Premise Premise Home Automation User Interface (PremiseHUI)

I've got a very, very, very early prototype UI, but I'm getting errors trying to upload it. PM me and I'll send you the zip. It's not very pretty yet because there are some bugs in the framework I'm using (text centering, vertical orientation of labels,etc.). The Location canvas is a place-holder until I can get an "itunes-like" coverflow control in there. Only Dimmers and Relay Lights work at this point. There are some pretty hairy IIS-related installation instructions included in the zip file that worked for me, but your results will vary. :blink: There is no error checking being done at this point...

I'm putting this out to exercise the plumbing on multiple environments and get feedback on the UI model I'm using (very similar to media center).

As for the overall installation process:

1. Grab the xdo from the zip file and import it into Premise.
2. Go under custom devices and create a new PremiseUI device
3. Under the Home menu, every "location" object will have a new property called "ShownInUI". Click that property to allow that particular location to be show in the Locations navigation bar. I'm experimenting with getting away from a heirarchical UI model like Automation Browser, and make it flat. My thought is that an end-user wants to quickly go to the "Family Room" and would rather just scroll and click to that room versus navigating from Home to House to First Floor to Famly Room.
3. Make sure you have a TWCi Weather instance running on your Premise server. PremiseHUI will fail without it.
4. Follow the instructions in the zip file VERY CAREFULLY to load up the website and configure IIS
5. Once everything is loaded, you should be able to go to http://<yourservername>/PremiseHUI/PremiseHUIMain.swgx and see the bare canvas show up. The navigation buttons on the bottom take you to Weather and Location views.

I'll set up another thread in the main forum to get feedback.

Thanks,

-John

The download subforum is no longer 'functional', please use the new Downloads manager to upload any Premise related files.

Dan (electron) said:

The download subforum is no longer 'functional', please use the new Downloads manager to upload any Premise related files.

Click to expand...

Hi Dan,

I did try to upload into the new "Downloads" section. I got a non-specific "An error occurred" message when attempting to upload. The zip file was 4.7 Meg, and I noticed the size limit was 4.88 Meg. Seems like it isn't a size limitation, but the error code didn't give any clues as to the problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

-John

I made some changes, let me know if that did the trick.

John in VA said:

... I'm experimenting with getting away from a heirarchical UI model like Automation Browser, and make it flat. My thought is that an end-user wants to quickly go to the "Family Room" and would rather just scroll and click to that room versus navigating from Home to House to First Floor to Famly Room....

Click to expand...

Sounds like a good approach. Whereas a multi-room mega-house, like the Large Home Model, may benefit from a hierarchical navigation model, my modest home is better served by a flat list.

PS
I don't mean to be a nitpicker but I hope the final product's name doesn't include the word "hooey" (HUI). :blink:

John in VA said:

There are some pretty hairy IIS-related installation instructions included in the zip file that worked for me, but your results will vary. :blink: There is no error checking being done at this point...

Click to expand...

I would like to try this but I will have to try and use Cassini as I am running XP home for my Premise server. It might take me awhile to figure out the setup.

123 said:

John in VA said:

... I'm experimenting with getting away from a heirarchical UI model like Automation Browser, and make it flat. My thought is that an end-user wants to quickly go to the "Family Room" and would rather just scroll and click to that room versus navigating from Home to House to First Floor to Famly Room....

Click to expand...

Sounds like a good approach. Whereas a multi-room mega-house, like the Large Home Model, may benefit from a hierarchical navigation model, my modest home is better served by a flat list.

PS
I don't mean to be a nitpicker but I hope the final product's name doesn't include the word "hooey" (HUI).

Click to expand...

You were the first to pick up on my sense of humor. Years from now when the industry starts referring to these things as HUIs, you can say you were part of it when it began.

I'm out of town for a few days. I'll try to post it again when I get back.

Dan (electron) said:

I made some changes, let me know if that did the trick.

Click to expand...

Dan,

I'm getting the same error. The zip file is 4.77MBytes.

Thanks,

-John

Would it be possible to provide me a screenshot of the error? It will help figuring out the issue (context). 123 has been uploading many files the last few days, so I am not sure where the problem lies.

Dan (electron) said:

Would it be possible to provide me a screenshot of the error? It will help figuring out the issue (context). 123 has been uploading many files the last few days, so I am not sure where the problem lies.

Click to expand...

I've uploaded stuff as well and it's worked before. Here's the screenshot.

-John

John in VA said:

1. Grab the xdo from the zip file and import it into Premise.
2. Go under custom devices and create a new PremiseUI device

Thanks,

-John

Click to expand...

Where do I create the Custom device from? If I try from Devices menu, all I get is the AV models. What type of device model am I supposed to create.

I am not sure if this will work for me, I am testing on MCE 2005 and added IIS 5.1, it is a scaled down version from what the servers operating systems have.
My Premise server is a low power Via 1ghz running on XP Home and I don't believe it has IIS as an option and I didn't get anywhere with cassini.

Thanks Wayne

Wayne,

Unfortunatley, you need some sort of ASP.NET environment to "host" the application. Cassini theoretically provides that. Any chance you can get IIS 6.0 on the box?

Once you import the module, you should be able to go under Custom Devices, do a right-click, New, and see a HUI Root entry. Click on that.

-John

Thanks, I will see what I can do as far as IIS 6.0. When I tried Cassini I got port unavailable with any port I tried, this was before I installed IIS on the PC.

Thanks for the help.

Waynedb said:

Thanks, I will see what I can do as far as IIS 6.0. When I tried Cassini I got port unavailable with any port I tried, this was before I installed IIS on the PC.

Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

Make sure the Windows firewall is either disabled or allows the port you want to go through.

I thought I disabled the Windows firewall, I wil make sure next time i try it. I also found it is not possible to get IIS 6.0 for XP so I guess I am stuck with 5.1 for now. I am thinking about getting 2003 Server and an Atom N270 based motherboard to play around with. I spent my January project money for this month so it will have to wait untill February before I do anything.
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I have been reading that the Windows Home Server version of IIS is exactly the same as The 2003 Server version has, that should make this a much cheaper experiment. I really didn't want to pay what Windows Server 2003 costs for an operating system anyway.