ZoneMinder Client App

[LennyCorp]

Greetings, I've been using ZoneMinder for a few years, but desired a simpler mobile app. With the excellent zmNinja being discontinued now, I decided to try making an app that suited my needs. It is still a little rough around the edges and it doesn't do everything yet (ptz, audio, notifications, etc.). But I think it does provide a nice way to view cameras live and event history.

My cameras are set up with a low res stream used for motion event analysis and a high res stream for continuous recording. For this scenario, I created the ability to "link" camera pairs in the settings so the pair are treated as one camera.

I couldn't think of a clever name for the app, so I just called it "ZoneMinder Client App". I will continue to improve and add features to the app depending on the feedback I get. Also, I could port it to iOS pretty easily if there is a demand. Please try it out and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nderclient

[iconnor]

That's cool, good luck with your app!

zmNinja will live on though... and you can always build it yourself, the code is available on github.

[bsc101]

Nice Works very well so far!

I also thought about implementing an app, but didn't find the time until now. Important to me would be the notifications part (with pictures). Are you already working on notifications?

One question: How can I delete a view?

[LennyCorp]

I'm happy to hear you're using the app and it is working well! I consider notifications necessary for an app like this, and will definitely be adding them (with pictures). Thank you for mentioning deleting views, that is a feature I overlooked. I just added it in to an update and submitted it to the play store. It should be available for download soon. Please let me know if you have any other ideas.

[bsc101]

Thanks for the update! What I really like is the navigation at the bottom, plus minus and event navigation and so on, well done!

A little feature request: It would be nice if I could specify how many columns a view should have. Currently, I have 7 cameras and they are displayed in two columns, but sometimes I would prefer just one column (max width for each camera) and vertical scrollable. What do you think?

[LennyCorp]

Great idea! I just submitted an update version 1.2.0. Look for the icon on the top right next to the settings gear to toggle between a scrolling list and the auto fit layout. I also changed the playback speed controls on the bottom bar and added a few other tweaks under the hood.

[bsc101]

Perfekt! Thank you very much!

I have a question regarding events:
When I go to the events view and then press the "Eye" button of an event, I just see something like "Event Page 12345". Pressing the "Play" button does not change anything, still an empty page... Any idea?

[LennyCorp]

The event details screen needs some work. The eye icon should play a video of the event; the arrow icon will take you back to the camera view at the time of the event. It sounds like the video player is not working on your device. What type of device are you using?

[bsc101]

I'm using a Pixel 5 with Android 12.
I don't think my events are saved as video, could this cause this issue?

[LennyCorp]

That sounds likely to be the reason. The event playback screen requests the mp4 for the event. I didn't consider that events might be not saved as video. Do you just have it set to save the JPEG frames? I will add a check for this in the next version of the app.

[iconnor]

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I really wish you would help out with zmNinja.

That being said, there is value to different competing approaches.

[bsc101]

That sounds likely to be the reason. The event playback screen requests the mp4 for the event. I didn't consider that events might be not saved as video. Do you just have it set to save the JPEG frames? I will add a check for this in the next version of the app.

Yes, it works now after enabling the event video writer!

[LennyCorp]

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I really wish you would help out with zmNinja.

That being said, there is value to different competing approaches.

zmNinja is great, I don't want to re-invent it. I use it daily along side my client app. I find zmNinja offers a ton of options and features, but can be a bit overwhelming for just viewing live & recordings. I wanted to make something quick, simple, and intuitive -- but not as feature rich as zmNinja. Mainly for my own use, but I started liking using it so much that I had to share it. Also, I don't have experience with Ionic, so I built ZMCA with Flutter. I'm greatful for the work you and the community have put into ZoneMinder, let me know if there is any other way I can help out.

[LennyCorp]

That sounds likely to be the reason. The event playback screen requests the mp4 for the event. I didn't consider that events might be not saved as video. Do you just have it set to save the JPEG frames? I will add a check for this in the next version of the app.

Yes, it works now after enabling the event video writer!

I released a fix last night (1.3.0) that fixes this issue for monitors that are set to only save JPEGs.

[prplhaz4]

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I really wish you would help out with zmNinja.

That being said, there is value to different competing approaches.

ZmNinja with linked monitors is a bit of a headache (scrolling through 2x as many cameras, deleting every event twice...etc). This app might provide a good proof of concept for how ZM/ZmNinja should think about that feature...