User

21.11.2011 18:28:51

The problem is that Remote Buddy doesn't recognize when Finder or the Shockwave flash plugin (full screen web content) is the active application - Remote Buddy often thinks that iTunes is the active application. This means that, when I start a web video in fullscreen and press "pause/play" to pause the video, then iTunes starts playing, which of course is a bit confusing. However, I would like to use the Google Chrome behaviour when watching web videos and the Default Behaviour when Finder is the active application.

I have had this unfortunate problem ever since I bought Remote Buddy, but I thought that it might be a problem that could't be fixed - until recently. I found out that Rowmote Pro (the iPhone app) has no problem with telling which app is the active one (it tells you, when you tap "connection), and consequently I thought that this problem could be solved in Remote Buddy as well.

Last edited: 21.11.2011 18:30:32 

User

25.11.2011 13:37:01

This is expected Behaviour.

In a nutshell, this is what Remote Buddy does to determine which application to control / which Behaviour to pick:

1) Check the currently active (in terms of "input focus") application: if there's a behavior for it, it gets picked. If not, it proceeds with 2).

2) Check which applications are running in the background: if there's a behavior that supports background control of a running application, it gets picked. If not, it proceeds with 3)

3) Switch to the Default Behaviour.

When Finder is active - or Flash Player leaves the context of its host and runs its own process for fullscreen display - no matching Behaviour can be found for the currently active application and Remote Buddy advances to step 2. If you happen to run iTunes at the time, chances are high, it gets picked in step 2.

I don't know how Rowmote Pro works, but when I understand you correctly, you have to manually select which application you want to control. Whereas Remote Buddy, by default, does the switching between Behaviours for you automatically depending on which application is currently active.

Remote Buddy does offer an option at Prefs > General > Advanced however, called "Manually activated Behaviours stay active until they are explicitly deactivated". If you enable that option, Remote Buddy will not auto-switch Behaviours whenever you manually switch to a Behaviour via Remote Buddy's menu, but rather stick to that Behaviour until you either manually deactivate it or select another Behaviour. You can also achieve the same via an AppleScript one-liner.

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz 

User

25.11.2011 21:20:05

 
 
You said that this problem can be fix "via an AppleScript one-liner" well, what would that one liner be? 

User

25.11.2011 23:01:01

This AppleScript one liner makes the current Behaviour selection "stick" until it's manually deactivated, or another Behaviour was selected:

tell application "Remote Buddy" to behaviourcore accessor "setSticky" with stickyValue

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz 

User

25.11.2011 23:47:18

 
 
Should I just paste that into the terminal app? Or is there a certain way to put it?

Last edited: 25.11.2011 23:47:28 

User

26.11.2011 13:20:05

 
 
Thanks for the reply.

Rowmote Pro also switches between behaviors for you automatically depending on which application is currently active. And I really enjoy, and depend on this feature, in RemoteBuddy, as I sometimes switch between using my iPad as a mouse and keyboard and using my Harmony remote. So I don't want behaviours to stay active until they are explicitly deactivated.

I thought that "default behaviour" was supposed to the be default behaviour when no specific behaviour was available for the active (in terms of "input focus") application. This seems most intuitive to me (before you explained it to me). I always have iTunes open (necessary to be able to start the music from the Apple Remote app) so the way it is now, I don't benefit from having a default behaviour.

However, I would like RemoteBuddy to: check the currently active application: if there's a behavior for it, it gets picked. If not, use default behaviour. Is that possible? If this is not possible in the current version of RB, then I add this feature to my wishlish :), as it will make the behaviour more predictable for me.

edit: 
I just found out about the priority feature today. This feature is actually a good way to solve the problem. It would just be nice if there was a list where I could just drag and drop the behaviors in the priority sequence I prefer. And it might also be nice for the user, if shockwave flash player, silverlight, etc had a native common "full screen web video" behavior (where play/pause was mapped as keyboard space, menu was mapped as keyboard escape, etc.). One of the cool things about having a mediacenter is the ability to watch all kinds of web videos in full screen on the TV, which are often not available on any SmarTV or media streamer.

As a work around, I just added a Finder behaviour and made the Google Chrome behaviour use the priority -1023. (apparently -1000 wasn't enough to beat iTunes, though I thought it used the lowest priority 1024. But can I change the priority for iTunes and rest of the native behaviors somewhere?)

Last edited: 26.11.2011 15:27:09 

User

01.12.2011 13:25:01

This one-liner is an AppleScript that you can use as needed in your own actions (when creating a Behaviour or action in Remote Buddy) and which makes the respectively current Behaviour "stick" until the user manually deactivates it - or switches to another Behaviour.

I'm not sure it's of any use in any other context.

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz