Today's Birthdays

[jkaplan]

I created a simple application that lets you scroll through a list of famous peoples birthdays for the current day. It also plays a slide show of images that are returned from querying yahoo images using the persons name.

I built the application using Bajan so it requires that you either download and install the Bajan framework, or if you are using Galleon, you can just download the Bajan plugin for Galleon and use that.

http://bajan.axlogic.com/demos.htm

For those who are not familiar with Bajan, it is an open source visual authoring tool that can be used build applications for TiVo. There is a plugin that lets you configure the application using Galleon, but also it has its own server.

-jared

[dawalls_1999]

Can you please explain how to install the Galleon plugin?

[jkaplan]

You install the file: bajan-galleon.jar (https://bajan.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList) in the apps folder of your Galleon installation. I believe you will need to restart the server in order to be able to see the new application type in Galleon.

To configure the application in Galleon, choose "New App..." from the file menu, and then select type: Bajan Application. The application's configuration panel will then let you select the Bajan application to install (e.g. birthdays.bap).

[dawalls_1999]

Thanks, much appreciated

[dawalls_1999]

It looks like just a white screen on this and the Simon application. I noticed that the 3 plugins installed. Any suggestions?

[gonzotek]

It looks like just a white screen on this and the Simon application. I noticed that the 3 plugins installed. Any suggestions?
I'm getting the same results.

[jkaplan]

Not really sure why you would just be getting a white screen, just out of curiosity, what is the size of the .bap files (in bytes) on your computer? Have you tried installing the Bajan Framework and running it with that as well? Also, I'm assuming you are running on a Windows machine with Java 1.5+, is that correct?

I am just about to release Beta 3 of the Bajan Framework, so it would be great to fix this problem if I can reproduce it.

thanks,

-j

[gonzotek]

Using the Bajan Framework and windows client, I can properly run the simon game and the hello world example starts as well. I am using Windows and Java 1.5+(not sure of the exact revision but it's something recent).

Simon.bap is 126541 bytes
birthdays.bap is 4982 bytes

I really like the visual design framework you've built and I can't wait until I can start writing my own apps. I hope you can reproduce and fix or explain whatever is going on soon, I see a lot of potential here.

[jkaplan]

I just released a new version of Bajan (b3), including a new version of the galleon plugin. Not sure if using this version will correct the problem you were having, but I was never able to reproduce it.

The new version of Bajan adds a lot of nice features to the Editor and fixes some performance issues in the runtime engine. Also, I added a plugin package for communicating with the Yahoo! search webservices.

Give the new version a go and let me know what happens.

-jared

[dawalls_1999]

Just an FYI, I still get the same white screen with the new plugin.

[jkaplan]

What version of Galleon are you using? Also, do you see the same problem when you start the application in the HME emulator?

One other thing you can try is loading the application in the Bajan Server and turn on "TiVo Broadcast" (it is off by default). If you are still getting the white screen on your TiVo then I can start to look at other things.

[dawalls_1999]

I am running Galleon 2.2 with Java 1.5. I just loaded it in the Bajan server and it seems to be running fine now. It just doesn't seem to work in Galleon as a plugin. Very nice program, thanks.

[jkaplan]

To get Bajan to work with Galleon you need to modify the wrapper.conf file (in galleon/conf). Comment out the line:

wrapper.java.additional.5=-Dawt.toolkit=com.eteks.awt.PJAToolkit

so it should look like:

#wrapper.java.additional.5=-Dawt.toolkit=com.eteks.awt.PJAToolkit

That's all you need to do. The reason I never saw this problem is because I was not running Galleon as Windows service. I'm not quite sure why Leon uses the PJAToolkit (I'm sure there is a good reason), but from my limited testing it seems like it is ok to comment it out. I suspect there might be problems when running on Linux or other platforms, but maybe Leon can chime in if he reads this.

Anyway, I'll dig into this a little deeper, but for now if you want to use the Bajan-Galleon plugin you can try this. (You will need to restart the Galleon service after you make this change).

-jared

[gonzotek]

I can confirm that the apps are working for me with the PJAToolkit comment fix. Yay! Thanks so much for your time and effort, this is going to be a nice environment to work in.

I haven't tested Galleon on my main system yet, to see if there are any adverse effects when commenting out PJAToolkit. Hopefully things will still work. Windows2000, Galleon 2.2, Bajan 1.0b3, and Java 1.5.0_06-b05.

[dawalls_1999]

I have it working with the galleon plugin also.

[jkaplan]

That's great! I'm glad the fix worked. I will be interested to hear about your experiences using Bajan to create HME apps. Right now there are a few people using Bajan for various other projects, but only one or two who are focusing on making apps for the TiVo.

One thing that is currently in development is a library of user interface objects specifically for HME, kind of like the Bananas library - it's possible that I will even wrap the Bananas objects themselves. Also, I've been thinking about other core objects that will further simplify creating Bajan applications for HME.

Bajan b3 is currently a great alternative to using Java for creating HME apps, and it's only going to get better. Because it's an open source project however the participation of users who can provide feedback and help with either testing or development is critical. I hope that you continue to use and enjoy Bajan!

-jared