Empty4 screenshot saver to webserver

[rocketman99]

Thought some might find this useful. I cannot access my Empty4 remotely so I have always wanted a way to see what is going on. Yes I have a smartphone, but I cannot see any custom indicators. So my solution was to take regular screenshots of the Empty4 page and publish them to a webpage. This sounds complicated, but was actually quite simple. A fully functional, very tiny web server which includes php and sqlite has already been packaged up for this purpose. For now php and sqlite are not needed, but I can see the possibilities already. I did the following:

[*]Download mongoose for windows with php from here: http://cesanta.com/#downloads. I used mongoose-php-4.1.zip
[*]Extract the zip file (no installation required!) into your Empty4\experts\files folder. Your path should look as follows: d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle if Empty4 is installed at d:\Empty4
[*]Double click on the mongoose.exe to start the webserver.
[*]Go into the d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle\web_root directory and rename index.php to something else, otherwise you will not see a directory listing when you point your webrowser to the server.
[*]That's it! Point your webrowser to http://localhost:8081. Accept the invalid, unsigned certificate. If all is well you should see a directory listing appear.

Now you need to save some screenshots. I have coded an EA to do that too (attached to this post). Just drag the EA to a chart and screenshots will start saving at regular intervals (default every 5min). Refresh your webrowser to see them (press F5 key). If you already have an EA on the chart, you will need to embed my EA code into your EA - its very short and not complicated.

Note the above assumes that Empty4 is not installed in the "program files" directory. If it is, then the above will not work due to windows UAC - you will need to find the correct location for the experts folder and install mongoose there.

I strongly suggest you add a password to your webserver. The easiest is to put the whole server behind a password. You can get complicated, but you can read the mongoose documentation:

cd d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle
mongoose.exe -A web_root\.htpasswd mydomain.com admin 123456

This places the whole webserver behind a user called admin with a password 123456. Delete the web_root\.htpasswd file if you want no password.

If your Empty4 webserver is at home (like mine) and on an ADSL line, then you will need to setup the required port forward on your ADSL router and you will need to know what the internet WAN IP address of your router is. This is beyond the scope of this doc.

So that's the basic Empty4 webserver done. I have many other ideas, but my main goal was to be able to see naningbobs CSS info page for his 10.6 system while away from my Empty4 PC. I get smartphone push alerts for 10.6 signals, but they need to be confirmed before I set trades.

Some other things I am thinking of:

Write an EA that trades 10.6 signals.
Write a web page in PHP that sets variables in a text file (turn trade on/off for a pair).
The above EA reads the text file and enables or disables trading.
I can then trade anywhere and see full Empty4 charts (CSS etc), turn pairs on and off etc.

[MrLong]

Thought some might find this useful. I cannot access my Empty4 remotely so I have always wanted a way to see what is going on. Yes I have a smartphone, but I cannot see any custom indicators. So my solution was to take regular screenshots of the Empty4 page and publish them to a webpage. This sounds complicated, but was actually quite simple. A fully functional, very tiny web server which includes php and sqlite has already been packaged up for this purpose. For now php and sqlite are not needed, but I can see the possibilities already. I did the following:

[*]Download mongoose for windows with php from here: http://cesanta.com/#downloads. I used mongoose-php-4.1.zip
[*]Extract the zip file (no installation required!) into your Empty4\experts\files folder. Your path should look as follows: d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle if Empty4 is installed at d:\Empty4
[*]Double click on the mongoose.exe to start the webserver.
[*]Go into the d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle\web_root directory and rename index.php to something else, otherwise you will not see a directory listing when you point your webrowser to the server.
[*]That's it! Point your webrowser to http://localhost:8081. Accept the invalid, unsigned certificate. If all is well you should see a directory listing appear.

Now you need to save some screenshots. I have coded an EA to do that too (attached to this post). Just drag the EA to a chart and screenshots will start saving at regular intervals (default every 5min). Refresh your webrowser to see them (press F5 key). If you already have an EA on the chart, you will need to embed my EA code into your EA - its very short and not complicated.

Note the above assumes that Empty4 is not installed in the "program files" directory. If it is, then the above will not work due to windows UAC - you will need to find the correct location for the experts folder and install mongoose there.

I strongly suggest you add a password to your webserver. The easiest is to put the whole server behind a password. You can get complicated, but you can read the mongoose documentation:

cd d:\Empty4\experts\files\mongoose_php_bundle
mongoose.exe -A web_root\.htpasswd mydomain.com admin 123456

This places the whole webserver behind a user called admin with a password 123456. Delete the web_root\.htpasswd file if you want no password.

If your Empty4 webserver is at home (like mine) and on an ADSL line, then you will need to setup the required port forward on your ADSL router and you will need to know what the internet WAN IP address of your router is. This is beyond the scope of this doc.

So that's the basic Empty4 webserver done. I have many other ideas, but my main goal was to be able to see naningbobs CSS info page for his 10.6 system while away from my Empty4 PC. I get smartphone push alerts for 10.6 signals, but they need to be confirmed before I set trades.

Some other things I am thinking of:

Write an EA that trades 10.6 signals.
Write a web page in PHP that sets variables in a text file (turn trade on/off for a pair).
The above EA reads the text file and enables or disables trading.
I can then trade anywhere and see full Empty4 charts (CSS etc), turn pairs on and off etc.

If you have an iphone, you can use iTeleport to connect to your PC, you can also operate Empty4 this way, I regularly close trades this way and view my charts.

Andy

[rocketman99]

If you have an iphone, you can use iTeleport to connect to your PC, you can also operate Empty4 this way, I regularly close trades this way and view my charts.

Andy

Wow that's an expensive app - $20. For opening and closing trades I can use the Empty4 app on my phone. I guess using some PC remote control software like iTeleport can work too.

[MrLong]

If you have an iphone, you can use iTeleport to connect to your PC, you can also operate Empty4 this way, I regularly close trades this way and view my charts.

Andy

Wow that's an expensive app - $20. For opening and closing trades I can use the Empty4 app on my phone. I guess using some PC remote control software like iTeleport can work too.

I know, but the Empty4 app doesn't have my custom stuff and dashboard for me to monitor.

Thanks
Andy

[macman]

Thought some might find this useful. I cannot access my Empty4 remotely so I have always wanted a way to see what is going on. Yes I have a smartphone, but I cannot see any custom indicators. So my solution was to take regular screenshots of the Empty4 page and publish them to a webpage......

Hi,

Thanks for the EA, which maybe a bit techy for many.

However with a couple of changes this EA might be useful to more traders to collect information on longer time frame candles. If you can add a setting so that a new screen shot is saved every X minutes, then the resulting images can be played back sequentially to see how a daily candle developed for instance.

Just an idea ....