[nicolas33]

Hi all,

I installed a home automation system Myhome of Legrand, and I created a website developed with open source protocle OpenWebNet to be able to control my lights, shutters, scenarios ...

I just bought a Raspberry Pi on which I installed Raspbmc that can handle hdmi-cec, it's really great to control XBMC with the TV remote control.

I have a big project, I would run my home automation with remote control my TV through XBMC.

Should be that I can add a link on the home menu like the weather, or music program. But I do not know if this is possible? Or perhaps through an add-on?

I should be able to display the web page that is on the same machine as XBMC, a webview that displays just http://127.0.0.1. Then I would create a simple web interface controllable with the TV remote control.

Do you think this is feasible? Could you help me because I do not know where to start ...

[Bstrdsmkr]

You can't create a web view within xbmc, but you can launch an external browser.

The other option (and the best looking) is to design a window in xml and assign the appropriate url's to some of the buttons in your window.

[nicolas33]

Hello,

First of all thank you very much for your reply, I was afraid of having no answer.

This solution interests me a lot, I started reading "XBMC Addon Developers Guide" to create an addon, I do not know if this is the right path to follow. Should I create an addon to do this?

I'm a web developer, I do not know Python, I'm trying to educate myself I hope it will not be too complicated.

Do you have any advice for me? What external browser launched & install? The best would be examples of source code if you know?

Are what it looks like the add-on "Web Viewer" but with a normal rendering of html? http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:Web_Viewer

Thank you in advance for your help.

[da-anda]

You currently can't render native HTML in XBMC - it simply has no HTML/browser engine. Also launching an external browser won't help because you won't be able to control it with your TV remote as XBMC does in general the CEC part, not the OS (but I could be wrong for Raspbmc - don't know it). So I'm kinda sorry to say that it probably won't work the way you'd like it to. You might have to rebuild your webinterfaces logic with the XBMC skinning engine and python.

But there was some discussion if and how we could implement webkit in XBMC and if it's worth the effort (+ the large footprint the webkit engine would add). There where some pros and cons, but no final decision on it. As a webdeveloper myself I'd ofc love to be able to create HTML5/JS addons, but we're simply not at this point yet (if ever).

[nicolas33]

Hello,

Thank you for the reply you gave me avoid wasting time trying to find a solution.

I think I'll try to develop xbmc addon, but I do not know python and I do not know if the development of a graphical solution is complicated. I would need to connect to a mysql database, and launch command shell php script on the action of a button ...

The add-on "Web Viewer" works with CEC, but i don't know if it's possible to show a regular website with javascript etc... May be this work like a scrapper and it's not a really webview...

[da-anda]

yes, "web viewer" must be some kind of a scraper - but just check the code. If you're familiar with JavaScript and PHP you're for sure able to at least understand how the python script of this addon works.

I never wrote a python addon myself, but I think the easiest for you would probably be to create a fake VFS structure (directory/file structure) with every "file" being a function (with according icon and meta description) and every folder being a subsection/group (can also have icons and description AFAIK). Then all you do is to switch to a large thumbnail/icon view in your skin of choice for your addon and internally call the URL of the remote PHP script on selection of a "file" (using CURL or something). Might not look as nice as your webinterface, but should be the easiest way to get some home automation features in.
That's what I probably would try. Once this is working fine, I'd start looking at the skinning engine side of things if you're really not satisfied with the overall look and feel.

[nicolas33]

Hello,

Thank you for the reply, i'll try to learn python. I'll back ! ;-)

[da-anda]

it might be a good idea to ask addon devs for their opinion in our addon development section -> http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=26, so I move this topic there.