Inky-Calendar Server

An easy-to-configure, web-based image generator to supply E-Ink compatible panels to Inky-Calendar⁠ (or any other E-ink display).

To enjoy this as a service, see: inkycal.robertsirre.nl⁠(domain name subject to change)

[toc]

Why use InkyCal server at all?

As an owner of an InkyCal panel you want to set up your panel once, and then forget about it. New features and bugfixes should come easy and for all panels at once.

This service about:

• reducing the hassle of updates
• increasing panel-quality (centralized bug reporting)
• speeding up development of features
• offloading costly operations away from a low-power PI zero. Maybe even lower-power, battery-operated devices will be supported.

Why would I run this myself?

There are a few good reasons to want to run this small server by yourself:

1. You want to contribute! Nice, you can develop your own panel implementations or squash a bug!
2. You do not want to share your details with yet another third party.
3. You want to learn .Net Core and Blazor

How to run

Option 1: With .Net Core

Recommended for development

Clone this repository, then in the root:

dotnet run --project InkyCal.Server

#or even better, auto-restart upon code changes:
dotnet watch --project InkyCal.Server run

Configuration

Database

Some operations require a database, SQL server. You can install one on your machine, run one in a docker-container or it a network and then adjust the connection string in appsettings.json > ConnectionStrings > DefaultConnection

Option 2: With Docker

Recommended for quick tests without a database

On Docker using an image from Dockerhub it's easy to start the web-application:

docker run -p 80:80 atreyu/inkycal.server:latest

The server will be available at: http://localhost⁠. The application needs a database for some sections. To configure a database connection to your database use:

docker run ^
 -env ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Server=MyServerName;Database=MyDataBaseName;User=MyUserName;Password=MyPassword;MultipleActiveResultSets=true ^
 -p 80:80 ^
 atreyu/inkycal.server:latest

Option 3: With docker-compose 🚀

Recommended for permanent or frequent use

Create a file named docker-compose.yml⁠, containing your server setup: the web application and a database:

version: '3'
services:
  web:
    image: "atreyu/inkycal.server:latest"
    ports:
      - 5100:5000
    environment:
      - ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
      - ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://0.0.0.0:5000/
      - ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Server=db;Database=InkyCal.Server;User=sa;Password=${DB_SA_PASSWORD};MultipleActiveResultSets=true
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: always
  db:
    image: "mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server"
    environment:
       SA_PASSWORD: "${DB_SA_PASSWORD}"
       ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
       MSSQL_PID: "Express"
    #Expose port for development purpose only
    # ports:
    #  - 1433:1433
    volumes:
      # Mapped volume for permanent storage of credentials and panel config
      - ./sqlserver:/var/opt/mssql/data
    restart: always

Then create an environment file named .env⁠ for storing secrets and re-usable variables:

DB_SA_PASSWORD=MySAP@ssw0rd!

Then fire up your container:

docker-compose up -d

The server will be available at: http://localhost:5100⁠.