terRemote - Android remote app for EventGhost

[terRemote]

Hi,

I just uploaded the beta version of my app "terRemote". The description is given in the Androd play store text, so I won't write it here again. Essentially, my aim is to create a completely customizable remote app that is able to communicate with EventGhost (and even more, but that is yet to come).

It would be great if there were some people who can test the app and give me feedback. Currently, it is not soo user friendly (it is a beta, after all) but I am happy to answer your questions.

You can get the app under the following link
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eventghostremote.christophergertz.de

Or with the following QR-code:

[terRemote]

I have seen there was a crash report (thanks for sending it). It should be fixed with the new update that I just uploaded. Maybe whoever sent the report could check if it works now.

[piert]

Mmm, I started testing just now. I managed to get a 'test' button up through trial and error, with dimensions 100 by 100. For the rest, I am clueless of what I should do next. It all looks very promising, with a lot of options, but some sort of helpfile will be needed to know what a user is supposed to do to get going.

I tried adding some servers, but could not get it to work. Was not able to delete the unneeded servers afterwards, either.
Trying to set up and save any macros results in a crash. Could be my Archos Internet tablet that is the culprit, though. I have been having issues trying to get Astro Player to work with Podcasts, but it appears the Archos tablet does not allow me to save stuff to the hard drive (the Archos has a 250 Gb harddrive, but no SD card).

Sorry I can't help you any further without some sort of guidance.

[terRemote]

Hi piert,

thank you for testing. I know that I did not give any help, so far and that the amount of options must be confusing at the moment. It's all not very user friendly, yet. That's one of the reasons why it still has the "beta" in its name.

I will put a step-by-step descriptin online. Maybe I get around to it until tomorrow, hopefully until the end of this week. There are actually some features already available that are impossible to find. Sorry for that. It will all get better soon.

[piert]

Thanks, I will wait for that. Keep up the good work!

[terRemote]

OK, I will give a short description for the first steps. As this is important for testing the app, I should not wait with that until the end of the week. ^^

1st Step - Eventghost
Add the network receiver plugin (the network sender plugin is not yet needed for these steps) and use its configuration to choose a port (you can leave it on 1024) and a password for your server. You also have to find out the local IP address of the computer running eventghost.

2nd Step - Adding a server in terRemote
Start terRemote. You see an empty layout with no buttons on it. Press the menu button on your phone or tablet and choose "Options", then click on "New Server". Enter the IP, the port and the password from the first step. You can choose a name for the server to identify it easily. The server will automatically be saved when you leave the form.
(unfortunately, you can not yet delete a server. Thank you piert for pointing that out. I will change this shortly.)

3rd Step - Adding a button
Return to the start screen (the empty layout) and choose "Edit mode" in the menu. You get a notification that the edit mode has started. You can now click on "Add button" in the menu. Basically, you don't have to care about most of the options if you don't want to use them. Leave the width and height zero if you want the button to have auto size. You can chose the text of the button (can be empty if you also choose an icon).
Click on "Design" and then on the empty square. You can then pick one of the predefined designs or create a new one. For now, choose one that is already there. A Design for a button consists of three backgrounds, one for the normal state, one for when the button is pressed and one when it is disabled.
Now go to the "icon" section and choose one of the predefined icons. (You don't have to choose one, it just looks better) You can also set the height and width of the icon (again, if you leave this zero, the size is set automatically). The current icons are quite small, I will provide larger ones later. So you might want to choose a bigger size and thus upscale the picture. Just try it out. If you use text on your button, you can also choose where the icon is positioned and what space is between the icon and the text.
Now the most important part: The "Action on click". You don't need macros here if you just want to perform a simple action such as sending a network event. Enter the event string, choose the server (that you have just created) and maybe add a payload. When you hit "test", the event should appear in the EventGhost log on your computer. If not, you're configuration is not correct. Before you ask at this point, please try the same with one of the two other existing EventGhost-apps to see if the error is really due to terRemote.
The "Internal setting" section is not important at the moment.
At any time, you can update the preview of the button at the top of the screen. Just click on "update" and you will see how your current parameters look like in the end.

When you're done, click on "save". Otherwise your changes will be discarded. You should see your button now on the previously empty layout. After a long press, you can drag the button to the position it belongs (you can also use the position settings of the button property screen but this is more for fine tuning).
Leave the edit mode in the same way that you started it, then press your button. You should see the event in EventGhost and can bind an action to it, as usual.


That's it for the moment, just the very basics. I will write some more when I have the time. There will also be an example layout added to the app where you can see how some functions work and what possibilities there are. Please ask questions if something is still not clear.

[terRemote]

For those stumbling over the new widgets "SeekBar" and "RatingBar" and want to use them:

You can write
${value}
anywhere in the event string or the payload. So you can send regular events with the value as payload or you can send individual events like "XMBC.SetRating${value}" which would e.g. translate to "XMBC.SetRating4.0".
Note that there is currently no way of getting rid of the ".0", since values are float values at the moment, never integers. I might include an option for that.

[Owel]

Hi,
Thanx for sharing this App with us.
There is currently another Thread on this Board with an Remote App for EG from Rainer Mueller.

Please can you point out the differnces between the Apps?

Owel

[terRemote]

Hi Owel,

I'm not really an expert on the current state of Rainer's app, so all I write here is to be handled with care.
The have indeed many similarities. If I hadn't started with my app before I knew of Rainer's, I would probably not have made it. I already apologized to Rainer for "getting in his way" as I was afraid this might interpreted. I am glad that he was as excited as me about the possibilities offered by having two instead of one such project.

So the main differences so far:
- EGRemote is currently more developed than terRemote. There are currently more (by number) actions and events that you can use in EGRemote. Also, there is an export function but I will implement one with the next update, hopefully on the weekend.
- terRemote has star-rating and seek-bar elements that can be used e.g. for volume control. One of the reasons why I continued the app was that Rainer wrote in one post that he is not planning on having other widgets than Buttons. I also plan on some more but that will take time. Also, I put many (I think about 200) prebuild icons into the app along with a simple file explorer so you don't have to install additional software or have to include your own icons. The buttons are very customizable, including icons, background for normal, pressed and inactive state, text size and color and the position of the icon.
- While terRemote beta is still free, there will be a paid version and a free version available in later days. I am planning of giving the free version full functionality with maybe some popups once in a while. I have really not decided, yet, but it will be possible to actually use the free version without too many restrictions.
- EGRemote is currently far more intuitive to use that terRemote. After all, terRemote is still in beta phase and I did not put much effort in usability, so far. So when you test the app, maybe read the upperdescription for the first start.

This is what I more or less know. But again, I do not regularly use EGRemote so some of my statements might even be outdated and I am sure that I left out many positive features of EGRemote that my app does not have and that I am just not aware of. You should test both apps if you want to make sure to get the one that is right for you. Anyway, they are both still developing so you can write either of us to ask for features.

Have fun using the apps.
Chris

[Owel]

Thanks fot his Post.

I will try both, and that one that fitts better will be used

keep developing!

Owel

[terRemote]

Just for those who are waiting for the new update: I am working on it but I will have more time next week so you have to wait a little bit. It will contain an import/export function and an example layout demonstrating some of the features.

[piert]

Cool, looking forward to it. An example layout demonstrating some of the features sounds like a great idea!

[terRemote]

Finally, the new update is now there. This will be one of the last "beta" release, I guess.

The app got a new logo and an import/export function as already anounced earlier. It has two predefined layouts that are loaded automatically on first start. One layout just contains some examples of what you can do (Widgets, designs, actions) while with the other one you can control the mouse and volume of Windows plus some basic keys. This is also more of for demonstration than for real application but you can modify the layouts as you like.

I put a short installation guide to use the System layout on http://terremote.christophergertz.de/tutorials/system. Once you have configured your EventGhost sender and receiver plugin, the necessary macros can be added to EventGhost just by copy/paste. It should be fairly easy. Please report if this does not work for you.

The "System" layout demonstrates a feature of the app that I did not yet tell anyone about, but is actually one of the main features that maybe lets it stand out from the other apps. That is, you can retrieve and display information FROM EventGhost and not only send events. In this layout, the volume seekbar and the mute button are set to the current value when the layout is shown or when these values change on the OS. I will eventually write a tutorial about how exactly this is done but I don't have so much time at the moment so you have to wait a little bit. Until then, you can have a look of the macros, the "System"-Layout and the EventGhost content that I provided as an example.
As a second example, I might also upload the layout that I personally use for controling MediaMonkey. It displays the currently played track, interpret, album and rating. I currently don't know how much this function is in demand, so please contact me if you want to have this second example earlier.

That's it for the moment. I am happy to answer all your questions about the new examples. Don't hesitate to ask. There is in general not enough feedback, yet. Would be nice to have some more.

Chris

[terRemote]

Apparently there was a problem with saving the servers. I uploaded a quickfix (version 0.22a) that should take care of this.

[FourFootPaul]

Great work so far - I've been using eventghost for a while to control the lights in my house and have been looking for a decent android app for it for ages.

I've not found any issues so far (apart from when you exit from edit mode you get a message saying "FIX ME!!!"), but it's early days... I've only created one layout so far.