Monday 27 August 2018

Migrating website data when switching from app store version of Integrity Plus / Pro to web download version

There are reasons why you might want to start using the web download version of Integrity Plus or Integrity Pro after buying the App Store version.

(We're happy to provide a key, with evidence of the App Store purchase as long as it's for the same user).

The App Store version is necessarily 'sandboxed', a security measure imposed by Apple for apps sold on their Store. However, this kills certain features, such as the ability to crawl a site stored as local files. So the web download version remains un-sandboxed (it pre-dates sandboxing).

The sandboxed and un-sandboxed apps store their data in different places. When switching from the web download version to the app store version, the migration is taken care of by the system (this is the way Apple want you to go and so they make this easy. Invisible in fact).

The app doesn't (yet) detect and automatically handle the reverse situation. But it's possible to do this manually.

Option 1. Integrity Plus / Pro have the option to export / import your websites. 
This requires you to export while you have the app store version installed, and import after you've replaced it with the web download version.

Option 2. Use these Terminal commands. 

They check for and remove any preference file which will be present if you've already run the web download version. Then copy the data from the sandbox 'container' to the location used by the web download version.

(This first set of instructions is for Integrity Plus. For Integrity Pro, scroll down)

First make sure Integrity Plus isn't running.

Then enter this into Terminal:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-plus.plist

(if it says there's no file there, don't worry.) Then this:

cp ~/Library/Containers/com.peacockmedia.integrityPlus/Data/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.integrityPlus.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-plus.plist

Important: now log out of the system and log back in. The system does some wicked things with caching these files. It's sometimes possible to make our change 'stick' using another Terminal command, but I've not found that as reliable for these purposes as logging out / in.

Now start the web download Integrity Plus and see whether your data appears.

Here are the corresponding instructions for Integrity Pro

Make sure Integrity Pro isn't running

First enter into Terminal:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-pro.plist

(if it says there's no file there, don't worry.) Then this:

cp ~/Library/Containers/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-pro/Data/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-pro.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.peacockmedia.Integrity-pro.plist

Important: log out of the system and back in.

Wednesday 8 August 2018

Getting started - Hue-topia for Mac

After following these steps which will only take a couple of minutes, you’ll know how to make and use presets, set your lamps to turn on and off on schedule and use effects.

(This tutorial was written on 8 August 2018 and supersedes the previous version of the same tutorial.)

The latest version of Huetopia is available here

1.  If you’ve not already done so, make sure your Bridge and some bulbs are switched on and start Hue-topia. The first time that you start the app it will try to find your bridge and attempt to log in. Finding the bridge requires an internet connection.

The only thing that you should need to do is to press the button on the bridge when instructed, to pair it with the Hue-topia app. If there are any problems at this stage, see Troubleshooting in the Hue-ser manual

Make and try two presets

2. turn the brightness and the whiteness of all of your lamps all the way up and make sure all are on.


3. Click the [+] button (Save preset) and type ‘All white’ for the name of the new preset. OK that.

4. Turn the brightness and also the whiteness of all of your lamps to three quarters of the way up.

5. Click the [+] button (Save preset) and type ‘All warm’ for the name of the new preset. OK that.

6. You now have two presets and can use these from the Presets button in the toolbar and also from the status bar. Try this.

Make a preset that affects only certain lamps

7. Go to 'Manage presets...' from the Presets toolbar button or the Lamps menu.

8. Choose your preset from the window that appears, and press 'Lamps affected'. You'll now see a checkbox alongside each lamp in the main control window. Uncheck some of the lamps, press 'OK'.  Your preset will now only affect the lamps that remained checked.

Set your lamps to turn on and off on schedule

9. Press the Schedules button or ‘Show schedules’ from the View menu (command-2 also shows this window).

10. Press the [+] button at the bottom-left of the Schedules window.

11. Type ‘Daily’ for the name, select ‘On & Off’, select ‘group: all’, type 17:00 for on and 23:00 for off. Leave all days selected. Click somewhere outside of the small window to save and close those settings.

All lamps are now set to switch on at 5pm and off at 11pm. Note that this will work even when your computer and Huetopia aren't running, because Hue-topia copies its schedules to the bridge.

Make and try an effect

12. Press the Effects toolbar button, and press the [+] button below your list of effects.

13. Type the name 'Pastels', and press the [+] below the timeline strip a couple of times to add a couple more nodes. Space them out equally


14. Click inside the colour swatch of the first node and choose a nice pastel colour. Do the same for the other two. Adjust the cycle time to a value that you like and make sure 'Loop' is selected. The preview swatch should show the effect animating. When that's working as you like, OK the sheet.


15. Return to the main window. Choose a light or group that you want to apply your effect to. Look for the little 'effect' icon in the control strip (ringed below). Click that and a menu of your effects will pop up. Choose your new Pastels effect and Hue-topia should start animating that effect for the chosen bulb or group. While the effect is running, the little icon will rotate.




Wednesday 1 August 2018

How do LIFXstyle and Hue-topia look when built to run on the new dark mode?

This good:



I'm really chuffed with this, in fact I'm increasingly pleased with dark mode, it's really easy on the eye and Apple have done a great job.

If I had applications that really needed dark mode then it's my lighting controllers Hue-topia and LIFXstyle. The last thing you want when you're adjusting mood lighting is a bright laptop screen illuminating the room.

The new versions with dark mode enabled will be ready before too long.