Problem spawning an external web browser under Games & Apps

[Moike]

Greetings, first post... tried out the product, was so impressed I registered it. Got a problem.

Off the main menu, under "More Games & Programs" I've configured the following to spawn an external web browser as a hack to open up a 'Netflix' browser window.

From my 'gameex.ini' .cfg under the [ExternalApplications] section. (I don't use the auto-config tools, I hand roll everything)

name_4=Netflix

path_4=H:\GameEx

cmd_4=H:\GameEx\Netflix-hack.lnk

snap_4=Netflix

showdesktop_4=False

mapkeys_4=False

WaitBeforeKeys_4=

SendKeys_4=

The 'Netflix-hack.lnk' itself is nothing more than a shortcut (based on my research here in the forums) that contains the following in the target area under properties (this is in WinXPsp3)

"C:\Documents and Settings\administrator.IM2\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

This spawns a session of chrome with Netflix set as the default home page within chrome. (the computer in question is strictly a media/game box for my home entertainment system, the browser is dedicated to Netflix)

My issue is as follows.

~ The 'Netflix-hack.lnk' will execute fine outside of GameEx, I can execute it and it pops right up. No issues there.

~ Within the GameEx UI itself when I execute the 'Netflix' link the GameEx UI goes black for half a second, I see the chrome session spawn, then pops right back to the GameEx UI where I was.

~ If I Alt/Tab out of GameEx back to my desktop I can see that GameEx did sucessfully spawn the session of chrome because chrome is open and active on the desktop.

No combination of switch-flipping seems to fix the problem. 'showdesktop_4=True/False', using Firefox/IE over Chrome, providing a direct path and command from C:\ instead of using the .lnk wihin H:\GameEx\. All provide the same results of GameEx opening the browser then snapping back to the GameEx UI.

All I really want to be able to do is spawn the browser, use the browser, then upon closing of the browser snap back to the GameEx UI. I figured this was built into the [ExternalApplications] widget, but I'll be damned if I can tweak it to work. Either I've got the syntax wrong or I'm trying to use my glue in the wrong section of the .cfg. Does anybody have a solution for this problem within GameEx?

I've got GameEx working as the frontend UI for 99.9% of my home entertainment system at this point with MAME, DVDs, Torrent Server, Video Archives, Virtual Pinball, Daphne, Radio, RSS, all working through my XBox 360 controller... and this last little bit is driving me b@tsh1t insane.

Thanks,

-Mike-

[fRequEnCy]

Welcome to the forums! Seems like it's a full screen issue. GameEx doesn't give focus cuz the screen isn't fullscreen. Perhaps change that.

For testing you can change the following:

showdesktop_4=True

This should now show the window regardless.

[Moike]

Welcome to the forums! Seems like it's a full screen issue. GameEx doesn't give focus cuz the screen isn't fullscreen. Perhaps change that.

For testing you can change the following:

showdesktop_4=True

This should now show the window regardless.

Yep, already tried that... True/False for 'showdesktop_4' made no difference. It still snapped back to the GameEx UI after spawning Chrome.

And in the .lnk properties I have 'Maximized' set on spawn so it opens it fullscreen.

I tried flipping 'run' to all other available choices as well, made no difference.

I also noted in my forum archive searches there was someone with a similar problem with Firefox who used an add-on app called 'Fullscreen Full', but that is no longer compatible with the current version of Firefox. Now in Firefox and Chrome you can simply hit F11 in the browser and go fullscreen.

Now an interesting thing to note... If you close Firefox while in Fullscreen/F11 mode, the next time you open Firefox it will remember you were in Fullscreen mode, and open it Fullscreen again. Even with this toggle set, and GameEx opening FireFox in Fullscreen mode GameEx still snaps back to the UI. I have not found a similar toggle or command line switch in chrome to force it to open always Fullscreen to experiment with yet.

[Draco1962]

Do you run into any issues with Internet Explorer?

[Moike]

Do you run into any issues with Internet Explorer?

Didn't try it fully yet... I did some more research and discovered that chrome does in fact have a kiosk mode. 'chrome.exe --kiosk' will spawn a Fullscreen/F11 mode browser. But I still get the problem of GameEx snapping back into the UI after it is spawned. Tweaking showdesktop_4=True/False made no difference.

[Moike]

Didn't try it fully yet... I did some more research and discovered that chrome does in fact have a kiosk mode. 'chrome.exe --kiosk' will spawn a Fullscreen/F11 mode browser. But I still get the problem of GameEx snapping back into the UI after it is spawned. Tweaking showdesktop_4=True/False made no difference.

Ok, I fixed it... But only because I think I'm using a bug in GameEx as a crutch to do so.

I made a secondary .lnk to test IE using 'iexplorer.exe -k http://www.netflix.com' to open Netflix in kiosk mode in IE.

I executed it in GameEx and lo and behold it opened IE in Kiosk mode, it worked! I thought I had the problem fixed and it just required that I used IE as the browser for GameEx. So I closed all the open windows on the desktop, launched GameEx, and tried it again. Back to the original behavior of spawning the browser and snapping back top the GameEx UI. Then I remembered the only window I had open on the desktop was a 'cmd' (shell) window.

This got me thinking... So as an experiment I just did the standard Start/Run/cmd and popped an empty cmd window open on the desktop. I launched GameEx and executed the NetFlix link. It spawned IE in Kiosk mode perfectly. I used Alt/F4 to close it and all that remained on the desktop was the cmd window. When I closed the cmd window the GameEx UI snapped back.

So I went back into the config and replaced the IE .lnk with the original chrome .lnk and tried it again. I was able to replicate the exact same results.

So I threw together a single line batch file. 'foobuh.bat' containing simply "(Drive):\(PathToChrome)\chrome.exe" --kiosk"

I changed cmd_4="H\GameEx\foobuh.bat

Within the GameEx UI now when I click Netflix it spawns a cmd window on the desktop to execute chrome in kiosk mode. This happens so fast it goes seamlessly from the GameEx UI to chrome. And when I Alt/F4 out of chrome it kills the cmd window dropping me right back into the GameEx UI. I'll throw some glue together that will allow me to do an Alt/F4 from there to close the browser from my XBox controller.

So in summary. If you want to easily spawn an external web browser in any flavor, write a .bat that spawns a cmd window on your desktop, and make sure that showdesktop is set to True so HideOS.exe does not get spawned.

Thanks for the help, I mean it... Sometimes some additional poking at my brain helps shake things lose.

Now to work on integrating Steam.

[Draco1962]

You're welcome! I usually just enter the URL as part of the HTML apps instead of running web-based services as a stand-alone app and this has worked well for me.

For Steam integration, you may be interested in this thread.

[Moike]

You're welcome! I usually just enter the URL as part of the HTML apps instead of running web-based services as a stand-alone app and this has worked well for me.

I tried that but NetFlix was not behaving using the HTML apps section of GameEx.

For Steam integration, you may be interested in this thread.

Thanks!

[Moike]

Wow, that was obnoxiously easy... And works like a charm, thanks for the link

Also gave me a bit more insight on how the gears in GameEx work, it's given me some ideas.

Thanks again!

-Mike-

[Moike]

And as a final bit in this thread I'll pimp my home setup a little bit.

I'm a network/systems engineer by trade, so I play with this kind of stuff for fun and profit.

What I have is a Mini-Chatsworth rack I fabricated out of a full size unit, on which sits my tuner, DVD/Blue Ray player, a 1TB external USB drive that holds all my Steam/GameEx/Gaming software, (for portability/system independence) and on top a Dell's (XPS) version of a high end Alienware gaming laptop with a wacking huge NVidia display card onboard. (sitting on top of a CoolerMaster laptop cooler with six fans) Power strip on top is slaved into a UPS in the bottom of the rack acting as ballast.

The laptop is connected via HDMI to my 55 inch Sony HD 1080p unit which is set up off the NVidia card as a 'Sony TV' monitor. I sit back on the couch and run everything now from GameEx via the XBox 360 controller. (sweet)

I have to say I'm really impressed by this software, GameEx has finally tied together all the aspects of my system under one clean easy to use/modify UI.

[Draco1962]

OK, I am really drooling here... nice work! Wonder how my Space Invaders theme would look on that big screen...

[headkaze]

That is one sweet setup