[DadGoneMad]

I am thinking about purchaseing Main Server and Main Lobby and the folks over at Cinemar Solutions said there was a HAL2000 interface available, and I found something posted by Tim S. (.DLL) for ML, but I'm not sure what do to with the file. Is there anyone who has the plug-in for Main Server/Lobby for HAL2000 with any instructions on how to interface the two products?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can assist. I'm doing a 30 day evaluation of Main Server/Lobby right now. Not too sure I completely understand the configuration of the Server program, about all I have been able to do now is have it display the weather on the client interface (lobby), but nothing else.

Definitely not as easy to configure or use as HAL2000, but it's got some nice eye candy screens and I like the DVD lobby option for playing movies from my NAS device throughout the house. No where near ready to configure that at this time, but it looks good from the pictures.

Again, anyone who is familiar or who can offer some guidance on installation or configuration is appreciated.

Take care and have a great week.

Regards,

Jeff (DGM)

[mcascio]

I'm not sure how HAL has their installer setup, but at Cinemar, we typically have a separate installer for the plugins that automatically place and register the dlls to the MLSERVER\PLUGINS folder.

Perhaps someone else can elaborate on the install process.

In the end, MLHAL.DLL should be in the MLServer\Plugins folder though and registered. MLServer would have to be restarted for the settings to take effect.

[bw23198]

I'm in the same boat as you Jeff. I just installed the trial of MainLobby and MLServer. To register the .dll file just place the file in the MLSERVER\PLUGINS directory and run the following command: "regsvr32 mlhal.dll". This successfully registered the dll on my system, but that's about as far as I've gotten. It looks as if MainLobby is pretty flexible with how you can configure it (maybe too flexible for me), but it looks like it could take some time to get things working how you want them to. I'll post any steps I've taken to get things working together once I get that far.

-Brian

[TimShriver]

Brian,

Now that you have registered the MLHAL.dll you're now ready to configure MLHAL from within Main Lobby. In MainLobby Server, make sure HAL is checked and loaded. Next right click on MLHAL and select settings to configure the various options...

Tim

[bob in canmore]

I've been using a HAL/ML hybrid for some time now. Usually communicate via a touchscreen running ML, but a lot of telephone conversations with "Sophie" as well. Schedules and "if/then" gets done by HAL, some of which is passed to ML. For what it's worth, a hybrid is the way to go.
Tim, maybe you and Mario should go out for a beer...
Could be the start of something beautiful!

bob

[TimShriver]

Funny, That's what Darryl Shore keeps saying

[bw23198]

Thanks Tim. I think my biggest hurdle is learning the ML syntax. It looks like the MLHAL dll file does most of the hard work in generating commands, but I just need to spend some time on ML's Wiki page to see how to "glue" the two products together.

-Brian

[mcascio]

Fear not Brian. We are working on a wizard to help users build their commands more easily.