SecurityCam.js

Provides a Node.js ReST service to start capturing IP cameras for a certain amount of time. Designed to be used in a domotics system with motion sensors (for example, Domoticz). Supports streaming video and server-pushed MJPEG over HTTP, as well as any stream FFmpeg can handle (tested with H.264 over RTSP for example). Also supports timed HTTP calls before, during and after capturing to, for example, control the camera's PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom).

Implemented as a service instead of an on-demand script to minimize delays when running on a Raspberry Pi.

URL's

Path	Description
/	Outputs a bit of status information in JSON format.
/capture	Starts capturing all cameras as defined in config.js.
/capture/group/id	Starts capturing all cameras in the specified group as defined in config.js.
/capture/id	Starts capturing the camera with the specified id as defined in config.js.

Installing

Make sure you have a recent version of Node.js installed. Get the source, put it in a convenient location and run npm update in the directory where you just put the source. Make sure you have a config.js (see the Configuration section for more information) and run using node index.js to give it a test run.

Navigate to http://localhost:5705/ in your browser (assuming you did not modify the port number) to show the status output.

Installing as a service

You can use tools like forever which provide excellent recovery options. Alternatively, if your system supports systemd (like Raspbian) you can create a file /etc/systemd/system/securitycam.service with the following content (correct the paths and user if necessary):

[Unit]
Description=SecurityCam server

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node /srv/securitycam/index.js
WorkingDirectory=/srv/securitycam
Restart=always
RestartSec=10                       # Restart service after 10 seconds if node service crashes
StandardOutput=syslog               # Output to syslog
StandardError=syslog                # Output to syslog
SyslogIdentifier=securitycam
User=pi

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable and start the server:

systemctl enable securitycam.service
systemctl start securitycam.service

Messages will be logged to syslog with the identifier as specified in the service file.

Configuration

Create a file called config.js or rename the sample file. Refer to config.sample.js for the syntax.

Changes to the configuration file will automatically be reloaded. If an error occurred it will be logged (to either the console when running manually, or syslog when running as a systemd service).

Basic

Name	Description
port	The port on which the HTTP server will run. Default is 5705.
cams	An object where each property defines a camera. The property name is the camId, the property value an object with the options for that camera.

Camera

Name	Description
processor	The processor plugin to use. This corresponds to a 'processor-*.js' file. For example, 'ffmpeg', 'http-mjpegsplit' or 'http-raw'.
options	Options depending on the processor plugin used. Refer to the specific processor configuration below.
before	An array of commands to run before starting the capture. Refer to the Commands section below.
during	An array of commands to run when capture has started. Waits for the first response from the camera before running.
after	An array of commands to run after the capture. Will wait for 'during' commands to finish.

Processor - Variables

When specifying a filename you can use date / time specifiers and variables. The filename will be processed by the format() function of the moment library. This means that text like 'YYYY' will be replaced by the current year. Any literal text you do not want to have replaced should be enclosed in square brackets.

All outputs support the <camId> variable which will be replaced with the camera's property name as specified in the config. Any extra supported variables are listed under the output's section below.

An example: '[/srv/www/publiccam/]YYYY-MM-DD HH.mm.ss[/<camId>.avi]'

If multiple cameras are captured at the same time, the date and time used in the filename will be the same for each, regardless of when the camera actually starts streaming. This ensures you can group these files together.

Processor - 'http-raw'

The simplest of outputs; reads from an HTTP stream and writes all data it receives from the URL to a file without further processing.

Option	Description
url	The URL to the video stream. At the moment it is assumed to be an endless stream, snapshots are not polled and will result in capturing only a single frame.
filename	The filename where the raw output will be written to. If the file exists it will be overwritten.
time	How long this camera will be captured, in milliseconds.

Processor - 'http-mjpegsplit'

Processes an MJPEG HTTP stream and outputs individual JPEG files.

Option	Description
url	The URL to the video stream. At the moment it is assumed to be an endless stream, snapshots are not polled and will result in capturing only a single frame.
filename	The filename for each JPEG. Be sure to include the <frame> variable to get unique filenames!
time	How long this camera will be captured, in milliseconds.

Variable	Description
frame	The frame number in the current capture. Starts at 1.

Processor - 'http-ffmpeg'

Uses ffmpeg to transcode the input HTTP stream into another output format. Requires ffmpeg to be installed as described in node-fluent-ffmpeg's readme under Prerequisites.

Option	Description
url	The URL to the video stream. At the moment it is assumed to be an endless stream, snapshots are not polled and will result in capturing only a single frame.
filename	The filename where the encoded output will be written to. If the file exists it will be overwritten.
time	How long this camera will be captured, in milliseconds. Note: since FFmpeg uses seconds for the timeout, this value will be rounded up towards the nearest whole second.
inputFormat	The input format, for example 'mjpeg'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -formats' and look for formats with the 'D' column.
outputFormat	The output format, for example 'avi'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -formats' and look for formats with the 'E' column.
videoCodec	The output video codec, for example 'libx264'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -codecs' and look for formats with the 'V' column. For some codecs (like x264) you need to specify the encoder instead of the codec identifier, which are listed after the description as '(encoders: ...)'.

Processor - 'ffmpeg'

Uses ffmpeg to transcode the input stream into another output format. Requires ffmpeg to be installed as described in node-fluent-ffmpeg's readme under Prerequisites.

Similar to 'http-ffmpeg', with subtle differences:

• Upside: the input option is passed directly to FFmpeg, which means it supports non-HTTP sources (RTSP for example)
• Downside: 'during' commands are executed immediately instead of waiting for the stream to start up

Option	Description
input	The source of the video stream, passed directly to FFmpeg.
filename	The filename where the encoded output will be written to. If the file exists it will be overwritten.
time	How long this camera will be captured, in milliseconds. Note: since FFmpeg uses seconds for the timeout, this value will be rounded up towards the nearest whole second.
inputFormat	The input format, for example 'mjpeg'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -formats' and look for formats with the 'D' column.
outputFormat	The output format, for example 'avi'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -formats' and look for formats with the 'E' column.
videoCodec	The output video codec, for example 'libx264'. For the full list, run 'ffmpeg -codecs' and look for formats with the 'V' column. For some codecs (like x264) you need to specify the encoder instead of the codec identifier, which are listed after the description as '(encoders: ...)'.

Commands

Each command will be executed in order and consists of an 'url' and a 'wait' time after. Both are optional.

Example usage: rotate the camera to a preset location when starting, go to further presets while it is capturing and return back to the first location afterwards.

before:
[
	{
		url: foscam.gotoPreset('10.138.1.10', 2, 'viewer', 'verysecure'),
	}
],

after:
[
	{
		url: foscam.gotoPreset('10.138.1.10', 1, 'viewer', 'verysecure'),
	}
],

during:
[
	{
		wait: 5000
	},
	{
		url: foscam.gotoPreset('10.138.1.10', 3, 'viewer', 'verysecure'),
		wait: 5000
	},
	{
		url: foscam.gotoPreset('10.138.1.10', 4, 'viewer', 'verysecure')
	}
]