Via the HTTP server in the LAS you can access functions in the Programmer from a remote system. First, you have to configure and start the HTTP server in the Application options. When the configuration is finished, the HTTP server is ready for access. As there is no webpage in the server home path, you cannot see anything. But you can already trigger actions in the Programmer using a web browser. This is done through special tags inside the URL.

The basic syntax of an HTTP request is

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?RequestType=Request

or

http://ServerAddress/get?RequestType=Request

where ServerAddress is the IP Address or domain name of the HTTP server, RequestType is the type of request you want to send and Request is the request itself. As you can see, the only difference between the lines is the use of get and xmlget respectively. This affects the style of the results that the Programmer sends back to the browser after a request. Using get, the result is in plain text. With xmlget, the result will be sent in XML, with the following layout:

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”utf-8” standalone=”yes”?>
<xml_ecue version=”1.0”>
<request value=”…” tag_id=”…”/>
<result value=”1” error=”0” message=”OK”/>
<result_list>
<result_entry value=”the first entry” />
</result_list>
</xml_ecue>

XML-Tag Description

• <?xml … standard XML header
• ƒƒ<xml_ecue> protocol version number for e:cue HTML
• ƒƒ<request> the request like it arrived at the Programmer
• ƒƒ<result> ‘value’ – an integer value for the result, ‘error’ – nonzero value if an error  occurred, ‘message’ – error description in plain text
• ƒƒ <result_list> holds a list of <result_entry> – tags
• ƒƒ <result_entry> holds an attribute ‘value’ with results

Using get requires less result decoding effort but has a worse error handling. With xmlget,
in contrast, decoding is not as simple but you can see more easily what went wrong in case an error occurred. Empty spaces and various special chars are not allowed inside an HTTP request. You will have to transcode the request string to conform with the HTTP protocol. The JavaScript command XmlHttpRequest automatically transcodes forbidden characters into the correct format. You should use this command when you build your own website for remote access.

HTTP Request Types

The CallMacro request will execute a macro in the programmer. The macro must exist inside the show.

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?CallMacro=Name

You can also pass up to five numeric parameters, separated with commas. Examples:

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?CallMacro=MyMacro or http://ServerAddress/get?CallMacro=MyMacro,2,4,6

The ExecCommand request will execute a single line e:cript command in the  Programmer:

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?ExecCommand=CommandString

http://ServerAddress/get?ExecCommand=CommandString

In CommandString you can add any valid e:script command (or command sequence) like you would use inside the Programmer. You can also define global variables. Examples:

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?ExecCommand=StartCueList(QL(1));
http://ServerAddress/get?ExecCommand=if (undefined(_x)) int _x;_x=10;

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?ExecCommand=printf(“%d\n”,_x);

The AutoText request sends e:cue autotext to the Programmer. The Programmer sends back decoded autotext to the web browser as a result.

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?AutoText=AutoTextString

http://ServerAddress/get?AutoText=AutoTextString

Example:

http://ServerAddress/xmlget?AutoText=<cuelist 1 status>

Using the HTTP requests by typing them directly into the browser’s address bar is too complicated for real practical applications. It is of course possible to embed the requests into a website. This is what it’s all about: create your own website with your own control elements and put it online using the Programmer’s integrated HTTP server. You can also refresh any status displays or control elements without having to reload the entire page. This is typically realized using the AJAX web development techniques.

KiNet is a protocol used by Color Kinetics to control their LED fixtures and power supplies. It is a lightweight Ethernet-based protocol and uses UDP on port 6038. Be sure that no
hardware or software firewall blocks this port. As said for e:net a separate network segment should be used, at least a separate segment for all fixture communication.

There are two protocol generations over time, KiNET v1 and KiNET v2. KiNET v1 is also called DMXOUT and v2 is PORTOUT. The various products of Color Kinetics support one or both protocol versions. To use KiNET components there are two steps necessary: configuration of the KiNET power supplies including the control functions, and setup of the Programmer for KiNET communication.

For the first step you have to use Color Kinetics programs, these programs are available
from the Philips/Color Kinetics homepage. Note: as I dont have CK products at hand, this is a kind of dry run.

• Visit www.colorkinetics.com and follow Support, then Downloads from the main and left navigation.
• Download the Light System Composer, unzip it and start the installer. The LCS installer places a folder on your desktop, this contains links to several tools, one is the  Management Tool, this program is used to configure the KiNET power supplies.
• Use Light View | Discover Interfaces to allocate the power supplies, assign a unique IP address.

KiNET Manager

The next step is to configure the Programmer. The KiNET devices are used with a special
driver available in the Device Manager. So in Programmer, open the Device Manager, select Add Driverand add a driver for DMX Output, use the KiNET DMX-Node and click Add.

After the driver was added the configuration dialog for the KiNET node opens automatically.

KiNET DMX device

• Assign a unique name for the device.
• Enter the assigned IP address, the output universe in Programmer.
• Select the correct KiNET protocol version, see the following table for the protocol versions supported by the CK devices.
• DMX Start Channel allows a DMX address shift if any other DMX addresses are placed before the target fixture. ChromASIC is autoadressing mode, usually not used.

Click OK to enable the driver as DMX output device.

PPT2Programmer

No joke, it is possible to control the Programmer via Microsoft Powerpoint. This works via the web server interface in the Programmer and the HTTP methods in Powerpoint. Do it like this:

• ƒIn Powerpoint options | Popular enable the Developer Ribbon.
• Place an object in your presentation, e. g. a square like a button.
• Right-click the object, select Hyperlink.
• In the Action Settings dialog, select Run macro and define a macro name,
  e. g. StartShow1.
• In the Ribbon, select Macro in the PP Ribbon, create a macro, here StartShow1, go to Edit mode and enter this code:
  Sub StartShow1()
  Set objHTTP = CreateObject(“MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP”)
  URL = “http://192.168.123.123/xmlget?ExecCommand=StartCuelist(QL(1));”       objHTTP.Open “POST”, URL, False
  objHTTP.setRequestHeader “User-Agent”, “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;MSIE6.0;Windows NT 5.0)”
  objHTTP.send (“”)
  End Sub

Click Ok, close macro view. ƒƒ Dont forget to enable the Webserver in the Programmer!