Re: xAP Floorplan beta 4 released

["garygfx" <garygfx@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I had never really considered that the data
> would be html but rather small things like on/off/20%
Many Homeseer scripts use HTML so on the HS web page it shows
icons and chunks of text for weather & traffic reports etc.

> >Sometimes a red blob icon appears next to devices in the
> >floorplan.
> It is actually a very useful feature as can really
> trust what is displayed by knowing the data is live. but i'll add
> a off button for the feature.

Not sure that I fully understand. If a device hasn't been used for a
while (which seems to be the case) then xAP wouldn't broadcast its
status again until it's changed or Floorplan requests an update,
surely? I thought of a way to remove the red blob by changing the
gif to a much smaller subtle dot.

> >Finally, just an idea. It would be really cool if when turning
> >on/off a device the controls appeared on the same page as the
> >Floorplan. They could appear just under your mouse whenever you
> >click on a device (using a DHTML layer), or just above the floor
> >plan (which is what UltraJones did for his UltraLog Plan).
> >
> Absolutly, this will happen it is jsut finding a good cross
> browser way of doing it. If any one can suggest a simple way of
> doing it and keeping all the code in the same html file and not
> seperate .js files i'm all
> ears especially if it comes with code samples. Previous trys
> have either ended up in a solution for firefox/zilla/opera/safari
> but not IE or the
> other way round. I would prefer not to use frames though.

I've done a bit of DHTML and it's quite easy to code for
firefox1/opera7/IE6 but I've never tried to make it compatible with
the other browsers as well. The 3 I mentioned use a standard DOM
(yes, even IE!) and I'm impressed at how similar they behave. You
can count the % of people using the other browsers on one hand.
Well, that's an exaggeration, perhaps a fingernail!

If you don't want to use an external .js file then it's even more
important that you avoid extra code to handle functions for non-
compliant or older browsers. The big 3 can use exactly the same
functions to set and query layer properties.

The ideal interface would use an invisible iframe or frame to send
and receive data to/from your app without having to refresh the
visible page. Javascript in the invisible frame can dynamically
change the images on the plan while commands are sent to the
invisible frame then back to your app. This is quite an old
technique but someone coined it AJAX. Why do they have to give
everything a name?

Cheers,
Gary