Device Templates
| This page was written by Pluto and imported with their permission when LinuxMCE branched off in February, 2007. In general any information should apply to LinuxMCE. However, this page should be edited to reflect changes to LinuxMCE and remove old references to Pluto. |
A "Device Template" is what defines a device, whereas a "Device" is a particular instance of a device installed in the home. So "Device Template" is the master record that everyone shares. For example, there will only be 1 Device Template for the "Sony XYZ-123" Television. You, and several others users may have this TV, and each of you will have your own "Device" that you give your own name, and which may have some settings of it's own. However, there is only 1 "Device Template" for that device.
Most users will never need to use the "Device Template" page unless they want to do development and make their own devices. If you do want to poke around in the Device Templates, be careful not to change anything unless you know what you are doing, since changing something here could cause your device to not function properly. All the settings for your device which you can change are set using the Wizard, or in the "My Devices" page.
If you make changes to the Device Template, this will affect your local system only. However, if you have fixed some errors, added functionality to an existing Device Template or created your own Device Template, you can use sqlCVS to merge those changes back into the master database so everyone can benefit from them. The same is true with everything in your local database--the user interface, even the online documentation you are reading now is editable. When you check-in changes using sqlCVS, sqlCVS will isolate those changes and notify the developer who is responsible for quality assurance for that section. Once the developer has confirmed the changes, he can have the changes merged back into LinuxMCE's main development database, which will eventually get propagated to the testing and release databases if the changes pass the tests.
We recommend that you do merge any changes you make locally to the Device Templates because if you do not, then sqlCVS will not update that Device Template with any changes that may have been made to the master database. Your local copy will then likely become out of date. Note that sqlCVS will notify you when it does an update if you have changed a Device Template that was also changed in the master database. You will have the option of over-writing your local Device Template with the master one, or keeping your modified local copy.
What is on the Device Template list page and how do I use it? What is on the Device Template edit page and how do I use it? How do I create my own Device Template? Tell me about DCE (Data, Commands & Events)
