Re: xAP Newbie

["Martyn Wendon" <mailing.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I've dabbled with HomeSeer and Floorplan but to be honest they seemed a bit
overkill for what I want to accomplish at the moment.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but I guess what would best suit my needs
ultimately is something that listens for xAP "alert" messages
(perhaps a new
"Alerts" schema is warranted containing such things as the
sending xAP
application name, priority, alert text etc?).

This application then processes the information contained in the alert
messages based on user defined rules and then sends further xAP messages as
it's output.

I'd envisage apps such as:

xAPEmailChecker (new email alert)
xAPQuasar (temp high / low alert)
xAPRainFallMonitor (raining alert)
xAPWeather (it's going to rain alert)
xAPIPSentry (ipsentry addin to warn of offline servers etc)
etc

sending xAP alert schema messages and then the new application (xAPAlerts?)
listening for these alert schema messages and reacting to them by sending
xAP messages back out for thinqs like OSD, speech, sms, msn, etc.

The rules engine would then only need to understand the simple alerts
schema
and the user could select what xAP messages are sent given a specified
alert.

For example, if the temperature goes high in my Node0, xAPQuasar sends an
alert message containing it's name, the priority and the alert text
("xAPQuasar", "High", "Node0 temperature
34C").  A rule is defined in the
xAPAlerts application that states if an alert is received from xAPQuasar
with High priority the alert text should be sent back out as a xAP OSD
message and a xAP sms.


Does this sound feasible?



Martyn

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Booth" <lists@xxxxxxx>
To: <xap_automation@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: [xap_automation] xAP Newbie


On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 15:44:43 -0000, "Martyn Wendon"
<mailing.lists@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>My first goal is to use a Quasar 3145 temperature sensor to provide
>temperature feedback from around the house.  I found a xAP application
for
>it (from http://www.edjo.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/edward/xAP/Quasar3145.htm)
>and
>I can see the xAP messages from it in xAP Message Viewer.
>
>But now I'm a bit stumped as to what I need next to get the info from
the
>Quasar into MCxAP?

You need something that knows how to read the messages sent out by the
Quasar app, and knows how to translate them into OSD messages as
output. A 'shim' as MarkH describes them:

Quasar message => Shim => OSD messages

In actual fact the xFx Email OSD app is just that, a terribly simple
thing that translates email notifications into suitable OSD messages.

Now, you need something to fill the role of the shim in this context.
You can either roll your own if you're a coder, or use an existing
rules engine such as one of the xAP-enabled home automation control
software applications, like HomeSeer for example.

I started writing something generic to fill just that gap, but then
xAP Floorplan came along which does the same job I think, so I
stopped. Thus xAP Floorplan might be a good place to look:

http://www.mi4.biz/

HTH,

S
--
Stuart Booth <stuart@xxxxxxx>
xAPFramework.net - a xAP software development framework for .net

http://www.xapautomation.org/ 
     http://www.xapframework.net/