How can I stop the S/W from looking at folders?
I.E. If I place a .jpg on my desktop, it automatically gets added to photos in TouchSmart.
I want to control what the program adds.
Thought I saw a location that allowed you to uncheck folders, but now I can't find it.
Any ideas???
I've never seen a configuration setting that dictates which folders the TouchSmart Photo App keeps an eye on. I looked at some various config files behind the scenes, but didn't see anything that indicated which folders it watches.
Anyone else have any ideas?
Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.
Yeah this needs to be fixed. The touchsmart interface is designed for friends and family to browse through files. There should be folders for touchsmart to scan, not everything that ends up on your computer, this could lead to embarassment lol. Or at least give us a folder that TS doesn't read.Seriously, why didn't HP think of these things?
I will be interested to learn about how to make this work too.
Apparently, I partition my C: and move all my pictures/videos/music files to the other partition thinking that it should at least be organised this way. I was wrong. Touchsmart, as usual, displays everything that was in the com. :(
Ideas anyone?
__________________________
The Force, is not with me. ):
On the flip side too, iv'e removed a lot of video files from my touchsmart, and even though the files are no longer there, they still show up in the picture/video interface....
How do i remove these, or at least tell the touch smart to reindex everything
Sorry HP, it's a lovley machine, but he ommision of this basic feature is rather insane to say the least.
I just joined the forum for this point i too removed some video from the system but it still shows in the software. The TS is a great machine, the future of home computing, but the lack of customisation in the software is not really acceptable in a product costing as much as this does. Come on HP let see the software match the quality of the hardware.
Ian
All thats really needed is for HP to make a patch to the software that add's in a rescan hard drive option, or clear cache function, surely it can't bethat difficult considering that all these things are , are fairly simple WPF dialogs whith a modless framework.
In fact i'll go so far as to say, gimme the source code and i'll add the feature ;-)
I joined the forum for this point too, i could not believe at first that i don't find the option to add network attached folder to the photos or videos but after i called support i was stunted that its not supported. I never saw any pic or any viewer in windows that cannot read any drive in windows mapped or not. I am waiting for an update before my return expire date to return my just today arrived i816.
Well guys, here's a thought...
How many of you are programmers, and have a grasp of the specs and notes HP have provided on writing touchsmart apps?
I for one would be intrested in writting my own version, unfortunately my time is quite limited, esp this month :-)
If a group of us wants to set up a project to create an improved version however, i will help as and where i can.
The HP TouchSmart Application Development Guidelines basically are just that, guidelines. It tells you obvious stuff like to avoid relying on right-mouse clicks to initiate actions,avoid relying on keyboard keys, use a chromeless gui...etc. These are surprisingly simple XML and WPF apps it appears. No child windows, no chrome means no menu parameters. The only user made app that I have tried is the egg timer. It worked like an egg timer and looked like one but something in the code made it lock itself between the row of big tiles and small tiles. I had to restart the system and remove the exe file its self to get it to go away. But it is still there, just blacked out and no option to delete, something that should be included in the guidelines is the option to delete the app from within TS, but it isn't in there.
The problem is in the Touchsmart source code. The guidelines just tell you ,in a very unorganized way, the basic guidelines for making tile apps. I wouldn't really even care about that if the add a tile feature in TS was a little more customizable (using my own icon). I wouldn't waste time making an app for TS when TS its self need work. I would think it would bve very easy to make a TS app, so easy in fact HP should have added a 'Create an App' program inside the TS software. Kinda like the Create a Sim in the Sims or Star Maker in The Movies. The TS software reminds me a great deal of a game interface and should be readily customizable.
I haven't used the Touchsmart since I realized it sucks every bit of media from my machine and displays it in TS. That is just stupid. The fact that this hasn't been fixed yet really makes me want to return my TS as well.There are still some bugs in the software like any newly released software that I am sure they are working on. But the media problem should have never made it to store shelves.And HP really needs to give me control of the icons in the Add a Tile function.
The Touchsmart interface was a big factor when I bought the TS. I feel, know, that I paid extra for that software and at this point it is useless. The reason I thought the TS software was so cool is because you could just run it in your living room and let family and friends access your PC for movies , music , pics, weather etc., without digging into your folders. But as it is, HP decided we don't need privacy and decided that whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander. Or,in more modern words, whatever is fine for my eyes and ears is also good for my 8 year old nephews eyes and ears.
I am getting more and more impatient with this. Hey HP dudes! You guys that should be working around the clock to fix this problem that should have never been there to begin with!? You listening? If you guys don't fix this soon, I will most likely return or sell this unit and write a very bad review. I know that software is only as perfect as the programmer and that nobody's perfect, but this is unacceptable. This should have been fixed by now. Could anyone contact an HP dev on the TS team and let them know that they need to put this on the front burner,call the family and let them know that they will be working late until they get this fixed? Because whatever you are working on is not as important as this issue. Then write a little code that allows us to add custom icons to our tiles. Then work on the bugs. Then work out some better multi-touch. And then and only then will my confidence in HP be returned. Because you HP Touchsmarts devs have really made me lose some trust in a company I have trusted for years. I feel a little ripped off actually.
I'm listening. I'm passing your feedback on. I can't say any more than that here. There are policies I have to follow around posting in public forums.
The only way Ive found that stopps pictures from showing up is to mark the file or folder its in as hidden in Explorer.
I tried that too digger, and it didn't work for me. On a similar note however i made the folder unreadable by my specific user, but readable by the admin group and that has the same effect.
Jerry > I hear your pain, my main idea with devices was to replace the againg TV & Freeview box i had in the bedroom, and to replace the portable TV in the kitchen. Unfortunately the omision of hiding anything thats only for certain eyes, is a big big factor.
GeekTieGuy > I fully understand, iv'e been in the same position before, oh and i'm currently available for hire if the dev team are short staffed ;-)
The hidden folder/file action worked for me. I did have some pictures show up that I didn't load onto the computer or download although I could tell that they were from a site I browsed looking for some wallpaper. They finally disappeared.
Neil J.
I'll be honest in saying that I do not currently run the TouchSmart software at all. I played with it a bit, looked into the SDK, and have not started it since. There are a couple reasons for this.
1.) You can't really customize the application. Aside from adding tiles, there is not much depth there. Seems like it would have been better to focus on getting the small picture right first.
2.) The way you have to create tiles for it is atrocious, to say the least. A big reason I do not run the software is because I don't like to have multiple executables running from one program. I can't say I can remember the last application that used executables for add-ins. This at the very least is a huge security issue. Not to mention the fact that after the TouchSmart software closes, these processes are still hanging around. And I know you can set it to close all of these processes when the SmartCenter executable closes, but that is not the default behavior. I would seriously consider switching to System.AddIn or MEF. You picked WPF as the foundation for the software, whats the problem with requiring .NET as the add-in language? This gets rid of those ridiculous requirements, no resize, windowless, etc.
3.) It has crashed/locked up on me a few times.
4.) Performance leaves something to be desired. On a dual core machine with 4GB of ram it takes far too long for some of these applications to start.
Now I am not saying that I am going to return my machine, because I love the machine. I do also realize the software is in a very early point in its development phase, so I expect most of these issues. My biggest problem is with the add-in model. I think it is way too complex and over engineered and seriously lacks customization by the end user. Hopefully this will be changed in the future.
The inability to link to network folders, e.g. on my HP(!) MediaSmart Server (Windows Home Server) renders the TS almost useless, except as a fairly basic PC.
Come on HP - Sort it out!
As far as the WPF/MEF addin model is concerned, the team spent a LOT of time investigating that after it became available (it wasn't at the time we started writing the software). It doesn't fit very well since we can't dictate third parties to use WPF (as you can see in the Music/Video/Photo About box, Cyberlink wrote those for HP). And there were other shortcomings as well that I can't remember the details of right now. It all comes down to design and resource (both machine- and human-) tradeoffs, and everyone makes different ones.
I hear you on the customization.
As far as performance goes, you can always turn off tiles you don't find useful. That will start up less "stuff" and make things a little faster.
We are still working on making improvements to the software. One of the things changing is the default shutdown behavior. Performance is also being looked at in general.
The Program Files folder is hidden from the Touchsmart App. If you have photos or other files you want hidden from the App, put them in the Program Files folder and it won't pull them.
The program seems to keep a Thumbnail of photos and similar for videos, the only way I know of to clear these after you delete them from the computer is to reinstall the App. You don't have to do the whole thing, just the Touchsmart Music/Video/Photos.
@Geek - I hear you on the tradeoffs and design decisions and also agree everyone makes different ones. However, I think the add-in model is a bad model. You wouldn't be dictating the use of WPF, but, you would be dictating the use of .NET. I'm not sure I see a problem with that. I think you make it harder on developers when you say, here is how you must create your add-in versus here is a set of interfaces to program against. In a sense you are dictating to developers how to develop an add-in for the TouchSmart software. The first few pages of the SDK, after the licensing stuff, is mostly "you must do" instead of "you can do". I think that using executables as add-ins is a bad design decision. Again, this is just my opinion.
Got it. So in your opinion saying "program an exe that has a chromeless hWnd/Window using any technology you choose" is not a good design decision. I think it's more flexible than constraining people to .NET. For example, you can make exes much more lightweight without .NET. No need to load the .NET runtime. Not necessarily a bad thing.
I think what you may be looking for is an even easier way to produce WPF-based hosted apps where you don't have to worry about all the plumbing necessary to follow the basic guidelines outlined in the document.
By the way, the parts about "must do" in the document are necessary for the user experience to work well within the hosting environment. I believe most of the other things are highly recommended "can do" things to guide people towards making things touch friendly.
@Geek, I didn't say that using any technology for add-ins is a bad design decision, I said that using executables as add-ins, in my mind, is a bad design decision. I'm sure I am not alone in my thinking because you don't see too many other products that use executables as add-ins. As far as the lightweight argument, that point is moot considering the runtime is already loaded because the TouchSmart application already requires it, so its not a cold startup scenario vs native startup. I'm not looking for an easier way, I'm looking for a more standard way. If you take a look at the add-in models of other applications, they all follow the same premise pretty much. What you have offered here is completely different than what most add-in or COTS developers are used to. If you thought that native code was important, you could have used COM to achieve the same result. Like I said, these are my opinions. I'm not trying to squash anyones ego or put down others hard work. I just don't agree with the model.
Copyright © 2012
Capable Networks LLC.. All Rights Reserved.
RSS |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise With Us |
Terms of Use |
About Us |
Contact Us |
Site Map
Our Capable Community Network:
DVR playground |
Explore3DTV |
MediaSmart Home |
MotoDash |
My Open Router |
Pogoplugged |
DijitCommunity |
Robo Community |
Sansa Community |
TechLore |
TiVo Community |
TouchSmartDevZone
This community site, TouchSmartDevZone.com (including its terms of use, privacy policy and content), is offered by and managed by Capable Networks LLC, not by Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP is not responsible for the performance of this community site or for any content posted on the site nor is HP liable for any damages or losses caused or alleged to have been caused by the use this Capable Networks community site. The Community Site is intended for TouchSmart users in the United States and Canada.
Did you forget your password?
You can also log in using OpenID.
Previous Thread
