Infoscreen write-up

list.json

@@ -15,6 +15,17 @@
         ],
         "repo": "https://git.c0ntroller.de/c0ntroller/frontpage"
     },
+    {
+        "type": "project",
+        "name": "infoscreen",
+        "short": "Screen that shows various information.",
+        "desc": [
+            "I had a screen left over and hooked a Raspberry Pi to it.",
+            "Then I created a webpage that fetches and shows various information.",
+            "Currently it includes time, weather, calendar, departures and more."
+        ],
+        "repo": "https://git.c0ntroller.de/c0ntroller/infoscreen"
+    },
     {
         "type": "diary",
         "name": "rust",

projects/infoscreen.adoc

@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+:experimental:
+
+= Infoscreen
+
+This document is about a screen that shows information.
+Shocking, I know.
+
+== Screenshot
+
+.Screenshot of the Infoscreen
+image::data_infoscreen/screenshot.jpg[Screenshot of the Infoscreen,80%]
+
+I obfuscated a few things to protect my personal information.
+
+== How it Started
+
+A few years ago I bought a new monitor for my PC.
+That left me with a monitor I could use for anything I want.
+
+So I decided to hook a Raspberry Pi to it and show some useful information like weather, calendar, and news.
+The monitor then was placed in the kitchen.
+
+== History
+=== The First Implementation
+
+The first implementation for this was using vanilla JS (and of course HTML and CSS).
+Even though I had not had too much experience in JS, I tried to use "good" software development practices, like class inheritance and https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Modules[ES-Modules]. +
+I hosted it, using the default https://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php[PHP HTTP-Server] locally and opened a Chromium browser on localhost.
+
+If you are interested in the code, https://github.com/C0ntroller/infoscreen-old[here] is the repository of the second version, which uses most of the code from version one.
+
+=== Phase Two
+
+The second version of this project basically took all the code from the first version and bundle it as an Electron App.
+I hoped that the performance would be increased by not using _the whole_ Chromium bloat.
+It (well, who would have guessed) didn't. +
+The old code is still up, so if you're interested you can find it https://github.com/C0ntroller/infoscreen-old[in this repository].
+
+=== Phase Three
+
+When I started to learn React more, I realized that what I tried to achieve in the prior versions are just React components.
+I rewrote what I had using React.
+But I also had already learned about Frameworks for React that provide static site generation like https://nextjs.org/[Next.JS] and https://www.gatsbyjs.com/[Gatsby]. +
+Gatsby looked like a good choice so I just went for it.
+
+It gets hosted in a Docker container on my own home server and the Pi just opens up a Chromium again.
+
+This marks the end of the development history.
+
+== So what's on the Screen?
+
+Currently, the following info is shown:
+
+- Time
+- Weather and weather map
+- two RSS news feeds
+- a Google calendar
+- departures on the nearest tram station
+- Spotify or info from my plant sensors
+
+Also, the background image is cycled through 20-ish images.
+
+=== Weather
+
+For the weather, I used the https://darksky.net/[DarkSky API].
+Because Apple bought it and (of course) shut down the public API I had to switch to https://pirateweather.net/[Pirate Weather]. +
+Sadly the data from Pirate Weather seems to not be accurate most times.
+In the future, I probably want to switch to another API.
+
+=== RSS News
+
+For news, I use the RSS feed of the https://www.tagesschau.de/[Tagesschau], one of the earliest and biggest news channels in Germany.
+I also put in a few topics from https://www.der-postillon.com/[Der Postillon] a German satire news page. 
+It's available on https://www.the-postillon.com/[English too].
+
+=== Google Calendar
+
+It uses the https://developers.google.com/calendar[Google Calendar API] and orders the event by a day.
+
+=== Departures
+
+My local public transport company has an API available to fetch data for the stations.
+It's quite simple to use actually!
+
+=== Spotify
+
+This part shows which song is currently playing in the kitchen.
+How it works is a project in itself.
+A write-up will follow later.
+
+If nothing is playing, information about a few plant sensors is shown.
+
+=== Plants
+
+This just fetches and shows the current status of the plant sensors from my https://www.home-assistant.io/[Home Assistant].