User

10.07.2007 03:37:59

I downloaded Remote Buddy last week and I have a strange issue. I'm unable to start photo slideshow using Keyspan + RB. I can browse all the albums and also select the specific album and it opens up the album I selected but when I select "select" or "play" button it does not start the slideshow. I'm not sure if I need to change in configurations on iPhoto or RB. It would be helpful if somebody could give me some suggestions on how to get this working.

Current Config: Keyspan + RB + Mac Mini(PowerPC)

Thank you very much in advance.

User

11.07.2007 22:40:01

Thanks for asking.

Which version of iPhoto are you using?

Also, if you are inside Remote Buddy's main menu: what action is 
shown in the "legend" (showing you the mapping of buttons to actions 
for the "Activate Behaviour" / "Hide menu" entry) for the Select 
button? Is it "Start slideshow / Pause" or something else?

Did you map your buttons differently - especially in the global 
mappings (Preferences > Hardware > *your remote*)?

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

12.07.2007 02:16:35

The iPhoto version is '05.

The action is shown in the "legend" for for the Select buttonb? Is it "Start slideshow / Pause"

Also I have not made any changes to the default settings(global preferences)

User

13.07.2007 12:10:01

Thanks for the info!

I've just had a look at which AppleScript commands iPhoto '05 does 
supports. As it turns out, it does not support the asynchronous 
launch of a slide show like iPhoto '06 (so that's new in iPhoto '05), 
which basically means that - once a slideshow is started - you loose 
any control over it via AppleScript (any AppleScript will just block 
until the end of the slideshow). As AppleScript is needed to 
determine whether a slide show is running or not and then react 
accordingly, iPhoto '05 as such is not compatible with the iPhoto 
Behaviour. It's '06 only at this point.

You can work around this quite easily, though:

1) Create a custom action with this AppleScript snippet:

tell application "iPhoto" to start slideshow

Choose it for the button you want to start the presentation with.

2) Map the left and right buttons to the left and right cursor key 
actions of the Virtual Keyboard

3) Map the esc key action of the Virtual Keyboard to the button you 
want to quit the slideshow, and the space key action to the button 
you want to pause the slideshow with.

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

28.07.2007 00:48:55

Hi Felix,

Thank you very much for responding to my query.

First I would like to apologize for not replying to your feedback earlier

I was able to get Slideshows working based on the suggestion (THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH) but I'm unable to pause or stop them. I'm using a KeySpan remote and I tried to add a custom funtion to stop the slide show

tell application "iPhoto" to stop slideshow

It compiled successfully but when I map it to the "Stop" button it does not stop the slideshow

I'm guessing that I did not correctly perform the steps (2) and (3) mentioned in your feedback.

Can you please provide further instructions on how to perform Steps (2) and (3)? Can I perform them even if I'm using the KeySpan Remote.

Sorry for trouble. 
Siddartha 

User

29.07.2007 20:23:02

Hi Siddharta,

the problem you experience is exactly why navigation does not work 
with the default behaviour in the first place.

The problem is that in iPhoto '05, if you tell it to start a 
slideshow via AppleScript, this command does not finish until the 
actual slideshow does finish. Therefore, an "async" option was 
introduced in iPhoto '06, which Remote Buddy is also using.

Now, if you start the slideshow via AppleScript, even if you tell 
AppleScript not to wait for a reply, iPhoto will still block and not 
accept any AppleEvents sent by AppleScript until the slideshow has 
exited.

That's why, if you execute that AppleScript, the events it sends will 
not get executed until after the slideshow has exited. At that point, 
however, it does nothing, as the slideshow is no longer running anyway.

So, while you can only use AppleScript to start a presentation 
(unless you start it manually by mouse through the UI), you can use a 
keystroke to exit from it ("Esc" should work - and you can just lend 
an action that does just that from the Virtual Keyboard).

Hope that helps.

Best regards, 
Felix