hai interface options

[programmergeek]

I have a bunch of customers that are now using pc/iphone to control there HAI system through snaplink and wl3. Not with the ipad this is booming I am getting tons of calls. The issue I am having is HAI software is very static and just downright confusing when you put alot of buttons in it and stuff since there is now way to configure the screens or even order stuff. In order to do the level install I want to I guess I need some sort of software on top of it to interface with a pc or ipad. Basically i want to make user customisable screens to show the users what they want and to interface mainly with the HAI and maybe some other systems.

I was looking at homeseer but am a little confused and can't get anyone on the phone from the company. Also can't hold there phone system is just anoying. Anyhow what are my optios and who makes the best product?

 

[ano]

I have a bunch of customers that are now using pc/iphone to control there HAI system through snaplink and wl3. Not with the ipad this is booming I am getting tons of calls. The issue I am having is HAI software is very static and just downright confusing when you put alot of buttons in it and stuff since there is now way to configure the screens or even order stuff. In order to do the level install I want to I guess I need some sort of software on top of it to interface with a pc or ipad. Basically i want to make user customisable screens to show the users what they want and to interface mainly with the HAI and maybe some other systems.

I was looking at homeseer but am a little confused and can't get anyone on the phone from the company. Also can't hold there phone system is just anoying. Anyhow what are my optios and who makes the best product?

I might recommend CQC. It interfaces with HAI pretty well, and there is a limited RIVA client for iPhone and iPad that can do many creative display and control options. In its lightest version, its not as "heavy" and "bloated" as a HomeSeer implementation would be. (I have used both HomeSeer and CQC) There are probably other solutions as well, but it depends on how much customization you are looking for.

 

[JonW]

Are the Web-Link II files customizable to make your own web pages?

 

[ano]

Are the Web-Link II files customizable to make your own web pages?

No, your pretty much stuck with them as they exist, but there are different ones for different devices, and one for Internet Explorer, and another one that doesn't look as nice for other browsers.

 

[jharrell]

Are the Web-Link II files customizable to make your own web pages?

No, your pretty much stuck with them as they exist, but there are different ones for different devices, and one for Internet Explorer, and another one that doesn't look as nice for other browsers.

Actually you can customize them, I have, since they are just Classic ASP pages in a folder, but they weren't intended to be changed by the end user.

 

[JonW]

Are the Web-Link II files customizable to make your own web pages?

No, your pretty much stuck with them as they exist, but there are different ones for different devices, and one for Internet Explorer, and another one that doesn't look as nice for other browsers.

Actually you can customize them, I have, since they are just Classic ASP pages in a folder, but they weren't intended to be changed by the end user.

That's good news! Do you know if this holds true for WL3 as well? (Is it ASPX style?). Is there any documentation for the web objects that they use in the pages? Is it possible to create pages using objects for individual units, flags, thermostats, etc. instead of having to show the full collection of objects?

 

[jharrell]

That's good news! Do you know if this holds true for WL3 as well? (Is it ASPX style?). Is there any documentation for the web objects that they use in the pages? Is it possible to create pages using objects for individual units, flags, thermostats, etc. instead of having to show the full collection of objects?

WL3 looks architecturally identical to Web-Link 2, it's basically a classic ASP(not ASPX) where the pages all use a single com object that communicates with the windows service that then sends commands to the panel(this service also responds to changes and send emails etc.)

The pages are all actually generated using xsl transforms from xml data, this is how they do different skins, there is a folder for each type of skin that has all the xsl files for each page. So to make changes to the look of pages you have to know XSL and edit those pages for a particular browser type. If you want to add new features you may be able to get away with just editing the xsl but you may need to edit their server side scripts(which are mostly jscript) that spit out the XML the XSL uses.

I actually hacked up a new skin for the iPhone and made the browser detection use it instead of the default unsupported browser mode before they came out with the official iPhone skin.

So it can be done, but it isn't pretty, and any update they add may break what you change.

It would probably be easier to just develop your own pages in ASP.Net using their .Net SDK, then you could do what you want and it would be completely separate from web-link. I started prototyping some pages for the iPhone/iPad in ASP.net using the web kit extensions with the HAI .Net SDK and was amazed how much like a native app you could make a web app look but then write all the app logic in .Net on the server instead of coding a native app in objective-c.

Here is a screen shot of my prototype as an example:

 

[programmergeek]

Great job jharrel. I will have to look at it. To bad HAI doesn't make it easy. Basically I woud love to have a ipad home screen displaying the outside temp house temp forcast and alarm status with some buttons. Most large HAI installs I have done people are getting frustrated with the lack of ability to turn on lights easy from the interface they basically want a screen for each room. I will try to look into the server language but may be just to much trouble for the amount of systems we ahve out there and got forbid HAI did a patch and all the systems went down at once I woud be overwhelmed.