Premise PPC browser

[acalbear]

Using my blackberry bold to control lighting and other items within the house. I just noticed that a pump shows up using the normal premise browser interface but when using ppc browser the pump is absent.

Any ideas why this might be the case?

 

[chucklyons]

the PPC browser aka 'minibrowser' only renders certain types of devices, such as lights, thermo, etc. It doesnt render devices such as TV, Stereos, etc.

If your pump device isnt specified as one of the devices, it won't render, thus won't be visible.

 

[acalbear]

Thanks for the feedback.

the PPC browser aka 'minibrowser' only renders certain types of devices, such as lights, thermo, etc. It doesnt render devices such as TV, Stereos, etc.

If your pump device isnt specified as one of the devices, it won't render, thus won't be visible.

 

[chucklyons]

What is your pump and wht does it do? On? Off? Or something else?

 

[123]

acalbear,
I believe the XBrowser module supports handles Appliance objects like Pump. Rob Brun derived Xbrowser from MiniBrowser and enhanced it with new features. You can download it from the Modules section of the old Premise Support forum.

 

[chucklyons]

123 is absolutely right...the xbroswer supports Appliances (xbTogglePower) and Fans (xbTogglePower; xbSpeedUp;xbSpeedDown). It also supports weather, as well.

 

[kzboray]

Has anyone done any work on an Alarm panel for the xbrowser? I would love to add it to my server if someone is willing to share.

Thanks

Kaz

 

[acalbear]

Thanks guys. Not sure what xbrowser is but will do my diligence. The pump is really just a UPB appliance module controlling a water pump. I could just use a light icon but prefer the pump icon.

 

[chucklyons]

You would get the standard appliance interface by binding the Pump to the UPB module. XBrowser will render it as whatever you have defined 'pump', but will give you the control as an appliance 'on/off'. Its just a very simple on and off .gif.

I have been working on drilling down lower than the base class. The challenge has been that 'pump uses the appliance as its base, so the effect is the same as the appliaance. Tje fan module uses Schema/device/fan as its base. If I solve getting below that, then we could have specific images for specific device types i.e. pump.

btw, xbrowser_DSR_CL has the latest. New buttons are in the download section as well.

 

[123]

... I could just use a light icon but prefer the pump icon.

If you have a Pump object in Premise Home, XBrowser will render a Pump icon in the UI. The Pump's control will be a simple toggle button labeled "Power". The attached image was rendered using the original Xbrowser module.

 

[acalbear]

I loaded xbrowser and it didnt render well on my blackberry bold. The pump indeed showed up when using a computer browser using the xbrowser app. However when i used my bold some of the icons didnt show up and it was crunched together (not very descriptive i know). In the end it didnt render well on my bold so i am back to the PPC browser on my bold. That PPC application shows nicely on my bold, evenly spaced, etc. Only downside is that it doesnt show the pump so im back where i started.

Thanks again guys.

 

[123]

Well, that's odd. The Minibrowser module is what generates the PPC user-interface and Xbrowser is derived from Minibrowser.

Rather than try to debug Xbrowser, let's just enhance MiniBrowser and have it support Appliances.

1. Export the existing MiniBrowser module and keep it as a backup.
2. Extract the XDO file from the attached zip file.
3. Import the MiniBrowser_ApplianceEx.xdo file.

Your existing MiniBrowser module will now be enhanced and will handle Appliance objects like a Pumps, Coffeemakers, Fountains, etc.

 

[chucklyons]

123 - At first, I thought you had found the holy grail of the mini-browser adding the appliance module. What I was working on, and was trying to extend, was trying to have the xbappliance module do is: Instead of the 'static' graphics used by the base appliance class (PowerOn.gif/PowerOff.gif), I was going to try and go a level deeper..so that I could add custom graphics that would be more indicative of the type of appliance (i.e. pump, fountain, etc)..see attachments. My thought being, (and seems to being confirmed) is that the mini/xb browser would be best used by small in-wall touchscreens and/or smartPCs, so having something that is easier to see on a smaller display would be the goal.

I'm still working it, but have gotten distracted by rewriting some bad code that has just been released....

Oh and by the way...I too have encountered a similar odd problem that seemed to be a caching problem, but wasn't. It rendered oddly, then on the next try, it rendered fine....and this was from running it on the desktop vs the hand device....