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How to get Audrey to control XTension

Why do I want to do this ?

Again, you don't really need to. If you can set up a 'web server' on your XTension Mac, you can just serve pages as in James Sentman's x2web software.

However, if you can't set up a server, or don't want to, you can use VNC which is a free cross-platform remote monitor application (much like Timbuktu).

The thing I like about VNC compared to the web server method is that you see on the Audrey screen exactly what you see if you are looking at the XTension Mac. You can't do drag-drop kind of things, but you can do everything else.

However, with the 'web server' method, you will be able to control your home automation system from that 'PC' you have at work, or even that PDA !

Here's basically what we're going to do :

Getting the VNC server and client software

Although you can get both the server and client from the same site, I recommend that you get the VNC server from Chromic. I have had better results with this one...

BTW: You're not going to want to run this if your XTension Mac is a 68K, it's just too slow. But if you are running a 'targeted' copy of XTension on a PPC Mac, then it will work just as well.

So let's get all of the software first :
Setting up the Mac for serving the VNC client to Audrey

With the download of the VNC client, you got a file called "vncviewer.ph.gz which probably got decompressed by your normal 'decompresser'. But very likely, your software is not set to the proper mode for such a file.

You must change the settings of your decompresser and re-unstuff the file.

I've used the example of "Stuffit Expander" for this :
Under the Edit menu, select Preferences

You may want to remember to change this back later ...?
Change the default settings
change the prefs


Decompress the file and put it in the right place

After setting the Prefs,
Start up the FTP server on the Mac

From here on in, it's going to be relatively painless...

 Start up Better Telnet and under the Edit menu, select FTP Server...

Select the option that requires 'no passwords'

And just to make sure, the other options should look like this too...

You may want to change this back after this.
Allow 'guest access' no passwords
change the prefs


Now back to the Audrey, to 'get' the VNC viewer

This is going to be non-mac-ish, but if you just follow the instructions, it'll be done very quickly...

In the Audrey's Browser URL line: This will bring up a 'shell' window with a black background, looking very ominous...
In the shell window TYPE:
cd [space] /bin [enter]

In the shell window TYPE:
ftp 192.168.0.1 [enter]

Note: that number is the IP address of the Mac running the FTP server.

TYPE: your name [enter]
any name will do if you set the FTP server to 'no passwords'...

Now TYPE: image [enter]

And then TYPE: get vncviewer.ph [enter]

That should start the transfer, and you will soon see the Transfer complete message.
Get the VNC client into Audrey
get the vnc client


One more little thing to do for the 'vncviewer'


First, TYPE: bye [enter] to stop the ftp program.

In the shell window TYPE:
chmod [space] 777 [space] vncviewer.ph [enter]

Don't ask, just do it :-)
modify the vnc client


Now back to the XTension Mac, to start the VNC server

Start up the VNC server on the XTension Mac.
Just double-click it and it should startup, ready to accept clients.

Now back at the Audrey, to start the VNC client (viewer)

In the 'shell' window, just type : vncviewer.ph [space] 192.168.0.3 [enter]

You should see a window that looks like the XTension Mac,
only now it's on your Audrey !
Bingo ! You're controlling XTension !

the VNC client
the vnc client


Things to think about

Remember that you can create 'Graphic View' in XTension and that you can option a Unit to be 'single click'. Thus you can create graphic views with icons for Units that need only be 'touched' on the Audrey screen to change the state of that Unit.

You can also create 'pseudo' units which have Unit scripts that cause XTension to 'front' a particular Window (ie: another Graphic view or List, or the Log Window.)

IE: front window "Log Window"


Should you now want to shut down that connection, and just use the Audrey for other things, just touch the 'go away' button in the upper left corner of the 'shell' window, and then touch 'close' in the pop-down menu.

This will close the connection with the Mac, but remember that it does not cause the 'VNC server' to quit. You can again tell Audrey to connect to the XTension Mac by going back to the Audrey browser,
and typing :
http://localhost/shell.shtml?pterm [enter] which gets you the 'shell' window again ....


One leeetle thing

There is as yet a problem with trying to display the screen of a remote machine that is larger than 640 x 480. There is some indication that it can be as large as 800 x 600, however if you see a "Memory Fault" error, you should try to set the resolution of your XTension Mac display to 640 x 480.

PLEASE note that this tutorial is 'in work'. and that the link to the 'root' may not be finished yet ...

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Last modified: September 30, 2007
Michael Ferguson, webmaster@shed.com