[TUTORIAL] How to setup a Developement environment for HS

Post by **Jeffrey** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:18 am

I don't know if everyone knows it, but there are some great (free)tools out there to help you develop HomeSeer Scripts.

I have the scripting virus, so I want to spread it [:D]. It's a lot of fun to make them and even better to share them. My vision is that we can make a big repository here on the domoticaforum so we can all profit (look at an example of how I post my scripts here --> http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3768).

Mainly there are 2 things you need to make life easier:
1. Visual Basic Express 2008
2. tenScripting

Visual Basic Express 2008 is a free version of Visual Basic 2008, but is sufficient for our HomeSeer stuff. You can get it here --> http://www.microsoft.com/express/vb/Default.aspx

tenScripting is also free (but you can donate if you like), and basically linkes Visual Basic to HomeSeer so you can test and emulate things. I can tell you all about it here, but you can read all about it on the homepage. The link is --> http://www.tenholder.net/tenware2/tenScripting/

Just download and install Visual Basic 2008, then download the tenScripting extension and follow the instructions on their site to install.

p.s. If your not intending to make scripts yourself, it's even wise to install this to edit/review scripts. Visual Basic makes the reading/editing a lot easier.

NOTE: Do <u>not</u> install this on your HomeSeer server. It is possible but not recommended. Just install it on your normal working machine.

Happy scripting .. and remember --> Post your scripts here! [:D]

Post by **Herbus** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:08 am

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> NOTE: Do not install this on your HomeSeer server. It is possible but not recommended. Just install it on your normal working machine. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Why not? I use Visual Basic on my HS machine because it's handy to debug a script in a 'live' environment. Starting up isn't very fast but once it's working I'm ok with it.

Herbus (Jos)

Post by **drmacchi** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:55 pm

@Tailwind: if a script -donkey like me shuold need a script, paying obviously, could you make it? Thanks. Lorenzo

Post by **Jeffrey** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:53 pm

@herbus: Technically it's not a problem to install it on your server, but it's better to let the server be the server and use another pc to develop and troubleshoot things. One of the features of the tenScripting solution is to connect to an HomeSeer server (which can be a your live server off course).

@drmacchi: At the moment I'm at home because I'm recovering from an accident, so I fill the time with making stuff. Normally I do not have much time to do this.
Depending on the project-at-stake I'm willing to make stuff, but no deadlines or other stuff...it's just a hobby for me and if it's paid people off course expect results in a reasonable timeframe. The SBPlay script took me 4 full days to create and I'm not even going to use it

. Normally I think I will only create stuff that I want to use myself and share it with the rest. But your free to request stuff. I just don't make any promisses.

Post by **drmacchi** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:02 pm

Thanks , but i think that what i need is 3-4 hours job (?) for people like you . i'll send you a pm if not disturb ! thanks. lorenzo

Post by **Jeffrey** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:31 pm

Not at all. You have mail.

Why Tailwind? Because Jeffrey was already registered ...