URL-Parameter

The behavior of CometVisu can be partially adjusted by URL parameters. Since these parameters can also be saved in the favorites of the browser, the corresponding variants can be accessed as effectively and quickly.

Use

These parameters are simply appended to the URL by a “?” (first URL parameter), separated by a “&” (all other URL parameters).

Examples:

Description

URL

Standard

http://server/visu/

A parameter for another config

http://server/visu/?config=demo

A parameter for a different design

http://server/visu/?design=pure

Several parameters are linked with &

http://server/visu/?config=demo&design=metal

Parameter

config - Config file

The parameter config selects another config file.

So, for example config = NAME - This config file must be under the name visu_config_NAME.xml either in the config directory of the Visu or in the config/demo directory of Visu.

design - Design

The parameter design overrides the design in the config file.

forceReload - Cache settings

The parameter forceReload with the value true (forceReload=true) safely reloads all files.

This may be important after customizing the config file.

startpage - Start page

The parameter startpage can be used to specify the sub-page which will be displayed first after loading the visu.

The easiest way to directly load a specific start page is to navigate to the page you want and then save the link that the browser displays. This always contains the ID of the currently displayed page as anchor part of the URL (e.g. http://<server>/cometvisu/?Config=home#id_6_, shows the page with the ID id_6_). For this, the startpage parameter is not needed at all.

In addition, it is still possible to specify the name of the start page via the startpage parameter. So if you want to use a subpage with the name Bad as the start page, the URL is http://<server>/cometvisu/?Config=home&startpage=Bad

Especially if you have distributed visual acuity in several places in the house, it can make sense to display the subpage that corresponds to the room first, depending on the Visu location, for a complete config file.

forceDevice - Override output device

With the forceDevice parameter, the value mobile can be used to display the page on “large” devices as well as on a small, mobile device (such as a smartphone). Any other value will display the page (even on mobile devices) as on the PC.

This is actually only needed for developers.

maturity - Maturity

By the parameter maturity you can unlock features that are still in development and thus have unintended cross-effects.

Default: release (maturity=release)
Options: release (maturity=release), development (maturity=development)

This should only be used by developers!

backend - Backend

The parameter backend configures the used backend at runtime. There is also a backend parameter in the config to fix this.

Default: cgi-bin (backend=cgi-bin)
Options: cgi-bin (backend=cgi-bin), openhab (backend=openhab), mqtt

The default value “cgi-bin” (attention, inconsistent with xml element, default = “cgi”!) is usually correct and does not need to be changed. “r”, “w” and “l” are in /cgi-bin/.

The option “openhab” uses the path necessary for OpenHAB.

enableQueue - Queue

The enableQueue parameter influences whether all or only the group addresses required on the current page are queried by the CV. This may lead to performance improvements.

Default: 0 (enableQueue=0)
Options: 0 (enableQueue=0), 1 (enableQueue=1)

This is an experimental feature that may not work as expected, so it is currently off by default.

testMode - Test mode without real backend

With the parameter testMode you can test the CometVisu rudimentarily without having a running backend in the background. Normally, the CometVisu sends the switch-on value at the defined address to the backend when a switch is actuated. The backend then provides the corresponding feedback about the status change, which the CometVisu displays again. Missing a backend, you can not really test the controls of the CometVisu, because without feedback, the status change is missing and so, for example a switch can never turn on. With TestMode, the command sent to the backend is simply sent back to CometVisu as a status update, simulating a simple backend.

However, this simulated backend offers, as already mentioned, only rudimentary functions. If you have (as usual in the KNX world) different send and return addresses, this will not work with the TestMode.

Default: 0 (testMode=0)
Options: 0 (testMode=0), 1 (testMode=1)

enableCache - Activate Caching

The parameter enableCache can be used to configure caching. This has the effect that a config is not completely read in every reload and that an HTML page is generated from it, but that the rendered HTML structure including all other required data is stored locally in the browser (in the LocalStore). Each time the Config is loaded, the data is read from the cache, which means speeding up loading the Visu on low-power devices (e.g. mobile devices).

The cache can be activated via this parameter (=true), deactivated (=false) or deleted (=invalid).

Deleting causes all values to be deleted from the cache and recreated.

Default: In the release: true, in the developer version: false
Options: false (enableCache=false), true (enableCache=true), invalid (enableCache=invalid)

reporting - Record Session

To support an error message, the interaction with the CometVisu can be recorded and made available to the developers as a replay file. They can thus see exactly which data has been exchanged between the CometVisu and the backend and which actions the user has executed. Ideally, an error can be faithfully reproduced with these log files, making it much easier to fix the problem.

Default: false (reporting=false)
Options: true  (reporting=true), false (reporting=false)

Attention

The complete configuration file is saved in the replay files. If credentials are in this configuration, make a copy of the configuration without such sensitive data and record the session with this configuration.

Data from the hidden config is not transferred with.

To record these replay files, you have to load the CometVisu with reporting=true. After reaching the faulty state, you can download the replay file by entering downloadLog() in the browser console (open with F12) and confirming with enter. In addition to the automatic download of the replay file, its content is also shown in the console. So you can control which data is contained in the file.

Hint

Since the replay files are played in real time, it is advisable to keep the runtime as short as possible. A replay file that runs for 30 minutes or more until the problem occurs will make troubleshooting more difficult, as the developer may need to play it very often during error analysis and resolution.

reportErrors - Automatically send error messages to sentry.io

Another way for developers to improve CometVisu is to enable automatic bug reports. These reports are sometimes sent completely automatically to a web service (sentry.io) when an error occurs, which collects, processes and notifies the CometVisu developers.

Since this in addition to the error sends more information (e.g. about the browser used) to sentry.io, this functionality must be explicitly enabled via this URL parameter.

Default: false (reportErrors=false)
Options: true  (reportErrors=true), false (reportErrors=false)

To activate the error reports, the CometVisu must be loaded with reportErrors=true. CometVisu’s error dialogs offer the option of reloading CometVisu with this parameter, if that has not happened yet. Then the user can try to reproduce the error again and then send an error report with further explanations to sentry.io.

log - Debug-messages in the browser console

Use this parameter to turn debug messages output on and off in the browser console. In the developer version, these are turned on by default.

Default: false for Release, true for develop
Options: true  (log=true), false (log=false)