STV Import: Web page Viewer (v2.1 20/Dec/2007)

[nielm]

This is small module that works with either the text-based browsers w3m and lynx to present a plain-text version of a web page in Sage, or with the [http://html.xamjwg.org/java-browser.jsp lobo browser] to have a graphical representation of a webpage

Graphical version



Plain text version



You can zoom the page with FF/REW (although for the graphical view, the results depend greatly on what client you are using. Windows with VMR9 works well. MVPs don't work so well with big pages).

Text views work fine on MVP...

Obviously the text version works best with pages with a lot of text, such as news sites, and it was designed to be work together with the rss newsreader.

Browsing the web with this plugin is not possible, just viewing individual pages.

The text views requires that you install the Cygwin unix environment for the lynx and w3m browsers

It is designed to work with the RSS news reader to view the linked sites, but can be used with my dynamic menu to view any web site -- there will be a Menu Item to create a new Web Page View

Download/install instructions.

[nielm]

History
07 February 2007 v1.3 for SageTV6
* Initial version

[nielm]

Apart from news sites, I use it to show when the next bus is going to arrive at the bus stop nearest my house!

[jbarr]

Wow! I'll have to check this one out. Looks like it's heading in the right direction.

[real_per]

Link is dead ?

[nielm]

Version 2.1 added.

V2.1 20-Dec-2007

• Updated to use proper scrollbars
• FF/REW can be used to zoom in/out
• Graphical web page view with LOBO browser
  !NOTE this is experimental, and currently only works well on Windows clients with VMR9...

[Addict]

Hey, I've been looking for a Sage web browser since I bought it... Surprised I couldn't find one!

So...couple questions for ya:

1) Do you know if it works with SageMC?
2) Do you have plans to make it "browseable" without having to add menu items for each website? I guess being able to highlight and navigate from link to link with the directional arrows would be all that's necessary?
3) Do you have plans to add "favorites" functionality so you don't have to grab the keyboard every time you want to hit a common site?

If it had #2 and #3, I'd be ecstatic.

Thanks!
Definitely a good start!

[pjpjpjpj]

1) Does this work with SageTV 6.3.10 and default STV?
2) Does this work with the HD Extender?
If so, how?

I installed the RSS feed customization and web viewer customization (JARs and STVi's) but what do I do with the Lobo folder that comes in the Web Viewer zip file? And in default STV, I have no idea where I can even get to the RSS headlines. "Online Services"?

[CollinR]

I am getting this with lobo:

running [java  -cp  C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\lobo.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\lobo-pub.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\ext\cobra-no-commons.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\ext\jlfgr-1_0.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\ext\js.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\ext\primary.jar;C:\MediaServer\SageTV\lobobrowser\ext\xpp3-1.1.3.4.M.jar  net.sf.sageplugins.loborenderer.LoboImageRenderer  http://www.ebay.com  -  800  600]
Attempting to load webpage http://www.ebay.com
FAILED loading webpage java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: protocol = http host = null
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: protocol = http host = null
	at sun.net.spi.DefaultProxySelector.select(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.http://www.protocol.http.HttpURLConn...onnect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.http://www.protocol.http.HttpURLConn...onnect(Unknown Source)
	at sun.net.http://www.protocol.http.HttpURLConn...Stream(Unknown Source)
	at net.sf.sageplugins.loborenderer.LoboImageRenderer.main(LoboImageRenderer.java:134)
java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at net.sf.sageplugins.loborenderer.WebImageRetriever.getWebPageImage(WebImageRetriever.java:192)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at sage.e$d.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a.m$b.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a.m.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

and without the http://www.

Attempting to load webpage ebay.com
FAILED loading webpage java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: ebay.com
java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: ebay.com
	at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at net.sf.sageplugins.loborenderer.LoboImageRenderer.main(LoboImageRenderer.java:132)
java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at net.sf.sageplugins.loborenderer.WebImageRetriever.getWebPageImage(WebImageRetriever.java:192)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at sage.e$d.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a.m$b.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a.m.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8.a(Unknown Source)
	at sage.a8$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

[gplasky]

Did you install cygwin?


Gerry

[CollinR]

Oh no I didn't from the wording in the instructions I thought that was only needed for the text based browsers.

[CollinR]

Restart fixed it.

[gplasky]

Even better.


Gerry

[pjpjpjpj]

Gerry or Collin,

Since you guys have this working... does it work on an HD Extender, with 6.3.10? And where do you even get to an RSS feed from SageTV (default STV)? Is the plug-in supposed to add a menu item somewhere?

Can you explain how to install the lobo and make this whole thing run? Lobo comes as a folder that gets put in the SageTV folder, but I have no idea what to do from there (and the instructions tell you nothing). I installed Cygwin, but I have no idea what to do with that either (other than it has a shortcut on my desktop to it... I don't even know what it does).

[CollinR]

The install directions work fine but you must restart something other then the sage service alone to get it working. I didn't install cygwin as you shouldn't need it for the graphic lobo.

You will need dynamic menus plugin installed.


Extract to Sage driectory
Restart server
Install the stvi file

Open dynamic menus and you will noticed a new option under "New".

This will allow you to enter the URL you wish to access and a title for the menu item.


It works ~okay~ on my MVPs.

It seems to read and parse the html and then render a jpeg or other graphic that actually gets rendered on the screen.

I created my one page with just a single 352x240 jpg from my DVR, it will load it sometimes and other times it does not. Often a couple of refreshes will get it. It appears dynamic content is not possible right now and lobo as a browser itself leaves some to be desired. If your goal is to watch a CCTV camera streaming via ActiveX this is not your plugin.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by CollinR

You will need dynamic menus plugin installed.

Well, there's my problem. WAF will prevent that from ever happening. Oh, well. Thanks for the info anyway... sigh....

Seems like most of nielm's plug-ins were written several Sage releases ago, and at the time many (most? all?) of them needed the dynamic menus. Most of them no longer do... but you usually can't tell from reading the original thread or the instructions on the download page because many threads/instruction pages have not been updated since the plug-in was "perfected", in a much older Sage release. This is the first plug-in I have tried that won't work because it still requires the dynamic menus.

[CollinR]

Niel's dynamic menus is like a must have kinda mod, I have no clue how that would adversly effect your WAF. If you don't chang anything... nothing changes.

Worst case make a new menu under setup called "No wify!" and add all your custom screens in there. Really you can completely duplicate the regular menus there entirely if you so chose or any modifications.

All dynamic menus does is allow you to call any sage screen in the STV from any menu. Also you can run commands and do many other things from menu items. You can totally rearrange the Sage GUI from an MVP it's not hard to use.

Also it's configuration is stored in a nice easy to modify xml file, so with a text editor you can really go crazy. I have a different menu file for each client which somewhat acts as access control and provide automation and security functions.

Most of the customizations require dynamic menus solely as a way for you to control where in the Sage GUI it will land as some what certain things on the home menu and others don't.


Otherwise you will be doing this in Studio, dunno how you feel about that. IMHO dynamic menus is one of the things that makes Sage an MCE/VMC killer. I would definately give it several more tries. Just follow the instructions and remember to restart your service any time you add a .jar, then you must import the stvi file. Once installed you can't really tell unless you press esc or the yellow button on the MVP.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Niel's dynamic menus is like a must have kinda mod, I have no clue how that would adversly effect your WAF. If you don't chang anything... nothing changes.

Worst case make a new menu under setup called "No wify!" and add all your custom screens in there. Really you can completely duplicate the regular menus there entirely if you so chose or any modifications.

All dynamic menus does is allow you to call any sage screen in the STV from any menu. Also you can run commands and do many other things from menu items. You can totally rearrange the Sage GUI from an MVP it's not hard to use.

Also it's configuration is stored in a nice easy to modify xml file, so with a text editor you can really go crazy. I have a different menu file for each client which somewhat acts as access control and provide automation and security functions.

Most of the customizations require dynamic menus solely as a way for you to control where in the Sage GUI it will land as some what certain things on the home menu and others don't.

Otherwise you will be doing this in Studio, dunno how you feel about that. IMHO dynamic menus is one of the things that makes Sage an MCE/VMC killer. I would definately give it several more tries. Just follow the instructions and remember to restart your service any time you add a .jar, then you must import the stvi file. Once installed you can't really tell unless you press esc or the yellow button on the MVP.

While I really do appreciate your help (I just know Gerry is reading this and laughing to himself "I know where this is going....")...
...I have absolutely no programming (XML or studio or anything) experience. I know that probably labels me in the "why are you even surfing this topic" category, but, well, call me adventurous.

All of the plug-ins I have installed - I've successfully installed about 5 or 6 - have required no programming-language knowledge whatsoever. Most of them were "shut down Sage, stick the STVi here, stick the JAR there, restart Sage, install from the custom menu, you're done". The only one I installed that took more work than that was the MovieTimes installation (which required studio work), but it was explained at a "for dummies" (like me) step-by-step level and was no problem. Otherwise, I am lost. Asking me to play around with an XML file is like asking me to do your taxes... it would take me hours, I would mostly have no clue what was going on, I would end up banging my head against the desk, and I would likely end up getting it all wrong.

Honestly, many of the customizations for SageTV that are posted here are not anything I need, so I don't feel like I need the custom menus (yet)... and the ones I have installed didn't need the custom menus. The only ones left that I would like (until someone can figure out a way to create a simple web radio player that works through the HD Extenders, but that's another thread), are the RSS reader and web viewer. But if that's the only thing I miss, I will live.

Thanks for trying!

[lotusvball]

The dynamic menus does not require programming skills. I use it all the time and all you have to do is right click on the screen and you are then given options to add or change something. It is all gui driven. You really need to check it out. There are a lot of stvi's that require this and just because the ones you added don't need it doesn't mean others won't need it. It is really easy to use.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by lotusvball

The dynamic menus does not require programming skills. I use it all the time and all you have to do is right click on the screen and you are then given options to add or change something. It is all gui driven. You really need to check it out. There are a lot of stvi's that require this and just because the ones you added don't need it doesn't mean others won't need it. It is really easy to use.

Well, going back to two posts ago, it's the WAF thing. The menus have to stay like they are.

As far as programming, Collin stated "Also it's configuration is stored in a nice easy to modify xml file, so with a text editor you can really go crazy." Well.....I don't even know what an .xml file does or looks like, so I'd go crazy in another sense (the clueless, frustrated kind).

Can you install the custom dynamic menus and still have it look the same as the default - the same blue background with the menu list down the left side, in the same font, etc.? If that is (easily) doable, then I might consider trying it.