RE: Re: Newbie Question

[Nigel Giddings]

Stuart and Kevin,

Thanks for holding my hand through this. I see myself as a sophisticated
user, rather than a programmer, so I'm sure this will seem like pulling
teeth. I get the impression that everyone involved in xAP up until know
has been experts in programming.

I can understand why you might like the control of being able to
manually install apps on a machine, however, I do prefer packages,
especially when it creates folders of standard names. I used xap/xap xxx
as a directory structure in the program files and the other app
installed as (xapframework or similar) small point but means I will have
an untidy folder eventually. Being able to use the windows uninstaller
is also a benefit. I had thought this would be more work for you but it
does make it 'user friendly'.

xAP send would definitely benefit from a user guide. Can I ask that you
make it for basic users. In your description you describe how send but
not the actual mechanics (I talking step by step here). I will try later
but do not use the command interface that often. Some of your potential
users may never have used it before...

I will play with the Homeseer / Send integration and let you know.

My install at the moment is Homeseer operating X10 and VIOM. I collect
1-wire temperature, again via Homeseer and Temp-05. I use an MV1000
providing ip Cameras. Monitor status via a Homeseer intranet page. I
have a TiVo with Turbonet which I will work on the OSD via xAP. I was
also looking at a BT CD50 for CLI being adapted for serial i/f (would
love a Meteor but can't bring myself to spend £80 on one). I also have
C-Bus.

Another suggestion.

Would this type of correspondence be better handled in a forum rather
than e-mail list. I see a number of phpNuke sites but no forums area...

Thanks for your support

Nigel

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Booth [mailto:<a
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Sent: 20 May 2004 22:38
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Subject: Re: [xap_automation] Re: Newbie Question

On Thu, 20 May 2004 11:48:18 -0000, "nigelgiddings"
<<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=E_AORE6xHfSJhg11RBj2j9aujBZZlGGfID07gM6cm7UhBhlgzvCc2e-Oj7KuScAbO_5hJZDe7K7_-t_6j6Hk82gQTOxNWBY">nigel.giddings@u...</a>>
wrote:


I actually find the ability to just unzip an application quite
refreshing! Everything's under your own control although you do need
to create the program group I guess.

Do you think you'd prefer to see these wrapped in an installer? This
gives the advantage of setting up the install folder and program
group, but means yet another entry in the Add/Remove programs list
(which I already find filled with junk on my own system). It's maybe a
touch easier to update with newer builds if you just overwrite the
older location too.

It's a little more work at my end to update the installers as I
haven't really got that terribly neatly automated on my development
system. Gathering together a set of files in a simple ZIP file is
easier.

>I also downloaded and installed xAP Send. Nice to install as its
>packaged... However, with no operational documentation I cannot work
>out how to use it...

The only things I've so far setup with a proper installer are those
apps that really need it; ie the Windows Service flavours of various
apps since they absolutely need the installer to add the service to
the system (unless you fancy a bit of command line fiddling to do it
manually), and Send (because it benefits from file extension
association).

If you have a look in the Sample Messages folder where you installed
Send you'll find a pile of .xap files. These are sample xAP messages
in plain text files to give an example of what they look like. And
they can be useful in steering certain xAPplications if you have them
running.

You can either 2x click the .xap files to fire them off, or invoke
Send from a command line and pass it the path and filename of the file
you wish to transmit. It's an easy way of sending xAP messages without
writing any code at this stage, since it's easy to write a text file
and fire it off in various ways.

Documentation for Send ... yes, I can add a page similar to Hub and
Viewer and include that with the installation. If you happen to use it
as a command line call from an application such as HomeSeer, do let me
know how you do it. I don't have HS but I'd add some details on this
to the documentation if you can provide some details?

>I then installed xAP eMail Monitor (Console) and again I am lost... I
>managed to send one of the 'Pre-Set' messages which showed up in xAP
>Message Viewer and xAP Hub for a short time, which appears correct...

Okay, this one is way overdue on my ToDo list. At the moment this is
an old, old app that is only available as Console mode and Windows
Service flavours. I've yet to build a GUI interface to customise it
specially for the GUI flavour. Oops. James has been nudging me to do
that for a while. I'll see what I can do v.soon.

As a result of not updating it I haven't yet written any documentation
for this one, but if you use Wordpad to open up the .exe.config file
beside the main application EXE you'll find some details on how to
configure it. It's all near the end as I recall.

Do shout up here for some specifics if needs be.

Once you have that configured you can use the exact same file with the
Windows Service version if you wished.

You should now see email message notifications appearing on xAP Viewer
when it spots them.

>Now its just a case of finding an app that will add value to my
>install...

You want xAP Desktop next I think... ;)

S
--
Stuart Booth <<a
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