EventGhost

Hi,

I am trying to send a notification to my Android phone. I want a custom text to be displayed. How can I achieve that?
Since I didnt get the payload system (nor found an explanation of how it works) I have tried this:

eg.globals.myVar="someText"
Create Event "AE.{eg.globals.myVar}"

Which creates the event "Main.AE.someText"

Then I piped Main.AE.* to Android.sendEvent

The problem is that I am unable to receive this Event on the phone. I can only associate a macro with a specific event, and not Main.AE.* like in EventGhost itself.

Does anyone have a solution for me?

Cheers

Is it possible for someone to upload the app on to this site, the http://market.android.com/details?id=com.timhoeck.android.eventghost is not working, I only get this error

Dtag.. as configured now, the "events" portion on the android client does not support wildcard or passed "arguments" (for your text to display). You would need to configure individual macros on the android client, each with their own customized text.

This is definitely something I can take in to consideration for the next version. I may be able to support a wildcard (*) in the events optional payload to match.


That link will only work on the Android device. If you would like to download the apk directly, use:
http://timhoeck.com/android/eventghost/ ... t-1.31.apk

Tim,
Wondering if you are planning to expand the client to support other apps directly (apps that communicate over HTTP/IP like Homeseer, J River Media Center, XBMC, etc) and/or adding ability to launch other Android apps upon button press (e.g. send EG event + launch XBMC Android app)

I run all those apps and currently, for example, have web pages for Homeseer but ideally it would be integrated into an app like yours. If you are interested I can send you my code... it is pretty simple and would just need someone like your self to convert it to Android and add the front-end UI.

thx for contributing to the community!

Hi!

Is it possible to send event from phone client to eventghost automatically, when phone connects to wifi-network? Client could send event automatically in certain interval. That way i can detect is phone in wifi-network or not.

I'm planning automatic door lock and lighting, which open and closes when i arrive or leave my home wifi-network.

If not, could you ad such function?

Great program by the way!

I would love to support other apps in the future.. I would like to fine tune EventGhost first, and possibly release an enhanced paid version that might add other server types (the standard EG functionality will remain free!).

I mentioned above that I would like to add multiple actions support on an icon/button press, so ideally you could do what you want, send the event AND launch an application.


I'll look into adding this functionality to the Android Events plugin.. thanks for the suggestion!

Side note, I'm working on the improved version now.. had some development machine setbacks, but back on track.

Liquid8,
I'm really looking forward to seeing your coming versions. Having it auto detect 'which' WiFi network (not just any) would be a huge bonus... so when I'm in an airport or hotel it does not start... but when at home it does.

Also, please allow me to elaborate on my goals, as I know others I've spoken with have the same issue on this and other forums. I think you have a large audience for your app if you do a few key things.

I have several home automation and home theater apps which are mainly controlled using separate apps/methods. A small amount of integration comes from Eventghost since most of the gaps I have are on the client side integration (front-end).

Let me explain in this format...
App
- functions & level of integration it is performing today
- near future goals

1. EventGhost
- detects apps running on HTPC and Onkyo receiver's 'state' (serial connection) to determine...
- what to pass control to for IR commands received
- what state to set lighting (scenes) and devices like sub woofers; Sends these commands to Homeseer
- Possibly set up a main screen for basic Activities (think Harmony Remote) which kick off EG 'events' and also open/close other Android apps based on the controller (app) needed.

2. Homeseer
- runs the Insteon and X10 home automation devices for lighting, subs, etc
- lighting scenes are set up here and can be triggered by any standard HTTP POST command.
- I built a few web page designs (HTML/ASP) that run on any browser (Safari, Chrome, FF, etc) to trigger devices/events in HS
- I have been working with iPhone & Android developers to create native apps for HS. They are nearing completion (a month or two). This app would need to be triggered by your EG app, and when closed, have your app reopen (come to focus) automatically.

3. XBMC
- my home theater media player: music, movies, etc for the main theater room
- There is a free XBMC Android app the I use. This app would need to be triggered by your EG app, and when closed, have your app reopen (come to focus) automatically.

4. J River Media Center
- my whole house audio player (since XBMC does not support multi-zones)
- there is a native web interface I use. The web page would need to be triggered by your EG app, and when closed, have your app reopen (come to focus) automatically.

How your EG app can play a role...
I'm looking for an app to "glue" everything together with a nice UI that I can put on a few wireless tablet devices around the house (and my phone). It needs to be simple enough for anyone, including kids and guests, to use. Not only would your app be the main menu, but it will trigger apps and events/scenes (e.g. Child pushes 'Watch Kids Video' GUI button), monitor for their closure, and go back to the main menu - or trigger another event based on the rules set. I could do this with a pure web interface but you are already going down the path and if you can develop it fast enough, since I don't know of any Android app that can do this today so, I think you have an advantage in the market if you price this reasonably.

I'm happy to assist with testing, and development ideas, if you'd like. I have run dev teams in my recent past so I understand the development cycle and 'how' to test and debug.

Let me know what you think.

I would really love this too. I'm a paying and eager user of Tasker and if these two power apps could communicate the possibilities would be near endless. I for one would certainly pay for an extended/ pro version with this posibility.


This would very easily be done with a Tasker state. Or it could send events based on an app being loaded on the phone, the date or time of day, your location (e.g. Home, Work, etc.), different states of the phone or even events generated on the phone.


I'm no programmer and maybe that's why I like these two programs so much. Here's my post on the Tasker forum. Could anyone figure out if the use of intents could help accomplish some interaction between the two? And how?

Rune...

Hey thanx for this awsome program. It runs on my Archos 7 Home. Now I can remote my lights, tv and other electronics.
Now that I tried it some days, there came up some idea.
It would be fantastic if this could work one time:

- free arangable Icons that I can creat Layouts.
- and load up my own Icons

Edit: AND VERY IMPORTANT delete a single Macro and not all.

And thanx again for this great app.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next update

Just adding my $0.02: I would LOVE a J River Media Center functionality as well. I run XBMC and Jriver as the 2 main HTPC apps. Also doing some basic home automation (lights) in NetRemote. I poked around with Girder before switching to EventGhost and have spent countless hours customizing NetRemote for my setup. Having had my Android phone now for 6 months NetRemote is starting to feel painfully dated.

I use the JRiver WebRemote (webpage) but it clearly falls way behind NetRemote in functionality. This app looks like it has the potential to eventually replace my NetRemote PDAs. I've paid hundreds of $ for NetRemote/Girder over the years and would happily donate $ to this cause. I suspect there are whole bunch of NetRemoters out there chomping at the bit for something like this to run on their android. Especially with the coming onslaught of Android Tablets in the near future.

Keep up the great work!

WinoOutWest,
A few comments on your post...

I also Use JRMC and would like to see that inside a nice android client BUT the web remove is now, in v15, decent. There is a discussion on that forum about creating a touchscreen web skin, I suggest joining that thread there. Also look at xpTunes. As for this client, simply launching (and watching for it to close), would be good.

I agree with you on NR, I stopped using NR like 6 years ago... it was pretty much dead at that point IMO. Girder is very powerful but VERY painful and thus I use EG also.

For lighting, not knowing what you have, EG is not great at this... I suggest getting something specifically6 for it. I use Homeseer, which is over priced IMO but I've had it for 8 years (was reasonable then).

There are a lot of Android "remote" apps now but only6 a few that are some-what universal. This one looks promising but not sure how much development liquid8 is planning?

Livin,

THansk for the post - we have similar setups. Funny you mention how EventGhost is weak on lighting. I've farted around unsuccessfully getting it to work in EG - figured it was me and just left it. Currently my Lighting isn't working at all in EG. I looked at Homeseer a few years back as well but never pulled the trigger. Still running NR on a half dozen PDAs and touch screens. Webremote is great for play/pause/next/etc but dies if I want to browse or search my library. I also played with XPTunes about a year ago as well but it also had issues with the size of my library.
How are you bringing all your stuff together?

There are 2 things that I really like about NR:
1) it handles my very large library (1.5TB music) without issue (can browse/search etc) and
2) the fact that I can use 1 app to control JRMC, XBMC, My Amp(s) and lighting (theoretically at least) and
3) I know I said there were 2 things but NR designer lets me customize an awful lot without actually having to program anything (with the help of some EG macros of course)...

I'd really like to have one app that can do it all and not have multiple apps depending on what I am controlling. How are you controlling everything? Multiple apps? Having played around my my HTC Magic for a few months I definitely see replacing my PDAs with the upcoming Android tablets for my home/music control....