The O-MEGA Project

[Sem;colon]

Hi Steve!
I think Kevin got a little sidetracked with his awesome hardware setup we can all dream of
you'll not need this big setup to get your E-Books displayed, but he's right in his point, you need to plan it properly.

As for the implementation of your scenarios:
The backend logic to read the Excel spreadsheets by Python would come in handy. When you have the information in Eventghost (Python) it shouldn't be such a big deal to create a template with HTML and JavaScript that displays the information on a page in a dynamically generated table (for example).
Since the content doesn't update so often (I suppose) you also don't need to use websockets for this, a simple post request sounds sufficient to me.
There is a integrated way in O-MEGA to observe a variable in the backend and transfer it's content to the frontend whenever it is changed, but when talking about a lot of data/content, this is not very efficient.
So, especially for the E-Books I'd not recommend to use them but to request the data on demand (E-Books sound rather static to me, so there is no need to automatically update your page when something changes.)

Speaking about the whole E-Book thing.. this is not really a scenario O-MEGA is designed for, though you can of course do that via a template and JavaScript, but the O-MEGA API will not help you much here, you'll have to pretty much write the template "stand alone". As I also don't see any benefit in an eBook Reader for your home automation (performing automatic actions or conditions for Scenes based somehow on eBooks?!?) a question to think about is to maybe use an existing (3rd party) eBook web server (I'm sure that exists) and just display it on a page within the O-MEGA system, which is fairly easy to setup and you still have your "one for all" experience. This may save you a lot of work and time

[steve@rpad]

That's all I want. Display 10 or so strings with 1 8kb jpg file per ePub with linked Events back to EG. I'm already using Calibre, an ebook server, but not the most plug and play in my opinion. It doesn't have the same user experience nor communicate the same design cues across all devices and that's why I'm just looking for a simpler implementation. Yes ebooks are not a crucial automation item, but I have to start somewhere. I choose the epub files because of their simplistic structure. A zip file full of html pages. A small amount of metadata to manipulate for a guy just learning. Anyways, so when a user selects an individual book, it opens right in the web page. No download to requesting device, Keeps track of individual bookmarks/progress thru O-MEGA. All in one place. When I was working just before Y2K, programming COBOL and FORTRAN machines. Yeah, I know I'm old. KISS it he would say (No HR). My boss would run around those offices smoking and screaming KISS it BABY! Small and elegant. I wanna keep it simple and all my user information/preferences are in one place. When I figure this out, then it's Audio Files, Video Files, Home Movies, Photos. All are going to play thru O-MEGA. That's where the Automation kicks in! Say Susie reads a lot of Harry Potter. The system then knows to recommend to Susie that either the movies or audio books are available, or the pictures that we took at that silly Harry Potter ride on vacation a decade ago can be viewed as suggested material when and if requested. Where its played, when its played, what plays it. Same thing as running cheque runs for the bank +25 yrs ago. Tell the system to keep track of the cheque runs so large runs have smaller runs around them. Same thing. Keep track so user experience benefits from the data O-MEGA/EG collect. I believe the youngsters today call that A.I.? Your plugin with the connection to EG is the perfect tool. Any interaction with the system will be recorded and be able to be acted upon to the benefit of the user. I just gotta learn how to use it. My opinion...Automation is not just for machines.

[Sem;colon]

Hey Steve,
That sounds quite interesting! I'm excited what you'll come up with
Be sure we're here to support you when you have any question!

About your question earlier:

I upgrade to an SQL Database that I populated with my Python code retrieved metadata and at some point some Excel Objects, I write a template for SQL?

I'm unsure what kind of template you mean. In the O-MEGA system you define everything backend/EG related in an extension and everything frontend related in a template.

So let me get this straight...The template is actually HTML/JavaScript/CSS. So as long as I can get the metadata to the front door of your webpage, i.e. The Template? or Extension?, I then am just using the JavaScript/CSS/HTML skills on the web page of particular device for display and formatting of information?

That's correct! You're free to use any kind of HTML/JavaScript/CSS on a template for creating your UI. An extension would be the backend logic you need for your automation/to prepare the data, so you can easily access it with your template.

P.S. I wish my boss would be a little more like yours, it seems like things can't be complicated enough for him

[Sem;colon]

Hey everyone,
Just a short message to let you know that I'm working on a new version 0.4.x; this version will come with it's own webserver and brings some other big changes - there will be a new API function to request data from PCs (like a post request, but can request data even from other PCs on the network that are not running a Webservice), this was really missing in the API and should help to create more powerful templates. But there's also a downside; one of the many Bugfixes in that release brings a breaking change, as IDs for buttons and pages will be generated differently... Stay tuned, details will follow!

[kgschlosser]

Sorry I made more work for you Sem;colon.. I think you could see the benefits and also how it would make things easier later on down the road.

I am betting it is also not as hard a change to make as you thought. The hardest part part is to restrain your self from adding new features and abilities as you make the changes. I know that as you are making the changes you have ideas that are popping into your head left and right and want to see if they would work. It is really easy to "wander off the path" LOL.

Get yourself a pen a paper and write down the ideas and also where you were in your code when you thought of it, the latter is because there is something you were working on that sparked the idea. looking at that code again should help you remember exactly what the idea was and how you were thinking about adding it. Maybe after you make the initial changes you will revisit that list and add some of them.

And this kind of brings me to an idea... Right now anything that would need to be added in order to "upgrade" the Omega Project would need to be done internally. After you make this upgrade maybe you might want to consider making the Omega Project extensible. So if an additional feature is wanted it can be added without having to disrupt the core code. This also makes it nicer if there is a problem with it. simply remove the file(s) for that extension and everything will go back to how it was.

I would love to make an extension that allows a user to view their local public highway cameras. being able to see the traffic on the highways before leaving for work with a tap of a button in the web GUI would be pretty sweet to have. Or adding support for viewing security cameras and with PTZ cameras controlling them.

The extensions would not create a GUI for these items. It would provide the access to get the video streams and provide the access point for generating the events in EG to control a device.

If this is of interest let me know. I came up with a really cool mechanism for inclusion of external code.

[steve@rpad]

Hi Guys, This is EXACTLY what I was looking for...I'm hoping I helped in at least a teenie tiny bit sub-consciously directing your thoughts LOL! Good Luck, I'm still working on my python script to rename and supply data to what I'm calling my FavAI LOL! Looking forward to anything you two guys can come up with! I have 4 PTZ Cameras, a 5 port poe hub and an RS232 interface waiting to be installed in anticipation. or testing?!?

P.S. The O-MEGA Plugin is very challenging. You should be very proud of your accomplishment!

Stay Safe!

[kgschlosser]

well. we are in the process of hashing out the intricacies of getting EventGhost to process events concurrently. Because of the nature of the GUI interface that Sem;colon made it would be extremely beneficial to be able to do that. Then toss in there that the GUI can be used by multiple devices at the same time, that makes this update to EG a necessity. This is the 6 or 7th time I am attempting to make EG run like this.. well attempt is a bad word. I have successfully done it, I just know I can squeeze it for every drop of performance I can get while keeping the code clean and easy to read. I just finished up hammering out the meat and potatoes to it, there are still other changes that needs to be made. The portion dealing with the events and the creation of the threads Is pretty much finished and it has a small code footprint. I didn't bust any of the EG API either. I will however need to add in handling of a potential problem that can come up with a plugin. It shouldn't be anything major tho.

[Sem;colon]

Sorry I made more work for you Sem;colon.. I think you could see the benefits and also how it would make things easier later on down the road.

No worries mate, you gave me the spark, the work I made myself

I can already see the benefits in not utilizing a "3rd party" webserver - it gives me much more flexibility and opens doors really

About the extensions... It's funny you mention it, as this pretty much exactly exists within the O-MEGA project - even with the same name
You can export and import parts of your EG tree (code) and make the system extensible by this - and that's called an extension in the O-MEGA project.
The GUI equivalent to an extension is a template, which you can import and export the same way.


So, nothing really keeps you from creating this cam extension ;D

[kgschlosser]

well there is only one thing. and that is an education on how to go about doing it.

[steve@rpad]

Yup.....That's exactly what me is a doing. Doin' a some o' that book learnin' . You guys are the best! Thanks so much for all your doing!

I really do hope I'm not annoying you guys. I'm doing my best getting started with python then I'll start on javascript and css. It's all pretty daunting when you compare this to Fortran or COBOL. Plus I'm an old fart. All the command line actions, compiling scripts, trying to compress or make elegant, learning GITHub at the same time as being able to read and comprehend is quite challenging, but I'm not gonna give up. YET!

[Sem;colon]

well there is only one thing. and that is an education on how to go about doing it.

So true...

I really do hope I'm not annoying you guys.

Not at all Steve, the opposite! Really appreciate your patients

[kgschlosser]

I really do hope I'm not annoying you guys.

Steve, you know that one long hair you get on your ear. The one that seems to appear overnight......Or the moth that gets into your house and starts doing laps around the living room while you are watching TV... I'll throw into that last one that you also have a cat.... LOL



I'm playin. Nah your fine. There is nothing wrong with learning. I can't speak for Sem;colon but I can say that I enjoy sharing whatever knowledge I have and I am more then will to help in any way that I can. I am pretty sure Sem; is the same but you would have to get that response from him directly, for all I know he could be Scrooge. Or maybe the guy watching TV with the moth that got in the house...(I am picturing the antics that take place when that does happen and there is also a cat involved)

[Sem;colon]

for all I know he could be Scrooge

Scrooge? Me? Humbug!

[Sem;colon]

As promised: *New version*
v0.4.9

What's new:
- Lots of bug fixes
- The plugin brings it's own webserver with it now, the webserver plugin will not be loaded in the background anymore
- The security has been improved
- The code has been improved
- New API function "Request" to directly request data from the (correct) backend
- New function in the backend to register a function to be accessed from the webinterface (via the Request function)
- The volume up and down buttons have been removed from the top menu and the view selector is now at the left side. (not everyone needs those buttons, so I decided to simplify/clean the interface a little. If you need fast access to the volume buttons of your AVR, just put them on the dashboard with the "slide in directions" option)
- New images with arrows for the dashboard

Breaking change when you upgrade:
- The way IDs for buttons and pages are generated has been changed, this enables you to swap out a template with another without the need to recreate all your buttons on it. However, since the IDs are changing every reference to the old IDs will stop working after you saved your "pages" configuration page the next time after the upgrade.
This means you will have to recreate your dashboards and your Scenes. Also if you are using buttons that reference other buttons or pseudo devices, those need to be edited/re-created. However, you don't need to recreate your pages, devices, interfaces, programs and buttons (at least)
- Every function that should directly be executed in the backend from the web frontend need to be registered first, the "ExecuteScript" method doesn't exist in the new webserver.

Besides that, the upgrade works as usual
Get the new version from the first post!

EDIT: As the communication between frontend and backend works a little different now, it's possible that there are some new bugs. If you notice anything that stops working (besides the things mentioned above) please don't hesitate to report it here!

[steve@rpad]

I'm sure it will be amazing! Thanks for all your hard work! I will get to this first thing Monday. Brace for impact!

Still Python, HTML and JavaScript?

Just asking for a friend