Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] Converted to ECS Web Interface Don Stephens Tue, 30 May 2000 20:40:12 -0700

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Martin:

I've been banging my head against the wall with this. Could you share some
parts of your Java stuff?

Thanks:

Don
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Terry" <Martin.Terry@mail.tribnet.com>
To: "Ecs-List (E-mail)" <ecs-list@netbloc.com>
Sent: Monday, May 29, 2000 11:53 PM
Subject: [ECS] Converted to ECS Web Interface


> ECSers,
>
> Well, I took a 4 day weekend and took the plunge and converted my
Automation
> system to ECS's new browser interface. I previously had used ACE as the
User
> Interface for ECS.
>
> First off, Mark should be commended for the amazing transformation of ECS.
> The flexibility and power of the interface is pretty awesome!
>
> Here's a little bit of my current setup -
>
> ECS is running on a P133 in my garage. It's connected to an Ethernet based
> LAN in the house. It has a modem that does dial-up for internet access as
> necessary. My client machine is a P75 (!) in the Kitchen/Family Room
> (previously running ACE) now running IE 4. It's about as quick as the ACE
> client was, so even with the low speed machines performance is not bad.
>
> I've spent some time over the last couple of weeks "dissecting" the web
> pages that ECS generates automatically. Mark makes generous use of Java
> applets, with numerous parameters that are passed to control the look and
> feel. I had a pretty good feel for how they work, boosted by HTML and JAVA
> for dummies books. :)
>
> I then setup some basic pages of HTML, keeping in mind what I currently
get
> done in ACE. I swiped a bunch of graphics from the web and coded all the
> pages by hand, making generous use of frames.
> I've done a little HTML prior to this, but I'm a novice at best.
>
> The result is that I have about 70% of what I had in ACE. It looks much
> snazzier than ACE and can be whatever you want it to be. I intend to get
all
> of what I'm doing with ACE, then add some new stuff like integrating
weather
> reports, automatic page refreshes maybe even TV listings (but I'm waiting
on
> this, I expect Mark is working on this now). I'm going to set up some
pages
> to be downloaded off line then integrate them into ECS's pages.
>
> OK, now the Pros and Cons:
>
> Pro - Flexible, colorful, and can have any look you want. Any of Mark's
java
> applets on the page automatically update states and so forth when things
> change, without having to refresh the page - way cool. Can integrate any
> data you can put in a web page. Can have links to the internet (if you
have
> a full time connection, I don't).
>
> Cons - Mainly a lack of documentation; no wimps here, you will have to
> figure most of this out yourself. For example ICON_W=26 Who would have
> guessed this is a percentage of the icon's size? Good luck.
>
> I tried some animated GIFs, but they wouldn't work - this could have
easily
> been me or the browser. I'm not a big fan of animated GIFs anyway. :)
>
> Suggestions/Questions for Mark -
>
> Mark, is there anyway to change the background color of the item java
> applets? Mine always show up with a gray background. Also, is there a way
to
> turn off the thin line border that surrounds the applet? I'd like to ditch
> it if I could.
>
> Also, the messages link (e.g. ecs:3000/Messages) always shows the single
> line message applet on top of the message list, can we list the messages
> without this line? I already have that applet on the page and I'm trying
to
> show the messages in a frame. Speaking of the messages, can we control the
> font and background? And can they list in reverse order (most recent on
> top?).
>
> Anyway, thanks for the great update.
>
>
>
>

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