Utility: SageTV Remote Control

[shadeblue.com]

This add-on provides a rich web-based remote control for SageTV using Flash Player. This utility includes the ability to switch between multiple SageTV servers, SageTV clients, and multiple extenders all from a single user interface. SageTV Remote Control also accepts keyboard shortcut keys to initiate control to the connected Sage UI. SageTV Remote Control contains a very flexible user configuration XML file were you can customize the button commands, the menu commands, and keyboard shortcut keys.




Please post any comments or issues to this thread. This program is currently in BETA.


More Information (including installation instructions) is located on the DOWNLOADS page

Thank You, shadeBlue.com

[jreichen]

Nice work, can't wait to try this out!

[gplasky]

Nice job on this. I'll have to take a look at it this weekend.

Gerry

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by jreichen

Nice work, can't wait to try this out!

Thanks! Once the sagex.api is available on your Jetty plugin, I plan to add some notes on how to setup this remote control add-on via Jetty.

I also have some ideas for other Sage plugins that may also need to make use of a Jetty servlet container

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Nice job on this. I'll have to take a look at it this weekend.

Gerry

Hi Gerry, thanks for the comment, let me know you it works for you. I also just checked out your Sage Pro UI Theme for Standard STV, I may have to give that a try, I'm feeling like I need to update the ui look and feel on my rig. I have been using the "Cogs HD720" theme for some time now.

[jreichen]

Originally Posted by shadeblue.com

Thanks! Once the sagex.api is available on your Jetty plugin, I plan to add some notes on how to setup this remote control add-on via Jetty.

I also have some ideas for other Sage plugins that may also need to make use of a Jetty servlet container

Sounds great Feel free to post a message or PM me if you have any questions about Jetty.

[geogecko]

Dang, if Apple would just get with the program, and get Flash on the iPhone...

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Dang, if Apple would just get with the program, and get Flash on the iPhone...

I second that!

[jreichen]

Got it up and running!

I had one weird problem but it was easy enough to work around. I loaded the remote before customizing the server url in the xml file so the app showed the default servers. I then updated the xml but the default servers were still displayed after I refreshed the web page. I watched the headers in Firefox using Live Http Headers and it showed a request for the swf and the response showed that it was cached, but there wasn't a request at all for the xml. After clearing the browser cache both files were downloaded again. I would assume the ActionScript in the swf does the request for the xml file so maybe it's not happening in the right place?? Just a guess.

Once I got that working, I then updated the extender names in the xml and they showed up in the remote after refreshing the web page. Strange, but like I said, it's working and wasn't too hard to get running.

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by jreichen

Got it up and running!

I had one weird problem but it was easy enough to work around. I loaded the remote before customizing the server url in the xml file so the app showed the default servers. I then updated the xml but the default servers were still displayed after I refreshed the web page. I watched the headers in Firefox using Live Http Headers and it showed a request for the swf and the response showed that it was cached, but there wasn't a request at all for the xml. After clearing the browser cache both files were downloaded again. I would assume the ActionScript in the swf does the request for the xml file so maybe it's not happening in the right place?? Just a guess.

Once I got that working, I then updated the extender names in the xml and they showed up in the remote after refreshing the web page. Strange, but like I said, it's working and wasn't too hard to get running.

Hi jreichen,

Thanks for the report. Yes, the XML is being downloaded in the AS, the default behavior for flash is to use the cached assets/resources. I believe if you close the browser and open a new window it will re-fetch the XML as well. I can make a modification so that the XML is downloaded on page refresh.

Thanks,
shadeBlue

[weedydeed]

I also have this working in my setup. It's been working great for me, the commands quickly execute and it's pretty easy to setup. Thanks for the great work, look forward to future work.

[nyplayer]

I must be dense but I cannot seem to get the config file right... maybe some can help me.
I keep getting this error. I can connect to the main and control it that parts works fine. I cannot seem to be able to configure my clients correctly.

Error encountered communicating with SageTV server:

Please make sure that you have the Nielm Webserver plugin and the Stuckless Remote API (sagex.api) installed and configured properly on the SageTV server.

		</server>
		 -->
	
		<server name="Main SageTV System" url="http://janedserver:8080" >
			<ui name="Bedroom Extender" context="000000000001" />
			<ui name="Living Room Extender" context="000000000002" />
		</server>
		<server name="Media Room SageTV Client" url="http://janedserver:8081" >		
			<ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
		</server>
		<server name="Edwin SageTV System" url="http://denclient:8081" >
			<ui name="Bedroom Extender" context="000000000001" />
			<ui name="Living Room Extender" context="000000000002" />
		</server>
		<server name="Edwin Room SageTV Client" url="http://denclient:8081" >		
			<ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
		</server>

Destination: DefaultHTTP


names and ports of my servers

janedserver port 8080
janedserver client port 8081

denclient port 8081
bedroomclient port 8081.

They all have nielms webswerver running I can connect to them no problem.

[jreichen]

Those don't look like real context ids. If you set up extender.properties for nielm's web server, your ids will be in there. Otherwise, start an extender/client, then go to nielm's web server's home page. In the Currently Watching section at the top you'll see the ids.

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I must be dense but I cannot seem to get the config file right... maybe some can help me.
I keep getting this error. I can connect to the main and control it that parts works fine. I cannot seem to be able to configure my clients correctly.

Error encountered communicating with SageTV server:

Please make sure that you have the Nielm Webserver plugin and the Stuckless Remote API (sagex.api) installed and configured properly on the SageTV server.
Destination: DefaultHTTP

...

Hi nyplayer,

That specific error appears when the program can't communicate with the sagex API on your SageTV server or client.

Try testing the following URLs in you web browser, replacing the server name and port for each system you wish to connect with.

http://janedserver:8080/sagex/rpcXml/Global/GetOS
http://janedserver:8080/sagex/rpcXml/Global/GetUIContextNames

If these calls don't work to each server/client, then either there is something configured wrong with the Nielm web server or sagex API.

You mentioned that you have not been able to get your clients working, are these Extender clients or SageTV Client instances running on separate computers? If they are separate SageTV Client instances then each instance will need Nielm's webserver and sagex API installed and configured on them.

jreichen was also correct, the UI contexts listed are dummy numbers I included as an example, these are not valid context ids. If you are not using any extenders you can just remove those lines. Even with the incorrect ui context ids, the remote control program should still work and just ignore the invalid context nodes.

Thanks,
shadeBlue

[nyplayer]

I did all the tests you stated everyting ran fine.

I have no extenders only 2 clients. each with nielm's weberver running in port 8081. the context names on all is SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI

the PC names are.

my server is. JANEDSERVER
SAGECLIENT
DENCLIENT

I started with a fresh config I am able to control my server I am not sure how to add the 2 clients above.

		<server name="Main SageTV System" url="http://JANEDSERVER:8080" >
			<ui name="Bedroom Extender" context="000000000001" />
			<ui name="Living Room Extender" context="000000000002" />
		</server>
		<server name="Media Room SageTV Client" url="http://JANEDSERVER:8081" >		
			<ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
		</server>

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I did all the tests you stated everyting ran fine.

I have no extenders only 2 clients. each with nielm's weberver running in port 8081. the context names on all is SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI

the PC names are.

my server is. JANEDSERVER
SAGECLIENT
DENCLIENT

I started with a fresh config I am able to control my server I am not sure how to add the 2 clients above.

		<server name="Main SageTV System" url="http://JANEDSERVER:8080" >
			<ui name="Bedroom Extender" context="000000000001" />
			<ui name="Living Room Extender" context="000000000002" />
		</server>
		<server name="Media Room SageTV Client" url="http://JANEDSERVER:8081" >		
			<ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
		</server>

OK, perhaps there is some confusion because of the naming convention used in the XML configuration file. The <server> node in the XML refers to the webserver instance to communicate with, not specifically the SageTV server. Thus for SageTV Clients, each of them run their own instances of the web server, so in the XML config there should be separate <server> entry for each SageTV client. If you don't have any extenders, then there is no need to include the physical SageTV server in this configuration XML.

If you are only trying to control the two SageTV Client instances, I think your config XML should look like this:

<server name="Primary SageTV Client" url="http://SAGECLIENT:8081" >
   <ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
</server>
<server name="Secondary SageTV Client" url="http://DENCLIENT:8081" >
   <ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
</server>

Let us know :-)

Thanks, shadeBlue

[nyplayer]

It doesn't seem to be working. Still the same error I can control the janedserver but anytime I click on a client. it fails.

I can logon directly to the client by hxxp://sageclient:8081/sage/remote/ and by installing the remote there and that works... I thought that I would be able to go to hxxp://janedserver:808/sage/remote/ then from there be able to switch to any client but it fails.


I attched some visuals.

		<server name="Media Room SageTV Client" url="http://JANEDSERVER:8081" >		
			<ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
		</server>
                <server name="Primary SageTV Client" url="http://SAGECLIENT:8081" >
                <ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
                </server>
                <server name="Secondary SageTV Client" url="http://DENCLIENT:8081" >
                <ui name="Local Instance" context="SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI" />
                </server>

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

It doesn't seem to be working. Still the same error I can control the janedserver but anytime I click on a client. it fails.

I can logon directly to the client by hxxp://sageclient:8081/sage/remote/ and by installing the remote there and that works... I thought that I would be able to go to hxxp://janedserver:808/sage/remote/ then from there be able to switch to any client but it fails.

Your assumption is correct, you should be able to host the remote application on a single server and then access multiple servers/clients from that single hosted instance. That is if the user's web browser can resolve each address; if the clients are behind a firewall or router and their HTTP server is not exposed, then it would not work.

Your configuration XML looks correct if you are trying to access 3 SageTV clients all serving Niem's webserver on port 8081.

This is the specific call inside the remote control application that is getting a failure to produce that error message:

(for each server instance)

• http://JANEDSERVER:8081/sagex/rpcXml...UIContextNames
• http://SAGECLIENT:8081/sagex/rpcXml/...UIContextNames
• http://DENCLIENT:8081/sagex/rpcXml/G...UIContextNames

I wonder if we are seeing a similar caching issue as pointed out by jreichen on an earlier post. This issue was causing the config XML file to be cached in the browser rather than fetching the latest updated copy from the server. Make sure to try closing all your web browsers and then reopen to see if that fixes the issue?

[nyplayer]

I tried 3 different browsers same problem. Also I was able to access the clients webserver home page from the server so there is no problem there. I also do not have any firewall between my clients and the server.

I guess I am the only one that still uses clients :-) and not extenders.

Thanks for your help if you think of anything or want me to try something...let me know.

Time for some NFL :-)

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I tried 3 different browsers same problem. Also I was able to access the clients webserver home page from the server so there is no problem there. I also do not have any firewall between my clients and the server.

I guess I am the only one that still uses clients :-) and not extenders.

Thanks for your help if you think of anything or want me to try something...let me know.

Time for some NFL :-)

LOL, well I did test it using the SageTV client software on two different servers, but not using the standalone SageTV client version, so maybe there is something different there? I'll do some more testing here and post when I have some more info.

Thanks,
shadeBlue