Version 2.78 posted on 02/07/2003

Version 2.78 was just uploaded to:

  http://misterhouse.sf.net/download.html
  http://misterhouse.net:81/download.html

New Features:

- Improved xAP support and added xPL support. A few of the original xAP (
http://www.xapautomation.org ) developers developed a lighter version of the
protocol they called xPL ( http://www.wintermute-ltd.com/picxap/xpl.htm ).
The protocols are similar enough that I decided to support them both with
the common code, so I renamed lib/xAP.pm to lib/xAP_Items.pm and added
various xAP and xPL items and methods. Also added code so mh can be an xAP
and/or xPL hub, so we can now read and write to both xAP and xPL clients
and/or bridge between them if needed. Updated code/common/test_xap.pl to
include new xPL examples, including calls to a windows TTS client and a Rio
Audio Receiver client, both available from http://www.xaphal.com/xap.htm .

- Bill Sobel made a bunch of changes to enable stacked and overloaded
states. This is best explained with an example:

  set $test_set1 'on~2~random:on;repeat:on;play';

This will set the object to on, then 2 seconds later, sequence through
states of random:on, repeat:on, and play. The overloaded random and repeat
states will trigger setstate_random/repeat methods if they exist in that
object, setting them to on. For a complete example, see
mh/code/examples/test_state_stacked.pl. His changes also make states case
insensitive, unless you use the set_casesensitive method.

- Bill Sobel and I created time_idle Generic_Item method. We also enabled
this as a tie_time method time spec, like time_cron and time_now. See
code/examples/test_idle.pl

- Bill Sobel suggested we get smarter with -debug, so we made it case
in-sensitive and allowed for stack debug parms like -debug serial;x10. To
enable this, I switched most of the old debug checks like this:

  old: print "debug stuff" if $config_parms{debug} eq 'stuff';
  new: print "debug stuff" if $Debug{stuff};

- Added support for different user logons. If you use -tk 1, you can use the
'set the admin/family/guest password' command. Or you can run from the
command line like this:

  set_password -user family -password xyz1
  set_password -user admin  -password xyz2

A separate record will be created for each user in the password_file (by
default, data_dir/.password). By default, the mh setup web pages can only be
controlled with the admin logon, but you can enable/disable other commands
by adding authority=admin to the password_allow_file. You can also specify
authority with the set_authority object method, or by adding it to your
web/bin xyz.pl file # Authority=user comment. The ia5 logout button now has
different icons for admin, family, and guest.

- Made menu.pl generic (it now reads all .menu files in your code dirs) and
moved it to code/common. If you have a menyu.pl file in your own user code
file, delete it before you enable the code/common one.

- Andrew Drummond created mh/code/public/tivo_direct.* code for controling
his Direct Tivo.


Bug Fixes and Other Changes:

- Timothy Spaulding added a MS13_Battery_Timer parm to set the X10_Sensor
timeout value.

- Added a web_status_line option to web/status_line.pl, to allow for more
user specific data on the status line.

- David ? noticed a 2.76 bug where the web status line was not reflecting
current email counts.

- Amauri Viguera found a 2.76 bug in lib/audrey_cid.pm

- Pete Flaherty updated the tk widgets in weather_iB_OWW_client.pl

- Steve Switzer updated Voice_Text.pm to allow for volume=##%, where volume
will be scaled to a percentage of the default mh volume.

- Danal Estes noticed simple meta refresh works better than JavaScript
refresh, in status_line.pl and photos.pl.

- David Satterfield noticed we could buffer data in lib/X10_MR26.pm to avoid
occasional 'Bad data' errata.

- Sam Levine found a problem with X10_Sensor with ID=x9 (the light/dark
id=xA was not created correctly).

- Martin Dolphin allowed for negative temperatures in common/weather_aws.pl

- Kent Noonan updated mh/lib/Ultimeter.pm (renamed from
mh/lib/Ultimeter2000.pm) to allow for negative temperatures.

- David Norwood updated bin/get_tv_grid to allow for a -get_provider parm:
get_tv_grid -zip 55091 -get_provider

- Craig Schaeffer updated bin/display_callers to better sort by date and #
calls.

- Douglas Parrish sent in bin/misterhouse_Gentoo.rc, a startup script
example for Gentoo Linux.

- Richard Morgan noticed the web Squid proxy did not like the http
Content-Length data we inserted for html pages a few releases ago. We took
that field out after reading the spec, which says it is only for binary
data.

- Paul Estes updated bin/set_clock for Solaris.

- Change code/proxy/proxy_server.pl 'Proxy can not talk to MisterHouse'
message from once a minute to once every 5 minutes.

- Parse size from http User-Agent, when provided, for use in
&http_agent_size (used in web/bin/photos.pl)/ Also added Opera and Zaurus to
mh.ini parm html_browser_formats.

- I copied a post from Bill Sobel into FAQ qusetion 2.16: How are states set
for each pass though the user code loop?

- Steve Switzer updated phone_search.pl file, so that phone_search.shtml is
not needed.


Bruce



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