Sample Plugin

[Guahtdim]

Why is the sample an exe-file? Should it not be example code?

[rjh]

I update the initial post on this forum to the latest sample plugin source. The zip contains source for 3 plugins. One shows an easy way to configure triggers and actions and a third shows how to create a multi instance plugin.

[Guahtdim]

Thanks. Learning code from exe-files is hard ;-)

[Krumpy]

rjh

Are there any walk-throughs or samples of a Linux based plugin? My main question is relating to compiling it for mono and respective best practices/tips.

Thanks!

[rjh]

You build the plugin on Windows and just copy over the EXE. Most of the time it just works as MONO is pretty complete. The MONO project page outlines interfaces that are not compatible with Linux. The obvious ones are anything PC specific or any code that references dll's directly.

Our Z-Wave plugin is a huge plugin and the same EXE runs on both.

Some points below (I will move this to a sticky post later).

The code itself checks if its on Linux at startup with:

If hs.GetOSType = eOSType.linux Then
                IsLinux = True
                IsWindows = False
                Console.WriteLine("Z-Wave Plugin: " & "OS Type is Linux")
            Else
                IsLinux = False
                IsWindows = True
                Console.WriteLine("Z-Wave Plugin: " & "OS Type is Windows")
            End If

If you reference file paths, you can use "/" everywhere and that works on on both Windows or Linux, or you can fix your paths as needed with:

Friend Function FixPath(ByVal fpath As String) As String
        If IsLinux Then
            Return fpath.Replace("\", "/")
        Else
            Return fpath
        End If
    End Function

For vb.net MONO does not have the "Err" class so just wrap so the code does not care:

Public Function Erl() As Integer
        Return 0
    End Function

    Public Class Err
        Public Shared Number As Integer = 0
        Public Shared Erl As Integer = 0
        Public Shared Description As String = ""
        Public Shared Sub Clear()
        End Sub
    End Class

Also, MONO does not have the "Application" class, so we wrap that also:

Class Application
        Shared Sub DoEvents()
            Threading.Thread.Sleep(10)
            'If IsWindows Then
            'System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()
            'End If
        End Sub

        Shared Function ProductVersion() As String
            Return My.Application.Info.Version.ToString
        End Function
    End Class

rjh

Are there any walk-throughs or samples of a Linux based plugin? My main question is relating to compiling it for mono and respective best practices/tips.

Thanks!

[Krumpy]

Wow - cool - Thanks! Appreciate the quick response.

[Krumpy]

Are the steps the same for RPI based Linux? How would one compile for RPI? From a code perspective what you provided earlier still applies, but the source needs to be compiled. I’ve done some research, but in case there are some differences in regards to HomeSeer, would appreciate some guidance in how to compile plugin for usage on RPI based hardware.

second, if the plugin runs remotely on a Pi connected to a Windows based HS installation, does anything special need to be done with In terms of HS licensing? Doubt ful Hs but what about plugin license?

thx!1

[rmasonjr]

There is no difference in the actual .exe file for windows or linux - they are the same. Inside the code itself, you just use the FixPath function above when referencing physical files.

[rjh]

As rmasonjr mentioned the same EXE you build on Windows will run on Linux. You may have to build it with the "Any Cpu" setting. So no compiling on Linux, just copy over the EXE.

Use "Console.WriteLine("")" to print out any debug messages if you need to debug on Linux, there isn't any debugger that works well there.

Make sure you Try/Catch everything and log any errors with Console.Writeline so you can see any errors.

As for licensing, there are some issues there as HS needs to see the EXE file and it will not see it on a remote system. So the user will need to install it on Windows, license it, then they can run it remotely. At some point we need to address remote plugin licensing.

Are the steps the same for RPI based Linux? How would one compile for RPI? From a code perspective what you provided earlier still applies, but the source needs to be compiled. I’ve done some research, but in case there are some differences in regards to HomeSeer, would appreciate some guidance in how to compile plugin for usage on RPI based hardware.

second, if the plugin runs remotely on a Pi connected to a Windows based HS installation, does anything special need to be done with In terms of HS licensing? Doubt ful Hs but what about plugin license?

thx!1

[Krumpy]

Thanks - Happy thanksgiving