HomeGenie Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: NicoVermeir on October 08, 2014, 08:42:24 AM
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Hi guys & girls,
been running HomeGenie for a couple of weeks now, works great!
I want to help the project out and since I'm a Windows Phone developer I think I can help the most with the WP app. I forked it on GitHub and starting working on it.
What I currently did:
- extracted a bunch of server calls into a portable SDK project (easier to port to other platforms)
- reworked the UI a bit to have a more "metro" look
- started implementing a template selector & different templates for the modules
what I plan on doing:
- add Universal app (Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1)
- add Cortana support
- add Geofencing
- improve UI
some questions that I have to the HomeGenie owner:
- does this fall in line with your roadmap for the app? if not, does it now? ;-)
- if I put more work into this and create a pull request on GitHub, is there a chance that it'll get accepted (just making sure that I'm not wasting my time :))
question to the other WP app users:
- any feature requests? :)
thanks!
PS: as a reference, here's my latest WP app http://www.windowsphone.com/nl-be/store/app/library-of-eorzea/9dfe5218-aa0c-4428-b114-06c3285c9087 (http://www.windowsphone.com/nl-be/store/app/library-of-eorzea/9dfe5218-aa0c-4428-b114-06c3285c9087)
and I blog about WP development at http://www.spikie.be (http://www.spikie.be)
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Hi Nico,
I downloaded the Windows Phone code as well in the weekend, but unfortunately haven't been able to invest much time into looking at it. If you need anyone to test your new code I'll be glad to help (I have a Lumia 520 and 1520 to test with)
A few things I've noticed with the current app (and the reason I downloaded the source to see if I could fix it)
- IP cameras show a generic Icon (UML diagram?), and no 'popup' control. I'd like to change this to show a snapshot as an icon, and a feed when opened.
- My Fibaro Roller shutter also shows a generic icon, also no 'popup' control is available.
- jkUtils OpenWeather and SolarAltitude also show the generic icon, no other information.
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thanks for the offer on testing, I'll let you know when / if I get that far :)
as for now, I had a few minutes to spare so I threw together a small design. What do you think?
(https://qpfplw-ch3302.files.1drv.com/y2pPiHtY0ZX5ob_P_pyx2mKxHc0Bc8efAC-_V4-a5mJwWlYapfWW0KigMYQhzv2o5QlUBDhUWYqB-jEovZmnbTanCbdjWEjXAufo_ms9OBjSns/design.png)
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Hi Nico this is wonderful.
Any pull request is welcome and will be accepted.
There is no roadmap for the WP app at the moment, it was quite abandoned... well the hope was exactly to find other contributors =)
I can help with testing (old lumia 800 with 7.5 os).
Cheers,
g.
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Hi Gene,
good to hear :) Having a WP app is the whole reason I choose Homegenie to run my Z-wave setup
I'm quite a busy person so it will take time to get the app in a finished state but I'll try to post regular updates here.
Other question: Is there a way to simulate modules? For example, I don't have any sensors in my home (yet :)) Can I still add a sensor module to Homegenie and have it show up in the app?
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update:
got the datatemplateselector up and running. meaning that I can have all sorts of modules in a list and make them all look different without using one big template. (this is supported out of the box in Silverlight & WPF but not in WP8 so I had to recreate this behavior)
next step: creating different templates for all the module types (dimmer & program already done)
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small update: fixed a bug that triggered a bunch of databinding errors at startup due to unknown context.
I'll probably won't be able to work on it this week and next week I'm attending a conference in seattle so dev time will be limited there as well. but I'm not giving up, I like this project :)
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Is it possible to download a test version?
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it's not at beta level yet. just to give you an idea, I stripped out like 50% of the original code, refactored another 20% into an sdk and I'm reworking the entire UI.
I currently have light switches, dimmers and programs fully running but with the ip address of my setup hardcoded. In the coming weeks I'll focus on getting the settings done and I'll start working towards a beta version, but I won't make any promises on an ETA.
if you're a developer yourself you can check out my code at https://github.com/NicoVermeir/HomeGenie-WindowsPhone
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I spend some time yesterday implementing the Windows Runtime version of the mobile SDK and it got me wondering if WP8.0 is still worth it? Should I just focus on Windows (Phone) 8.1 and drop 8.0 support? (the existing app will still be there for 8.0 users)
any thoughts?
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Hi Nico,
don't know what to suggest about wp8.0 support, but wanted to say you're going to be the main mantainer for the WP app =)
So also feel free to publish the app in the store.
The old app will still be there for WP 7.6 users (not updated though).
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
g.
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had some free time today, decided to try out the Runtime version of my SDK
(don't mind the UI, this page was hacked together quite quickly)
(https://qpfrlw.dm2301.livefilestore.com/y2pFVWBpWSUnoEVTdJ1esDcZe9EKenpnFmVrveeA3_5HXC-ZrHD5Uuvslq8Oan8ENhxOkNfBYwAb9b1ESOz9q4Y8T5HzviSG2e3Y3gtsj3QGq0/Untitled.png)
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Looks promising, all data already there... even this basic layout give an idea of where it could get to.
Good work! Keep us updated =)
Cheers,
g.
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Hi,
Thanks Nico to work on the windows phone app.
I have some stuff that doesn't work (but work on android) :
- WebCam doesn't show
- Shutter doesn't show
- jkutils - Solar altitude doesn't show
- jkutils - OpenWeather doesn't show
- Possibility to use HTTPS instead HTTP
Perhaps, you can include in your work on it ...
Bye
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Hi Nolio,
I'll get on it as soon as the app is in a less alpha-state :)
thanks for the heads-up!
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so it's been a while, so here's an update:
I created the new connection screen and modules for switches and sensors. I'm currently looking for screenshots of modules I don't own myself (see other thread I created here)
Next steps are updating the UI when one of the modules are changed from another client and adding push notifications.
I'm currently focussing the UI work on WP8.1, all the actual code is being shared across Windows store and Windows Phone. So once the app is finished I'll only need to do some UI work to get it to windows store as well
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need some help guys, I've cooked up a few designs on the tile. I tried to stay close to the HomeGenie brand in terms of logo and color.
which one do you like or if you have any other ideas, feel free (I'm far from a designer, especially when it comes to logos or tiles)
http://1drv.ms/1vUNbmW (http://1drv.ms/1vUNbmW)
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Hi,
2.png look good :).
Bye
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second one =)
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I like the second one as well, but if the gray color in the third one means that it is transparent, then I prefer that.
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A Live tile would add a lot of potential as well.
- little light bulb with a number on the total amount of lights that are 'on'
- thermostat temperature
- total Watt usage
Your existing 2nd logo adjustment of the 'Genie' could be shown at a quarter size in top left corner, and then show 3 values in the other quarter sections. Ideally configurable, but that is for you to decide.
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A Live tile would add a lot of potential as well.
- little light bulb with a number on the total amount of lights that are 'on'
- thermostat temperature
- total Watt usage
Your existing 2nd logo adjustment of the 'Genie' could be shown at a quarter size in top left corner, and then show 3 values in the other quarter sections. Ideally configurable, but that is for you to decide.
live tiles are definitely coming, but right now I'm focussing on getting the app into a beta state where I can invite people to start testing functionality of all the different controls. things like voice search and live tiles will get built-in afterwards
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live tiles are definitely coming, but right now I'm focussing on getting the app into a beta state where I can invite people to start testing functionality of all the different controls. things like voice search and live tiles will get built-in afterwards
Understandable.
Better to prioritize and get get some functionality in the hands of users, then constantly trying to perfect you app without ever releasing it. Will help you test, as I was able to score a bunch of Lumia 635s dirt cheap from Microsoft during Black Friday.
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got an api question for Gene:
are you exposing any events that trigger whenever a module is manipulated (a switch being switched on, a dimmer value being changed, ...)? in the current windows phone app modules are updated every 5 seconds. it would be nice if this could be event based instead of polling
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Nico,
hg has a realtime event stream that you can use in the wp app.
Some time ago I wrote a c# winform app connecting to the real time event stream by using EventSource4Net library:
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie-SmartControl
look here for an example usage of the eventsource client:
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie-SmartControl/blob/master/HomeGenie-Net-ClientLib/ControlApi.cs#L74
Cheers,
g.
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awesome! was hoping for something like that :)
thanks!
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One more thing... if I well remember I had to patch the EventSource4Net library in order to make it work.
So if you are experiencing issues using the original library, use the one included in the SmartControl app.
Cheers,
g.
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got it up and running. only thing I needed to do was port the eventsource4net thing to a universal library.
was an awesome way to spend an afternoon home alone :)
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some updates:
- fixed some bugs today
- got color lights working (selecting the color, switching on/off already worked)
functionality wise I would say I'm at alpha stage. need to do some UI work to get it to Beta, but it's getting closer!
as far as UI goes, here's an idea I was playing with today: https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=5A345BB15E973473&id=5A345BB15E973473%21399041&v=3
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redesigned the HG logo, pretty happy with how it turned out :)
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did some work on the module templates. this is the current result
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Hi NicoVermeir,
I don't think so (WP app is neglect). What do you need ? Pictures ?
Perhaps, you can use the android one ?
Bye
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Hi NicoVermeir,
I don't think so (WP app is neglect). What do you need ? Pictures ?
Perhaps, you can use the android one ?
Bye
not sure I understand what you mean?
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I can test too
Nokia Lumia 925 with 8.1 here......
Waiting for Cortana support..... ;)
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Cortana is definitely coming, but first the basics :)
working on the modules right now
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getting closer to Beta phase. Just to keep you guys in the loop I've started adding issues and milestones on GitHub. The first milestone I'm working towards is the Windows Phone beta.
On this page you can follow the progress towards that milestone
https://github.com/NicoVermeir/HomeGenie-WindowsPhone/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+milestone%3A%22Beta+1%22
once these items are implemented i'll release a first beta
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another feature done