xAP for Xlobby

[ptrinchi]

NEW on French Team Forum

xAP-Xlobby to send xAP order to HomeSeer (the plugin xap for homeseer must be installed)

http://france.xlobby.com/forum/ingalls/ ... ginxap.zip

This plugin allows 6 functions
- Cmd On -> to put ON every device (with param like location.device, Kitchen.light for example)
- Cmd Off -> to put OFF every device (same kind of param)
- Cmd Toggle -> to put ON if device is OFF and OFF if it's ON (same kind of param)
- HomeSeer Speak -> to make HomeSeer speaking (with the sentence to say in param)
- HomeSeer Event -> to launch HomeSeer event (with in param, the name of the event in homeseer)
- HomSeer Script -> to launch HomeSeer script (with in param, the name of the script in homeseer)

You can also visualize 3 informations,
- plugin>xap-xlobby>state>Room1.light to show the state of the device named light locate in room1.
- plugin>xap-xlobby>text>House.alarm to show text device
- plugin>xap-xlobby>image>Kitchen.light to show an image of the state of the device.

Becareful, images must be in the xap-xlobby directory of plugin.
They must named like location.device name.text.png
For example, Kitchen.light.on.png and Kitchen.light.off.png

How to make it work ?

1 - HomeSeer and Xlobby must be installed on the same computer.
The next version of the plug will allow HomeSeer on distant computer.

2 - You have to install HomeSeer plug http://www.mi4.biz/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=7

3 - Configure HomeSeer : In view-options-interfaces tab-
chose "select device to add" on "...custom interface" chose the plug xAP click OK. That all.

4 - You need a "xap hub" on your computer. It's an application that distribute xAP messages from a sender to all receiver on the same computer. This application named "xAP Hub GUI v1.2.1.5" http://www.xapframework.net/.

5 - Launch this application on startup, because she need to work before xap for xlobby plug and HomeSeer plug.

6 - Then install xlobby plug.

that all folks

[jowaldo]

I'm sure a lot of people will like this

[Hiller]

ptrinchi,

Thanks for this. I had started a plugin but I have found that life has gotten in the way and I don't really have time for coding. Looks like you are off to a great start and it already has more functionality than mine did. Great job and if I have time I'll give it a try this weekend.

Steve

[Heiko]

Thanks to the French Team - great job!

[CouchPotatoe]

Great stuff guys - well done - this is going to be really useful.

[a0192677]

Appreciate the team making this plugin.

Unfortunately I have not been able to get it to work.
In the event manager when I create a new command:

Plugin = xAP-Xlobby
Command = Cmd On
Variables = DiningRoom.DiningLight

When I hit the test button in the event manager, I get the following
error:
"The XaP message value is malformed"
" No part of the address value may contain space characters"

Any help is appreciated.

[a0192677]

Delete the prior message.
I do see the xAP messages going out via the xAP Message Viewer.

Does Homeseer and Xlobby need to be on the same maching?

[CouchPotatoe]

I was told before that this was an XLobby nuance - as you say once the event is used in the left hand event pane it all works correctly.
Yes, currently HS has to be on the same machine, I use mine on a different machine so I too have asked if it is possible to use a wildcard address for the time being.
There is a slight issue that the heartbeats and the xAP BSC command messages are currently originating from different xAP addresses too but that has no impact on the operation of the plugin which works well for me

[ptrinchi]

I'm happy to see that the plug is used by other people.

CouchPotatoe is right. Actually, HS has to be on the same computer as XLobby, but kevin (couchpotatoe ??) asked me, on the french forum, if I can make the modification on the address (replace machine with a wildcard).

I will do it on the next version (coming this week I hope).

I will also modify the plug to send heartbeats messages from the right origin.

See you soon...

[sdumas]

OK, here is a stupid question.

Do you need to have the complete Homeseer software installed or can you use just some of the dll's?

I only use the X10 command line program. I would love to get feedback (like; is the light on A1 on?) and it seems that only the new HomeSeer plugin does that. Can I get away only with some DLLs or do I need the whole program at $149 plus any other plugins required to get that simple feature?

Thanks!

[CouchPotatoe]

Hi Sylvain,

The initial XLobby xAP plugin is hard coded to send the command messages directly to HomeSeer - but it would be a very simple alteration to send it to the xAP X10 connector instead. This works directly with the xAP BSC schema and a CM12U or CM11 . The X10 connector is at Edwards site http://www.erspearson.com and was also written using the xFX Framework.

I think the author "PTricnchi" (I am sorry I don't know your name) had needs for interfacing with HomeSeer but the BSC schema is useful in all sorts of ways. Maybe in some later versions the target address will be configurable and then you can control any BSC xAP application you wanted including X10. I don't know how awkward this is to do with XLobby, adding extra parameters ?

Then there would be an X10 solution for free for you Sylvain, you wouldn't need to buy HomeSeer but it is very useful because it adds scripting capability which you will find useful to apply logic and sequencing. xAP Desktop also includes a xAP capable script engine and it is free http://www.mi4.biz but it may overlap a little in purpose with XLobby for you. It allows the display of xAP information graphically using 'widgets' that float over your desktop- even over the top of XLobby pages.

Actually there is probably one more way of achieving this (X10) already and for free. You can use xAP BSC Mapper which will connect one BSC device to another, rather like a matrix switch. It is available from http://www.ascentium.co.uk/xap/ . I will try and write up a few notes on how you might do this using XLobby and say the X10 connector. <EDIT> Sorry this will not work currently as the XLobby xAP plugin issues direct commands rather than reflecting the state of a button as a BSC output device. It would need to be able to send xAPBSC.event and xAPBSc.info messages which is not one of the initial currently supported schema types. Maybe later...

PTrinchi - are you hoping to continue to develop and add features to this plugin (I hope so), or was it made just for the purpose of interfacing with HomeSeer ? There are many things that would be nice here, particularly to display information in XLobby and I will gladly provide whatever help I can from the xAP side to make it work.

Kevin

[CouchPotatoe]

For those using HomeSeer and the xAP XLobby plugin I will release a xAP WinAMP conduit shortly that will allow you to setup a device in HomeSeer that will reflect the current track (and lots of other related information) that XLobby is playing.

[ptrinchi]

Hi all,

Kevin -> Of course, I 'll continue to develop and add features to the xAP for XLobby plugin. I became an XAP addict.

Sylvain -> The first think I'll make is to add a parameter for the destination address so you will be able to send the BSC messages to all applications you want on every computer you want (xAP X10 connector for example )

Then (because it’s a bit more difficult) I will include the XAP schema with the ability to reload it.

I will also add configuration to launch an XLobby event (the one you want) when a specific device changes.

Pierre Edwin (Ptrinchi)

[Aaron]

Pierre,
Can you make it so that an icon/image that displays the status of a light/device/etc can also be used as a button to turn it on/off/dim?

I'm trying to duplicate my web/ASP interface from within XLobby...

http://members.cox.net/alevey/ha/hact.htm

You'll see that I have a combination of icons used as buttons just for devies that turn on/off and also a series of icons that can set dim levels directly and also show the lighting level for that lamp. So for the lights, there are 11 individual buttons in an array that are used.

You can download the code to see what I'm doing if you want. Just click on any of the images and the ZIP will download.

Let me know what you think.

[ptrinchi]

Aaron, it's already done.

In Xl you add a text on your screen like
"plugin>xAP-Xlobby>image>livingroom.fan" (note, there's no blank in the name)
You put two pictures on the Xlobby/plugin/xap-xlobby directory,
livingroom.fan.off.png and livingroom.fan.on.png (without the blank too)
This will display picture state of your living room fan.

Then, you assign event to this picture (event tab). Two kinds of event can be used,
1 - Cmd.Toogle, if you click the picture it will change state to the opposite
2 - Homeseer event to launch a complexe event in HS that change the state of this device.

You must not assign event like Cmd.On or Cmd.Off because the action will always be the same and doesn't take care of the state of the device.