A few months back, I shared about the client-side countdown clock script that I created for our team to use. It worked pretty well for its purposes, using Dropbox as the platform to share and update data between the computer creating the clocks and the computer viewing the clocks. The initial goal was to create something that required no backend server and would be easy to run on any computer.
It served us well but we quickly outgrew it with the desire to be able to publish clocks in realtime, not simply relying on the viewer client to refresh itself every 15 seconds to look for new data. So, I created a server based solution using Node.js.
I decided I wanted to run this project on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, so I picked up this kit on Amazon. I wanted an easy way to spin up a web server that wasn’t tied to any production machine, and this does a great job.
Dubbed TimeKeeper, this project runs an Express web server within Node and has a REST API, which allows the user to poll for existing data as well as create new entries. As new entries are added, they are sent out to all connected clients in real time using the socket.io library.
Rooms:
Rooms allow you to control and specify which timers appear. This is helpful if you are running clocks in multiple venues or instances, and only want certain timers to appear on certain viewer screens.
Timers:
Timers are the objects that TimeKeeper will count down to, based on the viewer’s current local system time.
Messages:
Messages can be sent and displayed on viewer clients.
After implementing the API, I created a Dashboard custom panel to interact with the server. This serves as the primary interface for our volunteers. Because the panel fetches new data from the server on a recurring schedule, multiple computers can have the panel open and all stay in sync about what timer and message objects are currently being displayed.
We’ve been using this software for a few months now and it’s working great! I intended to write about it sooner, but with a busy work and family life, finding time to write for this blog can be a challenge!
The next version will support trigger actions when clocks hit a specified time or run out. I also plan to integrate with other clock systems to show time left on video playbacks, Planning Center Online, etc., when I have the time!
If this is useful or helpful to you, I’ve made it available on my Github repository.
