An easy-to-configure, web-based image generator to supply E-Ink compatible panels to Inky-Calendar (or any other E-ink display).
To enjoy this as a service, see: inkycal.robertsirre.nl (domain name subject to change)
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As an owner of an Inky-Calendar powered e-ink panel you want to set up your panel once, and then forget about it. New features and bugfixes should come easy and for all panels at once.
Note: some features may still require an update on the PI, think of pending features like: on-board webserver for configuration (instead of SSH) , managing panel refresh-types (maybe push-updates will supported)
This service about:
- reducing the hassle of updates
- increasing panel-quality (centralized bug reporting)
- speeding up development of features
- offloading costly operations away from a low-power PI zero. Maybe even lower-power, battery-operated devices will be supported.
There are a few good reasons to want to run this small server by yourself:
- You want to contribute! Nice, you can develop your own panel implementations or squash a bug!
- You do not want to share your details with yet another third party.
- You want to learn .Net Core and Blazor
Recommended for development
Clone this repository, then in the root:
dotnet run --project InkyCal.Server
#or even better, auto-restart upon code changes:
dotnet watch --project InkyCal.Server runSome operations (like storing preferences) require a database, SQL server. You can install one on your machine, run one in a docker-container or it a network and then adjust the connection string in appsettings.json > ConnectionStrings > DefaultConnection
In order to convert Pdfs to images you need to have Ghostscript installed. In the prebuilt Docker images this is already taken care of. When running it yourself (like during development), you need to install it.
Recommended for quick tests without a database
On Docker using an image from Dockerhub it's easy to start the web-application:
docker run -p 80:80 atreyu/inkycal.server:latest
The server will be available at: http://localhost. The application needs a database for some sections. To configure a database connection to your database use:
docker run ^
-env ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Server=MyServerName;Database=MyDataBaseName;User=MyUserName;Password=MyPassword;MultipleActiveResultSets=true ^
-p 80:80 ^
atreyu/inkycal.server:latest
Recommended for permanent or frequent use
Create a file named docker-compose.yml, containing your server setup: the web application and a database:
version: '3'
services:
web:
image: "atreyu/inkycal.server:latest"
ports:
- 5100:5000
environment:
- ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
- ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://0.0.0.0:5000/
- ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Server=db;Database=InkyCal.Server;User=sa;Password=${DB_SA_PASSWORD};MultipleActiveResultSets=true
depends_on:
- db
restart: always
db:
image: "mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server"
environment:
SA_PASSWORD: "${DB_SA_PASSWORD}"
ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
MSSQL_PID: "Express"
#Expose port for development purpose only
# ports:
# - 1433:1433
volumes:
# Mapped volume for permanent storage of credentials and panel config
- ./sqlserver:/var/opt/mssql/data
restart: alwaysThen create an environment file named .env for storing secrets and re-usable variables:
DB_SA_PASSWORD=MySAP@ssw0rd!Then fire up your container:
docker-compose up -dThe server will be available at: http://localhost:5100.
When hosting yourself, you may not want to expose this directly to the internet, but use a reverse proxy, like NGinx and configure ssl.
Some components (New York Time panel) use a Pdf converter. This requires Ghostscript to be installed on the host.
Download & install Ghostscript, or install using Chocolatey:
choco install ghostscript
RUN apk add ghostscript