Starting external application when xlobby starts

[Marbles_00]

Is there a way of launching an external program when Xlobby starts up, much like how Winamp starts. I am using GB-PVR for TV recording and would like it to start up when I load xlobby, but I'm not sure how to do it.

I'm also using Samurize for a weather application on the main page and would like that to start automatically too. Current I have a command to execute it when going from another screen back to the main menu screen.

Thanks in advance for your response.

[dgemily]

create an event "os:execute file" pointing to your exe, and place this event in the eventgroups "startup" of your skin

later

[Marbles_00]

Setting up an event under the startup group is easy enough, but I thought it was dedicated to starting audio as under the default skin is the group "at startup toggle" and under that the command "album play". Now in adding the events to startup the programs I want, in that startup group, the programs still do not fire up when Xlobby starts. What else is required to start up external software?

[Colby]

Or maybe you could add a page event to the splash screen. Just a thought.

[Marbles_00]

hmmm....how do you add events to the splash screen? I thought that it was not editable except for when selecting your own backdrop? What would the xml file look like for a page event? I've looked at a bunch of others and the most I've seen are eventbutton calls, that are user interactive.

Maybe Steve could add a feature to make this easier into a furture release?

[Marbles_00]

I think I figured it out. Under the group "Startup", I created an event called "Startup". I used OS commands to execute the software I wanted. Then in the menu.xml file I added the following line:
<enterevent>startup:startup</enterevent> before the first event button. This starts the programs. The only problem now is regaining the focus from GB-PVR to Xlobby, which hopefully is down to timing, and can be cancelled by waiting then sending the sendfocus command.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Oh, I tried to start GB-PVR earlier by breaking the startup event into two categories, and adding an enterevent line into the splash.xml file, but when starting up xlobby, I get a major crash. I don't think it can be done that way.

[Marbles_00]

Just an update for anyone else who wants to try this.

I'm still experiencing focus issues with Xlobby and GB-PVR only if I'm not utilizing the main menu as GB-PVR is loading.

I found out that everytime I go to a different screen and back to the main menu, a new GB-PVR would load up (putting a stain on the system when 2 or 3 GB-PVR windows start). To stop this I added a kill process to GB-PVR when exiting the menu screen.

The way to fix the multiple startup of applications and it may help with the focus issue is to be able to have a start event in the splash screen, but when trying it, I'm getting a major Xlobby crash.

Steve, is it, or will it be possible to add the capabilites to enter and exit events from the splash screen in a future version of Xlobby?

[Marbles_00]

With help from badubo....lot's of help, he indicated a better way of doing it throught events/triggers, now it works like a charm and GB-PVR is only activated on startup.

Wanted to say thanks to all for your support.

[Roscoe62]

Any chance of Badubo documenting what was done to get this working here? This is definitely something I'd like to do too. (Again with GB-PVR)

[Marbles_00]

Roscoe,

Check out the link below:
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3450

That's where badubo explained to me how to do it.

My events/startup group has the following:
startup event
os execute GBPVR
os execute Samurize (for weather as I've had continuous problems with the weather plugins)
wait for 20 seconds (for GBPVR and Samurize to load)
os execute sendfocus.exe to xlobby

I wait for 20 seconds because I'm currently testing my setup on a PIII 733. A more powerful system would lessen the load time, so the wait could be less.

The sendfocus.exe is used because when GBPVR loads, it takes over focus, which you want to regain for remaining in xlobby.

I've also set up a button on the main page with the following event:
to PVR
os execute sendfocus.exe to GB-PVR

This will place GB-PVR as the main window when entered.

To regain focus to xlobby from GB-PVR I've added a custom task. This can be done from GB-PVR's config screen under the plugin tab. Again I run the sendfocus.exe and xlobby as the argument.

If I recall right, when utilizing a custom command, you close the config panel and reopen to the plugin tab, and check off the extra box under Menu and Plugin. This automatically sets up a button on the main menu for the custom task. Then I added a task.png to the skin/custom folder.

Hope this was helpful.

Marbles