Re: Misterhouse xPL Mods (was RE: New User questions re Hardware interface and what protocol.)

["John B" <home-automation@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Firstly, we need to know what services misterhouse can provide to an
xPL
> network? Does it behave in a similar way to something like homevision,
> and allow the user to present information from within misterhouse
> scripts to the rest of the network, and similarly, provide a set of
> "commands" that can be carried out by misterhouse in
response to an xPL
> message?
>
> This information is needed as an xml fragment - John B produced a
really
> good guideline on doing this, (not to hand right now... John?) the xml
> fragment allows smart configuration of any device.

I think before we start looking at XML fragments, we need to know what
MisterHouse can do, and get the xPL support added.
The xPL integration needs to exist before you can document it in an XML
fragment.

> I don't know if you are penguin only.. If you have a windows box
> available, it would be worth installing xplhal and xplhal manager just
> to see what I am describing.
>
>
>
> Secondly is how we can use misterhouse as a home controller from an
xpl
> point of view... xPLHal is the windows scripting engine which performs
> configuration of xpl apps/devices and acts as a central intelligence
on
> the network. This is windows only, and we are sorely missing a linux
> alternative. Clearly misterhouse could act as this controller - in
which
> case, it would be great if the user experience was the same in both
> respects.

I actually wrote a sizable chunk of a Perl-based xPLHal server
implementation.
It implemented XHCP, events, and determinators, and you could manage it
from the xPLHal Manager just like the windows version.
But like so many things, it never got finished due to lack of time, and
ti's been over 12 months since I touched the code.

If we are serious about a cross-platform xPL controller, I think a Perl
based version of xPLHal would be an excellent choice.

Regarding MisterHouse, I'd like to see deeper xPL integration, but I can't
ever see it becoming the Linux version of xPLHal - it's internals are just
too different to xPLHal for them ever to be completely harmonised.

However, if you were to couple a Perl version of an xPLHal server with
MisterHouse (using xPL integration between the two) then you'd have a
pretty powerful cross-platform home automation environment.

And as Ian says, you could develop a fancy GUI in whatever language you
liked, and be able to administer either the native WIndows server or the
Perl server.

All IMO of course.

Regards,

John



xPL Links: http://www.xplproject.org.uk http://www.xplhal.com http://www.xpl.myby.co.uk
To Post a Message: ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx
To Subscribe:  ukha_xpl-subscribe@xxxxxxx
To Unsubscribe:  ukha_xpl-unsubscribe@xxxxxxx