How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

General support questions and discussions.

How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby Balad99 » Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:23 pm

I have built and been using your mydooropener since I think it came out. And I absolutely love the app.
I do have a question, if you could please help me with it a bit. - I have a webcam in my garage and it is accessible on my iPhone by a simple URL. I have entered this same URL into the "Surveillence Camera" field of your app but how is it suppose to work ? - Is it suppose to show a live video feed in the window where the Door's Photo is shown on the main page ?

I have tried all different combinations but never get a cam view anyplace on the screen. I have even tried putting a URL for a public webcam into this field but nothing happens. Even tried various refresh settings. - same result, just shows me the Photo I have selected for the Door. (Tried removing the photo too)

Can you please guide me how to use this feature since I could not find any documentation on it.

Much thanks,
Balad99
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:19 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby support » Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:40 am

Hi,

To use the web camera feature, you need to provide a URL to a static JPG/PNG
file that your camera will update at regular intervals. Typically, most cameras have
a built-in feature that will publish such files. You'd configure the iPhone app
to re-fetch the image roughly at the same frequency the webcam republishes
its static image file.

Following are some examples of internet accessible webcams that do provide
such static image feeds:

http://www.world-webcams.net/webcams-type,1,1,united-states-of-america.html

You have to be careful and use the actual PNG/JPG file URL and not some URL to
an HTML page that contains the image. Access your webcam's HTML page using your
web browser and right click/properties on the actual image to obtain its URL. Don't
be fooled as sometimes that URL will not contain a .PNG or .JPG extension. It can
be some sort of servlet or CGI URL, for as long as that URL's output is an image file.

That URL must be accessible without authentication. If it does require authentication, it
must provide a way for the credentials to be passed along on the URL itself so that you'd
include them in the iPhone app configuration. Typically, the convention for including
username and password information in a URL is as follows:

http[s]://username:password@www.hostname.com/

Typically, you will see the web camera provided image in the application's two main
views (cover flow and list). The camera provided image will replace the static opened/closed
configuration provided image for that device. If an image is not available at the given URL,
you will have the static opened/closed configured image instead. You can/should leave
the static opened/closed configuration images for each device even when using the web
camera feature as those images will be displayed as thumbnail when looking at the devices
list from the configuration screen. It also serves as a fallback in the event your web camera
can't be reached.

The guidelines above apply to any version of MyDoorOpener that has the web camera
feature, up until today. In the future, we might support live video feeds if that feature
comes highly in demand and if the effort to implement remains reasonable and is
standard enough across most web cameras available on the market.

Hope these additional information help,
support
Site Admin
 
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:30 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby Balad99 » Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:58 am

Thank you! This was precisely the info I was looking for.
And to your other point, Count my vote a 100 times for getting the live feed option. That would take this app to its highest dimension (not that it is any less now).
Balad99
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:19 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby Balad99 » Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:38 pm

support wrote:Hi,

To use the web camera feature, you need to provide a URL to a static JPG/PNG
file that your camera will update at regular intervals. Typically, most cameras have
a built-in feature that will publish such files. You'd configure the iPhone app
to re-fetch the image roughly at the same frequency the webcam republishes
its static image file.

Following are some examples of internet accessible webcams that do provide
such static image feeds:

http://www.world-webcams.net/webcams-type,1,1,united-states-of-america.html

You have to be careful and use the actual PNG/JPG file URL and not some URL to
an HTML page that contains the image. Access your webcam's HTML page using your
web browser and right click/properties on the actual image to obtain its URL. Don't
be fooled as sometimes that URL will not contain a .PNG or .JPG extension. It can
be some sort of servlet or CGI URL, for as long as that URL's output is an image file.

That URL must be accessible without authentication. If it does require authentication, it
must provide a way for the credentials to be passed along on the URL itself so that you'd
include them in the iPhone app configuration. Typically, the convention for including
username and password information in a URL is as follows:

http[s]://username:password@www.hostname.com/

Typically, you will see the web camera provided image in the application's two main
views (cover flow and list). The camera provided image will replace the static opened/closed
configuration provided image for that device. If an image is not available at the given URL,
you will have the static opened/closed configured image instead. You can/should leave
the static opened/closed configuration images for each device even when using the web
camera feature as those images will be displayed as thumbnail when looking at the devices
list from the configuration screen. It also serves as a fallback in the event your web camera
can't be reached.

The guidelines above apply to any version of MyDoorOpener that has the web camera
feature, up until today. In the future, we might support live video feeds if that feature
comes highly in demand and if the effort to implement remains reasonable and is
standard enough across most web cameras available on the market.

Hope these additional information help,


Thanks - Followed these steps and was able to get it working perfectly !

But I do notice a little glitch in the app and wanted to bring it out here so that it could be addressed in your future updates.
The refresh rate setting in this camera URL setting field directly controls the time that the Toggle/Open/Close button remains visible on the main screen. If this setting is set to refresh every second then the Open/Close button disappears from the main app screen almost instantly and very hard to grab in time to click on it. A larger setting on his refresh rate leaves it on the screen for a longer time.
Maybe the frame which hold the Picture and the button needs to be split to hold the button separately so that the refresh rates do not affect it.

EDIT: The issue reported above (Toggle/Open/Close button being cleared during a web camera refresh cycle) has been resolved as of the v3.1 release.

Thanks
Balad99
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:19 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby support » Sat Sep 28, 2013 12:26 am

Balad99,

Thanks for your feedback. That issue you reported with the button getting removed whenever the
camera refreshes has been logged on our list of things to do ... Although, having that refresh every
second is somewhat of a bandwidth killer. ;-)

As for a live video feed feature, we'll see ... The major issue with that, is to have a format that's standard
across most web cameras out there. We'll see what's on our backlog for the next release and prioritize
accordingly.

Thanks again for the feedback,
support
Site Admin
 
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:30 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby TheActiveMind » Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:34 am

Since were on the topic of Web Cams and how to set them up to work with myDoorOpener 3.0 can you recommend any webcams that work well and don't cost a lot, ie under a $100?
TheActiveMind
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:30 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby support » Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:51 pm

Hi,

We can't personally recommend any particular model as we have an old D-Link DCS-5220 web camera that's
been discontinued for a while now, although it does work like a champ ...

Maybe someone else would have something to recommend that's more actual ?

Whatever you do, I suggest you buy it from a large surface store (Best Buy, Future Shop, etc) that has easy
and no hassle return policies. That way, if it doesn't work as you thought it would, you can easily return it.

Best regards,
support
Site Admin
 
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:30 pm

Re: How to use the Web camera feature in myDoorOpener 3.0

Postby slangley » Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:54 am

So far I've had good experiences with the TrendNet cameras. They'll accept auth through the URL and give a straight JPEG image.

The TP-IP110/110N both work fine. I haven't tested any of their cloud models.
slangley
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:37 am


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