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Document Release 1 - ALPHA!

- Admin, main menu -

The eHome Administration program allows you to administer all you eHome client computers from a single central computer. From here you can also edit all your Video and Audio content, add new recipes and build Powerhome screens. You could also use this 'central' computer to add DVD and CD's to your personal collection.

Note: The Administrator is NOT a touch screen program.
Note: To add your own Video and Audio see the section - Adding Content

Lets start by running the eHome administration program. Go to you Windows START menu and select the eHome program group and then select the Administrator. After a few seconds or so you will see the screen below. (When the Administrator runs, it scans all your content drives each time and validates all information)

This is your main Administration screen. Here you can edit Video and Audio content, check and see what eHome computers are running on your network as well as edit any eHome computers configuration right here from this one program.

Note: When you see an item entry in RED this tells you that this video (or Audio) has not been setup yet and will not be included in the eHome catalogs.

Lets look at the menus at the top.

- Admin, Editing content -

Now we are going to edit a Video item. Click the Edit button at the bottom of the screen.

From here you can edit all the appropriate information on the video you are editing or just click on the IMDB button at the bottom of the screen. This will start a custom browser.

Select the movie you want and this will take you too the main IMDB screen for that movie.

Now just click the 'Parse To eHome' button on the top of the custom browser screen and eHome will try and parse as much information as possible to the eHome Video editor. Clean up and edit any information that does not look right. Select up to 3 genre's that you want to file this video under.

Note: We do not parse IMDB's genres as most likely the one you have setup for eHome will be different.
Note: We do not import IMDB's photos as they are of poor quality and very small.

To add a picture click on the 'Change Picture' button in the right of the Video editor and this will show you the 'Select cover art' screen

Now click 'Find On Web' and eHome will search for a variety of pictures. Be patients and depending on what eHome can find this might take a minute or two. Select the picture you want and click the 'OK' button. If you do not find a suitable picture then you can click the 'Use Default' button and eHome will use a stock picture.

Click the 'Save' button and you are done.

Editing Audio works in the same way.

- Admin, Tools Menu -

Lets look at the Tools menus.

The Tools menu, Machine Administrator is a very powerful way to manage all your eHome computers. Here you can see what eHome computers are running on your network as well as what eHome components each computers is running. You can also re-start eHome processes and edit their configuration and script  files. All from 1 central computer.

Note: If you get an error trying to edit configuration files make sure you have shared the C drive of the eHome computer in question.

In the above picture on the top panel you can see two eHome computers are on the network. One named 'New Install' and one named 'Cat'. The computer 'Cat' is selected and you can see in the lower panel that the eHome Video Server, Audio Server, Home Server are running and the client has been shut down. The buttons on the lower left bottom on the screen will refresh the 2 panels - grids. (although this should happen automatically)

Lets look at the right click menus for each panel - grid.

Right click on a eHome computer and you get the 'eHome Computer' menu.

Here there are quite a few actions you can choose to do the the selected eHome computer.

Now right click on a eHome computer and you get the 'eHome Options' menu.

For each selected component,  you can...

You can see that using the Machine Administration from the tools menu allows you complete control over all the eHome computers on your network.

Note: If you are not seeing any programs under the 'Descriptions'  column. Check your share on the C drive of the target computer. eHome will try to find 3 share names. c-eHome, C$, C -- If it cannot find one of these shares then the 'Descriptions'  column will be empty.

- Admin, Recipe editor -

The Recipe editor is an easy way to add you favorite foods and dishes to eHome. From the 'Content' menu of the Administrator select 'Recipe Editor' and the recipe editor will startup.

Use the categories combo box select the desired category and the recipe listbox show all recipes for the selected category.  The Add - Edit screen is shown below.

You can enter in a custom web page to point to enter in all your own information but you must have a least a 'Title' and a 'Category' to save. When complete just click 'Save' and you will be return to the Recipe main menu. eHome takes this information and displays it on the client screen in a custom HTML format. (See the How To section on changing the format)

Note: Make sure all your client INI file is pointed to the same central database so all your eHome computers can see the same recipe list.