How to read the log from within a script?

[Hunter Green]

Rover includes a page to display and clear the log that is trimmed down slightly for consumption on a slow connection, handheld, etc. Back in HomeSeer v1.x this was done with some hideously ugly kluges. To wit, I had HomeSeer ask itself for its own Log web page, then parsed out the bits I needed. (Since this happened server-side, it didn't cause slowdowns on slow connections.) The code looked like this:

  ' show the log, by asking HomeSeer to talk to itself, and then listening in on its conversation
  ' This is a hideous kluge!  But still kinda cute.
  if hs.Version > "1.6.110" then
      s = hs.GetURL("127.0.0.1","/elog",FALSE,hs.GetINISetting("Settings","svrport",80))
    else ' work around a syntax bug
      s = hs.GetURL("127.0.0.1:" & hs.GetINISetting("Settings","svrport",80),"/elog",FALSE,hs.GetINISetting("Settings","svrport",80))
    end if
  i = instr(lcase(s),"<pre>")
  if i <> 0 then s = mid(s,i) else s = "&lt;pre&gt;" & s
  i = instr(lcase(s),"&lt;/pre&gt;")
  if i <> 0 then s = left(s,i+5) else s = s & "&lt;/pre&gt;"
  response.write s

This is (thankfully, perhaps!) not working in HS2, but even if it did, parsing out the log from the /elog page would be a trial and a half.

But looking through the help file I can't see anything in the script interface that allows you to read the log. Is it in there and I can't find it? Please help. (If it isn't, can we please consider that for a future version?)

[Rupp]

Hunter,
The log is just a text file and can be parsed using the File System Object or the newer StreamReader Class in .net.

[Hunter Green]

That's what I was using in Rover v1 at first, but it seemed even more brittle and klugey than the GetURL approach.

[Rupp]

That's what I was using in Rover v1 at first, but it seemed even more brittle and klugey than the GetURL approach.

How in the world can a direct connection to a text file be "brittle and kludgey"? This method is being used in hundreds of thousand applications today.

[Hunter Green]

Because the location, filename, and internal format of the log can change from release to release, have changed in the past, and surely will change again. Half the point of an API is to protect scripts from such changes as much as is feasible. That's why we don't access any other part of HomeSeer's data directly, including devices, events, INI settings, etc. If it makes sense in the other 99% of HomeSeer, why not here, too?

In any case, Rover v2 is using this approach again, warts and all.

[Rupp]

Because the location, filename, and internal format of the log can change from release to release, have changed in the past, and surely will change again. Half the point of an API is to protect scripts from such changes as much as is feasible. That's why we don't access any other part of HomeSeer's data directly, including devices, events, INI settings, etc. If it makes sense in the other 99% of HomeSeer, why not here, too?

In any case, Rover v2 is using this approach again, warts and all.

Hunter the format of the log file has only changed once and that was when HS was rewritten? They do not change this on a delay to delivery bases. The log file name is available in the setting.ini file gLogName=HomeSeer.LOG and the location is in the HS root folder unless gLogDir=True then it's in the Logs folder.

[jon00]

I just did a quick test with this code for my set-up:

Sub main()
Dim s
s = hs.GetURL("http://127.0.0.1:8080","/elog",FALSE,80)
msgbox s
end sub 

It returned the page with no problems but full of HTML code as expected.

[Rupp]

Jon,
I believe Hunter reformats the data to make it more readable and that's where the problems arise.

[Hunter Green]

So the pre-1.6.110 bug in how port numbers is handled is back into GetURL? That's funny!

I'm using the INI settings Rupp pointed out to get to the file contents in beta 3. I doubt I'll go back to the GetURL approach since at least I'm protected against file name and location changing now.

[Hunter Green]

Actually, the bigger difference is that using the file shows what's in the file, and the GetURL approach shows what's in memory. You didn't realize those are different?

[Rupp]

So the pre-1.6.110 bug in how port numbers is handled is back into GetURL? That's funny!

Remember we're on .net now. A few things have been fixed since 1.6

[~Ghost~]

hey everyone i was if there is a way to read my log and if there is a warming or a error it would say something on the lines of Error then it would read the error?

~Ghost~

[Rupp]

Here's one way.
http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...405#post646405

[jon00]

Here's one way.
http://board.homeseer.com/showthread

I think you need to repost the link Rupp!

[Rupp]

Yes, I fixed the link. Thanks for the heads up.