This article contains random tips and tricks we and our customers have come across in our work with Intuiface. If you have a tip or trick you'd like to share, tell us!

Tips and Tricks:

Web Browser asset

• Open Google Maps location in full screen
  If you don't want to see the Google Maps search bar or left information pane, include the parameter output=embed in the Maps URL.
  
  For example, for a satellite view centered on the Louvre Museum in Paris:
  http://maps.google.com/maps?output=embed&ll=48.861006,2.335930&z=16&t=k
  
  For a list of all Google Maps URL parameters, see this page.
  
  
• Avoid the username/password pop-up dialog box
  The Intuiface Web Browser asset does not support pop-up windows. This limitation affects your ability to log into websites that use a pop-up dialog box for the entry of a User ID and Password. For websites using this pop-up dialog box, the following syntax will automatically submit your login information:
  http://[username]:[password]@[your website URL].com
  
  If you need to include a domain name as well, use this syntax:
  http://[domain]%5C[username]:[password]@[your website URL].com
  
  Be aware that your password is sent as plain text so this is not a high security approach
  
  NOTE: On Windows, authentication either on a Google-hosted website or ona third-party website using Google credentials is not supported.
  
  
• Display only relevant information using a crop technique
  Using a Group collection, you can crop the content of a webpage to display only relevant information. This technique can be useful when you need to hide unwanted content for a distraction-free rendering of relevant information within a website. Playing Web-based games for example.

Working with External Data and Peripherals

• Accessing data in a database
  Intuiface does not provide native Interface Assets (IAs) for database connectivity. However, there are several ways to use existing Intuiface IAs to work with a database:
  
  • [with any Edition of Composer]
    Establish a live connection between Microsoft Excel and your database (for example, see here), then use Intuiface's Excel Interface Asset to read and write from that Excel file.
  • [with only the Enterprise Edition of Composer]
    Expose your database through REST web services (using PHP, for example) then create the Interface Asset descriptor to make those Web services available in Composer.
  • [with only the Enterprise Edition of Composer]
    You can also create your own .NET DLL Interface Asset to access your database. Once your connector is done, you can check this article to see how to integrate it in your Intuiface experience.

Asset Constraints

Asset constraint properties are kept even after adding the asset within a Collection. For example if you do not want a detached image to be rotated, un-check the "Allow rotate" property before adding the asset to the collection.

Included constraint properties that are kept when the asset is nested within a collection are:

• Allow move
• Move direction
• Allow rotate
• Allow resize

Constraints can be found in the Properties panel under the "Container Behavior" tab of each asset as long as the asset is not nested in a Collection.

Optimize 3D Asset and Web Browser Asset performance

If the device you are using has some performance difficulties, you can set Composer to use the GPU instead of the CPU when playing 3D content or using the Web Browser Asset.

To do so, open your nVidia Control Panel, then go to Manage 3D settings.

In the Program Setting tab, you can add the Composer to the program to customize and select the preferred graphics processor for this program.