launching external applications

[jtrue]

just got xlobby and i love the look and feel of it
however i am having some difficulty launching an external app
i was able to create a button on the menu screen and put the text on it simple enough but i havent been able to get it to launch the atimmc.exe which launches my ati tv app
ive been searching and readign i think ive read everything in here and i found something that said to go to the external app option in the skin editor but i dont have anything called that in the skin editor and i cant find anything to help me out
if anyone could shed some light i would be most greatful
thanks

[Hiller]

There is an event manager that is similar to girder in XLobby. I believe if you look under that and in the OS section you will find a way to launch an external app.

Steve

[jtrue]

thanks ill work on it
im new to xlobby so i apologize if i ask newbie questions im not a coder or programmer so some of this will be a bit foreign to me im quite capable of learning though and i usually read,read,read, but im nto finding much documentation on this
thanks again

[mattdisaster]

Welcome to the forum-
Don't worry about asking questions, thats what its here for! As for the lack of documentation, chalk that up to the major changes that have been coming up over the past few alphas. Expect some new documentations on skinning and event editor soon! Good luck!

-matt

[Hiller]

HA, you have to ask questions the way XLobby is right now. It's constantly changing for the better and as Matt said, there is no way to keep documentation up to date with all the changes that happen pretty much on a daily basis.

Feel free to ask anything you want here in for forums or hop on the IRC channel and ask there. There are many of us that are very willing to help out anyone new to this great piece of software.

Steve

[jtrue]

thanks for the encouragement i really like the look and feel of xlobby and i am very much looking forward to getting this going
what i am attempting to do is set up an htpc to watch tv,record much like a tivo stream to other locations on my network and supply music via the network
i read about an addin for the got tv plugin i would love to play with that if someone could provide it to me
any other helpful hints would e greatly appreciated
i would really like to have this setup so that basically instead of having a tv in the living room i have a complete entertainment system with the capabilities of web browsing and web based email,music,video,images and file access all the goodies without looking like a computer
thanks
again

[jtrue]

ok heres what ive done i created a new group called tv then added an event do i need to edit the xml for that and enter a command line to launch the exe file?
im not familiar with xml so this is a learning experience for me but what might the command look like
thanks

[Arthur]

Ok, let's start from the beginning (so other new users can do this as well)
- open xlobby
- use F2 key on your keyboard, a new window called "setup" is opend
- chosse "event manager" tab
- click on "add group", a new folder called "new group" will appear in the list. You can change the name of the folder by dubble clicking it (I have to do this a bit slower then normally), change the name to TV. You will use this folder to group all your commands related to your TV needs
- click on "add event", a "new event" will appear in your TV folder, you can rename this one as well, let's call it "open TV"
- In the right part of the window,underneath the "commands" tab there is a list of possible commands you could use. Opne the "os" subgroup
- choose "execute file", now you can use the browse button to locate the application which you want to execute.

The event has been programmed.

Now you have to make a button which triggers the event.
Add a button on any screen you like. (use pause button on keyboard)
Choose event tab
assign event, using "assign" button
lookup the eventy in the "TV" folder and assign it.

That's all.

Arthur

[jtrue]

thanks arthur i will give that a go in the morning when i can think lol
i may have been trying to make it a little more difficult then it actually is

thanks again

[jtrue]

that wasnt so hard i have a better understanding of how this works now and am actually making good progress thanks for the help

[Arthur]

You're welcome.

[Jmoney99]

Danke wel, Arthur. I was having the same problem as jtrue until I read your step-by-step post.

As with jtrue, I've started to be able to get more functionality out of Xlobby once I understood what you'd written. I think that this should be a sticky thread or added to the FAQ for us newbies out there who need the help.

Thanks once again,

Jeff
(Mijn Nederlans is neit goed, maar ik studer het.)

[tonihappy]

one question,
i have my PCTV vision app for viewing tv in xlobby loaded every time i click in the button tv in the main menu.But now i want to know how can i shutdown the app when i'm return to the main menu or shutdown xlobby.

[Arthur]

You should use a sendmessage command to the apllication window.
WM_close. When I get home I will look into it.
Arthur

[tonihappy]

ok it's close now Thanks Arthur!!
but now i have another problem with the navigation button and the send message triger with girder. all button works but the only one they don't work it's the ENTER navigation button.
i'm using the last alpha 40.1.
any idea??