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getting_started:index

Getting Started

To Install XTension copy the application to your Applications folder. When you run it for the first time it will create a folder called “XTension Support” in your Documents folder where the database and all support files will be kept. If the OS asks you for permission to write to the Documents folder the first time you run it please say yes so it can store your database there.

If you’re upgrading to a new machine or an older OS version you may run into problems if you were using the old style setup where XTension was not in the Applications folder but in some other folder and the Database was kept alongside the app. This was the behavior in the Classic MacOS version and should not be used any longer. Run the new app once from the applications folder and it will startup in demo mode but create the necessary folders. Quit the app and replace the empty database it just created in the XTension Support folder with your existing one. Then run the app again and it will pick up on your current database.

XTension provides “Units” that can correspond to any real end point, switch, sensor, etc. Units can also be a “pseudo” meaning that is has no connection to a real device but is a a place where you store other information. For example: “current temperature” might be a real Oregon Scientific temperature sensor, but “high temperature” might be a pseudo unit that you set the value of based on the incoming data from the temperature sensor.

XTension provides a scripting interface for you to attach your own decisions to. The scripting language is AppleScript and can control all your units in XTension as well as asking for data from and controlling other applications on your Mac. Do not fear the applescript! It can be very simple to start with, anybody can learn it and much help is available here on the wiki, the XTension mailing list members are eager to help you sort out more complicated ideas and lastly Apple maintains their own applescript specific scripting discussions and mailing lists for even more esoteric questions.

Fully featured “Scheduled Events” provide time based events that can turn on or off lights or run other scripts.

An index of the articles in this section in order:

getting_started/index.txt · Last modified: 2023/07/30 16:36 by James Sentman