Web Access

Enabling

Web Access is enabled in the Preferences window. When it is enabled, it also turns on Personal Web Sharing for you (if it was not already on).

Technical details:

This adds a line to the end of the httpd.conf file for the built-in Apache web server. It includes a new file, thinkingHome-cgi.conf.

Also added is a CGI program, “thinkingHome-cgi”, that passes web requests to Thinking Home.

Using

When you don’t provide any parameters in the URL, you get a default page containing the device names and buttons for control. An example of such a web address is:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/thinkingHome-cgi

… and the result looks like:

You can also create your own HTML page with a custom layout.

To operate a device using a URL, provide at least a device name and action. This type of web address looks like this:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/thinkingHome-cgi?devName=Office+Lights&action=dim&amount=30

devName	If your device name has any spaces, each must be replaced with a plus (+) character like the example above.
action	turnOn, turnOff, dim or brighten
amount	This only applies to dim and brighten actions. It is optional and the default amount is 35%.

Also, localhost refers to your own computer, the one where you are using a web browser. To access your home Mac from another location, like an office across town, replace localhost with the IP address of your home internet connection. You would also need to set your home router to route web requests to your Thinking Home Mac.