Remote Application Launcher 

Hey All,
I wrote a pair of programs that will get around the issue, and are actually pretty neat/useful in general!
It consists of a Server (RemoteAppLaunchServer.exe inside the RemoteAppLaunchServer folder) and a client (RemoteAppLaunchClient.exe). You place the RemoteAppLaunchServer folder (which includes the executable as well as assistance files it needs to run) on whatever machine you want to have applications launch on and execute the exe. This will launch an application that shows up in your system tray. If you click the little icon (it looks like a computer), it has a Console you can look at to make sure things are working. Then, on whatever machine you want to be able to launch voice commands to launch apps with (machine with Kinect), you place the client program on it (I would put it in the scripts folder for simplicity). Then in your custom script, you just use Process.Start to call the client app and pass it the ip address of the machine running the server, along with the name of the program you want to launch and any arguments you want to pass it. For example, I can put the following in my script to launch internet explorer and have it navigate to google.com:
Process.Start(@".\RemoteAppLaunchClient.exe", "192.168.0.130 iexplore.exe www.google.com");

The neat thing about this is that I could launch apps on devices that aren't even running the CastleOS Kinect Service (for instance, I could have it launch internet explorer on my windows 8.1 tablet and have it navigate to the CastleOS Portal for my system by saying "Jarvis, Bring up the control interface")

Also of note, if you wanted the server program to automatically run when the system starts, it would have to be added to the startup programs for the user that logs into the system, it can't be used as a service (otherwise we'd just be right back to our original problem haha!)

Try them out and let me know if it helps, thanks!


UPDATE: I added new features! Now if you send the command [MONOFF] it will turn off the monitors of the system running the server, and if you send [LOCKSYS] it will lock the computer the server is running on!
Example: RemoteAppLaunchClient.exe 192.168.0.130 [LOCKSYS]
RemoteAppLaunchClient.exe 192.168.0.130 [MONOFF]


I also added some more robust error handling/recovery and resource management, so the program should be even more stable now than it already was.
Be sure to grab this new version, attached below!
edited by nikku on 1/31/2015
edited by nikku on 1/31/2015
edited by nikku on 1/31/2015

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-Nick B.

thank you Nick!!! all this time I have been trying to open a program using castleOS.. with no success until now! thank you so much!.

Glad to hear it's working!

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-Nick B.

Added in features to lock a system, and to turn off the monitors. Updated in my original post!

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-Nick B.

I think that depends on how it's being called. If you are trying to call it from a script running from the kinect service to control a foreground application, that wouldn't work. If you are trying to call it through the remote application launcher, it is likely to work provided it can be launched with arguments that will allow you to control it as desired.

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-Nick B.

it uses the same version of .net that castle os uses. What IP are you trying to use?

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-Nick B.

Haven't tested the app on windows 10, but it's fairly likely there could be some changes to the network stack causing those errors. The only other time I've ever seen that error pop up is if the program grabs an external IP (which shouldn't happen), or the machine has multiple NICs and the program picks one that may not be on your network for whatever reason. Also, I'd check the windows firewall (or other firewall if you use 3rd party) and make sure it is off in case it is blocking the communication ports needed by the app. You might also try using the actual IP address of the machine instead of the loopback (I think the server actually binds to the network IP address as opposed to the localhost address oddly).

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-Nick B.

CastleHUB Compatibility
Out of the box, this program will not work on the CastleHUB. Like most things in CastleOS, you have to tinker to get it working.

For this program to work, you have to disable your ethernet or Wifi adapter (whichever one you don't use). Once disabled, be sure you allow the program access through Windows Firewall.

This program will NOT accept requests sent to 127.0.0.1.

Nick thank you for this awesome code to fill try fill some gaps in CastleOS
edited by philhawthorne on 1/27/2016

Michael Wallace wrote:

Looking to send multiple parameters to control my Harmony Hub via the Harmony Console project (google Harmony C#). I need to send something along the lines of "192.168.1.2 HarmonyConsole.exe -u myemail@domain.com -p mypassword -i Harmony.hub.ip.address -s activity_id_#"

All it seems to do is open the app launcher and chill there. Opening Internet explorer works find, so it seems that there may need to be a code modification.

Mike

Hey Mike

That's frustrating. Just out of curiosity, how are you getting client to execute in your c# script? I'm using the latest version of CastleOS Kinect, and as soon as my c# script tries to call the client.exe, the service crashes.

For the parameter problem, my only suggestion would be perhaps another middleman exe you create. Example

c# script calls client.exe like so
"192.168.1.2 my_exe.exe myemail@domain.com mypassword Harmony.hub.ip.address activity_id_#"

Your my_exe.exe file then takes those arguments, and forwards them onto HarmonyConsole.exe with the flags added.

I'm not sure if Nick is still a CastleOS user or regular to these forums. His last login was in September

Phil Hawthorne wrote:

CastleHUB Compatibility
Out of the box, this program will not work on the CastleHUB. Like most things in CastleOS, you have to tinker to get it working.

For this program to work, you have to disable your ethernet or Wifi adapter (whichever one you don't use). Once disabled, be sure you allow the program access through Windows Firewall.

This program will NOT accept requests sent to 127.0.0.1.

Nick thank you for this awesome code to fill try fill some gaps in CastleOS
edited by philhawthorne on 1/27/2016

I'm guessing this is a configuration issue... are you getting any output/errors?