[MAC] XBMCHelper (XBMC's IR-helper) new Beta version (with Logitech Harmony support)

DAddYE · 2009-05-28 09:48

Hi Maestro,

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

    <key>Label</key>

    <string>org.xbmc.helper</string>

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>

    <array>

        <string>/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/tools/osx/XBMCHelper</string>

        <string> -x</string>

    </array>

    <key>RunAtLoad</key>

    <true/>

</dict>

</plist>

What did you mean as "subscription?" I tried to enable/disable from xbmc the remote and my conf is always:

Code:

$ cat ~/Library/Application\ Support/XBMC/XBMCHelper.conf

--timeout 50 --appPath "/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/MacOS/XBMC" --appHome "/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC"

MaestroDD Wrote:hm, tried to subscribe again?

please add output of

Code:

cat ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.xbmc.helper.plist

cheers,
mdd

**MaestroDD** · 2009-05-29 01:33

Hey DAddYE,

reproduced it here. It was a typo in XBMC :/
It's fixed in svn but unfortunately didn't make it into 9.04.1.

As a temporary fix you could modify the LaunchAgent plist and make it read-only.

In ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.xbmc.helper.plist change

Code:

<string> -x</string>

to

Code:

<string>-x</string>

and do

Code:

chmod -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.xbmc.helper.plist

to prevent XBMC from overwriting it.

Thanks for pointing this out!
mdd

DAddYE · 2009-05-29 11:30

Many many thanks mdd for your fastest and great support. Now Im at work, but when I come back I will try.

Thanks a lot!

Ayla · 2009-05-30 13:12

MaestroDD,

If I wanted to map a button on my Harmony remote, so that it emulates that the "F3" key on my keyboard is pressed, how would I do that?

Thanks Smile

/Martin

**MaestroDD** · 2009-05-30 13:39

Ayla Wrote:If I wanted to map a button on my Harmony remote, so that it emulates that the "F3" key on my keyboard is pressed, how would I do that?

There's no way to map Harmony buttons to keyboard presses, but you are able to map Harmony buttons to XBMC actions. See Keymap.xml in our manual for more information.

Key "F3" maps to "XBMC.ActivateWindow(videolibrary,tvshowtitles,return)" by default. To do that with the Harmony, take the button in Keymap.xml you want to remap, and set the action for it.
By example: if you wanted to remap "1" on your harmony, you'd do:

Code:

[...]

      <!-- 1--> <button id="11">XBMC.ActivateWindow(videolibrary,tvshowtitles,return)</button> 

[...]

this is not specific for the Harmony, so searching for Keymap.xml will probably give you lot's of examples.
HTH,
mdd

Ayla · 2009-05-30 14:21

MaestroDD Wrote:There's no way to map Harmony buttons to keyboard presses, but you are able to map Harmony buttons to XBMC actions. See Keymap.xml in our manual for more information.

Key "F3" maps to "XBMC.ActivateWindow(videolibrary,tvshowtitles,return)" by default. To do that with the Harmony, take the button in Keymap.xml you want to remap, and set the action for it.
By example: if you wanted to remap "1" on your harmony, you'd do:

Code:

[...]  <button id="11">XBMC.ActivateWindow(videolibrary,tvshowtitles,return)</button> [...]

this is not specific for the Harmony, so searching for Keymap.xml will probably give you lot's of examples.
HTH,
mdd

Thanks for the reply MaestroDD !

What I want to do, is change monitor resolution on-the-fly.

With Plex I had the "red" button on my Harmony remote point to a small script which only job was to do a "F3" key press.

In SwitchResX I have "F3" as a global shortcut to enable 1080p@60Hz for example.

Is there any way I can achieve this "F3" button press now that I use XBMC instead of Plex (I can of course change the "F3" key to another key in SwitchResX if that's necessary)?

EDIT: I found this command by googling: XBMC.RunScript(q:\scripts\test.py)

So maybe I could do a Python script which only function is to "press F3" and point to it with the above command in the keymap.xml?

/Martin

Ayla · 2009-05-30 18:46

Another question,

I'm using the Harmony 890 and latest XBMC Mac SVN build.

What do I need to do, if I wan't XBMC to start up automatically when I start my Activity on the Harmony?

And when I leave the Activity I wan't the computer to sleep?

Thanks Smile

Martin

**MaestroDD** · 2009-05-31 21:05

Ayla Wrote:Another question,

I'm using the Harmony 890 and latest XBMC Mac SVN build.

What do I need to do, if I wan't XBMC to start up automatically when I start my Activity on the Harmony?

Not sure what enabling the "Activity" does on the harmony, but if you disable "Always On" in AppleRemote settings in XBMC, XBMCHelper won't run if XBMC is not active and thus won't be able to start XBMC.
Does that help?

Ayla Wrote:And when I leave the Activity I wan't the computer to sleep?

it probably just shuts down XBMC. Does closing XBMC put your computer to sleep, too?

cheers,
mdd

Ayla · 2009-05-31 21:34

MaestroDD Wrote:Not sure what enabling the "Activity" does on the harmony, but if you disable "Always On" in AppleRemote settings in XBMC, XBMCHelper won't run if XBMC is not active and thus won't be able to start XBMC.
Does that help?

it probably just shuts down XBMC. Does closing XBMC put your computer to sleep, too?

cheers,
mdd

Thanks for the reply.

In the Harmony software, you can set up a command to be executed when an Activity starts and one when you leave an Activity.

So I guess I need to know what commands I should use.

There must be many other Harmony users out there who has this set up? Wink

BDPNA · 2009-06-02 06:40

Anyone else having an issue where the Fast Forward and the Chapter Skip buttons are both doing the same thing (a chapter skip?) Is there a fix to get the regular rewind and ff buttons to just do that function? I am using the latest keymap.xml and latest helper from this thread and the latest SVN on OSX.

DAddYE Junior Member Posts: 20 Joined: May 2009 Reputation: 0	2009-05-29 11:30 Post: #113 Many many thanks mdd for your fastest and great support. Now Im at work, but when I come back I will try. Thanks a lot!
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Ayla Fan Posts: 578 Joined: Feb 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-05-30 13:12 Post: #114 MaestroDD, If I wanted to map a button on my Harmony remote, so that it emulates that the "F3" key on my keyboard is pressed, how would I do that? Thanks /Martin
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Ayla Fan Posts: 578 Joined: Feb 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-05-30 18:46 Post: #117 Another question, I'm using the Harmony 890 and latest XBMC Mac SVN build. What do I need to do, if I wan't XBMC to start up automatically when I start my Activity on the Harmony? And when I leave the Activity I wan't the computer to sleep? Thanks Martin
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BDPNA Fan Posts: 420 Joined: Sep 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-06-02 06:40 Post: #120 Anyone else having an issue where the Fast Forward and the Chapter Skip buttons are both doing the same thing (a chapter skip?) Is there a fix to get the regular rewind and ff buttons to just do that function? I am using the latest keymap.xml and latest helper from this thread and the latest SVN on OSX.
	find quote