Web2Home - LCARS

This is a hardware/software project for a web-based interface for a selfmade home automation (currently with LCARS-like look and feel) using python, json, jquery, html, css, a raspberry pi and a propeller.
Feel free to have a look into the wiki, there you'll find some screenshots ;o)

LCARS is the "Library Computer Access/Retrieval System" which is used in Startrek universe since the next generation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS). This project is about giving each individual interested in the LCARS UI a framework that can be used in personal projects like for example a selfmade MP3 player using the RaspberryPi or a full blown home automation system.

The basic idea of the framework is to have a configuration-file, which allows to easily setup/change an web application. This example shows a setup-example (as of 24.02.2013) which describes a login-screen:

      screens = {
        'login': {
          'name'       : 'login',
          'layout'     : 'Layout_001',
          'scheme'     : 'hometrek_style1.css',
          'timeline'   : 'true',
          'headline'   : 'MAGIO2 LCARS - LOGIN SCREEN',
          'hlwidth'    : '320px',
          'hlcolor'    : 'trk_hellgrau',
          'menu'       : 'Off',
          'onclick'    : 'alert("Off");',
          'defContent' : 'Login',
          'contentLogin' : {
            'name'       : 'loginCont',
            'layout'     : 'Login_Form'
          }
        }
        ...

The most interesting thing is the attribute 'layout' because it is used to dynamically load other scripts that really build up the content. The layout given in the example simply creates a headline, a line showing the current time/date (including star-time ;o), a big content area and a menu on the bottom. The content area will be build up by the script named in the layout attribute of the 'contentLogin' section. (All other attributes on a level are used by the actual layout-script.)

Setup:

To run the framework itself you need:

• A webserver (for example XAMPP / LAMPP)
• Python
• A Browser

The webserver needs to be setup in a way that it accepts *.py as CGI-scripts.

My target setup includes:

• a raspberry pi which runs THTTPD
• a propeller board which runs the home automation system ( if there is interest, I could start a new repository whith all sources of that)
• a laptop (as client and development environment)

When moving the project to the raspberry you have to be carefull:

1. The *.py scripts need to be transferred in text-mode. If transferred binary, the python interpreter won't start em!
2. The *.py scripts need to point to the right python binary (#!D:\bla\python vs. #!/usr/bin/python)