not done transparencies yet. So not as bad as I thought. Possibly a similar issue on "basic buttons", but they're behind something.

I am perplexed though on the dynamic image as a grey box. It looks like it's not getting updated. And I assume that your default image in the theme is the grey box. In fact, I think it's the same issue JMan had, which I did not understand.

What is the property value of the dynamic image? How often does it change? Where is the file stored/path? (Same questions for you Jman if your following.)

Now I know... And knowing is 1/2 the battle.

Tim

[Steve Horn]

I took one of the simpler themes, deleted the background boxes (the pink transparencies), and loaded it:

w/o transparencies

SHOP-2.JPG (40.23 KiB) Viewed 9912 times

The upper left gray box has transparency and color adjustment properties, so what we're seeing is explainable. With the exception of the 'degree' sign (lower left, displayed as a diamond '?'), all else is as it should be. Dunno why it says 57 degrees; its really 37 but that is not a webserver issue.)

The grey dynamic image box displays a radar image that is refreshed every few minutes, although the actual/source NOAA image is not updated more often than 15 mins. Regardless, the image is grabbed and the file saved as a jpg: c:\Program Files\HouseBot\Config\Themes\Common\weather\us_bhm_closeradar_large_usen.jpg

[Timoh]

Ahhh... The webserver will not recognize c:\program files\........ etc

I believe the HB recommened way is to use %%HB_Themes%%, which I strip out on the server so the browser gets the right path to the image. Since I suspect many folks are using the entire path, I will add in to some processing that make the path property value web server/browser friendly.

Tim