The OpenRemote Console is not a single application. (Simplified: No, you don't need an iPhone to send commands to an OpenRemote Controller or to query its state.)
We use this subproject to design:
- Platform-independent models and metadata that describe User Interface Elements, User Interface Layout, Action Binding, Status Display. This metadata and the underlying model is a platform-independent profile of a particular console. Some early work on the model and the metadata is going on here. The OpenRemote Manager will be the editor that users work with to create actual profile descriptors and to deploy them into the OpenRemote system.
- Platform-dependent software that understands these models and compiles metadata (the profile descriptors) into actual OpenRemote Console applications. Anything that can read a profile descriptor and render and show an interface to a user is a valid OpenRemote Console application. We focus on a Cocoa and a web application first, others might follow.
OpenRemote Console for iPhone
The first application by OpenRemote is a Cocoa based UI for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. This application will allow users to send commands to the OpenRemote Controller and to query the controller for its state. To do that, it retrieves the currently available profiles from the OpenRemote Controller after it detects it with multicast DNS (Zeroconf). It then automatically creates a user interface based on the profile/scene definitions. The user interacts with that UI and the iPhone/iPod communicates with the controller through the home WiFi network.
OpenRemote Web Console
A web-based UI for sending commands and querying of controller state. This web application is served by the OpenRemote Controller, and has the benefit on working on pretty much anything that supports a browser. A user only needs to open a web browser and enter the IP address of the controller on the LAN or WLAN. The web application is a GWT application that is part of the deployed profiles on the OpenRemote Controller. It is automatically generated by the Online/Offline Manager software, the profile editor. This means the OpenRemote Controller does not generate web pages and HTML on-the-fly, the whole application is pre-compiled into static HTML and Javascript files, and only served by the controller. It executes completely in the webbrowser of the user, only interacting with the OpenRemote Controller through its regular HTTP interface for sending commands and querying state.
Future
Other native OpenRemote Console applications are possible, for example, a Windows desktop application with minimal footprint and useful integration (system tray, alerts, etc.)
