Owner's Manual (Complete)

Chapter 13—Displays
The Home Control Assistant 3
The messages need to be short because HCA shows them on only a few lines in a large font.
HTML Displays
An HTML display uses the features of Windows to render a HTML file, with all its directives, into
an image within a Window.
This is done in one of two ways. The simplest way is you provide a path to the HTML file to
display. For example a page that displays your current weather.
The other way is more complex but more powerful. Two paths are provided, the first to a template
file and the second to a resultant file. When this HTML display is shown in the Display Pane,
HCA takes the template file and copies it to the resultant file. During this copy, any placeholders
in it are replaced by the result of evaluating them as HCA expressions. This is identical to the
process used by the Periodic Status Export feature (see the chapter on status export).
The second step of the Display Wizard appears as:
The upper Browse button locates the template file. There is no real rule for the file type for
template files but .HTX is often used. If you want to the View button opens the template file using
Notepad.
The lower section is similar and is where you enter the path to the file produced from the template
file. The View Result button attempts to open the file using its file type. For example if you are
producing a HTML file, a browser is used to show the file.
To help you get the paths and the template file correct use the Test button to create the result file
from the template file. Then you can use the View Result button to see what the result looks like.
You will need to have an internet browser installed on your machine in order for HCA to use its
HTML display capabilities. HCA doesn’t do any HTML interpretation but passes the job entirely
to other software. If the rendering is not as expected, the fault doesn’t lie within HCA.
Hint: If you want to access HTML displays using the HCA Web Server there are a few things to
know about. See the HCA Web Server technical note available on the support web site.