Tag Archives: Design

Creating a custom HTML front end for Domotiz Part 3 – YouTube companion article

We’re going to get a bit more clever now. When we have taught Domoticz a list of devices (be they switches or lights or door contacts) we may want to list them all in one go without manually entering a long list of html for each device. Also, if we can get the HTML front end to gather all the information about each switch, it means that we can update the contents of the buttons automatically, for example if we change the name of a device, it will automatically update in the HTML front end.

I’ve created some code to do this and the commentary on this is over on my YouTube video.

Here’s the code and two css files that you’ll need. Please note that the css files contain more than is needed at the moment: however the css will be needed in future articles.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<head>
<title>Home Control</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
<meta name="mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black" />

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="description" content="" />
<meta name="keywords" content="" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
	<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />
	<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="iphone-icon.png"/>
	<link rel="icon" sizes="196x196" href="logo.png">
	<link rel="icon" sizes="192x192" href="logo192.png">
	<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: portrait)" href="portrait.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: landscape)" href="landscape.css">
	<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Baloo|Comfortaa" rel="stylesheet">

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
<!--
<!--

var devicestodisplay =[36,35,31,141,32,134,132,29,136,140,33,1617];
var nod=0;
var domoticzurl="192.168.1.163";
var domoticzport="8080";

function speak(textToSpeak) {
 // Create a new instance of SpeechSynthesisUtterance
 var newUtterance = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();

 // Set the text
 newUtterance.text = textToSpeak;

 // Add this text to the utterance queue
 window.speechSynthesis.speak(newUtterance);
}

function switchon(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://'+domoticzurl+':'+domoticzport+'/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=On', '');
}

function switchoff(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://'+domoticzurl+':'+domoticzport+'/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Off', '');
}

function toggle(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://'+domoticzurl+':'+domoticzport+'/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Toggle', '');
}

function dim(devicecode,dimlevel){
 execute('PUT', 'http://'+domoticzurl+':'+domoticzport+'/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Set%20Level&level='+dimlevel, '');
}


function execute($method,$url,$message){
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.open($method,$url,true)
xmlhttp.send($message);
}
window.onload = function() {
 // all of your code goes in here
 // it runs after the DOM is built

 //updateweather();
 getalldevices();
 updatealldevices();
 }
 
window.setInterval(function(){
 updatealldevices();
 }, 1000);



function updatedevice(idx){
 var location="DEVICE"+idx;
 console.log("checking status of idx "+idx);
 var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
 var url = 'http://'+domoticzurl+':'+domoticzport+'/json.htm?type=devices&rid='+idx;
 var onoff;
 xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
 if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
 var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);
 onoff = myArr.result[0].Status;
 devicename = myArr.result[0].Name;
 // myFunction(myArr);
 document.getElementById(location).innerHTML='<span class="device">'+devicename+'</span>';
 }
 if (onoff == "On") {
 document.getElementById(location).style.background = "red";
 } 
 if (onoff == "Off") {
 document.getElementById(location).style.background = "grey";
 }
 if (onoff == "Open") {
 document.getElementById(location).style.background = "red";
 } 
 if (onoff == "Closed") {
 document.getElementById(location).style.background = "grey";
 }
 }
xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}

function getalldevices(){
fLen = devicestodisplay.length;
for (i = 0; i < fLen; i++) {
 preparediv(devicestodisplay[i]);
 getdevice(devicestodisplay[i]);
 }
}

function preparediv(deviceidx){
nod=nod+1;
var div = document.createElement("div");
div.className = 'devicecontainer';
div.id = "DEVICE"+deviceidx;
document.getElementById("devicesdiv").appendChild(div);
}

function updatealldevices(){
fLen = devicestodisplay.length;
for (i = 0; i < fLen; i++) {
 updatedevice(devicestodisplay[i]);
 }
}

function getdevice(idx){
 console.log("getting device idx" + idx);
 var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
 var url = "http://"+domoticzurl+":"+domoticzport+"/json.htm?type=devices&rid="+idx;
 xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
 console.log(devicestodisplay[i] + " " +xmlhttp.readyState)
 if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
 var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);
 devicename = myArr.result[0].Name;
 devicestatus = myArr.result[0].Status;
 console.log(devicename + "(" + devicestatus+")");
 adddevice(idx,devicename,devicestatus);
 }
 }
xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}

function adddevice(deviceidx,devicenametext,devicestatus){
nod=nod+1;
var div = document.createElement("div");
//div.style.width = "100px";
//div.style.height = "100px";
//div.style.background = "red";
//div.style.color = "white";
div.className = 'devicecontainer';
div.innerHTML = devicenametext;
div.id = "DEVICE"+deviceidx;

if (devicestatus=="On"){
 div.style.background = "red";
}

if (devicestatus=="Open"){
 div.style.background = "red";
}

if (devicestatus=="Off"){
 div.style.background = "grey";
}

if (devicestatus=="Closed"){
 div.style.background = "grey";
}

console.log("-------------"+div.id);
//document.getElementById("devicesdiv").appendChild(div);
document.getElementById(div.id).addEventListener('click', function() {
 { toggle(deviceidx); };
}, false);
}

function myFunction(arr) {
 var out = "";
 out += arr[0].result.Status;
 document.getElementById("id01").innerHTML = out;
}

//-->
</script>


<body>

<audio id="scene" src="assets/sounds/beep2.mp3" preload="auto"></audio>
<div align="left" class="toplinks">
<a href="index.htm"><span class="menutext">Home</span></a>
<a href="lights.htm"><span class="menutext">Lights</span></a>
<a href="devices.htm"><span class="menutext">Devices</span></a>
<a href="audiotrial.htm"><span class="menutext">Audio</span></a>
<a href="climate.htm"><span class="menutext">Environment</span></a>
<a href="security.htm"><span class="menutext">Security</span></a>
<a href="activities.htm"><span class="menutext">Other screens</span></a></div>
<div id="notification" align="center" class="notificationpane" onClick="clearnotification(11);"></div>
<div id="devicesdiv"></div>
</body>
</html>

Here’s the landscape.css file


body {
background-color:#000000;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', sans-serif;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: 0 0 0 0 ;
}

.back-to-top {
background: none;
margin: 0;
position: fixed;
bottom: 50px;
right: 20px;
width: 150px;
height: 50px;
z-index: 100;
display: none;
text-decoration: none;
}

.back-to-top i {
font-size: 60px;
}

.timerselecttext {
font-size: 60px;
color:#FFFFFF;
}

.clockdisplay {
font-size: 250px;
color:grey;
}

div.clocktext {
font-size: 100px;
color:#000000;
}

div.weathertext {
font-size: 70px;
color:#000000;
}


div.standardcontainer {
background-color:grey;
position:relative;
width:25%;
height:25vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 4vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.doublecontainer {
background-color:grey;
position:relative;
width:50%;
height:25vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 4vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.devicecontainer {
background-color:grey;
width:25%;
height:12vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 2vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}


div.albumcontainer {
width:28vw;
height:28vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.trackcontainer {
width:70vw;
height:10vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.audiocontrols {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
height:10vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.audioactivitycontainer {

width:70vw;
height:10vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.camera {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.camcontrols {
background-color:green;
width:300px;
float:right;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

span {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:20px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

div.nightclock {
background-color:#333333;
position:relative;
width:100%;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:#666666;
font-size: 5vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

span.title {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:35px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.timertext {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:70px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.playstate {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:12px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.temptext {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:40px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.roomname {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:40px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.lightroom {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:30px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}


span.device {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:20px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.sensor {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:18px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 0px 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}


span.screentitle {
background-color:#666666;
font-family: 'Baloo', sans-serif;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:30px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.menutext {
background-color:#0066FF;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:24px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.datetime {
background-color:#009900;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:16px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 5px 5px;
margin: 0px 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
}


div.audioroomcontainer {
background-color:#66FF99;
float:left;
height:200px;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
font-size: 25px;
margin: 0 0 10px 10px;
}

div.nightmodecontainer {
background-color:#666666;
width:150px;
float:left;
height:200px;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
font-size: 25px;
margin: 0 0 10px 10px;
}


div.notificationpane {
background-color:#FFFFCC;
width:100%;
font-size: 2.5vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.nightnotificationpane {
background-color:grey;
width:100%;
font-size: 2.5vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.toplinks {
background-color:#66CCFF;
top:0px;
left:0px;
width:100%;
font-size: 30px;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.popuppanel {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

and here’s the portrait.css file


body {
background-color:#000000;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', sans-serif;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: 0 0 0 0 ;
}

.back-to-top {
background: none;
margin: 0;
position: fixed;
bottom: 50px;
right: 20px;
width: 150px;
height: 50px;
z-index: 100;
display: none;
text-decoration: none;
}

.back-to-top i {
font-size: 60px;
}

.timerselecttext {
font-size: 60px;
color:#FFFFFF;
}

.clockdisplay {
font-size: 200px;
color:#000000;
}

div.clocktext {
font-size: 100px;
color:#000000;
}

div.weathertext {
font-size: 70px;
color:#000000;
}


div.nightclock {
background-color:#333333;
position:relative;
width:100%;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:#666666;
font-size: 5vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.doublecontainer {
background-color:grey;
position:relative;
width:100%;
height:25vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 4vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.standardcontainer {
background-color:grey;
position:relative;
width:50%;
height:15vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 2vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.nightclock {
background-color:#333333;
position:relative;
width:100%;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:#666666;
font-size: 5vw;
text-align:center;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.devicecontainer {
background-color:grey;
width:50%;
height:10vh;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 2vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}


div.albumcontainer {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
height:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.trackcontainer {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.audiocontrols {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.audioactivitycontainer {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.camera {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.camcontrols {
background-color:green;
width:100vw;
float:right;
padding-top:0px;
color:white;
font-size: 3vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

span.menutext {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:3vw;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:18px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.title {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:18px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.timertext {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:20px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.lightroom {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:16px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}
span.temptext {
background-color:green;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:20px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 10px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}
span.device {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:18px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.screentitle {
background-color:#666666;
font-family: 'Baloo', sans-serif;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:18px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 5px 5px;
margin: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
}


span.menutext {
background-color:#0066FF;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:24px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.datetime {
background-color:#009900;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:12px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 5px 5px;
margin: 0px 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.sensor {
background-color:#666666;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-size:14px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 0px 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

div.audioroomcontainer {
background-color:#66FF99;
float:left;
height:200px;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
font-size: 25px;
margin: 0 0 10px 10px;
}

div.nightmodecontainer {
background-color:#666666;
width:150px;
float:left;
height:200px;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
font-size: 25px;
margin: 0 0 10px 10px;
}


div.notificationpane {
background-color:#FFFFCC;
width:100%;
font-size: 16px;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}


div.toplinks {
background-color:#66CCFF;
top:0px;
left:0px;
width:100%;
font-size: 30px;
overflow:scroll;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

div.popuppanel {
background-color:grey;
width:100vw;
float:left;
padding-top:10px;
overflow:auto;
color:white;
font-size: 2vw;
box-shadow:inset 0px 0px 0px 1px black;
}

Advertisement

Creating a custom HTML front end for Domoticz part 2 – YouTube companion article

This article just shows the code that accompanies the next in the multi-part series explaining how I created my (reasonably popular!) HTML front end.

The icon I used can be downloaded from Flaticon.com but remember to download two versions, one you should rename dehumidifier-on.png and one dehumidifier-off.png

Here’s the code.

index.htm

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<head>
<title>Home Control</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
		<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0" />
		<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
		<meta name="mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
		<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black" />

		<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
		<meta name="description" content="" />
		<meta name="keywords" content="" />
		<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
			<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />
			<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="iphone-icon.png"/>
			<link rel="icon" sizes="196x196" href="logo.png">
			<link rel="icon" sizes="192x192" href="logo192.png">
			<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: portrait)" href="portrait.css">
			<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: landscape)" href="landscape.css">

  	<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Baloo|Comfortaa" rel="stylesheet">
<head>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">

var domoticzurl="192.168.1.163"

function MM_goToURL() { //v3.0
  var i, args=MM_goToURL.arguments; document.MM_returnValue = false;
  for (i=0; i<(args.length-1); i+=2) eval(args[i]+".location='"+args[i+1]+"'");
}
function speak(textToSpeak) {
   // Create a new instance of SpeechSynthesisUtterance
   var newUtterance = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();

   // Set the text
   newUtterance.text = textToSpeak;

   // Add this text to the utterance queue
   window.speechSynthesis.speak(newUtterance);
}

function switchon(devicecode){
	execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=On', '');
}

function switchoff(devicecode){
	execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Off', '');
}

function toggle(devicecode){
	execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Toggle', '');
}

function dim(devicecode,dimlevel){
	execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Set%20Level&level='+dimlevel, '');
}


function execute($method,$url,$message){
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.open($method,$url,true)
xmlhttp.send($message);
}

function toggleDiv(divId) {
   $("#"+divId).toggle(100);
}

function hideDiv(divId) {
   $("#"+divId).hide();
}
	
window.addEventListener("load", function(){
});;

function hideallDivs() {
    hideDiv("lights");
	hideDiv("devices");
}

//the following functions will run every second (due to the 1000 at the end).
window.setInterval(function(){
	updatedevice(36,'dehumidifier',"dehumidifier-on.png","dehumidifier-off.png");
	}, 1000);


// the following function checks to see if the idx is "on" or "off" and updates the image accordingly
function updatedevice(idx,location,onimage,offimage){
	console.log("checking status of idx "+idx);
	var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
	var url = "http://"+domoticzurl+":8080/json.htm?type=devices&rid="+idx;
	var onoff;
	xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
    	if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
        	var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);
			onoff = myArr.result[0].Status;
       // myFunction(myArr);
    	}
		if (onoff == "On") {
		document.getElementById(location).src = onimage;
		} 
		if (onoff == "Off") {
		document.getElementById(location).src = offimage;
		}
		if (onoff == "Open") {
		document.getElementById(location).src = onimage;
		} 
		if (onoff == "Closed") {
		document.getElementById(location).src = offimage;
		}
	}
xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}


</script>

</head>

<body>

<a href="javascript:;"  onclick="toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="navtitle">Lights</span></a>
<div id="lights" class="navlights">
Desk Lamp

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,16);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Max</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,12);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">75%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,8);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">50%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,4);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">25%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchoff(594);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Off</span></a>

<hr width="90%" style="dashed" color="#FFFFFF" size="2">

Ceiling Lamp

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,100);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Max</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,75);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">75%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,50);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">50%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,25);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">25%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchoff(81);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Off</span></a></div>
<a href="javascript:;"  onclick="toggleDiv('devices');"><span class="navtitle">Devices</span></a>
<div id="devices" class="navlights">
Dehumidifier

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="toggle(36);"><img id="dehumidifier" src="dehumidifier-off.png"></a></div>
</body>

And here are the 2 css sheets you need (I don’t know why I have done this yet but these will be useful when we start looking at device orientation.

Portrait.css

html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color:#000000;
}
div.navlights {
display:block;
text-align:center;
position:relative;
width: 100vw;
margin:0vw;
background-color:#CCCCCC;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', cursive;
font-size:6vw;
font-color:#000000;
}
span.buttontext {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:6vw;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 1vw;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.toggletext {
background-color: #FF66CC;
color:#ffffff;
font-size:6vw;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 1vw;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.navtitle {
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size:5vw;
display: inline-block;
margin: 3vw;
font-family: 'Baloo',cursive;
font-weight: normal;
}

landscape.css

html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color:#000000;
}
div.navlights {
display:block;
text-align:center;
position:relative;
width: 100vw;
margin:0vw;
background-color:#CCCCCC;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', cursive;
font-size:40px;
font-color:#000000;
}
span.buttontext {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:36px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.toggletext {
background-color: #FF66CC;
color:#ffffff;
font-size:36px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.navtitle {
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size:50px;
display: inline-block;
margin: 5px;
font-family: 'Baloo',cursive;
font-weight: normal;
}

 

Creating a custom HTML front end for Domoticz Part 1- YouTube companion article

ere’s the HTML and CSS you’ll need if you want to follow my guide over on my YouTube channel on how to create a custom user interface using HTML for Domoticz.

I’ve been asked many times for the code for my HTML interface and others have asked how to develop their own, so this step by step guide should help you to build a great looking interface that you can be proud of, and your family can use with ease.

In the index.htm file, when copied into a text editor, change the line:

var domoticzurl="192.168.1.163"

to the address of your Domoticz system.

Go to the Domoticz folder, then to the www folder, then create a folder called whatever you want your creation to be called.  I’ve called the folder fab for now.

Copy the three files into the folder.  Once complete, the Domoticz HTML server will serve up the page to whomever requests it.

Try it out by opening any browser and typing in

addressofyourdomoticzsystem:port/yourfoldername/index.htm

In my case this would be

192.168.1.200:8080/fab/index.htm

If all is well you should see your masterpiece!  Have a go at changing the names and idx codes of the devices and re-uploading and testing again.

As this HTML code sends HTTP requests, your browser may ask if you want to enable content.  This has happened on my desktop version of Google Chrome a few times.

There is some code at the top of the index.htm page that tells your browser that if you’re using a smartphone to open this page, you can save it to your homescreen.  The next time you open it, there will be no address bar and it will look like a web app.

save this text as index.htm


 


<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<head>
<title>Home Control</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
<meta name="mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black" />

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="description" content="" />
<meta name="keywords" content="" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
		<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />
		<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="iphone-icon.png"/>
		<link rel="icon" sizes="196x196" href="logo.png">
		<link rel="icon" sizes="192x192" href="logo192.png">
		<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: portrait)" href="portrait.css">
		<link rel="stylesheet" media="(orientation: landscape)" href="landscape.css">

		<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Baloo|Comfortaa" rel="stylesheet">
<head>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">

var domoticzurl="192.168.1.163"

function MM_goToURL() { //v3.0
 var i, args=MM_goToURL.arguments; document.MM_returnValue = false;
 for (i=0; i<(args.length-1); i+=2) eval(args[i]+".location='"+args[i+1]+"'");
}
function speak(textToSpeak) {
 // Create a new instance of SpeechSynthesisUtterance
 var newUtterance = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();

// Set the text
 newUtterance.text = textToSpeak;

// Add this text to the utterance queue
 window.speechSynthesis.speak(newUtterance);
}

function switchon(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=On', '');
}

function switchoff(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Off', '');
}

function toggle(devicecode){
 execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Toggle', '');
}

function dim(devicecode,dimlevel){
 execute('PUT', 'http://' + domoticzurl + ':8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Set%20Level&level='+dimlevel, '');
}

function execute($method,$url,$message){
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.open($method,$url,true)
xmlhttp.send($message);
}

function toggleDiv(divId) {
 $("#"+divId).toggle(100);
}

function hideDiv(divId) {
 $("#"+divId).hide();
}

window.addEventListener("load", function(){
 hideallDivs();
});;

function hideallDivs() {
 hideDiv("lights");
 hideDiv("devices");
}

</script>

</head>

<body>

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="navtitle">Lights</span></a>
<div id="lights" class="navlights">
Desk Lamp

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,16);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Max</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,12);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">75%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,8);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">50%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(594,4);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">25%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchoff(594);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Off</span></a>

<hr width="90%" style="dashed" color="#FFFFFF" size="2">

Ceiling Lamp

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,100);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Max</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,75);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">75%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,50);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">50%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="dim(81,25);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">25%</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchoff(81);toggleDiv('lights');"><span class="buttontext">Off</span></a></div>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="toggleDiv('devices');"><span class="navtitle">Devices</span></a>
<div id="devices" class="navlights">
Dehumidifier

<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchon(29);toggleDiv('devices');"><span class="buttontext">On</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="switchoff(29);toggleDiv('devices');"><span class="buttontext">Off</span></a>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="toggleDiv('devices');"><span class="toggletext">Auto</span></a></div>
</body>


Save this text as portrait.css


html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color:#000000;
}

div.navlights {
display:block;
text-align:center;
position:relative;
width: 100vw;
margin:0vw;
background-color:#CCCCCC;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', cursive;
font-size:6vw;
font-color:#000000;
}

span.buttontext {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:6vw;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 1vw;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.toggletext {
background-color: #FF66CC;
color:#ffffff;
font-size:6vw;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 1vw;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.navtitle {
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size:5vw;
display: inline-block;
margin: 3vw;
font-family: 'Baloo',cursive;
font-weight: normal;
}


And finally save this as landscape.css


html {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color:#000000;
}

div.navlights {
display:block;
text-align:center;
position:relative;
width: 100vw;
margin:0vw;
background-color:#CCCCCC;
font-family: 'Comfortaa', cursive;
font-size:40px;
font-color:#000000;
}

span.buttontext {
background-color: #ffffff;
color: #75099b;
font-size:36px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.toggletext {
background-color: #FF66CC;
color:#ffffff;
font-size:36px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 3px 10px;
margin: 5px;
font-weight: bold;
border-radius: 5px;
}

span.navtitle {
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size:50px;
display: inline-block;
margin: 5px;
font-family: 'Baloo',cursive;
font-weight: normal;
}

Writing a home control front end in HTML.

I’ve been asked a few times about my custom front-end for my Domoticz, Hue and Sonos setup, so here are a few HTML snippets and where to put them, assuming you are running Domoticz on your home control server.

Right from the offset I must stress that the Icons I have used are made by various incredibly skilled designers at http://www.flaticon.com/ and therefore this front end cannot be used for any commercial purpose.

I have previously written an extensive post about the continuous development of a home control user interface and have posed a video containing my front end, so this post will not be about the thought process behind creating a UI, rather how I have managed to put one together using HTML.

I must also stress that I am not an expert in baking a web app.  Developers may read my code and scoff at its inefficiency but it works for me, and hopefully can give you some inspiration.

Layout

The layout of all panels follows the same template: A main area where the actual buttons and controls live, changing depending on which screen the user selects; the ‘scenes’ bar, a blue strip towards the bottom of the display which is a kind of ‘quick access’ ribbon for regularly used commands; and a Links bar which permanently shows the pages that can be displayed.

layout

There is also a ‘notifications’ display which shows up just above the scenes bar with information provided by a variable in Domoticz.  This text can be ‘cleared’ by touching it (more on this later).

All screens use variations on the same HTML so not every screen is shown in detail in this post.

Home Screen

Home

Home is where the heart is.  I like the home screen to be simple, uncluttered and good looking.  It’s by far the screen shown most regularly so less is more here.

The interesting part of this screen is the background.  It changes depending on the weather.  First I saved six 2000×600 backgrounds with names ranging from weatherback-rain.png to weatherback-fog.png.  You need cloudy, fog, partlycloudy, rain, snow and sunny.  I set the size of these backgrounds to fit the tablet which the screen is displayed on so you may need to adjust accordingly.

The HTML code to change the background depending on the weather is as follows (change xx, yyyy and zz to the address of your Domoticz server, the port Domoticz is using and the idx code of your weather source in Domoticz):

function updateweather(){

                var forecast

                var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

                var url = "http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=devices&rid=zz";

                var forecast

                xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {

                 if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {

                 var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);

                                                forecast = myArr.result[0].ForecastStr;

                                                console.log("Forecast is " + forecast + ".")

       // myFunction(myArr);

                                                 if (forecast == "Partly Cloudy") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-partlycloudy.png";

                                                                }

                                                 if (forecast == "Sunny") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-sunny.png";

                                                                }                                                              

                                                if (forecast == "Rain") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-rain.png";

                                                                }              

                                                if (forecast == "Fog") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-fog.png";

                                                                }                              

                                                if (forecast == "Snow") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-snow.png";

                                                                }

                                                if (forecast == "Cloudy") {

                                                 document.getElementById("weatherindicator").src = "weatherback-cloudy.png";

                                                                }                                              

                                                }

                }

xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);

xmlhttp.send();

setTimeout(updateweather,60000);

}

Notice that the last line of this code sets up the web page to update the weather picture every 60 seconds.  Ok, in the body of your HTML you’ll need something like

<div id="weatherdisplay" align="left" class="weatherback"><img id="weatherindicator" src=""></div>

And you’ll need something like this wherever you save your CSS:

div.weatherback {

    position: fixed;

    top: 0px;

    left: 0px;

    width: 1000px;

                height:600px;

}

Activating Hue scenes

The API for Hue is relatively easy to use.  I used the API to save scenes to each room and then can recall them from the press of an icon on the scenes bar.  The HTML at the scene bar is easy:

<a href="javascript:;" onClick="groupscene(1,7);switchoff(24)"><img src="scene-cinema.png" width="150" height="150" border="0"></a>

The button called scene-cinema.png does two things actually, sets the group 1 to scene 7 and then switches of a switch in Domoticz.  Let’s see the code for each of these functions:

function groupscene(group,scene){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbbb/groups/'+group+'/action', '{"scene":"'+scene+'"}');

}

Change aa to the address of your Hue bridge and bbbbbb to the name of the developer (if you followed the Hue API instructions from the Hue website this might be “newdeveloper”.  If your scene does not change straight away then your control panel might not be authorised to the Hue bridge.  If this is the case, press the button on the Hue bridge and then try again a couple of times.

function switchon(devicecode){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=On', '');

}

 

function switchoff(devicecode){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Off', '');

}

 

function toggle(devicecode){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Toggle', '');

}

 

function dim(devicecode,dimlevel){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx='+devicecode+'&switchcmd=Set%20Level&level='+dimlevel, '');

}

The above codes (again change xx to the address of your Domoticz server and yyyy to the port number) are all similar. Switchon, switchoff do what they say on the tin.  Toggle changes the state of an on/off switch and then dim sets a certain switch you specify (idx) to the dim level you select (dimlevel).

While we’re here, here’s a list of the other Hue functions I put into the home control system:

function lightoff(light){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/lights/'+light+'/state', '{"on":false}');

}

 

function lightmax(light){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/lights/'+light+'/state', '{"on":true,"bri":255,"sat":0,"hue":0}');

}

 

function briup(group){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/groups/'+group+'/action', '{"bri_inc":40}');

}

 

function bridn(group){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/groups/'+group+'/action', '{"bri_inc":-40}');

}

 

function groupcontrol(group,hue,bri,sat){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/groups/'+group+'/action', '{"on":true,"bri":'+bri+',"sat":'+sat+',"hue":'+hue+'}');

}

 

function groupscene(group,scene){

                execute('PUT', 'http://192.168.1.aa/api/bbbbbb/groups/'+group+'/action', '{"scene":"'+scene+'"}');

}

So these are the main components of the home page – and here’s a snippet of how I go the inside and outside temperature (change zz to the idx of your temperature sensor):

function updateintemp(){

                var instatus

                var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

                var url = "http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=devices&rid=zz";

                xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {

                if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {

               var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);

                                                instatus =  "Inside: " + myArr.result[0].Data;

                                                console.log(instatus)

                                                document.getElementById("intemp").innerHTML = instatus

                }

                }

xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);

xmlhttp.send();

setTimeout(updateintemp,20000);

}

You need a div with id “intemp” positioned where you like, and again the last part of the above code sets up the web app to update the temperature each 20 seconds.

Devices screen

devices

The devices screen updates the icons with a green bar when the switch is on and a grey bar when off.  I save two identical png pictures, one with -on.png at the end and one with -off.png.  I enter this HTML repeatedly, changing the id and the source of the picture for each button:

<a href="javascript:;" onClick=”toggle(xx)"><img src="chesterlampoff.png" width="125" height="125" hspace="5" vspace="5" border="0" id="chesterlamp"></a>

Change xx to the idx of the device in Domoticz (you can find the idx of the device in the ‘Devices’ tab of the Domoticz interface.

Change the id=”chesterlamp” to id=”whateveryourdeviceiscalled” then change the img src to the ‘off’ picture for your device.

In the code part you need the following:

function updatedevice(idx,location,onimage,offimage){

                console.log("checking status of idx "+idx)

                var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

                var url = "http://192.168.1.94:8080/json.htm?type=devices&rid="+idx;

                var onoff

                xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {

                if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {

               var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);

                                                onoff = myArr.result[0].Status;

       // myFunction(myArr);

                }

                                if (onoff == "On") {

                                document.getElementById(location).src = onimage;

                                }

                                if (onoff == "Off") {

                                document.getElementById(location).src = offimage;

                                }

                                if (onoff == "Open") {

                                document.getElementById(location).src = onimage;

                                }

                                if (onoff == "Closed") {

                                document.getElementById(location).src = offimage;

                                }

                }

xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);

xmlhttp.send();

}

Then another function where you will put all the code to tell the web app to update the icons depending on how Domoticz reports the switch (on or off, or even open or closed if you’re using door sensors too):

window.setInterval(function(){

                updatedevice(187,'chesterlamp',"chesterlampon.png","chesterlampoff.png");

                updatedevice(132,'washingmachine',"washingmachineon.png","washingmachineoff.png");

                countup();

                updatenotification(11)

                }, 1000);

I’ve put two switches here, Chester’s lamp and the washing machine.  You can add as many switches as you like here, as long as they have been set up in the body of the HTML.

There are two other functions that are called each second too: countup() and updatenotification(11)

Automatically reverting to the Home Screen

If you want the screen to revert to home after two minutes of inactivity, you can use this code:

First put

var ticker = 0;

at the start of your code block, then put:

function countup(){

                ticker=ticker+1

                console.log("Ticker is " + ticker);

                if (ticker>120) {

                                console.log("Moving to index...")

                                MM_goToURL('self','index.htm');

                                }

                }

This means that once the variable ‘ticker’ has incremented to 120, the screen will go to the page called index.htm.  If you use this code, remember to put this at the end of each function:

ticker = 0;

This will reset the timer so that another 2 minutes have been added to the time before the page will switch to the Home Screen.

Notifications from Domoticz

I have set up the screens to show a strip which indicates what Domoticz is up to.  Some of my LUA scripts in Domoticz update a variable with a string of text in English to tell the user what Domoticz is doing.  This could be confirmation that a switch has been turned on/off or it could report is something has been triggered automatically.

First, create a string variable in Domoticz called LastEvent and then note down its idx.  In the below case the idx is 11 (and there’s already a string update in there too, yours will be empty when you first set it up).

variables

Back to the home control HTML:

function updatenotification(idx){

                console.log("checking status of idx "+idx)

                var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();

                var url = "http://192.168.1.xx:yyyy/json.htm?type=command&param=getuservariable&idx="+idx;

                var textentry

                xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {

                if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {

               var myArr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);

                                                textentry = myArr.result[0].Value;

       // myFunction(myArr);




                                document.getElementById("notification").innerHTML = textentry;

                                }

                                }

xmlhttp.open("GET", url, true);

xmlhttp.send();

}

And:

function clearnotification(idx){

                execute('PUT', "http://192.168.1.94:8080/json.htm?type=command&param=updateuservariable&idx="+idx+"&vname=LastEvent&vtype=2&vvalue=%00", '');

}

And in the body of the HTML (so once the text is clicked the variable in Domoticz is reset to null):

Something like this for the CSS: div.notificationpane {     position: fixed;     bottom: 250px;     left: 0px;                 width: 100%;                 font-size: 30pt;                 background-color: #333333;                 text-indent: 25px;                 opacity: 0.6; }

Then in the LUA script, when you want to notify the user about something, you can add a line like this:

commandArray['Variable:LastEvent'] = tostring(os.date("%H") .. ':' .. os.date("%M") .. ' Rear balcony door opened, lights on for 15 minutes.')

This adds the time and the text to the variable, which then almost immediately pops up on the Home Control screen until it is clicked.

Where to store your HTML

When you have created your masterpiece, you can save it in a new folder of your choice below the /domoticz/www/ folder.  You can use something like WinSCP to create a folder and then transfer all your files in one go.

Then, when you usually navigate to 192.168.1.1:8080 to go to the Domoticz home screen, add / then the name of your folder then /index.htm or whatever your home screen address is.

Summary

Due to the jerry-rigged nature of my HTML code I am not going to publish it in its entirety.  I also don’t know the ins and outs of using the flaticons.com icons and publishing them directly.  Hopefully, however, this post will give you some inspiration to write your own home control front end.

Designing a user interface

Introduction

Something that I give a lot of thought regarding my home control set up to is the interface.  I have changed the ‘look and feel’ of the interface tens of times in the last few years (much to Chester’s frustration) and to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever found the ‘holy grail’.  But what makes a good home control interface and how would we recognise one?  I explore these questions with my guide to designing and implementing your own home control interface.

Step 1: Who will be using your interface, and on what?

One of the first things to think about is which devices will be displaying the interface.  In my household the interface is accessed via a fixed large tablet, a computer screen and smaller smartphone screens.  Therefore I may think about designing two types of interface, maybe that look and behave very similarly, one portrait (for holding a smartphone) and one landscape (for the computer screen and the permanent tablet on the wall).  I have designed two types in the past, but using a 100% web interface means that the content can adapt to multiple display types, therefore saving time and resources.

Step 2: Look at what is out there for inspiration (but don’t get too depressed with what you find).

If you search the internet for images of ‘home control interfaces’, you’ll see a few common themes.  I think the main thing that hits me is that although millions of pounds have been spent on perfectly attuning user interfaces in smartphones and computers (for example with the upcoming Windows 10 operating system), home automation interface design seems to have remained the same since its introduction. Without wishing to offend anyone here, I get the distinct impression that the interface is last on the development list.  It seems to me that the hardware takes priority, and then the interface is designed by someone in the existing team who really did not want the job.  I honestly believe this to be the main reason why home automation has not yet become mainstream.  It’s not the hardware: it’s the interface.

If you look hard enough however, you’ll find some clear and well-designed interfaces out there.  The companies that have chosen to invest in design are clearly the market leaders, and therefore can afford to spent time and money developing a look and feel that homeowners can use and appreciate.

What is the one design element that proves to me that the interface has been developed professionally?  Space.  Too many home control screens are jammed full of buttons, sliders and album art.  It’s hard to know where to look, and although this may be something of a visual trophy for the geek community – think how confusing this will look to others in your household.  This leads nicely on to my next step…

Step 3: Think about the order of things.  How will your commands ‘flow’?

As far as I am concerned, there are two main ways to organise your home control screens: by location or by function.  Organising by location means that you gather all your controls for one room onto one screen, so for the living room you’d have all the lights, the dehumidifier, the air conditioner and the TV controls all together.  Conversely, organising by function means that you’d put the controls for all your lights on one screen, heating and cooling on another screen, security on another screen etc.

I have created dozens of versions of both, and I personally prefer the latter.  For me it means that the user starts from the home screen with a definite decision on what they are intending to do.  The interface becomes less of a show-home piece and more of a practical and logical day-to-day assistant.

There is a balance to be achieved between the number of options displayed on the screen at one time and the number of selections required to perform an action.  Instead of scrolling through one giant page of options, or having to reduce button size down to miniscule proportions, it may be better to increase the number of screens and create a ‘flow’ for the user.  So instead of selecting ‘Audio’ and immediately being presented with a screen full of options, it may be better to then ask ‘Where do you want to the audio to play?’ and further ‘What kind of audio?’.

flowexample

Step 4: Write it down!  Plan your screens.

I have wasted literally days of my life not following this simple step.  Plan your screens on paper.  Falling out from this step will be all the buttons you will need for each screen.  Don’t worry about what the screens will look like yet, just think about what options you want to show.

Navigation is a consideration here.  How will your users know where they are?  If you provide ‘breadcrumbs’ on your display (Home > Audio > Living Room) you’ll need to reserve the same area on each screen for that.  To get back to the main screen, will the ‘home’ button be in the same place for each screen?

Step 5: Get ‘the look’ and stick to it.

Decide on a look and feel for your interface.  You may choose to compliment your home décor or to stand out as an ultramodern feature.  Either way, this step requires as much external input as possible.  If you’ve found some designs that you liked from step 2, speak to your users about which ones they prefer, and what they’d like to see.

When you’ve selected a look – stick to it.  By that I mean don’t be tempted to bend your own rules.  Future-proof your design.  For each of your screens ensure that there will be scope to add new devices in the future with ease.  Don’t make your icons or buttons so intricate that you’ll not be able to match them easily.

If each of your buttons contains an icon and some text, make sure the icons are roughly the same size and the text is the same size and font.  Little things like ensuring there is consistent capitalisation across your interface can make a huge difference.  “Living Room Lights On” next to “Living room lights OFF” leaves an unprofessional air.

hc-fsexample

After years of designing interfaces for my own home, I have some pearls of wisdom for you here.  The first is to use perfectly square, flat buttons.  These look modern and will not go out of fashion (if you are reading this in 2020 and flat buttons are out of fashion, then I apologise).  Another reason I prefer perfectly squared icons, is that depending on what interface controller you use, you may be disappointed at how the controller renders curved corners, and your beautiful vision becomes a pixelated mess.  The bigger the button, the better.  Our cleaner visits once a week, and if she needs to use her glasses to see an option, I change the button immediately.  Larger buttons also means that fewer options can fit on each screen, and I am all for that.

Get each button you need from step 4 designed now.  I would recommend you put a selection of these buttons in one mocked-up screen to ensure they are the right size and they look right.  Choose unobtrusive wallpaper or a solid inconspicuous colour for the display.

Step 6: Think about feedback.

The devices your user will be controlling may not be in the same room as the interface, so remember that they may need reassuring that what they have requested has been carried out.  There are a few ways to achieve this.

A button which changes its look depending on the state of the device is one way to go.  This approach is more common in consumer installations and requires constant sensing (called ‘polling’ in home automation terms) to ensure that all interfaces ‘keep up’ with the device’s status.  Don’t forget that someone could switch on a device from their smartphone, so then the corresponding button will need to update on all screens to reflect this.   One such controller that is capable of keeping track of devices is Openremote – more on this in step 8.

Another idea is that a pop-up box could appear to confirm your selection, for example confirming “Fan in Living Room has been switched on.”

The panel itself could speak to you.  I have elected to use this as my primary feedback method in my latest interface design.  The display is not obstructed by pop-ups, and the user can walk away from the panel and will still hear the announcement.

Feedback should also be provided automatically, for example when a security alert is activated or when a user needs to do something that cannot be completed automatically (such as a reminder to close a door).  Users could be anywhere when this feedback needs to be given, so thinking beyond the physical interface of a screen, what other devices could be used?  In our home, we have Sonos speakers in every room, so urgent feedback can be given via spoken word through them.  For smoke alarms triggered by Nest, the Hue lights in each room will flash momentarily, alerting occupants that action needs to be taken.  I also use Notify My Android (NMA) via Domoticz to keep me informed via short ‘texts’.

Step 7: Remember the ‘automation’ in ‘home automation’.

Advanced controls that only you will use can be tucked away at the ‘back’ of your interface.  Settings and variables can be as hidden away as you like, followed by screens for ‘fine tuning’ settings for devices that other users will probably never use.  It’s sometimes useful to control one individual lamp in the living room, to set brightness, colour and saturation until it’s just perfect.  But how often do you actually do that? It would be wiser to initially show a list of pre-set scenes to be selected from, and then have the option to move to a different screen to change individual lights if required.

Just because your system can do something, don’t give it pride of place and assume that every user will want to do it.  I have been guilty of re-building my interface around that a newly-purchased piece of hardware, just to show it off its new features.  This is a waste of time and ultimately confuses other users.

Step 8: Where to host your interface?

This depends on your home control set up.  I have used a few different downloadable options here, one being Openremote which is a program that runs on your computer or Raspberry Pi and ‘serves’ up information to panels around the home.  By polling your home control hardware at intervals you can select, Openremote can keep track of your devices.

Domoticz also has its own user interface that can be used on a plethora of screen sizes, however although I absolutely adore Domoticz and use it as the basis of all my home control activities, I think that the user interface is – dare I say it – where there has been less development.  By no means do I think this is a let-down however, as I would not have been able to thoroughly automate our home without Domoticz.

Another route – which is the one I have taken – is to design a web-based interface from scratch.  As Domoticz has a ‘www’ folder that can serve up any html document in that folder, I don’t need a separate web server.  I just upload all the html screens into a sub-folder of the Domoticz/www folder and then navigate to that page from any panel in the home network.  Here’s the secret.  Controlling Domoticz devices from a web-page is really easy.  You just have to navigate to a specific address and Domoticz will turn on a device.  You can get more information about that on the Domoticz API/JSON URLs page.

The only thing I had to work out for myself is – when I navigate to a URL asking Domoticz to turn on a device, the screen shows a ‘result page’.  The user would have to then click the browser’s ‘back’ button to get away from this result page and then back to the interface.  To solve this, I use a very small frame at the bottom of the screen.  When the user clicks a selection in the main screen, the link is followed in the small frame at the bottom, so as not to disrupt the main window.

Step 9: Testing and Rollout

Before announcing to your loved ones that you have created a masterpiece, I would encourage you to test every function on every page of your home control interface, especially those functions which will affect many devices in the home.  As an example, choose a time when no-one else is around and activate your ‘leave’ function and see if it does actually behave in the way you expect.  It’s too late when your family is ready to leave and you proudly press the button, only for the whole system to crash.  Trust in the system as a whole can also be eroded in this way.

Personally, I have the flat to myself every other Friday, only having to navigate around our cat.  I use this opportunity to test new functions I have added.  Our neighbours must think the flat goes crazy every two weeks, but it’s worth it.

Once everything is ready, you can add links to your interface on every device that will access it.  You can now go back to step one to restart the process.  I say this with confidence because as I stated at the start of this article, there is no ‘perfect’ user interface and there are always improvements to be made.  I truly believe that I will always be in pursuit of user interface perfection.

Outdoor lighting

Unless you are lucky enough to have pre-wired lighting in outdoor spaces, it can be hard to link outdoor lighting to a home automation setup.  There aren’t many wireless and battery powered lights that can be controlled with radio signals, because ‘listening’ for the radio signals all the time will drain the batteries pretty quickly.

As part of my ‘ready for summer’ programme, we’ve just attached a reed fence to the back balcony, primarily so we can let our cat out for a bit of sun now and then so she doesn’t launch herself off the 3rd floor.  But me being me, I wanted some form of home control out there,  Of course, I could take out the Hue Go and I’m sure I will especially when summer (and wine) comes.  But it would be nice to have something permanent out there.

I remembered that I had a couple of the Lightwaverf LED lights we used to use in the kitchen and bathroom.  These are small white blocks, with a cluster of 3 bright LEDs (powered by 3 AAA batteries) encapsulated in a transparent circle that also acts as an on/off button.  The boffins at Lightwaverf have managed to work out how to use very little energy with these lights, so replacing the batteries does not need to happen as often as you might guess.

They’re perfect for mood lighting so I guessed they would have enough oomph for a double balcony.  They do indeed as the below images will testify!

backbalc1

balcony2

The lights themselves are not waterproof, so after some careful consideration (and rummaging around the house) I gathered together 2 old (clean!) takeaway boxes and some trusty super-strength double-sided sticky foam.  I stuck the top (the flat end) of the box to the wall, then the whole LED unit onto the surface, then pushed what was the bottom of the box (now the front of the light) on.  To replace the batteries I’ll just have to remove the ‘cover’ and then slide out the LED from its integrated holder.

Although (as in the picture) the lights look rather industrial, I like them!  Of course, you could encase the lights in whatever waterproof enclosure you want, just remember that you will have to open them at some stage to replace the batteries.

Now the lights were not accessible by human hands, I had to devise a way of switching them on and off.  I’d already linked them up with Domoticz, so we could use the app to control the lights.  But that’s not enough, is it!  As all 3 doors to the flat (and some doors inside the flat) have open/closed sensors, I hooked up the lights to the balcony door.  When the door opens, the lights come on for 5 minutes.  That’s enough to find a seat, set up a table and then decide if you’re staying out there, in which case you can use the Domoticz interface to keep the lights on.

One more thing… I didn’t want the lights to come on during the day when the door is opened.  That would just be wasteful.  As I had already set up a dummy switch called ‘Dusk’ that switches on just before sunset and switches off at sunrise, I could add this to the mix.

Just this much text as a script in your domoticz folder on your Pi achieves this.  It’s really that simple.

commandArray = {}
if (devicechanged['DOOR Chester Balcony'] == 'Open' and otherdevices['VAR Dusk'] == 'On' and otherdevices['Rear Balcony Lights'] == 'Off') then
 commandArray['Rear Balcony Lights'] = 'On FOR 5'
end
return commandArray

So even for someone who has no knowledge of programming, you can see what’s going on here.  In English:

If Chester’s door has just opened, and it’s dark enough to need lights and the balcony lights are not already on, switch on the balcony lights for 5 minutes.

Interestingly, the lights as in the picture were just too far away from the transceiver attached to the Pi to receive the signals reliably.  So there could have been the potential for one or both of the lights to stay on, even after they had been told to switch off.  To solve this, I used a LightwaveRF branded signal repeater, a really useful device that acts like a wifi repeater, but for home automation radio commands.

backbalc3

As for the balcony, it’s going to be great for summer.  But the cat might not be allowed on it as much as we’d hoped – within 5 minutes of her exploring her new space, I was prising her off the banister as she determinedly tried to fling herself off from the third floor.  I’ll have to think of a way that our home automation setup can prevent this!

Homemade disco using Sonos and Hue

I’ve used Hue Disco and other apps to sync up my Philips Hue lights with my music, but what I really wanted was something that I could start during a party, and just leave to get on with it.  I wanted the lights to change reasonably often, but I wanted them to respond to the type of music being played.

This program is written in Python 3 and uses the Echonest database to get the energy and danceability, as well as the tempo of the currently plying track from the Sonos player (obtained by this great program: node-sonos-http-api.  The program then selects a brightness and saturation range and randomly changes all the hue lights you specify.  The lights change in a frequency relating to the tempo of the track playing.

The program must be started AFTER you’ve started playing a track on the Sonos, and then continuously runs until you pause the Sonos player, and then raises the lights to a medium white light, and then the program quits.

I’ve got this program running on my Raspberry Pi, and am really pleased with it, obviously more tinkering can be done, but I’ve not seen any similar apps that do this.  I have a Domoticz ‘switch’ that can start running this program, and then to end the program, you just pause playback.  But you could just run the program from the command line each time you want to have a disco!

Best used when you have a night of partying, with a large random playlist going.  Don’t forget that as long as the player you specify in the variables is part of the playing ‘group’, you can play music to different rooms and include those Hue bulbs into the list too!

You can download the code here: Hue-BR-Analyse

Here’s the code:

import urllib
from urllib import request 
from random import randint 
import base64,requests,json,time,datetime

"""
Hue Sonos Analyser by Harry Plant 2015

This program changes the hue, brightness and tempo of Philips Hue lights depending on the energy and danceability of the track,
as reported by Echonest.

Requirements:

*Philips Hue bridge and at least one Hue Light (http://www2.meethue.com/en-gb/)
*At least one Sonos player (http://www.sonos.com/)
*Python 3 (I have it installed on my Raspberry Pi)
*Echonest api key (obtainable at https://developer.echonest.com/ - click 'Get an API Key')
*node-sonos-http-api (https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api)

change the following variables to match your setup:

zone is the name of the sonos player you will be listening to
my_list is an array of the hue lights you want to control
sonosinfo is the address of the node-sonos-http-api server
hue_bridge is the address and key that you use to control the hue
echonest_apikey is the key you obtained from echonest

I have used this program with success (great parties) on multiple occasions but do not accept 
responsibility for any loss or damage caused by using this code.

"""

zone = 'Kitchen'
my_list = ['3', '4', '5', '7', '15', '17', '19', '20']
sonosinfo = 'http://192.168.1.100:5005/'
hue_bridge = 'http://192.168.1.101/api/newdeveloper/'
echonest_apikey = '02MKNPMXXXXXXXXXX'

"""
MAIN PROGRAM BELOW, YOU DON'T NEED TO CHANGE ANYTHING FROM HERE
"""

currenttrack = 'No track'
min_bri = 100
max_bri = 100
secs_waited = 0
secs_to_wait = 10
sat = 100
tt = 10
trackfound = 1
std_assumptions = 0

for r in range(1,999999):
 
 secs_waited = secs_waited + 1

 req = request.urlopen(sonosinfo + zone + '/state')
 encoding = req.headers.get_content_charset()
 obj = json.loads(req.read().decode(encoding))
 """
 print(json.dumps(obj,indent=4))
 """
 if obj['zoneState'] == 'PAUSED_PLAYBACK' or obj['zoneState'] == 'STOPPED':
 print('Player has stopped playing. Returning lights to white and exiting program.')
 my_list_len = len(my_list)
 for i in range(0,my_list_len):
 hue = 10000
 bri = 200
 sat = 50
 tt = 50
 payload = '{"on":true,"sat":' + str(sat) + ',"bri":' + str(bri) + ',"hue":' + str(hue) + ',"transitiontime":' +str(tt) + '}'
 """
 print(payload)
 """
 r = requests.put(hue_bridge + "lights/" + my_list[i] + "/state",data=payload)

 req = request.urlopen('http://192.168.1.94:8080/json.htm?type=command&param=switchlight&idx=252&switchcmd=Off')
 exit()

 track = obj['currentTrack']['title']
 artist = obj['currentTrack']['artist'] 
 elapsedtime = obj['elapsedTime']
 playing = obj['playerState']

 if track == currenttrack:
 """
 print('Waited ' + str(secs_waited) + ' out of ' + str(secs_to_wait))
 """
 if track != currenttrack:
 std_assumptions = 0
 print('This is a new track!')
 print('Now playing : ' + track + ' by '+ artist + ".")
 requeststring = 'http://developer.echonest.com/api/v4/song/search?api_key=' + echonest_apikey + '&format=json&artist=' + urllib.parse.quote(artist) + '&title=' + urllib.parse.quote(track)
 """
 print(requeststring)
 """
 req = request.urlopen(requeststring)
 encoding = req.headers.get_content_charset()
 obj = json.loads(req.read().decode(encoding))
 """
 print(obj)
 """
 if not obj['response']['songs']:
 std_assumptions = 1 
 print('Song not in database - using standard assumptions')
 
 if std_assumptions == 0:
 songid = obj['response']['songs'][0]['id']

 """
 print(songid)
 """

 requeststring = 'http://developer.echonest.com/api/v4/song/profile?api_key=' + echonest_apikey + '&id=' + songid + '&bucket=audio_summary'
 """
 print(requeststring)
 """
 req = request.urlopen(requeststring)
 encoding = req.headers.get_content_charset()
 obj = json.loads(req.read().decode(encoding))
 if not obj['response']['songs'][0]['audio_summary']:
 print('Although song was in database, there is no energy and danceability data. Using standard assumptions for this track.')
 std_assumptions = 1

 if std_assumptions == 0:

 print(obj)
 
 dancepercent = int((obj['response']['songs'][0]['audio_summary']['danceability'])*100)
 energypercent = int((obj['response']['songs'][0]['audio_summary']['energy'])*100)
 pulserate = obj['response']['songs'][0]['audio_summary']['tempo']
 print('Danceability is '+str(dancepercent) + '% and energy is ' + str(energypercent) + '% with a tempo of '+str(pulserate) +'bpm.')
 currenttrack = track

 if std_assumptions == 1:
 
 dancepercent = 50
 energypercent = 50
 pulserate = 100
 print('Danceability is '+str(dancepercent) + '% and energy is ' + str(energypercent) + '% with a tempo of '+str(pulserate) +'bpm.')
 currenttrack = track

 if pulserate &lt; 100:
 secs_to_wait = 20
 tt = 20
 
 if pulserate &gt; 99 and pulserate &lt; 120:
 secs_to_wait = 6
 tt = 10
 
 if pulserate &gt; 119 and pulserate &lt; 160:
 secs_to_wait = 4
 tt = 7

 if pulserate &gt; 159:
 secs_to_wait = 2
 tt = 5
 """
 
 secs_to_wait = int((pulserate/60)*2)
 """
 if energypercent &lt; 20:
 sat = 50
 
 if energypercent &gt; 19 and energypercent &lt; 40:
 sat = 100

 if energypercent &gt; 39 and energypercent &lt; 60:
 sat = 120

 if energypercent &gt; 59 and energypercent &lt; 80:
 sat = 170 

 if energypercent &gt; 59 and energypercent &lt; 80:
 sat = 200

 if energypercent &gt; 79:
 sat = 255

 if dancepercent &lt; 20:
 max_bri = 60
 min_bri = 40
 
 if dancepercent &gt; 19 and dancepercent &lt; 40:
 max_bri = 100
 min_bri = 80

 if dancepercent &gt; 39 and dancepercent &lt; 60:
 max_bri = 150
 min_bri = 80

 if dancepercent &gt; 59 and dancepercent &lt; 80:
 max_bri = 200
 min_bri = 50 

 if dancepercent &gt; 59 and dancepercent &lt; 80:
 max_bri = 255
 min_bri = 50

 if dancepercent &gt; 79:
 max_bri = 255
 min_bri = 10

 print('Changing hue lights now.')
 my_list_len = len(my_list)
 for i in range(0,my_list_len):
 hue = randint(0,65000)
 bri = randint(min_bri,max_bri)
 payload = '{"on":true,"sat":' + str(sat) + ',"bri":' + str(bri) + ',"hue":' + str(hue) + ',"transitiontime":' +str(tt) + '}'
 """
 print(payload)
 """
 r = requests.put(hue_bridge + "lights/" + my_list[i] + "/state",data=payload)
 secs_waited = 0
 
 if secs_waited &gt;= secs_to_wait:
 print('Changing hue lights now.')
 my_list_len = len(my_list)
 for i in range(0,my_list_len):
 hue = randint(0,65000)
 bri = randint(min_bri,max_bri)
 payload = '{"on":true,"sat":' + str(sat) + ',"bri":' + str(bri) + ',"hue":' + str(hue) + ',"transitiontime":' +str(tt) + '}'
 """
 print(payload)
 """
 r = requests.put(hue_bridge + "lights/" + my_list[i] + "/state",data=payload)
 secs_waited = 0

 time.sleep(1)
 



The Family Factor

Unless you live with other home automation geeks, there’s a fine balance to achieve when designing your system.  Although you can be as creative and innovative as you like behind the scenes, there still needs to be a point of contact between the system and the users.  It is this point of contact that can prove the most difficult.  You need to strike a balance here: it’s important that the end users feel comfortable with the controls and get some kind of feedback that what they have requested has been carried out.

padThe simplest and one of the most common ways to provide an interface is via a touch screen.  Family members may not want to whip out their mobiles every time they want to turn on a light, so a permanent touchscreen is useful in that situation.  We have a Sony Tablet S permanently standing on its charger in the living room for this purpose, but what to do when you are not in the living room?  My choice was to place LightwaveRF Mood Controllers next to every light switch.  These controllers are wireless and the battery can be changed easily.  A blue LED illuminates to confirm that a button has been pressed.  The only downside is that the markings are not very clear, especially in the dark, and there are only generic symbols on them (1, 0 on the two large pads, and ‘Standby’, ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ on the 4 smaller buttons).  Because each “pad” (as I call them) does something different in each room, I printed custom covers for the pads and stuck them on.

Because all the mood switches do is send an RF signal, the clever stuff can be done behind the scenes by Domoticz.  For example, by pressing one button on the pad,  all lights in my room switch to maximum, change colour to bright white, and my Sonos switches to a ‘daytime’ volume and starts playing This American Life.  A great button to have when you’re back home from work and want to get changed in your room!

The ultimate test of a user interface is to see how users react to it.  It seems like guests to the flat understand what the buttons would do, even if they are sometimes afraid to press them!

I just asked Chester what he thinks of the pads.  He was non-plussed in a kind of ‘well, they just work’ way. This is a good thing as it means the pads have seamlessly integrated into the flat and are taken for granted by the users, which is of course the ultimate aim for home control user interfaces.