Re: Introduction & Questions

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

harley0922 wrote:

>I am a long time user of HomeSeer and am looking for ways to easily
>disperse infromation from my HomeSeer pc to other PC on the network.
>Over the past couple of years I have developed some apps that allow
>that to happen to some degree.  But now I am looking for easier ways
>to do this.
>
>Having read the HS boards about xAP and seeing some of the
>applications available on the xAP development sites I think xAP might
>provide the common interface I am looking for.
>
>
xAP's certainly network enables things - so for dispersing info from one
PC to others it's ideal (as long as it not heavy volume streaming type
data of course). The broadcast aspect of xAP is great for information
announcents.

>I have been looking at the xAP Protocol over the past few months and
>have decided now to dig my heels in and start development of a xAP
>based application.  Before getting to involved I have a few questions.
>
>1. I have downloaded the xAPax.ocx, well actually several versions,
>and am trying to determine the version that I should actually be
>using.  Where can the latest version be downloaded? Any help here
>greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
Hmmm - well it should be P's site (as he wrote it) but that is still
being created & it's a nightmare to navigate at the moment. I believe
the version on www.ascentium.co.uk/xap/ is also the latest version . The
one I use here unfortunately does not declare the desktop viewable info
for version correctly (shows as 1..0.0.1) but it has a size of 61440
bytes and a date of 30 May 2004.  The OCX exposes a property called
version which shows v3.00 build 1.7  - or has someone got a later one ??

>2. I have read of vendor ID's and UID, will one be required for my
>applcation?  If so, how do I go about obtaining the necessary ID's?
>
>
Vendor ID yes...just ask here for a xAP developer ID suggesting a name
you would like preferably with 4+ characters.

eg  HARLEY

UID's are not 'allocated',  each app on your network just needs a
different one. Normally a config option facilitates this.

>3. When using the xAPax.ocx, if there is no hub present on the
>computer, will it setup as a hub or is a hub required?
>
>
AFAIK No but  not absolutely sure as I always use it with a hub

You can definitely force it to use port 3639 by setting minport to 3639
and hence make xAP apps that run without a hub being present, but I
think it will then try 3640 upwards until it finds a free port should
there be a hub present , rather than jumping to the ephemeral range -
think P will have to answer that.

The OCX if it is configured to use port 3639 will allow your app to run
as a standalone app but will not then act as a hub for other
applications . Indeed it will monopolise the xAP port (36390 and later
launched apps will appear deaf and a hub will fail at launch.   However
as above you can make an application that works both with and without a
hub, albeit in the 3640+ port range - which will work ok. I have sort of
assumed a hub is present in my apps that use the OCX and hence they
won't run as standalone apps.

>Thanks for any help.
>
>Rick
>
>
>
Welcome to xAP - and feel free to ask away...

Kevin


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