A few requests

[alfvicente]

First of all, THANK YOU very much asker for this piece of software!!! It seems to be the best solution even for desktop use. I'm using it with 30+ monitors in a Security monitoring center, most of them in 640x480.

I've read somewhere that in Montage you're using 20% of screen width for each tile's width, making 5 each row. Is there any possibility of let that percent to be changed in Developer Settings? You see, if I could set it to 16% or some, there would be room for 36 tiles on screen, ideal for my setup.

Also, it would be nice if I could hide some menus from the left, maybe with an administrator password. I don't want to be called at midnight because someone broke the configuration, just because he was bored and touched everything

In Montage Profiles I think there should be a "Default" option with all the cameras. I've made one profile for each level of my building with their respective monitors, but I have to create one more with all of them just for this purpose.

And the last one I promise, just an aesthetic one. In the monitor selection list (the one with the eyes) could you make the disabled monitors show in red or something? With 30+ monitors it would be very helpful.

Thank you again, keep up the good work.

*EDIT: I Just found out that if you have a Montage profile with, let's say, 3 monitors and in ZM you add new monitors, when you come back to that profile it shows the 3 old monitors and the new ones. Maybe this shouldn't be the correct behavior? I mean, keep the profiles the way they were made and add the new ones only if you want. Thanks again!!!

[asker]

First of all, THANK YOU very much asker for this piece of software!!! It seems to be the best solution even for desktop use. I'm using it with 30+ monitors in a Security monitoring center, most of them in 640x480.

You are very welcome - I love hearing about how folks are using zmNinja!

I've read somewhere that in Montage you're using 20% of screen width for each tile's width, making 5 each row. Is there any possibility of let that percent to be changed in Developer Settings? You see, if I could set it to 16% or some, there would be room for 36 tiles on screen, ideal for my setup.

I think what you want is already supported - tap on the vertical "..." button in the montage view on the top. That brings up the 2nd level of buttons. Tap the "-" icon till your monitor(s) reach the right size and then tap the button with many boxes - it should reflow.
Note that in this mode, you can individually resize each monitor too by tapping on the button with 4 arrows and then using +/- on selected monitors. I have access to a profile that has around 80 cameras and I can fit them all in if I want into one screen. I might have misunderstood though, and if you have already tried what I suggested, please post what did not work.

Also, it would be nice if I could hide some menus from the left, maybe with an administrator password. I don't want to be called at midnight because someone broke the configuration, just because he was bored and touched everything

Hmm interesting. Are you talking about a case where someone else uses your desktop/phone? Can you describe this situation a bit more on when this might happen and your usage scenario?

In Montage Profiles I think there should be a "Default" option with all the cameras. I've made one profile for each level of my building with their respective monitors, but I have to create one more with all of them just for this purpose.

You mean when you first install the app, it should have a "default" profile by default? What happens then if someone removes some monitors from default? My thought is that the "default" is really 'no profile' unless you create one and make that the default. But if you'd like to expand your thought here - I'm happy to hear.

And the last one I promise, just an aesthetic one. In the monitor selection list (the one with the eyes) could you make the disabled monitors show in red or something? With 30+ monitors it would be very helpful.

Good idea. Can you add this as a feature request https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja/issues

*EDIT: I Just found out that if you have a Montage profile with, let's say, 3 monitors and in ZM you add new monitors, when you come back to that profile it shows the 3 old monitors and the new ones. Maybe this shouldn't be the correct behavior? I mean, keep the profiles the way they were made and add the new ones only if you want. Thanks again!!!

I actually think this is a bug - you are correct. Can you add this to the issue list too?

thanks

[alfvicente]

I think what you want is already supported - tap on the vertical "..." button in the montage view on the top. That brings up the 2nd level of buttons. Tap the "-" icon till your monitor(s) reach the right size and then tap the button with many boxes - it should reflow.
Note that in this mode, you can individually resize each monitor too by tapping on the button with 4 arrows and then using +/- on selected monitors. I have access to a profile that has around 80 cameras and I can fit them all in if I want into one screen. I might have misunderstood though, and if you have already tried what I suggested, please post what did not work.

I've already tried the arrowed cross but I didn't know that I could change size of individual tiles, very useful!. But I don't think that's what I need right now. When you use the primary zoom tool, I think you've got stepping of 10% (starting with 10 tiles in a row, next 5, next 3 with a blank space of 10%... ). The thing is that I have 34 monitors and I would like to show them all at the same time (i'm using a 40 inches FHD monitor), and using the first step makes them too small and the second too large and they go off screen. Maybe if I could play with that 10% I would find the correct value for my setup (14 or 16% I think)

Hmm interesting. Are you talking about a case where someone else uses your desktop/phone? Can you describe this situation a bit more on when this might happen and your usage scenario?

In my case the software is being used in a PC station by the people who should watch the place for security, and they don't always know what they should touch and what not. And even further, I don't want them to touch anything. They should just watch the cameras and review events at most.

But I think this would also become useful on mobile devices: If you hand your phone to your kids you know nothing is safe, they touch everything. And another scenario could be: you got your home's ZM without password and you let your phone alone in your office desk for 10 minutes (we all do that). Someone get it, read your setup and use it, now someone is watching your family Ok, creepy example, but a valid one.

Maybe just locking access with an administrator password to Settings and Developer Settings, and maybe Add/Remove profiles or things like that.
*EDIT: System Status, Wizard and Logs should be locked too, right?

You mean when you first install the app, it should have a "default" profile by default? What happens then if someone removes some monitors from default? My thought is that the "default" is really 'no profile' unless you create one and make that the default. But if you'd like to expand your thought here - I'm happy to hear.

Exactly, the "default" option I'm asking should be a "no profile" option. When I first installed the app and had no profiles. it showed all 34 monitors. That's correct. But as soon as I create a profile showing, let's say, only 5 monitors and select it I can't go back and see all 34 again, I have to go to the eye icon and check each one again. I'm asking for an option fixed, unerasable, called maybe "No profile" that, despite what profile I've created or selected, I can come back and see all of them again.

Good idea. Can you add this as a feature request https://github.com/pliablepixels/zmNinja/issues

I actually think this is a bug - you are correct. Can you add this to the issue list too?

Great!!! I'm going to do that

Thanks again

[asker]

Hi, all good points.
1. You're right about the fact that once you create a profile and use it, you can't go back to the non profile view. I think your original suggestion is a good one. Let's start with a 'default' profile. However no harm in making it editable like other profiles - if a user edits it and saves it, it's likely they wanted to.

2. On the size increase question, this part actually has a lot of clumsy code. Ideally, I'd like to make it flow on a per-percent basis but there are issues with that thanks to some really ugly code in the back-end that I don't want to touch at the moment. Instead what I can do is try and make the increments at 5% - I'll test it out and see how that works

3. On the lock part, let's discuss this a bit so I do it correctly.
3.a: What are the screens you think will benefit from a 'unlock with password' mode? Would montage be top priority?
3.b: Let's suppose you have lock enabled, the user exits the app and starts it again. I assume it should go back to that same screen with lock mode enabled. What would happen if the user forgot the password?
3.c: If you tap a montage it goes to the live view stream for that monitor. That has controls enabled - should that be allowed?

I'm trying to find the simplest path to a logical UI that works for all use-cases

[alfvicente]

1. If you do this, then you should implement by design something that I've already filed as a bug: if you go to ZM and add a monitor, the default view has to show it too, but this "default profile" should be the only one with this behavior. The others should show only the selected ones.

My point on making it static is that the user will always have a fallback option. Maybe too much profiles and can't find that one monitor that he is looking for, or the ZM server admin added a monitor and didn't told the user yet, I don't know.

2. I know the feeling of ugly coding, I can't even take a look on something I've made 5 years ago (I do PHP, I don't think I can help you with this project if you're wondering) 5% increments would be awesome!

3: The general idea is that a basic user or an unauthorized one shouldn't be able to view or change the software configuration, but still can access to the rest of the functionalities.
3.a: I think that the only things that need to be locked are the menus System Status, Settings, Developer Settings, Wizard and Logs. I don't think Montage shoud be locked entirely, just the Delete Profile option, but it would be not needed if you plan to add the "default profile" (it would fallback to this one if all presets are deleted)
3.b: If its a basic user, then he will come back and access monitors, events and so on as usual, but he will not be able to see or change settings, only with the administrator password. If it's an administrator and forgot the password, then he should delete the software database and reinstall It shouldn't be that hard for an administrator, if he did the setup once.
3.c: I think it will become a large headache for you if you want to be detailed on what a user can and cannot use. You will have to create a table of users and permissions.

But hey, here's another idea (sorry): Does ZoneMinder's API tells you what are the current user's permissions? maybe you could use this to allow or deny certain parts of zmNinja: If ZM allows monitors, you allow too. If ZM denies System settings config, you deny it too (along with Developer Settings, Wizard, etc.).

So, the whole point 3 would be an integration of zmNinja with ZM users permissions. What do you think?

*EDIT: After thinking a while this last bit, you have to be very carefull because it could become a trap. If a ZM basic user (without admin permissions) configure and login zmNinja, on the next reboot he will have the settings access forbidden. I think the best and easy thing to do is just the first idea of an administrator password.

[asker]

Okay, thanks. Good input.
Let me mull about this for a while - I will then open a github issue for this and lets take it further, if there is more discussion needed.

I generally like to migrate to github once I decide to implement a feature as it benefits from more visibility (and maybe participation), so if you are ok with it, I'll tag you for the new feature and comment about my initial thoughts about the implementation on github (my focus will be to keep it simple, to start with)

[alfvicente]

Thank you, I've just seen the Issue in GitHub, very well thought!

[kevinstephen]

Thanks, me too! Been looking into it and no progress because of lack of knowledge.
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