EyeFlask
========
|Build Status|
Simple `Flask <http://flask.pocoo.org>`__-based Python3 EyeFi server
- Documentation:
`eyeflask.readthedocs.org <https://eyeflask.readthedocs.org>`__
Introduction
------------
I use an Eye-Fi SD card in my portable scanner. Unfortunately, it used
to upload directly to Evernote, but no longer supports uploading
directly to any service that suits my needs. Additionally, they don't
provide a Linux version of their server software.
EyeFlask is a simple Flask-based Eye-Fi server written for Python >=
3.4. The Eye-Fi card can connect to it and will upload images to the
folder specified in the config. EyeFlask attempts to verify the file
integrity using the same security protocols used by Eye-Fi Server.
Dependencies
------------
- Python >= 3.4
- See ``requirements.txt``
Quickstart
----------
Using a virtual env is highly recommended. Since EyeFlask is Python 3.4+
only, there's no excuse not to use one!
1. ``python3 -m venv venv`` on some systems may need to install venv for
Python3.4 (e.g. ``sudo apt-get install python3.4-venv``)
2. ``venv/bin/pip3 install eyeflask``
3. Copy ``eyeflask/extras/eyeflask-sample.cfg`` to ``eyeflask.cfg``,
modify with your values, and put it in `your instance
folder <http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/0.10/config/#instance-folders>`__
4. Run: ``venv/bin/eyeflask``
5. Scan some stuff, see if it ends up in your uploads folder
Development Setup
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Clone the repo:
``git clone https://github.com/n8henrie/eyeflask && cd eyeflask``
2. Make a virtualenv: ``python3 -m venv venv``
3. Make an instance folder: ``mkdir -p instance``
4. Copy the config sample:
``cp eyeflask/extras/eyeflask-sample.cfg instance/eyeflask.cfg``
5. Edit the config to include your upload directory and upload\_key (see
below): ``vim instance/eyeflask.cfg``
6. Install with dev dependencies: ``venv/bin/pip install .[dev]``
7. Run: ``eyeflask`` (or ``venv/bin/python -m eyeflask.cli``)
8. Scan some stuff, see if it ends up in your uploads folder
Configuration
-------------
- ``UPLOAD_KEY``: See FAQ, below
- ``UPLOAD_FOLDER``: Destination folder for uploads. May optionally be
a
`strftime <https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior>`__
string to specify a subfolder format (e.g.
\`/path/to/eyeflask-uploads/%Y/%m-%d/')
Extras
------
EyeFlask will help get the images uploaded and extracted to your server
(e.g. a Raspberry Pi in my case), but what do to from there? If you're
running Raspbian Jessie (and using systemd), I've included in the
``extras`` folder a few files that may be of interested.
- ``upload_scans.service`` will run a given script when called (e.g.
``sudo systemctl start upload_scans.service``)
- ``upload_scans.timer`` is an example `systemd timer
unit <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.timer.html>`__
that will call ``upload_scans.service`` every 10 minutes
- ``upload_scans.path`` is an example `systemd path
unit <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.path.html>`__
that will call ``upload_scans.service`` every time a file changes in
a watched directory
Put together, this makes it *really* easy to put together a script to
`upload new scans to a Dropbox
folder <https://gist.github.com/n8henrie/1e8ab5bcf1a3af2c20de>`__
whenever a new one is added, or whatever command you'd like to run on
all your scans.
I've also included ``eyeflask/extras/eyeflask.service``, which is a
sample `systemd service
file <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.service.html>`__
to run EyeFlask at startup and restart it on errors.
Acknowledgements
----------------
Much of the code for EyeFlask came from or was inspired by the following
projects / links. Many thanks to the authors for their work! If I've
forgotten anyone, let me know.
- https://github.com/tachang/EyeFiServer
- https://github.com/dgrant/eyefiserver2
- https://code.google.com/archive/p/sceye-fi/wikis/UploadProtocol.wiki
- https://launchpad.net/eyefi
- https://code.google.com/archive/p/eyefiserver/
- https://github.com/BrentSouza/WP7EyeFiConnector
Troubleshooting / FAQ
---------------------
Where do I find my upload key?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll need a supported platform (OS X or Windows) with
``Eye-Fi Center.app`` installed, and need to have uploaded photos to
that computer at least once. This ensures everything is working, and
generates the ``Settings.xml`` file, from which you need to copy the
upload key into ``eyeflask.cfg``.
- OS X: ``~/Library/Eye-Fi/Settings.xml``
- Windows 7: ``C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Eye-Fi\Settings.xml``
(`source <http://support.photosmithapp.com/knowledgebase/articles/116903-why-do-i-see-multiple-eye-fi-card-upload-keys-ho>`__)
- Windows XP:
``C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Eye-Fi\Settings.xml``
(`source <http://support.photosmithapp.com/knowledgebase/articles/116903-why-do-i-see-multiple-eye-fi-card-upload-keys-ho>`__)
Is it okay to be running this with the built-in Flask server?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's not perfect, but it seems to work okay for me and my single Eye-Fi
card setup. You'd probably be better off running it behind
`gunicorn <http://gunicorn.org>`__ or a gunicorn / nginx setup, but I'm
running it behind Flask alone for simplicity and because I haven't had
any issues so far.
If you want to give it a go with gunicorn / nginx, I've included an
*extremely* simplified nginx configuration file:
``eyeflask/extras/nginx.conf``. After installing ``gunicorn`` into your
virtualenv, hopefully you'll be able to get it running behind nginx
without much trouble with something like:
::
venv/bin/pip install gunicorn
venv/bin/gunicorn 'eyeflask:create_app("instance/eyeflask.cfg")'
For debugging you can also use the flags
``--log-file=- --log-level=debug``.
NB: I do **not** plan on providing support for nginx / gunicorn setups,
as I don't know enough about it to be particularly helpful. I just
verified that it seemed to work. (Just FYI, Gunicorn *without* nginx did
**not** seem to work unless I used one of the async workers, kept
getting timeouts.)
Why am I getting repeat or unreliable file uploads on my Raspberry Pi?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not sure. I was getting *excellent* reliability when running
EyeFlask on my Macbook Air and *very* poor reliability on my Raspberry
Pi B+ with EyeFlask 0.1.0. It seemed like the file would be uploaded
exctracted without issue, but the EyeFi card kept sending the same file
over and over, leading me to believe that the confirmation response
wasn't getting received every time. I thought it might have something to
do with slow response times, so I did a little code optimization with
0.1.1 which seems to have helped. I also gave up and put EyeFlask behind
a gunicorn / nginx setup, and between the two of these changes I have
much better upload reliability.
.. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/n8henrie/eyeflask.svg?branch=master
:target: https://travis-ci.org/n8henrie/eyeflask
`Changelog <http://keepachangelog.com>`__
=========================================
0.1.3 :: 20170310
-----------------
- Add strftime based subfolders to config (see issue #2)
- Encourage use of virtualenv in the README
- Test docs creation in Travis
- Fix some flake8 compliants
0.1.2 :: 20170303
-----------------
- Python 3.6 compatibility
- Stop using ``src/`` subdirectory
- Try to fix some Pandoc exceptions
0.1.1 :: 20160318
-----------------
- Use ``array.array`` instead of ``struct.iter_unpack`` for modest
speed boost
- Rename ``start_session`` to ``handle_SOAP`` -- because that's what it
does
- Extract the image from the tarfile data prior to writing to disk
(eliminating the need to delete the tarfile afterwards)
0.1.0 :: 20160227
-----------------
- Initial release to GitHub, PyPI