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    Xap & Slimserver

    barry Gordon

    Can you tell me more about the slimserver interface and where I can get it from.

    I want to display Temperatures and messages on my slimp3 players.
    Will it do that.

    Has anyonr else managed to do this.

    Thanks
    <!-- / message -->

    #2
    There is an existing xAP plugin for SlimServer (v6) which is downloadable from the Slim Devices site. Currently it does not work on SlimServer v7 but watch this space.

    It supports the display of any xAP OSD display message on Slim Players . Just originate a xAP OSD message with the address(s) of the players you want to display it on , and the duration and it will do it. It also allows full control of the Slim Player and realtime event reporting of 'now playing' information.

    Alternatively there are several Slim OSD plugins that offer varieties of preset OSD information - including this one that does weather, stocks, sports etc with nice graphics

    http://gregbrown.net/squeeze/superdatetime.htm

    Kevin

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks Kevin

      I will have a look at those.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by CouchPotatoe View Post
        There is an existing xAP plugin for SlimServer (v6) which is downloadable from the Slim Devices site. Currently it does not work on SlimServer v7 but watch this space.
        Any news on a version for SlimServer 7 yet ??
        I waited four months before asking

        Comment


          #5
          The v7 plugin is in its second (final?) beta release and I believe will appear in a release version literally any day now. I am not sure if Edward (author) is seeking any more beta testers but drop him a line and he may be able to send you the current beta.

          Cheers Kevin

          http://www.edjo.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/edward/xAP/
          I hope there's an email address on his site - if not a post to the xAP Yahoo group will raise him :-)
          http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xap_automation/

          Comment


            #6
            Thanks for that.
            No sign of an email address on his web site and I hate yahoo groups so I won't sign up for it

            So if it's a few days away, I can wait - no rush as such.

            Comment


              #7
              Hi Ritchie,

              the code for the xAP Plugin for SlimCenter is done, I've just not got round to doing the web page and instructions. I'll email you a copy. And anybody else that's interested.

              Edward
              ersp -- design, London

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by CouchPotatoe View Post
                The v7 plugin is in its second (final?) beta release and I believe will appear in a release version literally any day now. I am not sure if Edward (author) is seeking any more beta testers but drop him a line and he may be able to send you the current beta.
                Kevin
                Ed has been very good in helping me and I have the Slimserver v7 running and not causing any issues so that's a good start.

                I have the HS plugin running, and that is where I now come to a fullstop, as there is no documentation that I can find, so I now need help there

                I also have an error on the xAP/HS page that only happens when I access the interface from a remote machine, on the host server it is OK, I am unsure whether that will be me or the interface.
                I have hunted in all the nooks and crannies on the web looking for some clue as to what I do with the HS plugin, to no avail help please

                Thanks

                Comment


                  #9
                  Hi,

                  Well having the SlimServer xAP plugin up and running is a good start .. now to the HomeSeer side.

                  There are at least 5 different xAP plugins for HomeSeer - can you confirm which one . and version number you are running and in which version of HomeSeer.

                  I personally use the mcs .Net one but I know most new users favour the mcs 'hybrid' one as it seems to correct a slight network issue that some (and only some) .Net users have encountered. mcs has a sub forum within this HomeSeer forum.

                  There is also the mi4 plugin written by James. This is much older than the msc ones and not being actively developed in terms of new features but works well for existing users. It has a more graphic web front end than the mcs one but overall the featureset of the mcs one is edging ahead of the mi4 one, and hence by recommendation above.. I know documentation is sparse in the mi4 one but it's fairly intuitive due to the web interface.

                  I will load up the SlimCentre 7 with plugin, I know E has added a lot of BSC support to this but TBH due to my move to Sonos I haven't extensively looked at it. But I can. Adding devices that use this BSC schema to HomeSeer is much easier than supporting other schema and those parts will be first for our task ahead. I know he also uses the xap audio device schema which is significantrly more capable and appropriate for media players but within HomeSeer that will be more involved.

                  If you can provide more info on your setup, the existing problem and something I can do to replicate that , perhaps with any relevant xAP messages that cause particular issues then I will do my best. Or we can involve the author of the appropriate plugin as well.



                  Cheers Kevin

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Thanks for your quick reply.
                    I think I can simplify things firstly, as it would seem by what you say, I have a very old plugin for HS, I have HomeSeer 2 plugin 2 beta 2 from Mi4, James.
                    So if I go for the mcs version I will be closer to the current setup that you or most others have. I see some mcs options in the HS updater, but none that would seem to support xAP.
                    If you could point me in the direction of that, then I will see how far I can get before calling for help again.
                    The SlimServer side of things was easy and I can see all of the messages flying out from it by using Eds message monitor.
                    I have actually been able to send a message back and get the display to show a couple of lines of text

                    Thanks

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I edited my response above, possibly after you first read it so do read it over once more in case there's anything you missed.

                      The mcs xAP plugin can be found within the mcs sub forum of this board - and I recommend the 'hybrid' version. mcs has a prolific number of xAP applications as well as his HS plugins. He also has a fairly good technical document about xAP.

                      http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=730

                      However whilst I am familiar with how the mcs xAP plugin supports xAP BSC schema devices (Basic Status and Control) I am not so sure on its capabilities for other schema eg xap-audio. I also need to refresh myself re just what functionality within E's SlimServer xAP conduit is accesible using the BSC schema. As I mentioned the approriate schema for something like SqueezeCentre is the xap-audio schema as it is architected for exactly that purpose and that is the primary schema E has implemented.

                      Perhaps you could outline for me just what features you would hope to display or control within HS.

                      Let me get upto speed on both and we'll take it from there...

                      K

                      Comment


                        #12
                        OK - I'm back.. using SqueezeCentre 7.2 release version with the v7 xAP plugin and the HomeSeer mcs .Net xAP plugin. The good news is the plugin easily displays non BSC schema parameter values. I recommended you use the 'hybrid' plugin and I'm hoping it's just the same.... The devices appear under a default location of 'SlimServer' although their name needs adjusting for each of the different HS device as they seem to all be named "now"..

                        The BSC information exposed by the SC plugin for each connected player is simply the volume and on/off power state both of which can also be controlled via BSC. In addition the transport status is reported but not changeable. These devices can be easily integrated in HomeSeer although as they are contained within one endpoint they show up as one device in HS.

                        The xap-audio schema contains a wealth of information for each player including artist, album, track, duration, elapsed, remaining, genre, filepath, #tracks, track number, state, mode, shuffle, repeat etc and these messages are presented very frequently to keep you synchronised. Some are 'info' messages if nothing changes and 'event' if something has been updated eg xap-audio.transport.event.

                        Clicking the mcsxAP button from the HS web interface and then selecting the "show other received xAP schema" checkbox will allow you to 'accept' each of these parameters to be created as HS devices for display purposes. As long as you 'accept' the event version of the messages then the devices will be updated as they change and HS will remain in synch.

                        Something to be going on with , and as you want to do more eg send display messages to the displays on each player .. or control their transport state... then we'll look at that..

                        K

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Kevin
                          I thought I would give you a quick up date:
                          I haven't been able to progress with the MCS plugins, firstly there is no documentation, and I guessad at what I should do for the install. Which seemed to work, for the hybrid I get two mcs buttons which seem to lead to the same page, one is diaplayed OK, the other seems to be inside another identical page, so I am guessing I cocked that up !
                          I also found errors in the log file (didn't take note of them) relating to the product. But most importantly, I was totally confused by the screen presented to me when I did get to one that was visible.
                          I have had more luck with the original plugin as at least I can understand most of what is to be setup and changed;
                          I have messages going to Slimplayers and I can turn a player on to play when I have an event triggered from within HS, so that is good progress.

                          I would like to continue with the MCS, but without non geek documentation, I will not get very far.
                          Is there any documentation for this stuff that a normal person can read

                          If I take this paragraph for instance:
                          The BSC information exposed by the SC plugin for each connected player is simply the volume and on/off power state both of which can also be controlled via BSC. In addition the transport status is reported but not changeable. These devices can be easily integrated in HomeSeer although as they are contained within one endpoint they show up as one device in HS.
                          I understand basically what you are saying, but how do I translate that to what I see on the screen ?

                          Thanks

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hi Ritchie,

                            It's always seemed that documentation for the HS xAP plugins is a little sparse , I guess as they are free plugins the authors tend to pass over this aspect. I know that creates a hurdle new users need to overcome at the start. Any install Q's on the mcs plugin are best placed in the mcs forum. I believe mcs has a xAP familiarisation document too, worth a read. We do need to improve things documentation wise for the whole of xAP .. I'll try and help here as well. I really would suggest you persevere with the mcs plugin though. Are you new to HS too ?

                            One of the slightly awkward aspects is that a HomeSeer device can have several values, eg some text to display like 'Playing', a state ie ON or OFF and a level eg 60% but there is only one place to display these values in the HS web interface and so some status information is often hidden.

                            xAP uses different 'schema' to interact with different devices based on their functionality . The schema name is identified in the class= line in the xAP messages. BSC (Basic Status and Control) is a xAP schema used for general purpose / very simple control. BSC has merit for simple devices like inputs, outputs, lights, switches etc as it offers lots of inter device compatibility and discovery.. The SlimServer connector uses BSC only to provide very basic volume and on/off control of the SlimServer and the rest of the interaction is implemented using the far more appropriate , and complex xap-audio schema.

                            Like HS devices each BSC message contains several values including ON|OFF and optionally either a text value OR a level value. Additionally every BSC device can offer a 'display' value too. In the BSC schema a device has 'endpoints' each of which uses it's own identifier and message. The SlimServer implements just one endpoint encompassing volume/power/status using three status values (level/binary/displaytext). This we have to manage within HomeSeers displayed values too. That is why I made reference to there being several values within one device and you needing to choose carefully what is displayed in HomeSeer. Inbuilt scripting tests on device values within HS will all work correctly with the appropriate values though, it's just only one value can be displayed in the HomeSeer interface, unless you create duplicate devices each displaying a different parmeter from the BSC message.

                            The mcs plugin has an easy way to display values from xAP non BSC schema devices though. You simply select the 'A' box to accept from the list of xAP devices and once saved a matching HomeSeer device will automatically be created. This for example is used to display the current playing artist, album or trackname. The other boxes against each xAP device in the mcs interface stand for 'R' = reject and 'D' = delete. I believe all the other options you can just leave as defaults.

                            It sounds like you have not installed the mcs xAP plugin correctly however as you have two buttons, and a bad web display. Maybe it's even installed twice if that's possible. Heeding those log entries might help you here, and maybe asking on the mcs forum if you still have difficulties.

                            Kevin

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Slim

                              I would like to test the version.


                              Originally posted by erspearson View Post
                              Hi Ritchie,

                              the code for the xAP Plugin for SlimCenter is done, I've just not got round to doing the web page and instructions. I'll email you a copy. And anybody else that's interested.

                              Edward
                              ersp -- design, London
                              Best,
                              Jakob Sand, I automate everything!

                              Comment

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