screentinker/screentinker v2.6.0

ScreenTinker v2.6.0

on GitHub

ScreenTinker v2.6.0

@renebohne authored 3 of the 13 commits in this release (#569, #570, #571): display power schedules
and deep sleep for e-paper and other battery panels, device telemetry over HTTP polling, and
dithering profiles with remote reboot. Thank you, René.

Upgrade notes

• The first start after upgrading builds two indexes on play_logs (#577). It is one synchronous
  statement per index, so the server answers nothing until both finish, and the log says so before it
  starts. On screentinker.com (5.2M plays) both took 10 s with a warm cache. A cold copy of the same
  database took 48 s and 56 s at idle disk priority. Do not stop the server while it builds. Every
  start after that skips them.
• Roku screens need Chromium on the server for widgets, web pages and slides, which reach a Roku as
  pictures the server draws (GET /api/player/raster). Without CHROME_PATH, those items answer 501
  and the Roku skips them; images and video play either way.
• scripts/upgrade.sh is a tracked file, so the copy that runs is the one from the release you are
  leaving. Its pm2 support (below) helps from the upgrade after this one, or now if you run the new
  script from outside the checkout with APP_DIR=.

Added

• A ScreenTinker player for Roku (#576, #579). A native BrightScript app on the same socket protocol
  as every other player. It pairs with a code, and plays playlists, schedules, play order, power
  schedules and multi-zone layouts. Clocks are drawn on the Roku, and everything that needs a browser
  is a frame the server renders. It needs Roku OS 15.1 or later. It is submitted to the Roku Channel
  Store, and will be added with the channel code Screentinker once Roku publishes it.
  • Server side: a roku player family, GET /api/player/raster (server-rendered frames, with an
    ETag), and time-zone offset tables in the playlist payload, because a Roku has no time-zone
    database.
  • Certification: the app no longer holds off the system screensaver, honours the Roku's Autoplay
    setting (it waits for OK when Autoplay is off), sends Roku's launch and dialog beacons, accepts
    Roku deep links, and leaves on Back from the first-run prompt. It declares RSG 1.3, logs its memory
    limits and warnings, and uses StandardKeyboardDialog for the server address.
  • Found on the first real Roku and fixed: a render-thread crash (black screen) from roUrlTransfer
    (now roku/tests/check-threads.js, in CI); full Roku error details for videos that will not
    decode; and a playlist with nothing playable no longer spins. It shows a message on screen and
    retries after 30 s, doubling to 5 minutes, and failed attempts are not recorded as plays.
  • What a Roku cannot do is written down, not glossed over: it does not start by itself after a power
    cut, cannot be rebooted, screenshotted or have its volume set remotely, and cannot decode H.264
    taller than 1080 pixels (portrait clips). See the new guide (#580).
• E-paper and battery panels follow display power schedules (#569, @renebohne). The embedded
  renderer evaluates the device's power schedule, then its group's. During an off window it answers
  with how long the panel may deep sleep, so a panel can sleep through the night on one charge.
  A missing or broken schedule falls back to on.
• Embedded panels report battery, Wi-Fi signal and firmware (#570, @renebohne) through
  X-ST-Device-Battery, X-ST-Device-RSSI and X-ST-Firmware-Version on their HTTP polls. Each poll
  counts as a heartbeat. The display's page shows the battery and Wi-Fi cards, and the device name is
  sent back in X-ST-Device-Name.
• E-paper dithering profiles, and remote and scheduled reboot for embedded panels (#571,
  @renebohne). Pick Floyd–Steinberg, Atkinson or none (threshold) per display. A reboot, from the
  dashboard or the nightly reboot schedule, is queued and delivered on the next poll as
  X-ST-Command: reboot. Controls a polling panel cannot honour are hidden.
• Templates: ISO event times, larger ST.data, and translations (#574). iCal data adds
  event_N_start_iso / _end_iso / _all_day, and max_events goes up to 200. ST.data holds up to
  3000 keys per source, with byte caps that keep a template under the render limit. A template package
  may carry locales/<lang>.json for ten languages, validated strictly at install, and slide
  countdowns take a locale.
• Templates library: search, filters and bulk install (#575). Search covers names, descriptions,
  tags, id and author, in English and the translated text. You can filter by status, type,
  orientation and tag. Install selected and Update all take one confirmation, which still names
  every code template and the hosts it may contact. The Templates page is translated into de, es, fr,
  hi, it, ja, nl, pt and zh.
• Boot warnings for two silent self-hosting traps (#578).
  • [config] names any key in server/.env or a repository-root .env that the running server does
    not have, and says why: the file is not read, it is read only by npm start, or the environment
    overrides it. Key names only, never values.
  • [secrets] reports a JWT_SECRET that changed under saved secrets: everyone is signed out and
    saved secrets cannot be decrypted. When the server's generated certs/.jwt_secret is the previous
    secret, the warning names it as the way back.
• scripts/upgrade.sh restarts pm2 and anything else (#578). It uses RESTART_CMD, then the
  systemd unit, then the pm2 process for this checkout. If none applies, it says the new release is
  installed but not running, and exits 2. A failing step is named, with the advice not to finish by
  git pull. Local edits to tracked files stop it before the backup.
• A Roku guide, Roku in the platform lists, and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K under Known issues on the
  certified hardware page (#580). That tier is not Certified Hardware and carries no support
  commitment.

Fixed

• Deleting content or a widget froze the whole server (#577). play_logs.content_id and
  widget_id are ON DELETE SET NULL foreign keys with no index since #451, so each delete scanned
  every play synchronously. On screentinker.com that meant up to 34 s per delete, dropping screens
  and dashboards. Account deletion paid one scan per item. Two partial indexes make each delete a
  lookup (180 ms to 10 ms on 3M rows).
• Every start rebuilt and then dropped a 260 MB index (#581). schema.sql, which runs on every
  boot, still created idx_play_logs_content, which a migration drops. Starts and upgrades no longer
  pay for it.
• Sleeping e-paper panels no longer raise "display offline" alerts (#572). A render answer records
  when the panel is next due, and the heartbeat sweep, the offline email and the alert channels
  measure lateness from that. One poll writes one telemetry row, not two.
• The .env.example header said the file is never loaded. npm start loads server/.env; pm2,
  systemd and node server.js do not. It now says where settings go (#578).
• A rooms test depended on what UTC's tomorrow was (#573).

Artifacts

• screentinker-2.6.0.tar.gz - bundle: server + frontend source + the Tizen .wgt (the signed Android APK is added at the root during release finalization).
• ScreenTinker.wgt - Tizen TV web app, unsigned - for inspection only.
  Sign it with your own Samsung certificate (Tizen Studio + a profile that includes
  your TV's DUID) to install, or - easiest - point a Tizen TV browser / URL Launcher
  at https://<your-instance>/player (no signing needed).
• ScreenTinker.ipk - LG webOS Signage app. Install from USB or an SI server; it then
  updates itself from your instance. Built without LG's SCAP library (not redistributable),
  so power and self-update controls need a build from webos/build-ipk.sh with the SDK
  files in webos/vendor/; see docs/webos-player.md.
• autorun.zip - BrightSign player installer. Drop it on the root of a player's
  storage (microSD, USB, or internal flash) and power-cycle: it unpacks itself and
  reboots into the player. Edit screentinker.json inside the archive first to
  point it at your own server.
• autorun-server.zip + server-payload.zip + server-payload.json - make a
  BrightSign run the ScreenTinker server rather than just a player. Drop the
  first on the player's storage root with an st-config.json containing
  {"server": 1}; it fetches the payload on boot. Point payloadUrl at your
  own host - the default reaches ours, which is wrong for your site. The manifest
  must sit beside the payload wherever you serve it: the launcher reads it to
  decide whether an update is published.
• Docker image: ghcr.io/screentinker/screentinker:2.6.0 (also :latest).
• ScreenTinker.apk - signed Android player (attached during release finalization).
• screentinker-sbom-2.6.0.cdx.json - CycloneDX 1.5 software bill of materials for the server's production dependencies, with the licence of every component.