Media
Center
Information Server Pro – Help Index
Introduction
This page has summary information with links to more details.
The Media
Center
Information Server (McisPro) is a server that listens on port 8421 (by default)
for requests for information which is returned as XML.
The information may be used in any application but will typically be used
to drive a VFD display or show information within Microsoft MCE. There
are three types of information that may be returned:
-
Media
Center
Status Information such as the name of the track being played (MCI)
-
General Information collected from the Internet and converted to XML such as
weather (SCRAPE)
-
File contents from the local computer (PUB)
A
plugin
is included for LCD Smartie (mci.dll). This
Smartie
plugin
will request information from McisPro and display on a Smartie controlled VFD
display. There is no need to
understand the internal workings of McisPro to use the mci.dll
plugin.
McisPro runs as a Window's Service which may be controlled
using the Control Panel or the Service Control
Program included with McisPro. The Service Control Program does not
need to be running for McisPro to operate. MCIS was totally redesigned to
develop McisPro and several additional
features are provided.
Installation
Download the
McisSetup
package from Axcis Pty Ltd, expand the
zip file into a temporary directory and run setup.exe.
The install routine will install the programs and will install mci.dll in
the Smartie
plugins
directory. The installation will copy the current LCDSmartie setup.ini to
setup_backup.ini and then update the setup.ini with several default
screens. The system requires Microsoft .NET v2.0 to be installed first and
this may be obtained from Microsoft Corporation.
Configuration & Registration
Settings are defined using the Service Control
Program. MORE...
LCDSmartie MCI – Display Information from Media Center
In LCDSmartie use "$dll(mci,1,key,)" where "key" is one of
the key names provided by McisPro. The key names may be viewed using the
Service Control Program or view the key
names documentation. MORE on MCI...
MCI – Get Information from
Media
Center
From a browser (eg Internet Explorer) enter the URI
“http://hostname:8421/mci/all” where “hostname” is the name of the computer. This
will display XML with all the values. To
select just one, replace “all” with the name of the field, eg
“http://hostname:8421/mci/track”. To
access this information from a program simply make the equivalent
http
request “get /mci/all HTTP/1.1”. MCIS
Pro 2.0 supports the HTTP 1.1 persistent connection. To access from a
remote computer configure to the actual host name and not "localhost" and set
the "ipconfig" setting according to requirements. The port (8421) will also
need to be opened on any firewall service.
SCRAPE – Scrape an Internet page for data
The scrape server collects
information from the Internet. MORE...
PUB – Get a file
From a browser enter the URI
“http://hostname:8421/any/any.xml” to load a file from the “pub” subdirectory. This
is typically used to load style sheets.
Messaging – Send messages to McisPro
From an application or using "telnet hostname
8421" enter any message and it will set the message in the "msg" key
name. If the message is prefixed with "2", the message will set
"msg2". The "timemsg" key will be triggered by either message. This
is typically used for third party applications to display messages on an LCD
screen.
Technical Details
Further technical details
are provided to enable third party applications to work with MCIS Pro.
License
This software can be trialled for free for a limited time
but thereafter a license is required. The
full licence agreement (EULA) is provided at time of installation and is
copied to the program directory.
MCIS Pro
– Help Index V1.0
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