Potential SageTV Win 8 "Metro" app

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by JerryB

That's how I read it as well. Metro apps that get their information from public web servers are fine but apps that get their information from private and especially local web servers are not. Unfortunately, with respect to SageTV, the only data that is meaningful to a user is the data from their own server.

Can you create a public website that will act as a dummy Sage server and ship your app so that by default it uses this dummy but can be configured to use a local web server?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by stuckless

And, on a side note, the sagex-apis, is what is used in the new google fibre/sagetv product....

This is a big deal. I'm surprised nobody commented about it.

[Dargason]

What about making something for Rainmeter or some other similar application? I expect I'll spend most of my time on a desktop anyway...

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I would pick this up again 6 months after Windows 8 is released. I'm sure MS will change some of their policies (for better or worse) once the OS is released.

I'm saving the code and hoping that Microsoft ultimately recognize the folly of their current rules.

In the meantime, I have an initial version of the app sideloaded and running on my computers for what may turn out to be prolonged "beta testing." If this turns up any issues, I'll fix them. I've already invested too many hours on this not to. This way, if and when Microsoft does decide to change their rules, I should be ready to open beta testing up to external sites. In addition, if and when Microsoft changes their rules, I'll resume working on what I consider to be the last major missing component of the app, namely, implementing live tile updates when the app isn't actively running.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you create a public website that will act as a dummy Sage server and ship your app so that by default it uses this dummy but can be configured to use a local web server?

I thought about this. Unfortunately, it doesn't address the issue of Microsoft blocking localhost in metro apps meaning that people who got the app might find that, while it runs great on the dummy web server, it won't run on their local system (depending upon system configuration) and I couldn't even tell them about this issue since I'd have to present the app to and through Microsoft as if the dummy web server was the real server for the app.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by Dargason

What about making something for Rainmeter or some other similar application? I expect I'll spend most of my time on a desktop anyway...

Hmmm... I might poke at this a little this weekend...

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by stuckless
And, on a side note, the sagex-apis, is what is used in the new google fibre/sagetv product....

Originally Posted by tmiranda

This is a big deal. I'm surprised nobody commented about it.

I agree... this is a huge deal! It's an amazing piece of work.... pretty cool to have it used in the next Sage(Google) solution! Stuckless must be thrilled.

k

[wayner]

On a related note - I think it was an extremely shortsighted decision for MS to essentially disown Gadgets about a year ago, even for Windows 7.

I found the Gadgets quite useful and telling people to go to Win8 and use Metro tiles is not a solution. My work PC was just upgraded last week to Win7 from XP - you can bet that it will not upgraded to Win8 in the near term. I would love to have useful Gadgets for my Win7 desktop but that isn't really an option anymore and many Gadgets from the past are no longer supported and don't seem to work.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by JerryB

Windows removed all support from Gadgets from Win8 at the RTM stage. That's why I started writing a Win8 app, to try and replace the gadget functionality that I was losing.

That makes sense - I didn't know that Gadgets are now totally gone.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by wayner

I would love to have useful Gadgets for my Win7 desktop but that isn't really an option anymore and many Gadgets from the past are no longer supported and don't seem to work.

I know, I really like them and find them useful too. The only one that has pretty much outright broke for me is the nVidia GPU monitor -- one of my faves

If you're in the mood to hack around a bit (at least that was the state of affairs a couple of years ago) Rainmeter (mentioned above) might be a workable solution. I was just poking around their site and will probably try switching over to it again...

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I agree... this is a huge deal! It's an amazing piece of work.... pretty cool to have it used in the next Sage(Google) solution! Stuckless must be thrilled.

k

And it means that programmers will be able to create apps that interact with the server.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

And it means that programmers will be able to create apps that interact with the server.

Don't to too thrilled... while it is likely to make it into version 1.0... I've already been told that it will probably be replaced at some point. I don't know the specifics, but it is cool that they chose to use it, and yeah, it does mean that the core of Fibre really is SageTV apis, and there may be potential for "plugins".

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Don't to too thrilled... while it is likely to make it into version 1.0... I've already been told that it will probably be replaced at some point. I don't know the specifics, but it is cool that they chose to use it, and yeah, it does mean that the core of Fibre really is SageTV apis, and there may be potential for "plugins".

As long as they provide some way to interface with the device I'll be happy

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by Dargason

What about making something for Rainmeter or some other similar application? I expect I'll spend most of my time on a desktop anyway...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59065 :-)

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by Dargason

What about making something for Rainmeter or some other similar application? I expect I'll spend most of my time on a desktop anyway...

As noted above, Darcilicious is working on a Rainmeter app. I have no experience with Rainmeter and am working on a different approach to the problem, namely creating a pseudo-gadget that will sit in a small window on the desktop and provide SageTV schedule information without requiring the gadget library/functions that Microsoft removed in Windows 8 or the approval from Microsoft that is required to publish and distribute a "Metro" or what they're now calling "Windows Store" app. To keep this app separate from my Metro app I'm going to start a new thread, "SageTV Win8 non-Metro app," for this app.

[NoodleNT]

Did you get around to releasing this? I just switched to a SurfacePro and was hoping to have something like this as I used the Win7 Gadget all the time.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

Did you get around to releasing this? I just switched to a SurfacePro and was hoping to have something like this as I used the Win7 Gadget all the time.

Unfortunately, I was forced to terminate development of this project because of Microsoft rules/requirements for Modern Apps. Specifically, Microsoft blocks all localhost traffic in Modern Apps so the app cannot access a locally hosted SageTV webserver and Microsoft will not approve an app that has external dependencies, such as SageTV, making it impossible to create a modern app that extends the functionality of a commercial program.

Because of this, I created a small desktop application that functions similar to a Windows Vista/7 gadget without requiring the gadget code that Microsoft removed in Windows 8. I believe the SurfacePro can run regular Windows programs and not just Modern Apps. If so, you might want to look into this app.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59068

Similar to the gadget, the app requires that SageTV Webserver be installed an running on your system. If this is something that you're interested in, send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you the link to the setup files.

[NoodleNT]

For a work around I used "RSS Reader Live" and just have it pull my upcoming recording RSS feed. Works... not much to look at though.