Native Android control client

[HTLuke]

Not yet, I've started to get distracted with non-Andre related obligations so I'm feverishly trying to get to a point where the docs/examples and app are in decent shape, and I want to spend some time considering how the infrastructure for system-driven triggers would best be implemented, instead of doing a one-off for WiFi and then having to go back to clean it up. I also want to dig up at least one old access point that I can set up as a test bed, vary the signal strength etc. so I can really exercise the capability and make sure it handles a fluctuating signal well enough.

My guess is one of these nights in the nearish future (couple of weeks) I'll get really sick of documentation and packaging features and want to do something fun, and WiFi proximity is a likely candidate.

[ewingr]

[B][SIZE="4"]...Second, I am changing <Buttons> to <Entities> for cosmetic reasons, since I've been growing the number of different types of things other than <Button> that can be included on pages....

Does this mean we will need to change the syntax on all of our existing buttons?

[rkirmeier]

Yes, takes 2 seconds using search/replace...

[HTLuke]

<Button> isn't changing, just the enclosing <Buttons> tag. Right now it is something like:

<Pages>
   <Page xxx>
      <Buttons>
         <Button id="xxx">
         <Button id="yyy">
         <ButtonGroup id="bbb">
         <Browser id="ccc">
      </Buttons>
   <Page>
</Pages>

Instead of <Buttons> that enclosing tag will be <Entities> That's all.

However the locale change, if you use Locale other than "default" right now, would require you to add a locale="localeId" to each Parameter that currently exists nested inside a <Locale id=""> tag that isn't "default". And you'll have to remove the existing <Locale id=""> wrapping tags from each set of Parameters.

There will likely be one or two other similar format changes, but nothing catastrophic.

[ewingr]

Cool. Then rkirmeir is correct, a quick S&R will cover that.

You are getting a lot done in a short time. Hope you survive this (smile).

[rkirmeier]

Do you expect the locale change to speed up a lot? Hoping so.... : )

<Button> isn't changing, just the enclosing <Buttons> tag. Right now it is something like:

<Pages>
   <Page xxx>
      <Buttons>
         <Button id="xxx">
         <Button id="yyy">
         <ButtonGroup id="bbb">
         <Browser id="ccc">
      </Buttons>
   <Page>
</Pages>

Instead of <Buttons> that enclosing tag will be <Entities> That's all.

However the locale change, if you use Locale other than "default" right now, would require you to add a locale="localeId" to each Parameter that currently exists nested inside a <Locale id=""> tag that isn't "default". And you'll have to remove the existing <Locale id=""> wrapping tags from each set of Parameters.

There will likely be one or two other similar format changes, but nothing catastrophic.

[rkirmeier]

Dup post...

[HTLuke]

Do you expect the locale change to speed up a lot? Hoping so.... : )

This change itself won't improve any speed, but it does give me a few new options to persue in regard to speeding things up. Mostly though this is just a syntax change because it makes sense, and if you had a lot of buttons and didn't need locale (or even if you did) you'd have all these extra lines and text in the config file. With the new method, not only are the two (or more if you have more than the default Locale) enclosing tag lines gone, but if you're defining something for the default locale, it's implied so you don't need any extra text at all.

I do want to go try a few things soon to see how much I can improve locale changes, but the ideas I have right now would probably be incremental speed-ups and nothing massive. Maybe collectively they'll be enough though.

[ewingr]

If I want to display a message, do I need to use Java script?

I'm interested in displaying a message a couple different ways: one would be where I click OK to dismiss, another for a period of time.

[ewingr]

Network issue in Andre
I find that sometimes, particularly when I have had the Tablet shutdown overnight, that when I launch Andre and try to use the WOL, it doesn't work. If I click one of the other buttons a couple times (doesn't happen when clicking the WOL button for some reason], I get a 'No Connection...check network' error. But the tablet is on the network and working fine.

Thanks for pointing this out, part of it is a flaw with the WOL implementation since I kinda tossed it in there quickly. Buttons which trigger web service communication calls ("serviceParams" Parameters) go through a fairly complex test to check if the device has a net connection and whether or not it can actually communicate with the server, and it tries to rectify this situation with retries and requests to the OS to reconnect the WiFi. When this happens, you see the No Connection warning. WOL doesn't go through this which means it probably is trying once to send the packet and fails silently. I will add replicating the improved logic to the WOL stuff to my list of to-dos.

There also may be some quirkiness still around various devices/OS versions different implementation of WiFi sleep policies. I noticed several custom ROMs behave very oddly and don't reliably re-enable WiFi all the way once the sleep policy has kicked in. I'm still looking at how best to bullet-proof this. There is a checkbox in the settings which turns on an 'aggressive' restart of WiFi, which basically, if critical comm failure happens, turns off all WiFi and re-enables it. But this is experimental, and I've not tweaked it in awhile so it may be more problematic than good.

BTW I'm replying to this somewhat as I read them and I know rkirmeier and perhaps others are responding so I may be saying stuff that people have already answered further down the thread; if so, ignore my reply and accept my appologies for being so far behind.

FYI>..I still find that the WOL is not working if Andre has been unloaded after the PC was put to sleep.

In working around the WOL issue, I have an app that will create a widget which I can call with a widget container. Now I would like to call that from another button and not having luck. Here is the code for the widget button, which is working when I directly push it:

<ButtonGroup id="btngrp_wolwidget"  margins="20,235,0,0">
	<Button id="btn_wid_wol">
		<Locale id="default">
			<Parameter name="imageUrl">/buttons/blue.png</Parameter>
			<Parameter name="buttonTintColor" action="touch">FFa09d9d</Parameter>
			<Parameter name="buttonTintColor" action="display,release">FFFFFFFF</Parameter>
			<Parameter name="inactiveElement">true</Parameter>
		</Locale>
	</Button>
	<WidgetContainer id="wid_WOL" alignParentCenter="true" width="140" height="70"/>
</ButtonGroup>

And here is the code I am trying to call it with from another button:

<Button id="btn_UpstairsMacro" alighRightOf="btn_wid_wol" margins="170,235,0,0">

	<Locale id="default">
		<Parameter name="imageUrl">/buttons/Blue.png</Parameter>
		<Parameter name="buttonLabel">Music Upstairs</Parameter>
		<Parameter name="triggerButton">pg_HTPC|btn_wid_wol|touch</Parameter>
		<Parameter name="startTimer">MusicUpTimer</Parameter>
	</Locale>
</Button>

Any thoughts?