xAP on the Joggler

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  • Kevin
    Moderator
    • Jan 2004
    • 558

    #76
    Touch Screen Navigation...

    One of the fundamental aspects of a touch screen is how it navigates between pages .. where the logic sits that performs that function.

    At the moment there is some basic page navigation with page toggle, show and hide (beta4 only has toggle implemented). There is also the additional <group> tag that either button or pages can belong to which automatically enforces only one page/button is enabled/visible at any one time.

    Beta 5 will add more possibilities with Martyns <parent> tag implementation plus a new way of controlling page navigation - via xAP Page visibility and button clicks will be 'evented' over xAP and I intend to allow the visibility of both buttons and pages to be controlled via xAP. I may allow buttons to be 'clicked' via a xAP BSC command too.

    The leading players like AMX and Crestron typically implement a touch screen interface by loading all the graphics onto the screen and feeding back finger presses. Then they have a control program running on a standalone processor that decides what should be displayed at any given time so there is minimal navigation logic actually implemented within the touchscreens. This has an additional benefit that multiple identical screens share one piece of code and can be all updated at once. Generally any displayed data is acquired by the processor and then pushed (via joins) to the touchscreens for display if needed. This keeps the touch screen clients light in terms of processing. It does however mean the screens require a separate processor to function, rather than being standalone.

    So I'm intending to keep the Joggler internal navigation to a minimum - possibly as it is now which seems pretty adequate for most needs, and that the xAP BSC schema will mimic the joins. Joins are actually binary, analog or text - which is nicely analogous to xAP BSC.

    Those wanting very sophisticated screen navigation or features would then either use a xAP capable controller / PC software or alter the Flash AS3 code directly.

    So if there are other page/button navigation functions that people do feel should be included within the Joggler itself and configured via the XML do shout up now... !! I already intend a 'display a page for n secs' that seems sensible and will be useful as I deprecate the inbuilt CallerID screen to allow you to create your own from within the XML.

    K
    Last edited by Kevin; 8 August 2010, 03:33 PM.

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    • Kevin
      Moderator
      • Jan 2004
      • 558

      #77
      iServer 'Invalid Logon/password' or crashes

      If you have joined at beta 4 then the iServer application update exe is provided but you will be missing the sample Joggler logon file (ACL) . You should download it from here and place it in the same directory as iServer (and restart it).



      You should then have a 'Joggler' device listed in the 'Configure' Access Control 'Name' drop down. You don't need to change anything here - it should just work 'as is'.

      Also do check that if you have firewalls enabled they are passing the xAP port 3639 UDP, iServer TCP port 9996 and the Flash policy file server on TCP port 843

      Also ensure that you have a xAP hub running and started before iServer. The instructions imply messages should be visible in the lower left hand corner - this is not the case until a client connects. If anyone prefers a version of iServer that never acquires port 3639 and therefore always requires a hub then v 1.0.9 is available upon request. There are no other changes.


      K

      PS Please note that if you use 'Weather Display' then older versions implement xAP incorrectly using a CR rather than LF delimiter and are known to crash many xAP applications including this current version of iServer. This was corrected in Weather Display version 10.370 build 12 19Sept2009 so please ensure you update. Previous KCSoft xAP hubs transparently corrected this problem but the latest xFX hubs do not.

      iServer runs 24/7 and has proven totally robust for me, but I want to ensure that it's impervious to any and all malformed xAP messages . Should you find any examples that cause it to runtime error then please send a Viewer capture of the xAP message in both ASCII and hex to my email address.
      Last edited by Kevin; 10 August 2010, 02:07 AM.

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      • Kevin
        Moderator
        • Jan 2004
        • 558

        #78
        Warning: Possible auto update issue

        Just this morning one of my Jogglers rebooted itself and when I looked at the menu the xAP app had gone. I now see its running a 25th June 2010 firmware build so it has auto updated. It's late (early) and I haven't yet had an opportunity to check what's changed but my SCP logon is gone too.

        So just whilst I check I would strongly recommend people disable auto updates FTTB (see Joggler forum/Wiki).

        I haven't seen any issues reported on any of the forums re this but if anyone does then let me know....

        K

        UPDATE: Although the software update removed my additional apps and disabled the SSH/SCP access things do reinstall OK so an inconvenience rather than a problem. On this particular Joggler I had installed the apps into the openpeak/gui/apps directory and so I guess this is perilous. I didn't have any custom apps in the media/appshop directory so I don't know if they would have been removed from there or not. Here's a link to a thread about disabling updates should you wish to do it...
        Last edited by Kevin; 11 August 2010, 12:42 PM.

        Comment

        • kev_t
          Automated Home Sr Member
          • Jun 2004
          • 58

          #79
          My first joggler screen attempts

          Thought I would post my first couple of Joggler screens to encourage others to do the same and share what can be done.

          These were created under beta4.

          The first one is set up to link to my Livebox HAH controller, see http://www.dbzoo.com/livebox/hah, where the top row controls 4 RF mains plugs, the next row controls the 4 onboard relays, followed by the 4 inputs which i have linked to switches. Th bottom row displays the first 4 1-wire temperatures and on the bottom right are buttons for the CurrentCost Envi CC128 (bit of a problem with the watts at the moment)

          The second one is an attempt at a basic control panel for central heating and hot water and shows the temperature profile of the hot water tank derived from 1-wire temperatures connected to a Quasar K3145 logger and also show the use of external graphics for the buttons

          KevinT
          (the other kevin)
          Attached Files

          Comment

          • Otto-Mate
            Founder
            • Jan 2004
            • 882

            #80
            Nice Kevin. Anyone else got some images to post?

            Thanks

            M.
            Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


            www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
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            Comment

            • Simon300
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Apr 2010
              • 34

              #81
              Originally posted by kev_t View Post
              Thought I would post my first couple of Joggler screens to encourage others to do the same and share what can be done.
              ...
              It's great to see your progress. I'm at the early stages of putting in a new CH and solar (well, all the kit's sitting in the hall anyway!) so will be looking to put 1-wire themometers into the pockets in my cylinder and what you've done is just what I'd like.

              Just one trivial thought for anyone whose name starts with K ...have you experimented using a a sans-serif font for the buttons - IMO it might make the display look a little smoother?

              Keep up the good work - I'm sure there are a few of us lurkers following with interest!

              Simon

              Comment

              • kev_t
                Automated Home Sr Member
                • Jun 2004
                • 58

                #82
                San Serif fonts

                yes agreed, san serif fonts would be much better, I strongly dislike Times new roman for almost ev erything, but I dont think font selection is available in this beta

                KevinT

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                • Kevin
                  Moderator
                  • Jan 2004
                  • 558

                  #83
                  The font's aren't currently selectable via XML - and they do vary based on peoples Flash embedding. However you can change them from Flash and within your own imported SWF's you can use any font you wish ;-) The button labels and time display have a preset font though.

                  It maybe that you can select a font , as well as other basic attributes like size, colour etc with html tags using the BSC text devices.. did you try it ? I know it works for CallerID (xap-osd.display) messages although that screen is not layered correctly in beta 4.

                  Better text handling is something that's percolating up the 'ToDo' list , likely with a text box capability in the XML supporting xAPBSC.text xAPBSC.displaytext, xap-osd.display and static text with basic html tags. The current placements and sizes were intended for the larger button layouts.

                  There seems to be a tendancy to place as many buttons as possible on screens initially but I think that will give way to less populated screens as the project evolves and the page handling improves.

                  K

                  PS beta 5 about a week away...

                  Comment

                  • kev_t
                    Automated Home Sr Member
                    • Jun 2004
                    • 58

                    #84
                    Tried a couple of variations on including HTML as suggested and this does not work currently. Info passed directly to Kevin H

                    KevinT

                    Comment

                    • Kevin
                      Moderator
                      • Jan 2004
                      • 558

                      #85
                      html tags should work in the CallerID (xap-osd.display) area but that screen is stuck behind others due to the new pages layering. b5 will allow text boxes supporting html tags to be added as placed page elements.

                      Bear with us... we are hard at work (into the early hours) on b5 but it's a lot of extra code / features this time, and it also takes a bit longer with multiple contributors.

                      I think you'll all be very pleased but we're still a few days off.

                      K

                      Comment

                      • kev_t
                        Automated Home Sr Member
                        • Jun 2004
                        • 58

                        #86
                        Still working on screens

                        Looking forward to the next beta, and have been continuing to try out different ideas for screens.

                        This one is for my back garden, the decking ( and its LED deck lighting) shown is my current domestic project, all the other lights are energy saving type and are currently controlled via home easy plug in modules, the plan being to link these to my Livebox HAH

                        KevinT
                        Attached Files

                        Comment

                        • Kevin
                          Moderator
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 558

                          #87
                          Originally posted by kev_t View Post
                          Looking forward to the next beta
                          Me too - it's quite a big update this time and I think you'll like the text boxes :-)

                          I have a question...

                          Would people like text boxes that they can 'link' to an existing BSC text device or would they like the text box to itself be a xAP BSC output device so they can send text to it using a xAPBSC.cmd, or , dare I say it .. both ?
                          The visibility of pages, buttons and text boxes can all be set via xAPBSC.cmd messages now too.

                          Looking good on the existing designs KT :-)
                          Last edited by Kevin; 22 August 2010, 03:48 AM.

                          Comment

                          • Paul_B
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jul 2006
                            • 608

                            #88
                            Ummm both please I can see situations where I just would use text as a label and other situations where I'd like to update the text i.e temperature, humidity, etc.

                            Paul

                            Comment

                            • Kevin
                              Moderator
                              • Jan 2004
                              • 558

                              #89
                              Originally posted by Paul_B View Post
                              Ummm both please I can see situations where I just would use text as a label and other situations where I'd like to update the text i.e temperature, humidity, etc.

                              Paul
                              Actually you would be able to update it in both situations - it's just how you would do it that differs. In the first scenario the text field would be linked to an existing xAPBSC.event message from a text device and if it changed value it would update the text. This is similar to how a button is linked currently. In the second you would send a xAPBSC.cmd message targeted at a Joggler endpoint (the named text field) and it would update.

                              K

                              Comment

                              • Kevin
                                Moderator
                                • Jan 2004
                                • 558

                                #90
                                Sorry folks but beta 5 is not yet ready - I had hoped to give you something to play with this bank holiday w/e but there are a lot of changes in this version. Barrels of midnight oil burned, we're well over 5000 lines of code now. Multiple contributors - much appreciated , and a pernicious iServer bug that Martyn identified has taken time to (hopefully) resolve.

                                I think you'll be really pleased with it when it arrives though as this is the first release that is pretty feature complete. You should be able to create some cracking screen designs.

                                Pretty tied up family wise this w/e but I'm hopeful we're nearly there...

                                K

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