Use Green Button to wake Sage?

[Madz]

Hi, I have an MCE remote and keyboard and I've selected MCE Remote within Sage but the green button doesn't seem to work - specifically when Sage (it's actually a client install) is sleeping (minimised to tray) pressing the green button does not restore it as I would expect. Is this a feature request I should be putting to Sage?

It must be a commonly needed feature - how is everyone currently getting their Green Button to work with Sage?

Beaker posted something similar here but didnt get any replies: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30327

I'm also aware of this, which sounds like it would do the trick, but the SageTray app is no longer:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22718

Cheers

[Spartan]

I have the MCE setup also and could not get the green button to work either. Finally, I bought the MCE keyboard, and use that as my "green button". Wife doesn't much like that though....

[brewston]

I use this :

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23779

You can map the buttons however you like, I use the power button to put the PC into standby but have previously remapped it to ctrl+z (ie sleep) i'm sure you could map the green button to that too. I have it at default (return to menu)

Tim

[Madz]

Originally Posted by Spartan

Finally, I bought the MCE keyboard, and use that as my "green button"

Hi Spartan, I'm surprised the KB works any differently to the remote. I've got the KB too, but I don't think it works for me. Are you saying on yours the green button will bring Sage out of sleep (restore it)?

Thanks Tim, I'll have a bit of a look at it. I've noticed the thread before, but wasn't sure how simple it'd be to setup and I don't need IR blasting or remapping so am after something simple just to handle the green button.

I just wish Sage itself would listen for the green button event the same way as ehTray.exe from Microsoft...

[brewston]

Just noticed a subtle difference - i dont ever set Sage to minmize on sleep but the remote SW is pretty configurable, plus the author - Stephane is really helpful and I'm sure he'll assist if you post a problem on that thread.

Tim

[Madz]

I've decided to write a simple tray app (like ehTray) to look for the green button amd launch Sage. I'll be aiming for an install and forget (zero config) solution. It will fill a gap between the default sage install which doesn't handle the green button and Stephane's software which is great for advanced users who want to customise their remote or support for different remotes.

Listening for the remote events is more complicated than you'd hope it would be, but after spending a good part of the day on it, that side of things is working. I just have to roll it into a tray app now. I'll post it up when it's done if anyone is interested.

Cheers

[gplasky]

Definitely interested. For ease of installation can you have your app block or neutralize the ehTray if it is installed on the PC? Now that would be cool and killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Gerry

[camus]

Originally Posted by Madz

I'm also aware of this, which sounds like it would do the trick, but the SageTray app is no longer:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22718

Cheers

I can send you a copy of this if you are still interested.

[Madz]

camus - thanks for the offer - I probably should have just asked for this to start with but I've set off down the road of writing my own now and am pretty much done. I haven't had a chance to look at it the last couple of days though - spent last night getting my setup back on track after daylight savings moved by a week here in australia this year.

Anyway, I think it'll be good to have an available version back here for new users who haven't got hold of the one you have...

Gerry - agree and have been thinking along the same lines as all the posts I've seen in my travels complain about MCE still starting when the green button is pushed - unfortunately I can't "neutralize" ehTray but certainly should be able to detect it during install and/or program launch and display a warning or shut it down.

[3rob3]

Any update on this?

[Madz]

Gday, I have got something working which I've been using on my machine for the last couple of months, however there are a couple of issues I haven't had a chance to sort out yet so I haven't offered it out.

What I've setup so far is an exe with an INI file - the INI file lists all the remote buttons it can respond to and the command-line to execute when each is pressed. The exe lives minimised in the tray. I run the SageClient exe when I push the green button. Executing the Sage/SageClient exe starts Sage if it's not running and restores it if it's sleeping. It works pretty well. You could use the Sage supplied SendMessage command to act on some of the other special buttons if you wanted but Sage itself handles these fine in my view.

Now the issues:

If the PC has gone to standby with Sage running in full screen mode, when it resumes the desktop is shown and the taskbar shows the Sage icon, but executing the Sage exe doesnt redisplay sage - you have to manually click on the taskbar icon. So I'll need some special code to handle this case, which means the simple "single command-line in ini file" approach isnt going to work - perhaps you could setup a bat file to run a couple of commands after starting Sage (eg SendMessage and so on) but none of this is inline with my goal of having this thing zero-config - install and forget...

Which brings me to the second problem: There's no single command or registry setting I can use to start up the "correct" instance of Sage - ie Sage or SageClient - I'm presuming that if SageClient is installed, the user would want to run that instead of Sage, but even without SageClient installed, it gets complicated as you can run Sage as an app or as a server and then start another instance of it as a client etc. I then also need to find the installation folder where Sage is installed and so on...the current solution I've got would need the user to setup the ini file specific to their installation...

So we can either have a "clever" app and no installation options that figures all this out for itself, a detailed installer that asks all this up front and/or an app with a settings page...the final solution will probably be a compromise between the above out of necessity...

Since I'm struggling for time at the moment, if anyone wants what I'm running now, I'm happy to post it up, but there's no installer or anything... will certainly revisit this in the next few weeks though.