User

18.10.2006 16:17:52

Hi there! First of all, congratulations for a great product. I'm trying Remote Buddy and I'm utterly impressed by its integration and functionality. However, before purchasing it though, I wanted to tinker around a bit just to see what I could do with it.

I noticed you hadn't included actions for controlling the screen brightness (specially useful for those of us with a laptop and a second monitor), and I decided to do it myself: 
First I tried to create an action which directly implemented the keystroke of F1 and F2 (the keys for brightness down and up respectively on my MacBook keyboard) but Remote Buddy didn't seem to register those keystrokes. Nothing happened on the dialog box when I pressed those keys. 
Then I tried the Applescript way. I wrote a super-simple script telling the System Events application the key code for F1 and F2 (107 and 103 respectively). The script worked like a charm. But when I introduced the code in the Action Factory and mapped it to the appropriate Behaviour, it wouldn't work. The remote does recognize the command and Remote Buddy tries to execute the script, it even shows the Brightness Control Window (the grey one with the white sun on it) but the "slider" doesn't move in either direction.

My question is if there is another way to implement this action, or if there is something I am missing... it's really frustrating! I tried several workarounds, but I can't seem to assign and application based on this script to a keyboard shortcut in order to assign that shortcut to a remote's button and I've run out of ideas. Any help with that?

Thanks for your time and, again, for a superb product. 

User

18.10.2006 16:53:59

Ok, seems like I was too enthusiactic about customizing my Remote Buddy! I found the Screen Settings in the System tab, and it works great... but I have (yet) another question:

Is there a way to map Screen Settings actions into a behaviour? The system actions don't appear on the list of "mappable" actions, so I can't assign them to any button in any behaviour. In addition, is there a way to modify (basically changing names) the existing behaviours or actions? 

User

18.10.2006 18:52:01

Hello Diego,

thanks for your postings. I'll reply to them both in one :-)

Regarding the F1 / F2 keystrokes. Since they seem to be mapped to 
your brightness controls in your setup, they are global hotkeys that 
are filtered away before any events are being passed on to any 
application. So, in fact, they have no chance to get through to 
Remote Buddy's "keystroke field".

A simple solution to this problem would have been to just press Shift 
+ F1 and then uncheck the checkbox for the Shift modifier.

Regarding your AppleScript: I really don't know what the cause of 
this would be. Especially, since it is obviously being executed (you 
mention the bezel display for brightness).

I've thought about this already, but then abandoned the idea of 
creating a Screen Settings behaviour that exposed all the possible 
screen settings as actions since the list would be just too long - 
especially with two or more displays. But I keep thinking about an 
elegant solution to this problem. Is it just the brightness controls 
you'd like to map in a behaviour - or also resolution/refresh rate/ 
depth/.. changes?

For now, what you can do is create a custom menu and drag the "screen 
settings" elements you need from the left outline view into a place 
of your choice in the menu.

Changing the names of existing behaviours or actions can be done 
right now by modifying the respective Localizable.strings in the 
"Contents/Resources/YourLanguageHere.lproj/" subfolder of the 
respective Behaviour package. I do plan to allow editing them within 
the UI for a future release, though (although this has a low priority 
atm).

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

18.10.2006 21:17:25

Thanks for your your prompt answer! It is very kind of you to be so available to your customers.

 
Already tried, didn't work ^_^

 

 
I understand, specially after seeing the list for my screens! I've come up with a solution, but my current skills prevent me from implementing/trying it: perhaps you could take the short list from the Displays button that shows on the menu bar. The list is generated with the last 3, 5 or whatever (user chooses) configurations used for each screen, and probably you can import it directly from the script that generates it. In fact, if you add the brigtness slider and the "Show menu on..." otpions to those that show in that menu, you should have a quite complete (and familiar to the user) Screen Settings menu.

 
Just the brightness controls, so I can control the computer's volume with the up and down keys on the remote and brightness with the left and right ones. Re-mapping CD ejecting to any of the four arrows (button held) and setting "Toggle Screen mirroring" (pressed and held, too) to another of the buttons would be everything it'd take to replicate all the functions in the F-keys of any mac. It'd make a very nice Default behaviour.

The problem is that I can't find the actions I need to do so on the list... would you think about it? That'd be wonderful!

Thanks again for your time. Regards,

Diego.

Last edited: 18.10.2006 21:19:24 

User

19.10.2006 19:21:02

Hello Diego,

thank you! .. for its you, the users, that keep this project going at 
the pace it is going.

Regarding the F1 key. I just had a look at my iBook G3 and noticed 
you'd usually have to press fn + F1 to get the actual F1 key, whereas 
it is "decrease brightness" by default.

I don't know how exactly this is handled by the system, but chances 
they're handled the same way as the volume and eject keys. For them, 
the events they trigger are not passed to any app at all. They are 
posted to the "HID layer", but not converted to any actual keypress. 
The mouse, the Apple Remote, joysticks, etc. are all also posting to 
this layer. Apple once provided sample code for the emulation of 
these "multimedia" keys, but, 2 major OS upgrades later, that codes 
seems to be broken as it does no longer work ;-)

So, to put a long story short: these "multimedia" keys are probably 
never going to work through the hotkey functions.

Also thanks for sharing your ideas on how such a list could be 
shortened. The ideas on what an actual behaviour and its actions for 
the screen could look like are shaping up in my mind :-)

I can't make any promise on the timing of such behaviour / actions, 
but it's something I'll definately add.

Thanks for sharing all the thoughts!

Best regards, 
Felix