Camera switching in a dropdown list

[waridrox]

Camera switching workflow for video stream:

• Get all the possible devices in a dropdown
• For each deviceId associate a video stream
• On device change through dropdown, stop the current stream and switch to the newly selected stream

Hi @jywarren, the current implementation is such that it takes the initial facingMode as undefined, since the devices have not been fetched yet.

 var constraints = {
        video: {
          deviceId: videoSource ? {exact: videoSource} : undefined //Taking device ids as the video source 
        }
      };

Even after fetching, it is unclear as to what device is facing the environment since some devices don't actually have a facingMode as environment. The MDN docs recommend using it for smartphones.
For instance if a laptop is connected to an external camera, that external camera is recognised as a facingMode = environment instead of the primary one.

Thus, I wanted to know your thoughts regarding this...

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[gitpod-io]

[jywarren]

Hmm. What's the specific problem we're trying to fix in this PR? If we aren't always sure of the initial state, let's just say it's OK whatever the default is (after we give out best guess preference) and then if it's wrong the user will choose the better option from the dropdown. Would that work, or am I not quite getting your question? Thank you!!

[waridrox]

Sorry for the confusion 😅 I meant to say that when I tried out with wifi cam on my system, the primary cam was being identified as the wifi cam instead of the usual laptop cam

So there isn't a proper way to determine if a device even has a facingMode = environment in the first place. Because then the laptop cam should've been the environment facing one

let's just say it's OK whatever the default is (after we give out best guess preference) and then if it's wrong the user will choose the better option from the dropdown. Would that work

Yes that would work 💯

[jywarren]

It's saying Cannot set property 'onchange' of null probably in relation to this line -- do we have to modify anything for the cypress tests to see the videoSelect element?

[waridrox]

I think there was no dropdown element for the camera selection in the interface, that's why the tests were failing 😅

[welcome]

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[jywarren]

🎉🎉

[jywarren]

Should we bump the version and release a 0.0.x update?

[jywarren]

And, if you can link all the issues/PRs together as we do the publication process (including to this one) that would be great.

[waridrox]

Sure as far this version bump, there are these PRs only

Changelog for v0.2.1

#247 - Allows changing of video device streams in the form of a dropdown.
#245 - Allows to download the live spectrum image in the form of a .png file.

[jywarren]

Sounds great. Would you like to open a PR for the updated version or shall i do it when I publish? Either way works for me!

[jywarren]

I went ahead and bumped it and published!!

3e93995

https://www.npmjs.com/package/spectral-workbench

[waridrox]

🎉 🚀 Thanks @jywarren!!! Though I think the dropdown functionality was still on hold...😅

[jywarren]

Ah, well we can release it in the next publication!

Sorry, I took your 👍 as meaning we can go ahead. I'll be more careful to get an explicit "yes" in the future, thanks!!!

[jywarren]

I merged a bunch of dependabot PRs at https://github.com/publiclab/spectral-workbench/pulls and we should see this one reach there soon. If you want we can resolve the dropdown one and then merge after, but it's not a big deal to go through the process twice!

[waridrox]

No it's just that I included the dropdown element on the interface at /v2 so that's why I was thinking about the dropdown one 😅

[jywarren]

Ah, ok! let's merge that too then!

[jywarren]

Ah, no, ok - so i guess actually the dropdown one is all good then, as we merged #247 ?

[waridrox]

Yes it is 🙌

[jywarren]

Ah, sorry, maybe I still misunderstand. Is there something missing we need to fix now, or are we OK to take this a little slower?

Ah, i see your response that it's OK now. Thanks!

Let's try to document clearly the interdependencies between PRs so we can sequence them correctly. Let's use clear comments like Before merging this or Immediately after merging this... etc!

Thanks!!!

[waridrox]

So the new interface also has a dropdown button which would be non-functional if we don't merge #245. The camera functionality was crucial so that is already done.