infoscreen-dev/README.md

# Infoscreen Client - Display Manager

Digital signage system for Raspberry Pi that displays presentations, videos, and web content in kiosk mode. Centrally managed via MQTT with automatic client discovery and heartbeat monitoring.

## 🎯 Key Features

- **Automatic Presentation Display** - PPTX files converted to PDF and displayed with Impressive
- **Auto-Advance Slideshows** - Configurable timing for automatic slide progression
- **Loop Mode** - Presentations can loop infinitely or quit after last slide
- **MQTT Integration** - Real-time event management from central server
- **Group Management** - Organize clients into groups for targeted content
- **Heartbeat Monitoring** - Regular status updates and screenshot dashboard
- **Multi-Content Support** - Presentations, videos, and web pages
- **Kiosk Mode** - Full-screen display with automatic startup

## 📋 System Requirements

### Hardware
- Raspberry Pi 4/5 (or compatible)
- HDMI display
- Network connectivity (WiFi or Ethernet)
- SSD storage recommended

### Software
- Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm or newer)
- Python 3.x
- LibreOffice (for PPTX→PDF conversion)
- Impressive (PDF presenter with auto-advance)
- Chromium browser (for web content)
- VLC or MPV (for video playback)

## 🚀 Quick Start

### 1. Installation

```bash
# Clone repository
cd ~/
git clone <repository-url> infoscreen-dev
cd infoscreen-dev

# Install system dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
    libreoffice impressive \
    chromium-browser vlc

# Create Python virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r src/requirements.txt
```

### 2. Configuration

Create `.env` file in project root:

```bash
# Environment
ENV=production
LOG_LEVEL=INFO

# MQTT Configuration
MQTT_BROKER=192.168.1.100
MQTT_PORT=1883
MQTT_BROKER_FALLBACKS=192.168.1.101,192.168.1.102

# Timing (seconds)
HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL=30
SCREENSHOT_INTERVAL=60
DISPLAY_CHECK_INTERVAL=5

# File/API Server (used to download presentation files)
# Defaults to the same host as MQTT_BROKER, port 8000, scheme http.
# If incoming event URLs use host 'server' (or are host-less), simclient rewrites them to this server.
FILE_SERVER_HOST=                # optional; if empty, defaults to MQTT_BROKER
FILE_SERVER_PORT=8000            # default API port
# http or https
FILE_SERVER_SCHEME=http
# FILE_SERVER_BASE_URL=           # optional full override, e.g., http://192.168.1.100:8000
```

### 3. Start Services

```bash
# Start MQTT client (handles events, heartbeat, discovery)
cd ~/infoscreen-dev/src
python3 simclient.py

# In another terminal: Start Display Manager
cd ~/infoscreen-dev/src
python3 display_manager.py
```

Or use the startup script:
```bash
./scripts/start-display-manager.sh
```

## 📊 Presentation System

### How It Works

The system uses **Impressive** as the PDF presenter with native auto-advance and loop support:

1. **PPTX files** are automatically converted to PDF using LibreOffice headless
2. **PDF files** are displayed directly with Impressive
3. **Auto-advance** uses Impressive's built-in `--auto` parameter
4. **Loop mode** uses Impressive's `--wrap` parameter (infinite loop)
5. **Auto-quit** uses Impressive's `--autoquit` parameter (exit after last slide)

### Event JSON Format

#### Looping Presentation (Typical for Events)
```json
{
  "id": "event_123",
  "start": "2025-10-01 14:00:00",
  "end": "2025-10-01 16:00:00",
  "presentation": {
    "files": [
      {
        "name": "slides.pptx",
        "url": "https://server/files/slides.pptx"
      }
    ],
    "auto_advance": true,
    "slide_interval": 10,
    "loop": true
  }
}
```

**Result:** Slides advance every 10 seconds, presentation loops infinitely until event ends.

#### Single Playthrough
```json
{
  "presentation": {
    "files": [{"name": "welcome.pptx"}],
    "auto_advance": true,
    "slide_interval": 5,
    "loop": false
  }
}
```

**Result:** Slides advance every 5 seconds, exits after last slide.

### Presentation Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `auto_advance` | boolean | `false` | Enable automatic slide advancement |
| `slide_interval` | integer | `10` | Seconds between slides |
| `loop` | boolean | `false` | Loop presentation vs. quit after last slide |

### Scheduler-Specific Fields

The scheduler may send additional fields that are preserved in `current_event.json`:

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `page_progress` | boolean | Show overall progress bar in presentation (Impressive `--page-progress`). Can be provided at `presentation.page_progress` (preferred) or top-level. |
| `auto_progress` | boolean | Show per-page auto-advance countdown (Impressive `--auto-progress`). Can be provided at `presentation.auto_progress` (preferred) or top-level. |
| `occurrence_of_id` | integer | Original event ID for recurring events |
| `recurrence_rule` | string | iCal recurrence rule (RRULE format) |
| `recurrence_end` | string | End date for recurring events |

**Note:** All fields from the scheduler are automatically preserved when events are stored in `current_event.json`. The client does not filter or modify scheduler-specific metadata.

#### Progress Bar Display

When using Impressive PDF presenter:
- `page_progress: true` - Shows a progress bar at the bottom indicating position in the presentation
- `auto_progress: true` - Shows a countdown progress bar for each slide during auto-advance
- Both options can be enabled simultaneously for maximum visual feedback

## 🎥 Video Events

```json
{
  "video": {
    "url": "https://server/videos/intro.mp4",
    "loop": true,
    "autoplay": true,
    "volume": 0.8
  }
}
```

Notes:
- The Display Manager prefers `python-vlc` (libvlc) when available. This gives programmatic control over playback (autoplay, loop, volume) and ensures the player is cleanly stopped and released when events end.
- Supported video event fields:
  - `url` (string): HTTP/HTTPS or streaming URL. URLs using the placeholder host `server` are rewritten to the configured file server (see File/API Server configuration).
  - `autoplay` (boolean): start playback automatically when the event becomes active (default: true).
  - `loop` (boolean): loop playback indefinitely.
  - `volume` (float): 0.0–1.0 (mapped internally to VLC's 0–100 volume scale).
- If `python-vlc` is not installed, the Display Manager will fall back to launching the external `vlc` binary.
- The manager attempts to make the player window fullscreen and remove window decorations. For a truly panel-free fullscreen (no taskbar), run the Display Manager inside a minimal kiosk X session or a dedicated user session without a desktop panel (see the kiosk notes below).

## 🌐 Web Events

```json
{
  "web": {
    "url": "https://dashboard.example.com"
  }
}
```

Opens webpage in Chromium kiosk mode (fullscreen, no UI).

## 🗂️ Project Structure

```
infoscreen-dev/
├── .env                        # Environment configuration
├── README.md                   # This file
├── IMPRESSIVE_INTEGRATION.md   # Detailed presentation system docs
├── src/
│   ├── simclient.py           # MQTT client (events, heartbeat, discovery)
│   ├── display_manager.py     # Display controller (manages applications)
│   ├── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies
│   ├── current_event.json     # Current active event (runtime)
│   ├── config/                # Persistent client data
│   │   ├── client_uuid.txt
│   │   └── last_group_id.txt
│   ├── presentation/          # Downloaded presentation files
│   └── screenshots/           # Dashboard screenshots
├── scripts/
│   ├── start-dev.sh           # Start development client
│   ├── start-display-manager.sh  # Start Display Manager
│   ├── test-display-manager.sh   # Interactive testing
│   ├── test-impressive.sh     # Test Impressive (auto-quit mode)
│   ├── test-impressive-loop.sh   # Test Impressive (loop mode)
│   ├── test-mqtt.sh           # Test MQTT connectivity
│   ├── test-screenshot.sh     # Test screenshot capture
│   ├── test-utc-timestamps.sh # Test event timing
│   └── present-pdf-auto-advance.sh  # PDF presentation wrapper
└── logs/                      # Application logs
```

## 🧪 Testing

### Test Display Manager

```bash
./scripts/test-display-manager.sh
```

Interactive menu for testing:
- Check Display Manager status
- Create test events (presentation, video, webpage)
- View active processes
- Cycle through different event types

### Test Impressive Presentation

**Single playthrough (auto-quit):**
```bash
./scripts/test-impressive.sh
```

**Loop mode (infinite):**
```bash
./scripts/test-impressive-loop.sh
```

### Test MQTT Communication

```bash
./scripts/test-mqtt.sh
```

Verifies MQTT broker connectivity and topics.

### Test Screenshot Capture

```bash
./scripts/test-screenshot.sh
```

Captures test screenshot for dashboard monitoring.

## 🔧 Configuration Details

### Environment Variables

#### Environment
- `ENV` - `development` or `production`
- `DEBUG_MODE` - Enable debug output (1=on, 0=off)
- `LOG_LEVEL` - `DEBUG`, `INFO`, `WARNING`, `ERROR`

#### MQTT
- `MQTT_BROKER` - Primary MQTT broker IP/hostname
- `MQTT_PORT` - MQTT port (default: 1883)
- `MQTT_BROKER_FALLBACKS` - Comma-separated fallback brokers
- `MQTT_USERNAME` - Optional authentication
- `MQTT_PASSWORD` - Optional authentication

#### Timing
- `HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL` - Status update frequency (seconds)
- `SCREENSHOT_INTERVAL` - Dashboard screenshot frequency (seconds)
- `DISPLAY_CHECK_INTERVAL` - Event check frequency (seconds)

#### File/API Server
- `FILE_SERVER_HOST` - Host/IP of the file server; defaults to `MQTT_BROKER` when empty
- `FILE_SERVER_PORT` - Port of the file server (default: 8000)
- `FILE_SERVER_SCHEME` - `http` or `https` (default: http)
- `FILE_SERVER_BASE_URL` - Optional full override, e.g., `https://api.example.com:443`

### File Server URL Resolution
- The MQTT client (`src/simclient.py`) downloads presentation files listed in events.
- If an event contains URLs with host `server` (e.g., `http://server:8000/...`) or a missing host, the client rewrites them to the configured file server.
- By default, the file server host is the same as `MQTT_BROKER`, with port `8000` and scheme `http`.
- You can override this behavior using the `.env` variables above; `FILE_SERVER_BASE_URL` takes precedence over the individual host/port/scheme.
- Tip: When editing `.env`, keep comments after a space and `#` so values stay clean.

### MQTT Topics

#### Client → Server
- `infoscreen/discovery` - Initial client announcement
- `infoscreen/{client_id}/heartbeat` - Regular status updates
- `infoscreen/{client_id}/dashboard` - Screenshot images (base64)

#### Server → Client
- `infoscreen/{client_id}/discovery_ack` - Server response with client ID
- `infoscreen/{client_id}/group_id` - Group assignment
- `infoscreen/events/{group_id}` - Event commands for group

### Client Identification

**Hardware Token:** SHA256 hash of:
- CPU serial number
- MAC addresses (all network interfaces)

**Persistent UUID:** Stored in `src/config/client_uuid.txt`

**Group Membership:** Stored in `src/config/last_group_id.txt`

## 🔍 Troubleshooting

### Display Manager doesn't start presentations

**Check Impressive installation:**
```bash
which impressive
# If not found: sudo apt-get install impressive
```

**Check LibreOffice installation:**
```bash
which libreoffice
# If not found: sudo apt-get install libreoffice
```

**Check logs:**
```bash
tail -f logs/display_manager.log
```

### Presentations don't convert from PPTX

**Verify LibreOffice headless:**
```bash
libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir /tmp presentation.pptx
ls -l /tmp/*.pdf
```

**Check disk space:**
```bash
df -h
```

### Slides don't auto-advance

**Verify event JSON:**
- `auto_advance: true` is set
- `slide_interval` is specified (default: 10)

**Test Impressive directly:**
```bash
./scripts/test-impressive.sh
```

### Presentation doesn't loop

**Verify event JSON:**
- `loop: true` is set

**Test loop mode:**
```bash
./scripts/test-impressive-loop.sh
```

### File downloads fail

Symptoms:
- `Failed to resolve 'server'` or `NameResolutionError` when downloading files
- `Invalid URL 'http      # http or https://...'` in `logs/simclient.log`

What to check:
- Look for lines like `Lade Datei herunter von:` in `logs/simclient.log` to see the effective URL used
- Ensure the URL host is the MQTT broker IP (or your configured file server), not `server`
- Verify `.env` values don’t include inline comments as part of the value (e.g., keep `FILE_SERVER_SCHEME=http` on its own line)

Fixes:
- If your API is on the same host as the broker: leave `FILE_SERVER_HOST` empty (defaults to `MQTT_BROKER`), keep `FILE_SERVER_PORT=8000`, and set `FILE_SERVER_SCHEME=http` or `https`
- To override fully, set `FILE_SERVER_BASE_URL` (e.g., `http://192.168.1.100:8000`); this takes precedence over host/port/scheme
- After changing `.env`, restart the simclient process

Expected healthy log sequence:
- `Lade Datei herunter von: http://<broker-ip>:8000/...`
- Followed by `"GET /... HTTP/1.1" 200` and `Datei erfolgreich heruntergeladen:`

### VLC hardware decode / renderer issues

If you see messages like:

```
[h264_v4l2m2m @ ...] Could not find a valid device
[h264_v4l2m2m @ ...] can't configure decoder
[... ] avcodec decoder error: cannot start codec (h264_v4l2m2m)
```

that indicates libVLC / ffmpeg attempted to use the platform V4L2 M2M hardware decoder but the kernel/device isn't available. Options to resolve:

- Enable the V4L2 M2M codec driver on the system (platform-specific; on Raspberry Pi ensure correct kernel/firmware and codec modules are loaded). Check `v4l2-ctl --list-devices` and `ls /dev/video*` after installing `v4l-utils`.
- Disable hardware decoding so libVLC/ffmpeg uses software decoding (reliable but higher CPU). You can test this by launching the `vlc` binary with:

```bash
vlc --avcodec-hw=none 'http://<your-video-url>'
```

Or modify `src/display_manager.py` to create the libVLC instance with software-decoding forced:

```python
instance = vlc.Instance('--avcodec-hw=none', '--no-video-title-show', '--no-video-deco')
```

This is the fastest workaround if hardware decode is not required or not available on the device.

### MQTT connection issues

**Test broker connectivity:**
```bash
./scripts/test-mqtt.sh
```

**Check broker status:**
```bash
# On server
sudo systemctl status mosquitto
```

**Try fallback brokers:**
Edit `.env` and add `MQTT_BROKER_FALLBACKS`

### Screenshots not uploading

**Test screenshot capture:**
```bash
./scripts/test-screenshot.sh
ls -l screenshots/
```

**Check DISPLAY variable:**
```bash
echo $DISPLAY  # Should be :0
```

## 📚 Documentation

- **IMPRESSIVE_INTEGRATION.md** - Detailed presentation system documentation
- **src/DISPLAY_MANAGER.md** - Display Manager architecture
- **src/IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md** - Implementation overview
- **src/README.md** - MQTT client documentation

## 🔐 Security

- Hardware-based client identification (non-spoofable)
- Configurable MQTT authentication
- Local-only file storage
- No sensitive data in logs

## 🚢 Production Deployment

### Systemd Service

Create `/etc/systemd/system/infoscreen-display.service`:

```ini
[Unit]
Description=Infoscreen Display Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=olafn
WorkingDirectory=/home/olafn/infoscreen-dev/src
Environment="DISPLAY=:0"
Environment="XAUTHORITY=/home/olafn/.Xauthority"
ExecStart=/home/olafn/infoscreen-dev/venv/bin/python3 /home/olafn/infoscreen-dev/src/display_manager.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

Enable and start:
```bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable infoscreen-display
sudo systemctl start infoscreen-display
sudo systemctl status infoscreen-display
```

### Auto-start on Boot

Both services (simclient.py and display_manager.py) should start automatically:

1. **simclient.py** - MQTT communication, event management
2. **display_manager.py** - Display application controller

Create similar systemd service for simclient.py.

### Docker Deployment (Alternative)

```bash
docker-compose -f src/docker-compose.production.yml up -d
```

See `src/CONTAINER_TRANSITION.md` for details.

## 📝 Development

### Development Mode

Set in `.env`:
```bash
ENV=development
DEBUG_MODE=1
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL=10
```

### Start Development Client

```bash
./scripts/start-dev.sh
```

### View Logs

```bash
# Display Manager
tail -f logs/display_manager.log

# MQTT Client
tail -f logs/simclient.log

# Both
tail -f logs/*.log
```

## 🤝 Contributing

1. Test changes with `./scripts/test-display-manager.sh`
2. Verify MQTT communication with `./scripts/test-mqtt.sh`
3. Update documentation
4. Submit pull request

## 📄 License

[Add your license here]

## 🆘 Support

For issues or questions:
1. Check logs in `logs/` directory
2. Review troubleshooting section
3. Test individual components with test scripts
4. Check MQTT broker connectivity

---

**Last Updated:** October 2025  
**Status:** ✅ Production Ready  
**Tested On:** Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm)

## Recent changes (Oct 2025)

The following notable changes were added after the previous release and are included in this branch:

- Event handling: support for scheduler-provided `event_type` values (new types: `presentation`, `webuntis`, `webpage`, `website`). The display manager now prefers `event_type` when selecting which renderer to start.
- Web display: Chromium is launched in kiosk mode for web events. `website` events (scheduler) and legacy `web` keys are both supported and normalized.
- Auto-scroll feature: automatic scrolling for long websites implemented. Two mechanisms are available:
  - CDP injection: The display manager attempts to inject a small auto-scroll script via Chrome DevTools Protocol (DevTools websocket) when possible (uses `websocket-client` and `requests`). Default injection duration: 60s.
  - Extension fallback: When DevTools websocket handshakes are blocked (403), a tiny local Chrome extension (`src/chrome_autoscroll`) is loaded via `--load-extension` to run a content script that performs the auto-scroll reliably.
- Autoscroll enabled only for scheduler events with `event_type: "website"` (not for general `web` or `webpage`). The extension and CDP injection are only used when autoscroll is requested for that event type.
- New test utilities:
  - `scripts/test_cdp.py` — quick DevTools JSON listing + Runtime.evaluate tester
  - `scripts/test_cdp_origins.py` — tries several Origin headers to diagnose 403 handshakes
- Dependencies: `src/requirements.txt` updated to include `websocket-client` (used by the CDP injector).
- Small refactors and improved logging in `src/display_manager.py` to make event dispatch and browser injection more robust.

If you rely on autoscroll in production, review the security considerations around `--remote-debugging-port` (DevTools) and prefer the extension fallback if your Chromium build enforces strict websocket Origin policies.