Although you can load the CasaTunes Web User Interface and your other 3rd party applications in an iFrame and create a menu system for controlling accessing to the different applications, there is a simpler mechanism available if all you are trying to do is access a 3rd party application from the CasaTunes UI.

To accomplish this, CasaTunes provides the capability for you to add a custom button to it’s menus for which you can provide a title, and you can specify either the url to a page you want to be redirected to, or you can provide the GUID (Globally Unique ID) for the entry point belonging to a 3rd party media center application (you will need to contact the 3rd party application developer for this information).

Since the CasaTunes UI knows whether it is running within a Media Center session or whether it is running in a stand alone browser session, it will automatically redirect the browser to the URL address specified in the “BackButtonURL” field when the custom button is clicked and is running in a browser, or if it is in a Media Center session it will open the 3rd party media center application specified by the entry point specified in the “BackButtonNavigateToPage” field.

For example, lets assume you want to be able to access mControl from within CasaTunes.  To add a link to mControl from within CasaTunes, follow these steps:

1. Open the IIS management console (type IIS in the Start Search box and select it from the list of applications found)
2. Expand the machine in the Connections pane until you see CasaTunes (under Default Web Site)
3. Select CasaTunes and double-click on “Application Settings”
4. Double-click on “BackButtonTitle” and type in the title, for example, mControl
5. Double-click the “BackButtonURL” and type in the url of the mControl web user interface.
6. Double-click the “enableBackButton” and type “true”

Note 1: In this example, you should not change the “BackButtonNavigateToPage” field since it defaults to the entry point for mControl.  Only replace the contents of this field if you are entering an entry point for a different application.

Note 2: After you have made these changes, these changes will be preserved when the product is re-installed.