This list details changes in HouseBot since version 3.0.  Click on a version below to jump to the updates for a particular release.

Version 3.30

HouseBot Server Changes:

• Upgraded the graphics support. Although this doesn’t address any particular issue, there were many graphics related problems that were resolved in the update.
• Upgraded the core system support to use newer Microsoft system libraries. This update improves speed and reliability.
• Resolved issue where the server would not auto-lock if it was left on a screen that updated automatically.
• Added the name of the theme XML file to the Theme Properties dialog.
• Resolved issue where updates to the title of a List Control were not being updated in the Theme Editor.
• Resolved issue when creating a new Device where the Property Values were sometimes not requested.
• Configuration Import improvement to prompt the user whether to create new or use existing Hardware Interface if importing over an existing Hardware Interface of the same type.

Software Remote Changes:

• New support for non-rectangular buttons. Transparent areas of buttons are no longer clickable and will click through to the button below.
• Buttons and images can now be inter-layered allowing for images to reside on top of buttons, and buttons to be stacked on top of other buttons.
• New Software Remote support for Pocket PC 2003, Smartphone 2003, Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.
• Upgraded the core system support to use newer Microsoft system libraries. This update improves speed and reliability.
• Windows Software Remote is now contained in a setup program for installing on other machines.
• Resolved issue where the panel context was not getting set for Windows CE remotes.
• Resolved issue where the status of the remote would always be displayed as “Initializing” after a server restart and reconnect.
• Changed the default setting for the “Movement Locked” option to NOT locked.
• Improved internal handle checking for handle references passed to the server from plugins. Without this, a crash could happen if the user deleted a Property from a Device while running.
• Windows CE based Software Remote binary files are now packaged as CAB files as well as EXE files. This resolves an issue where ActiveSync would sometimes corrupt the EXE on transfer.
• Added new Task action, VBScript command, and External Control command to allow ‘unblanking’ of the SWRemote screen.
• Added new option to the Directory List control to omit the file extension.
• Resolved issue where the last file was not getting displayed in the Directory List control.
• When Control Focus Management is enabled, the cursor keys on the Software Remote Device can now be used to move the focus.
• When pressing a panel change button for a panel that is currently active, if button uses a panel context is different than the active context, the panel will re-initialize with the new context.

Plugin Changes:

• Playlist Manager: Resolved issue where the Playlist Manager wasn’t correctly deciphering non-ASCII characters.
• TV Listing Device: Resolved issue where TV Listing Device would crash due to initial setup problem.
• GC-100: Resolved issue where the initial destination device setting of “All” wasn’t getting initialized properly.
• GC-100: Added Receive Terminator character sequence configuration option to trigger end of received data stream instead of using a timeout value.
• GC-100: Added logic to recover from lost network connection.
• Generic Serial Interface: Added Receive Terminator character sequence configuration option to trigger end of received data stream instead of using a timeout value.
• External Control: Enhanced command set for the HB_Control.EXE command line program to include all supported External Control options.
• External Control: HB_Control.EXE can now run as a CGI application and manage requests between a web server and HouseBot.
• Resolved issue that could crash the server when plugins needed to trace error messages.
• Script Device: Increased maximum line length from 256 to 1024 bytes per line.
• Generic Serial Device: Added ‘Received Hex Data’ Property that formats the received data in hex format.
• POP3 Device: Minor updates to not update Properties if a message is not received correctly.
• Insteon Devices: Resolved issue where changing the Power State Property to On would cause the Property to change twice.
• Z-Wave (all): Improved Z-Wave Device retry logic on failure.
• X10: Changes to X10 Security Devices to facilitate sensor address learning.
• Sleep Timer: Added “Time Remaining” Property.
• Insteon: Improved response for Dim Level property when state changed from switch.
• WinAmp: Resolved issue where fast forward and fast rewind was not updating the track position counter.
   

Version 3.20

HouseBot Server Changes:

• Theme Editor will display controls with invalid Device/Task/Mode associations differently to indicate the configuration problem.
• Task conditions can now test for text that ‘Begins With’ and ‘Ends With’.
• Task actions that control Software Remotes now have the option to specify a particular remote.
• Configuration Import/Export can now modify an existing export file.
• Log files now enclose all data in quotes for better CSV formatting.
• Licensee name displayed on main screen.
• Configuration Import/Exports can now specify a folder name for Devices and Tasks to be imported to.
• HouseBot and Software Remote can now run under a limited user account.
• New Script command ‘SetWhichRemotesToControl’ to target Software Remote controlling within scripts.
• New Script command ‘OnOpenRemotePanelAndSetContext’ to set panel context when opening a panel on a Software Remote.
• Resolved issue in Theme Editor where font was not getting applied to text controls when selecting control from a skin.

Software Remote Changes:

• Panel context option for panel change buttons to use current context for new panel.
• List column names can now be defined by a comma delimited list of header titles.

Plugin Changes:

• New Plugin: AOL Instant Message (AIM) Plugin. Interact with HouseBot using AIM.
• New Plugin: Log File To Alpha List. This Device will read the contents of a CSV log file and update an Alpha List Property with the contents of the file.
• New Plugin: POP3 Email Device. This Device will retrieve messages from a POP3 email account.
• IR Property Value associations can now include delay values in IR code list.
• WinAmp plugin has a new Property to repeat a playlist.
• WinAmp plugin now supports Fast Forward and Rewind.
• WinAmp plugin has a new Property to repeat a track.
• Playlist plugin has a new Property to shuffle the playlist.
• Resolved issue with international characters in the Playlist Manager.
• Improved logic for HBInterface export. If an interface isn't exported, but HBInterface is, the server will still expose the interface (to allow devices to configure) and just call the HBInterface for the missing export.

Version 3.10

Plugin Changes:

• Fixed logic for Ocelot Timer and Variable Devices to work correctly with the latest Ocelot firmware.
• Resolved issue in the Girder Bridge Device when running under Vista.
• Added support for Girder version 5 to the Girder Bridge Device.
• New Z-Wave Devices
  • Thermostat Device
  • Configuration Parameter Device
  • Motion Sensor Device
  • Multilevel Sensor Device
  • Motor/Blind controller
• New Z-Wave Hardware Interfaces
  • Intermatic HA22
  • ACT HomePro ZCU – USB series of controllers
  • ACT HomePro ZCS – Serial series of controllers
  • Wayne Dalton WD HD-10 USB controller and all branded versions of this device.
• Resolved issue where Hardware Interface could crash server if changing a property value before property view was initialized.
• SDK/Plugin development. Dependent DLLs will now be loaded from Dlls directory in Devices and Interfaces directories.
• Resolved issue in CM11 Hardware Interface where it could crash the server if enabled, disabled, and then enabled again.

HouseBot Server Changes:

• Resolved issue where nested group names were sometimes not created correctly.
• Resolved issue where 'Allow Same Value Changes' was only used when changes were made from the HouseBot server user interface.  This setting is now used for everything, including changes from Tasks and Devices.  Important Note:  This change may affect the behavior of existing configurations.  If unwanted behavioral changes are noticed, be sure to suspect this change and examine the Device Properties that are in question to make sure this setting is set correctly.
• Resolved issue where Property Value substitution in Tasks with negative number would not property perform the replacement.
• Resolved Theme import problem when duplicate Themes were encountered.  Resolution now renames imported Theme definition file if needed to prevent it from overwriting existing Themes.
• Resolved issue when removing text overlay from image control in Theme editor.  Overlay text now clears when removed from the property window.
• Resolved issue where Task running script device would sometimes hang the server.
• Resolved issue where some colors/pixels would be transparent for control images that were NOT using transparency in the Theme editor.

Software Remote Changes:

• Resolved issue where some colors/pixels would be transparent for control images that were NOT using transparency.

Version 3.02.01

HouseBot Server Changes:

• Resolved issue where it was possible to create duplicate Group names.
• Resolved issue when changing a property value with a property value button using a substitution string would crash the server.
• Resolved issue that would corrupt time and timespan values when moved up/down or duplicated in a Task.
• Resolved issue when calling SetModeState in VBScript from a Task would use the inverted state.

Software Remote Changes:

• Resolved issue where enlarged buttons with color adjust set and NO transparent color set would cause the button not to display correctly.

Plugin Changes:

• Corrected labels for Front and Right zones in USB UIRT configuration.

Version 3.02

HouseBot Server Changes:

• Resolved issue where property value substitution fails sometimes for time/date property values.
• Resolved issue where pressing cancel on the settings dialog would sometimes crash the server.
• Theme Editor: Unselecting the Device selection in the list control double-click option is now possible.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where property tabs were not initializing to same tab name when switching between panels.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where Mode button did not allow changes to the color adjust color.
• Resolved issue where changing the server startup type in the configuration dialog was not actually making the change.
• Resolved issue where the time values in the System Time Device would sometimes drift and fall behind the actual time of the computer.
• Resolved issues where Date type property values would sometimes not properly assign to other values.

Software Remote Changes:

• New: Sizeable Button and Indicator controls.
• New: Control mask image for color adjustments.
• New: Slider, Gauges, and Dials now allow color adjust on both images that make up the full control. Important: This change will effect the default color adjust colors configured for existing slider, gauge, and dial controls. Color adjust colors may need to be updated.
• New: Option to increase the controls transparency.
• New: Option to change sliders by just clicking on the desired location on the slider background.
• New: Option for sliders and dials to send property value changes as the control is being adjusted (instead of waiting for the button to be released on the drag).
• New: Dial control will no longer wrap from the min to max (and max to min).
• Resolved issue where popup panel would not close if closed from the server when the server is minimized.
   

Plugin Changes:

• Resolved issue where X10 Unit codes received by Ocelot were sometimes reported incorrectly.
• New: Support for the Insteon PowerLinc Modem (PLM)
• X10 Controller now has new “Received Composite Property”.
• New: Module Parameter, Variable, and Timer Devices now supported by Ocelot hardware interface.

Version 3.01

HouseBot Server Changes:

• New: Password protect server.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where modifying an item in a Panel exit list crashes server.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where duplicating a property label twice would create static labels instead of property labels.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where color adjust and transparent colors were not getting applied to a background when selecting new background image.
• Theme Editor: Resolved issue where Panel scroll bars may not provide enough scrolling to move to the end of the panel or even clip the panel tab-bar.
• Theme Editor: New: Controls that are placed outside the panel area can now be selected and moved back into the panel.
• Resolved issue where pressing cancel on Property Value substitution dialog would insert empty macro in Task Action value field.

Software Remote Changes:

• New: Windows CE 5.0 SWRemote
• New: HP/C Pro 2.11 SH3 SWRemote
• Resolved issue where new theme files were always getting downloaded to the SWRemote.
• Resolved issue when multiple SWRemotes were accessing the same file.
• Resolved issue where background images were sometimes shown as black.

Plugin Changes:

• Script Device: GetPropertyValue() and SetPropertyValue() script commands no longer require device name when referencing the current device context of the script Device.
• Insteon Devices: Resolved issue where Insteon Device dim level was not set correctly according to the Power State.
• New: support for Global Cache GC-IRE.
• GC-100: New: Added support for the Global Cache GC-100 to use the GC-IRE.

Version 3.00.01

Version 3.00

Software Remote Changes:

• New option to color adjust images. This option significantly simplifies the effort to use controls of various colors.
• New 3.0 Theme. This Theme uses gray tones for all images to help leverage the new color adjustment feature.
• New support for running multiple SWRemotes on the same machine.
• New keyboard shortcuts for controls.
• New "context" option for panel change buttons that allow popup panels to specify different Device and Property values depending on which panel change button was pressed to open the Panel.
• New option for images to keep aspect ratio.
• New option for doubleclick of list control to set second property.
• New “Minimize to tray” option.
• New “Start minimized” option.
• New command line option for initial X & Y (left and top) screen coordinates.
• Hard button support for PC Enter key (maps to Cursor Enter button).
• Improved Image control to handle same named image files but from different directories.
  

Plugin Changes:

• New Civil Sunrise/Sunset Properties were added to the System Time Device. These work similar to the current Sunrise and Sunset properties, but are calculated using civil twilight times.
• New ASCII protocol for External control plugin.
• Insteon Improvements. It is now possible to programmatically link devices. This allows linking to groups to control individual buttons/lights on the KeypadLinc.
• The Insteon plugin is now included in the main HouseBot setup package.
• New NetCallerID plugin.
• Added two new properties to the IR Devices Device plugin for controlling setting a fixed numeric code length for the numeric pass-through property, and a property to set the inter-code delay.

HouseBot Server Changes:

• New method to send numeric IR codes from a Property without having to configure every possible numeric property value.
• Task conditions can now test text to see if it 'contains' a portion of text in addition to the existing Equal, Not Equal, < and >.
• New Task Action for "Execute Script". This can be used to easily invoke a script from a Task without having to create a separate Script Device.
• Auto compact and backup the main HouseBot database once a month.
• New backup option backup (and zip) entire config directory.
• New option to specify the initial server window state. Can now be set to start minimized or maximized in addition to the default last state setting.
• Log file time/dates now use HouseBot configured formats.
• Error messages that are displayed in the status line are automatically cleared after a period of time.
• Improvements to maximum lengths of Property Values.
• New option for Task conditions to further restrict condition by the source of the change.