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current [2018/07/14 10:44] James Sentmancurrent [2023/07/30 17:34] James Sentman
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-=====XTension Version 9.4.6===== +=====Download XTension 9.5.3===== 
-Released7/13/2018\\+ 
 +Released 7/30/2023\\
 \\ \\
-Download[[http://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_986.zip|XTension v9.4.(build 9867/13/2018]]\\ +Download Universal Binary for all Supported OS versions; [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/files/xtension/xtension_9_5_3.dmg|XTension. v 9.5.3 (build 1084)]]\\
-zipfile md5 = [[tech_notes:md5|448274952c7346224c2b778594be2b81]]\\+
  
 +**Minimum System Version** for this release is OSX 10.10 but not all plugins will function properly prior to 10.13. Please start the necessary work to upgrade to at least 10.13 or recommended 10.15 or newer. At some point in the near future it will no longer be possible for me to support anything prior to 10.13 and the video plugins will never work prior to Catalina.
  
-====Change Log==== +**Rosetta Note:** While the entirety of the main app and all more recent plugins are Universal and run natively on Intel or Apple Silicon there are a few older plugins including the W800 and CM11 that are still Intel only. They run fine under Rosetta and you’ll never notice the difference. The only issue is that Rosetta is not included by default on the new Apple Silicon MacsYoull need to first run any Intel app, or do get info on any app at all and select open using Rosetta” then the OS will tell you that you need Rosetta and would you like to install it nowOnce you complete that those plugins will run normally.
-  NEW: Lifx device support. These are excellent WiFi attached color capable light bulbs. Most of the same features as the phillips hue bulbs but they don’t require a hub. Create a new instance of the Lifx interface and all the devices on the network will magically appear in your database and give you full control over their color and color temperature. These bulbs can also be brighter than the Phillips bulbs as they come in 75 watt equivalent versions. As of this moment the driver is in beta. It does not yet poll the bulbs for local changes or for changes that you might make through their mobile apps or other interfaces. It does not support the more complex devices they sell like the panels or the tracks though that is definitely coming. It also doesn’t have any support for color loops or display presentations yet but that is also coming. +
-  NEWVera UI7 natively supports the standard virtual device that is commonly used in places where the vera insists on having a unit. +
-  NEW: Vera UI7 now has a device type for Scene Controller. This will support Central Scene capable dimmers like the [[supported_modules:wallmote|WallMote Quad]] and the Hank branded scene controllers. +
-  NEW: wiki article discussing the [[supported_modules:wallmote|WallMote]] scene controllers. +
-  * NEW: wiki artivle discussing the excellent [[supported_modules:hs-wd100|Home Seer HS-WD100+ dimmer]] family of devices and how to set their inner parameters with XTension. +
-  * NEW: Vera UI7 new [[dictionary:unitcontrol:setdata|setData]] command for setting parameters inside ZWave devices. This will let you easily set things like a switches ramp rate or turning it’s LED’s on and off. +
-  * NEW: Vera UI7 support for the new [[supported_modules:hs-wd200|Home Seer HS-WD200+ dimmers]] and how to control their lights individually via the above mentioned setData command. You can now control the color and flash rate of each LED on these new dimmers directly from XTension to show the state of something or flash an alert or anything you choose. The WD200 devices also support 2 new gestures. You can now trap in XTension the quadruple tap and the pentuple tap if you need that many central scene commands :)  +
-  * FIX: Vera UI7 now properly recognizes door and motion sensors and will create units for them in XTension without you having to wait for an event to happen on them. +
-  * FIX: unrecognized security devices should now automatically create a unit for their tripped state once the first change for that unit is received. Previously we were suppressing those incorrectly. This means that I don’t have to manually add every single potential type of security unit but ones I haven’t manually added will not create a unit at startup, only after a change in state has been sent. +
-  * FIX: Fixed a problem with the web remote not processing the correct “state” advanced label syntax based on the value of a unit. Basically it was always treating a unit as if it were not-dimmable so you would only ever get the off state and the first on state. Now it will probably parse that state list and give you the correct label. +
-  * FIX: A regression in a previous build caused the RFXt driver to launch the wrong actual plugin. Thats now fixed and the RFXt will work normally again. +
-  * FIX: The “show properties” button in the toolbar of the edit unit window once again shows the properties window for the unit rather than opening up an empty window and logging an error. +
-  * FIX: Vera UI7 now properly displays updates for remote changes of thermostat mode and fan mode changes. Previously it failed to receive these and the mode would only update if you changed it from XTension. +
-  * FIX: Vera UI7 I was using the wrong state variable for the energy savings mode, it should now update properly when the mode is changed locally at the thermostat or through other vera interfaces. +
-  * FIX: If you’re editing a script that has an idle timer created and run it in the script editor and then click cancel rather than save the timer and script will no longer be left running in the background with no way to stop them except for quitting and restarting XTension. +
-  * NEW: Web Remote and Mobile Web Remote both display the color temperature as a degrees k value like the built in control in XTension.  +
-  * NEW: Web Remote and Mobile Web Remote when controlling a color or color temperature unit now will show the current state of the color or temperature in a box in the upper right of the detailed unit controls just like the desktop control did. Clicking on that control will bring up a small window where you can physically type in a colors RGB value or a color temperatures degree k value and send it specifically to the device. This works for any color or color temperature supported device. Previously the web UI’s were limited to clicking on the limited pallet of choices or selecting a preset. +
-  * NEW: You can now save a preset from the mobile web remote. The previously was impossible because you could not generate a control-click to bring up the contextual menu on an iPhone. There is now a “save preset” button that brings up a list of the current presets for you to select from into which it will then save the current state of the bulbcolor temperature or color as currently operating. +
-  * NEW: plugins can now execute script handlers inside either it’s interface script or inside units ON script in order to send you more info about the device. +
-  * NEW: plugins can now define script handlers and insert them into the “insert” menu when editing either the units ON script or the interface script so you don’t even have to go read the wiki to know what information it can send you. +
-  * NEW: Via that mechanism the new Vera UI7 plugin adds the “on central scene” handler and some documentation to that popup when you’re editing an eligable units ON script. +
-  * NEW: a plugin may save to a unit a default” label that describes the current state but without overriding the ON and OFF label of the unit if the user has set those. For example the new thermostat support will set a default label in the Mode and State units for the current mode and state. If you’re happy with those values you don’t have to change anything however if your thermostat supports different values or you just wish to change the wording of those you can still add an advanced label state tag to the On and Off labels of the unit to have it display what you wish. You can override the labels sent by the plugin. Previously I was sending actual values for the On and Off labels which would have overwritten your custom settings. +
-  * FIX: using the “install plugin” menu item to install a different version of a plugin that ships inside of XTension no longer tries to remove the one that is in the application. It just puts the new one inside the plugin folder in your database where it will override the shipped version. +
-  * FIX: fixed an error condition with the Shared Database sender that could have it spinning at 100% of a CPU during certain error states while it retried to connect with no delay between attempts. +
-  * NEW: Vera UI7 added another script command for Update Neighbors. If a device is not responding or not reliably responding to commands you can reconfigure just the units nearby to try to create a new path. There is no interface button for this yet but you can do it via the command line by issuing something like: tell xUnit “name of a unit” to updateNeighbors() +
-  * FIX: after installing a plugin via the “install plugin” menu item only interfaces that were actually enabled at the time of the install are restartedPreviously all interfaces assigned to the plugin were started up even if they were disabled at the time you installed the plugin. +
-  * NEW: the install plugin now internally works the same as the new [[dictionary:xtension:recycleinterface|Recycle Interface]] verb. This means that it returns very quickly and the interfaces will shutdown and restart cleanly in the background.+
  
 +====9.5.3 Change Log:====
  
-Note6:30am 7/14/18 I am still plagued by the occasional version control snafu from our switch to using git recentlyThe first version uploaded had the wrong builds of both the Lifx plugin and the mobile web remote plugin included in the packageThe Lifx plugin wouldn’t have run at all, The mobile web remote just displayed the color controls for every unit. I’ve re-uploaded the same version with both of those things including the correct version as of 6:30am on 7/14If you downloaded prior to that and use the mobile web remote or wanted to try the Lifx plugin please download againSorry about that...+  * **Amcrest Camera API:** 
 +    * Fixed an issue that caused some cameras not to work with the event system. If you find that any cameras still do not send you events but also dont log any other communication or connection errors please let me know we can gather some more info. 
 +    * Added a check to the enableEvents() command so that it will not try to enable events that the plugin does not recognize as valid. This keeps you from either getting nothing, or getting an error message each time the unknown events is sent. If there are events that I am not handling that you know about and would like to get please let me know we can gather more info about them and set them up. 
 +    * Added support for specific Units to link to Object Detection if your camera supports it. You can now create a Unit to get an ON when a human is detected, or when a vehical is detected and so forth. 
 +    * Amcrest API New Status and Display commands: 
 +      * setFontScale(0.1..2.0) control the size of the text displayed over the image. 
 +      * setChannelTitleVisible( true|false) 
 +      * setChannelTitleLocation( 34, 12) 
 +      * setChannelTitleColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setChannelTitleBackColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setUserDisplayVisible( index, true|false) 
 +      * setUserDisplayText( index, “the info to display”) 
 +      * setUserDisplayLocation( index, xloc, yloc) 
 +      * setUserDisplayColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setUserDisplayBackColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setLogoVisible( true|false) hide or show the Amcrest logo image overlay 
 +      * setLogoLocation( xLoc, yLoc) 
 +      * setLogoFilename( “osd.bmp”) your camera must support allowing you to change this or it will do nothing. 
 +      * setTimeDisplayVisible( true|false) 
 +      * setTimeDisplayLocation( xLoc, yLoc) 
 +      * setTimeDisplayColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setTimeDisplayBackColor( R, G, B, A) 
 +      * setTimeDisplayFormat( “yyyy-M-dd hh:mm:ss t”) see the wiki link above for a table of valid format string entities. 
 +      * note that there is a limit to the number of overlays the camera can “blend” into the encoding video. Check the capabilities below to find out what the limit is for your camera. They may all be different. My doorbell cam can only do 2 at once. 
 +    * changed the logEvents() command to be showEvents() and it now shows the info in a window rather than just writing it to the log. 
 +    * changed logMotionRegions() showMotionRegions() which also shows the list in a separate window rather than just writing it to the log. 
 +    * showCapabilities() opens a window with most, but not all, of the capabilities of the camera listed. There are still some more to add 
 +    * There are a LOT of other things I can add to this plugin that could be controlled.  If you know of something else you’d like to be able to tweak in the cameras programmatically please let me know. 
 +  * **Last Activity:** A change to the Last Activity date handlingPreviously if a Unit had never had any activity after being created it would show a last activity date of the time the program was last started. This caused confusion in list windows when sorted by date and is something I’ve been meaning to deal with forever. Now if a Unit has no last activity date it will display as “Never” in the list window, but be sorted as if the date had a total seconds property of 0. In other interfaces or via the scripting commands it will return a date with the earliest date/time that the normal unix date can hold so something like 1/7/1903 or whatever that is. So it will sort properly and no longer be confusing.  
 +  * **Home Kit:** 
 +    * Updated the Home Kit libraries some but not all the way to current. They have made some significant changes in the most recent builds that break it completely for us in the short term though I”ll keep working on that. This is unlikely to either cause or cure any problems people may be having with it as the only changes were to the handling of Thermostats. Home Kit now always sets the Mode of the HVAAC to Auto. This is not due to anything that I can do anything about easily and is a decision that Apple has made. I may be able to override some of this handling to not accept those changes from the thermostat but only send them from XTension or something like that if it is a problem. 
 +  * **Hue Plugin:** 
 +    * Hue Plugin: Fixed an issue where it could send continual updates for a sensor value even if the value had not changed. 
 +    * Hue Plugin: Fixed an issue where the temperature format was not saved, sticking all readings in F. 
 +  * **Video System:** 
 +    * Video Encoder Plugin: Added a checkbox so you can suppress logging of video encoding times if you wish. 
 +    * Video: Removed error logging for stalled streams as this would fill the log if the camera was offline for any length of time. To log this information please implement the stalled script handler in the Interface Script and write to the log whatever information is helpful. 
 +    * Video: “Orphaned” recordings that may have been left unencoded when the app quit are now properly encoded and managed when you next startup the app. 
 +  * **Sysinfo Plugin:** 
 +    * System Info Plugin: no longer claims in it’s startup log message to be the Disk Space plugin
 +    * Fixed an incorrect default link to the boot volume so that this will work without having to edit it each time. 
 +  * **Internal Python:** 
 +    * Python: A symlink to the built in python3 version is now added to /usr/local/bin/pythonxt so if you wish to use the built in version for your own script you can just execute it via that command. 
 +    * Python: XTension changes many environment variables in order to use it’s internal version of python. If you are running a system version of python in your own script from a shell in XTension this may cause errors or make it unable to find installed modules. You can now use a scripting command “revertENV()” in your script before invoking your shell script to reset the environment to the system default just before launching it which will solve most, but probably not all of these issues. Note that you should do this immediately before starting any shell script as XTension will change it again as needed when launching plugins.  
 +  * **Web Remote:** 
 +    * Web Remote: New documentation of the hashing of web remote links to immediately go to a specific page or view. This can be useful if you are saving specific links as iOS shortcuts, or creating a Kiosk type application. This is not a new feature, but was never properly documented. [[webremote:kioskview|Kiosk View and Hash Linking Info]] 
 +    * Web Remote: Added several new scripting commands to control sessions in the web remote. This lets you programmatically change the view on a specific device to say, a video page or a View in response to motion or other event. Additionally you can script a popup alert or timed message in any color to display on all active sessions or only on specific ones. [[webremote:scripting|Scripting Web Remote]] 
 +    * Web Remote: Added support for a resource folder that will be served as regular files through the web remote built in web server. This way if custom controls or other features you are adding need to load a specific image or other support file they can do so if you put it in the resources directory inside your XTension Database. [[webremote:resourceserver|Resource Server]] 
 +    * Note that these changes have not been rolled into the mobile web remote plugin, only the desktop version. 
 +  * **Plugin API:** 
 +    * A new key for the info.json file that will allow a plugin to receive any scripting command the user issues. This simplifies some kinds of plugin tasks at the expense that users script will not know if the command succeeded or not, all commands will just be sent and forgot. This does not affect regular using the apponly plugin developers. 
 +    * Added the capability for plugins to display information in new text windows and to append to or change the display of one without opening a new window each time. This mostly affects plugin developers but I used it in the new and changed show info commands in the Amcrest API plugin above. 
 +    * All plugins now log their version number in the startup message from the information stored in their info.json file. This will keep them from always being wrong as I forget to update it in 2 places instead of just 1. 
 +  * **Hubitat Plugin:** 
 +    * Hubitat: Added entries to the “insert” toolbar menu for the central scene Held, and Released events to make it easier to script these without having to visit the wiki to look up the specifics. 
 +    * Hubitat: Added support for Energy and Usage units. If a device reports these values a Unit will be created for them. 
 +    * More updates and changes to the new handling of “string” data types.If there is a number at the beginning of the String value then that is parsed and sent to Xtension as the value for the Unit. The description is no longer changed to the raw value but rather a new Unit Property called "Raw Value" is added and kept updated to the full text of the string. If there is no number in the string, or if it just does not begin with a number, then the value of the Unit is set to 0 and the default label for the unit is set to the raw value string as well as the same unit property. No default label is set if there is a number at the beginning of the string so that user formatting and suffix will be honored normally 
 +    * Hubitat: Some devices from the Hubitat will now have more descriptive, or less long winded names when created by default. This will mostly effect the Thermostat units but some others can be made better with this too. This does not affect Units already created, and you can always manually edit the unit’s name once it’s created to be whatever you like in either case. 
 +    * Hubitat: The list of supported commands for each Unit is now saved to a [[dictionary:unitinformation:getunitproperty|Unit Property]] so  you can see all the commands the device supports directly. You may still have to discover what parameters are required, if any, but this will make it easier to do things to the Units via the [[https://www.machomeautomation.com/doku.php/supported_hardware/hubitat#sending_device_specific_commandsm|sendDeviceCommand()]] 
 +    * Hubitat: Push messages from the Hubitat that are sent when a software update is started, or when the device is about to reboot to install a software update will now just log that information rather than generate an “unknown push message” error in the log. 
 +  * **Software Defined Radio Plugin:** Fixed the incorrect wiki link in the interface and added a link to the github pages for more documentation if desired. 
 +  * **Scripting Dictionary:** 
 +    * NEW: the [[dictionary:unitinformation:enumeratedvalue|Enumerated Value]] verb now accepts an optional parameter “for” and will return the correct enumeration for the value that you pass or an error if the enumeration is out of range. This is especially useful in the ON script of a unit as you can now check the enumeration for the future value to see what it is going to be when the script is done running. The direct parameter of unit name is now also made optional and if you dont specify it then it will use the value for thisUnit making it easier to script these in a units on or off scriptFor example: **write log enumerated value for (future value)** would write the enumerated value for the new value being passed to the On script. 
 +    * NEW: The [[dictionary:unitinformation:changefuturevalue|change future value]] verb now also accepts enumerations just like the regular set value verbs so you can issue a change future value to “high” instead of just knowing what the numerical value is. 
 +  * **Xtension UI:** 
 +    * New: Each unit will get a new Unit Property called Created with the date the unit was created. You can add this to any List view by control clicking in the headers and selecting create custom column. Then you can sort lists by the date the Unit was created and not just the last activity date. For new Units this is set as they are created and then never changed. For existing Units the date is taken from the creation date of their folder within the database. This seems to work pretty well for most units most of the time, but there may be a date in the past where you restored a database or otherwise performed an action on it that would have reset those dates. This is still the best I can do but keep in mind that older Units may not show the date they were actually created, but the last time you zipped and moved the database or something like that. 
 +  * **XTdb:** XTdb “meta” units now set their “thisUnit” value properly when being updated so that you can filter the log by them like any other Unit. 
 +  * **Control By Web Plugin:** 
 +    * Added support for sending user/password info to devices that have this level of security turned on. 
 +    * Added a checkbox for “Automatically Create New Units In XTension” so that you can disable this after you have gotten the Units you desire and not have to keep the ones you are not using at this time. 
 +    * Added a checkbox for “Ignore VIN Values” the control by web devices all send their input voltage. This might be useful or it might just be a value that is constantly updated as the value shifts by a tenth of a volt causing extra load and log spamYou can check this to ignore those values and neither create a Unit to hold it nor send updates for it’s changing. 
 +    * I’ve added some checks and trimming of the unit names as they are being changed into addresses to try to fix some potential issues with creating units in XTension. This is not an issue I can duplicate so am just throwing stuff at the wall to see what happens.
  
 +-----
 +
 +NOTE: This disk image no longer includes the older legacy plugins that will not be updated for newer OS versions. If you still need to run the [[supported_hardware:cm19]], [[supported_hardware:cm15a]], [[supported_hardware:zwave]] or the various Smarthome X10 interfaces please download [[tech_notes:catalina|the legacy plugins package from here]] and install the ones you need via the “Install Plugin” menu item of the “Database” menu. 
 + 
 =====Previous Releases===== =====Previous Releases=====
 {{indexmenu>:current#2|js#doku}} {{indexmenu>:current#2|js#doku}}
  
-=== Older Versions === +
-[[beta|The Changelog and Download links for builds between 763 and version 9.1 can be found here]]+
current.txt · Last modified: 2024/02/05 17:53 by James Sentman