README.md

README

PiShow is a simple Python application to display content using a Raspberry Pi.

What is PiShow?

PiShow listens to a specified Dropbox folder and displays images uploaded there on the connected monitor.

Requirements

Python 2.x
Dropbox python module
feh

How do I get set up?

1. Create a Dropbox account and add a folder that will contain uploaded images.
2. In the pishow/ directory create a file named app_key.txt with the first line being the app key, the second being the app_secret.
3. Create a local directory on the Pi for the images (probably in pishow/).
4. Create a text file named config.txt and upload it to that Dropbox folder in step 2. (See Configuration below).
5. If this is your first time running the program you will need to authenticate. Use the included auth.sh.sample or simply run python -u pishow.py auth.
6. Run the program like so: python pishow.py <local_directory> <remote_directory> (e.x.: python pishow.py Images Photos/PiImages)
7. Done!

NOTE: You will most likely want to run the program in some sort of run script to have it shutdown gracefully. Two sample bash scripts are included as start.sh.sample and stop.sh.sample. Simply copy the file to exec.sh and edit the appropriate directories in the file.

Configuration

Configuration is done using the file 'config.txt' that resides with the images in your Dropbox folder. Each line of the configuration file can specify a variable followed by a space and then the value. The variables are as follows (value types are in <>):
delay<integer> The amount of time that elapses before transitioning images.
update_interval<integer> The amount of time that elapses before pishow checks for new files/config.