Send Pushover notifications with pictures and hyperlinks

[jaydeel]

This is the first time I've experimented with saving JPEGs from the 'Record' tab, so I'm still trying to learn.

Did I really need hi-rez alert thumbnails and hi-rez images from the record tab on every camera.

My experiments so far seem to suggest that one can:
1. eliminate the thumbnails by simply unchecking "Include JPEGs on 'All clips' and timeline" on the camera 'Record' tab.
2. eliminate the excessive hi-res JPEGs by using JPEG 'When triggered' (or 'When alerted') and a snapshot interval > the trigger break time. So instead of each m:ss.s = 0:01.0, use something like 10:00.0. When I do this I get just 1 hi-res image (the trigger leading image, or alert image) instead of dozens of images!

Item 2 is based on this excerpt from the help pdf...

One last comment... though not related to the JPEGs from the 'Record' tab, one can also limit the number of hi-res ALERT images by setting the size ALERTS folder to its lowest size of 1GB on the 'Clips and archive' tab. In my case this limits the number of hi-res jpg files to ~10,000 (1GB/(100KBfile)).

 

[wittaj]

I think you missed my sarcasm and rhetorical question lol - Did I really need hi-rez alert thumbnails and hi-rez images from the record tab on every camera - the answer is no - hi rez photos for a truly postage stamp size alert image at the bottom on the timeline or the alerts to the left is serious overkill. And if you are saving hi rez there, then why save them in Records also?

I did at first thinking it would be good to have that history of every picture of every plate that passed. But I'm not going to go thru those images to try to find a car that passed by 2 years ago LOL.

I have over 500,000 images taking up 70GB of memory that I will never go thru if I need to find something LOL. Eventually I will delete them lol.

And that was from getting just one hi-rez event from the Record tab per trigger. I wasn't getting multiple images per trigger.

The issue I am trying to explain is that I want thumbnail alerts for as long as I have video. They don't need to be high rez, but enough that when I am scrolling through I can see the car or whatever in the thumbnail without having to play the video.

Depending on the amount of storage you have and the number of cameras and motion, etc. setting the alerts to 1GB and having it delete out means that in my case I have video further back without thumbnail images. Pain to scrub something through that far back.

LPR on a busy street with two cams can consume 10,000 images very quickly - days to less than a week. So if I wanted to scroll thru and look at cars from last week, if BI blows out the alerts, then I am stuck with having to watch the video.

So my solution has been to not store any images in the Alerts folder so that I will have thumbnails in the timeline and alerts for as long as I have video.

My solution was to use the Record tab to save the LPR photos that get sent to Plate Recognizer and then have BI delete them out so that I don't fill my drives with images, yet this allows the alert thumbnails to say around until the video itself is overwritten.

If I used the save hi-rez images in the alerts, then as soon as those are deleted, then so are the thumbnails in the timeline.

 

[jaydeel]

Ahhhh. Thanks much for the use case explanation. It helps a lot. I like the idea of not storing images in the Alerts folder to avoid losing thumbnails... If feels like I'm still learning the Lego pieces of recording; and you've already built the damn Death Star. Lol.

I did email Ken today regarding possible solutions for using Record tab images.

 

[jrbeddow]

Ahhhh. Thanks much for the use case explanation. It helps a lot. I like the idea of not storing images in the Alerts folder to avoid losing thumbnails... If feels like I'm still learning the Lego pieces of recording; and you've already built the damn Death Star. Lol.

I did email Ken today regarding possible solutions for using Record tab images.

Yikes @jaydeel, if you feel like you are working on the Lego piece set compared to @wittaj and his Death Star, I'm not sure where that leaves me...wood blocks, sand, or just a pile of rocks? I have to say that there are perhaps a few too many configurable options related to image storage and rotation, which makes it rather unintuitive overall. My system is still in the planning and bench testing phase, so I haven't yet seen the effects of filling and purging the images that are going to the Alerts folder. I didn't expect this to be simple, but sometimes I wonder if it has to be this hard.

 

[wittaj]

LOL on the Death Star, Legos, and sand.

Keep in mind that BI is an incredible program with a ton of customization possibilities. Many can get by with using it as a simple recording and alert tool.

Others, like myself, try to get as much out of it as I can, but I have only scratched the surface of all the possibilities that BI has to offer.

Most will just accept the push notifications with no image when away from home or text messages that may come in hours later.

This thread, we are trying to get the most out of the Pushover app to give us the most timely and highest quality image/video possible.

If you are content with the alert image that comes from using the generic pushover email as a push, then all is good and no need to go further LOL.

But with this thread, we are trying to leverage the power of the API to give us a better image that is hopefully more consistent and quicker than going thru the pushover email.

While the API in this thread works wonderfully, I am bringing up my concern that some of us may face as a result of hi-rez images going to the alerts folder. For those not running LPR or do not have a lot of motion and alerts, it might not be an issue for them and it is ok if they get 5-10 alert images in their alerts folder per day.

So now we are trying to find a solution for those that want to keep alert thumbnails for the duration of how long they have video, but would prefer to not fill their system up with lots of hi-rez alert images.

The leading solutions are to figure out how to do that from the Record tab or have the ability to get the alert thumbnail image for the API like the pushover email option is capable of doing.

And we may come up with yet a different solution as well LOL.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I don't mind high res images in the Alerts folder as long as they don't result in a database that gets too big. As far as their actual resolution, when viewed on a typical smartphone they look pretty good and detailed simply because of the greatly reduced screen/viewing area. Yes, if you zoom in they can get mushy but I see them as a quick way to see what's going on, not a method of identifying someone positively or reading a license plate. I guess it's a matter of what's actually practical versus wanting the best possible resolution for a still image. If I see something in a Pushover notification I really want to look at, I use either the BI app or UI3 to view the real recording or, if I'm close to the BI machine, on the console.

 

[jrbeddow]

Yes, I didn't mean to come across as genuinely complaining about how flexible and configurable Blue Iris is: far from it, it is one of the reasons I want to use it. That being said, sometimes the depth of the potential issues surrounding choices we make within it (as evidenced here with high-res Alert images vs. Record tab images) are nuanced and subtle, with consequences only apparent much later.
I will continue to follow this as an interested party and try to refrain from commenting unless I can genuinely add insights.

 

[wittaj]

Yes, I didn't mean to come across as genuinely complaining about how flexible and configurable Blue Iris is: far from it, it is one of the reasons I want to use it. That being said, sometimes the depth of the potential issues surrounding choices we make within it (as evidenced here with high-res Alert images vs. Record tab images) are nuanced and subtle, with consequences only apparent much later.
I will continue to follow this as an interested party and try to refrain from commenting unless I can genuinely add insights.

I didn't take it as you complaining, I simply wanted others that may come to this thread to understand what we are talking about and the issues with doing it one way versus another. For some it won't be a problem with the images in the alerts folder, but for others it will be.

Your comments here have been great, so please continue to do so. Blue Iris has so much functionality and you will certainly stumble across something that we haven't seen or forgot about or show a different way to do something differently than we have done it and is a better way.

There are lots of things that us that have been here awhile have done a certain way and the newer folks that come to the forum that start out with a different version than we did will certainly have a different way to go about things.

A great example of this was prior to version 5.5, many of us used the hidden cameras option, so when 5.5 came out, many here (including me) hated the new Layout edit mode when it was first introduced. It seemed counter-intuitive.

I had an issue recently that I contributed to using BI for so long and updating and rolling back, repeat process, that I blew BI out and started over from scratch.

In doing so, I now had the ability to set up the system more in accordance with the newest update. Hidden cameras are messy and most of the time we forgot we had them.

The original reason most of us used hidden cameras was to not show cameras on remote devices. With the new Layout editor, groups are associated to layouts. So, now you can create groups/layouts for every device and or different events. For example, you can have a console group and mobile app group. Each group has it's own set of cameras.

Now that it is set up that way and I can just toggle groups, I love the new layout edit mode.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Yes, I didn't mean to come across as genuinely complaining about how flexible and configurable Blue Iris is: far from it, it is one of the reasons I want to use it. That being said, sometimes the depth of the potential issues surrounding choices we make within it (as evidenced here with high-res Alert images vs. Record tab images) are nuanced and subtle, with consequences only apparent much later.
I will continue to follow this as an interested party and try to refrain from commenting unless I can genuinely add insights.

I'm glad you did join in on this thread. Your discovery of the space in Blue Iris was the reason my setup was not working. As @wittaj alludes to, in a thread like this, it's important to have as many people as possible asking questions and discussing why certain little details do what they do. So thank you, and thanks to @jaydeel for starting the thread and following through with the troubleshooting.

 

[jaydeel]

Teaser... I've found a solution for sending Record tab images in Pushover notifications.
Stay tuned ...

 

[wittaj]

SWEET

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'm just glad there's "copy and paste"!

 

[jaydeel]

OK, here we go...
A solution for sending Record tab images in Pushover notifications

First, let me say that is 'A' solution. It may not be ideal for you.

I've given up trying to use any macros other the &CAM in the JPEG file pattern in the 'Record' tab. Until Ken changes things, they either do not expand at all, or they are assigned their values too late.
So I'm using :
1. JPEG condition 'When alerted'
2. JPEG file template '&CAM'.
3. "JPEGs on 'All clips' & timeline" unchecked (because all snapshots have the same name, only the latest one in the clip list will point the the current image)
Any or all of these may be why this solution is not ideal for your use case.
4. A Blue Iris 'Aux' folder renamed as 'Snapshots'.

On the 'Alert' tab 'On alert...' action set I am using the following two actions.
Both use the same entry in the 'Parameter' field.

https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json -s --form-string "token=%996" --form-string  "user=%997" --form-string "message=RecTab: <b>&CAM</b> &MEMO <a href='&WAN/ui3.htm?rec=&ALERT_DB'>UI3</a>" --form-string "html=1" -F "attachment=@D:\Blue Iris\Snapshots\&CAM.jpg"

TIP: I'm using numbered macros %996 and %997 to store my pushover credentials. I've provided more info at the end of this post..

Action #1

The reason for the 2nd action is for debugging. It creates a text file with the fully expanded API command that you can review after an alert. This can be most handy if you are not getting a notification - must often due to a typo in the attachment string.
A few comments about the 'File' field entry:
1. It cannot use macros (like &CAM), so you need to actually type in the camera's shortname.
2. For convenience, I've placed it same folder as the 'Record' tab snapshots.

Action #2

If everything works correctly, the entries in the 'Record' tab snapshots folder should look something like the following...

And you should see a notification like the image below. I added the text 'RecTab' note as a reminder of the image's origin..
Touching the image opens the full-res jpg. Touching the link streams the alert in UI3.

~~~~~
How to store your pushover credentials in Blue Iris numbered macros.
1. Execute these commands from your browser (you must use this method to create numbered macros higher than %10). Replace my webserver address with yours.

http://192.168.1.3:8600/admin?macro=996&text=

http://192.168.1.3:8600/admin?macro=997&text=

2. Open 'regedit.exe'.
3. Navigate to registry key Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris\Macros.
4. Double-click reg key %996 and paste in your pushover 'token'.
4. Double-click reg key %997 and paste in your pushover 'user'.

Comments:
1. Why do this? If you ever need to change your API credentials, storing them in macros is far easier that editing all the Blue Iris actions that use them. It also reduces the string length of the API command, which may be limited by some APIs.
2. Of course you can use any macro numbers you want. I like high ones for constants, and I reserve lower numbers for my dynamic macros.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I like the macro idea for the Pushover credentials, although copy and paste works too.

I'm doing something a little different. I do not use jpgs from the Record tab but do generate them with Immediate Actions in the Trigger tab. I point the curl script to the directory for the camera and it hasn't failed, yet. That also eliminates a large number of jpgs ending up in New and Alerts. I will admit my database has grown from ~120,000 to ~130,000 entries but that seems manageable by BI.

The actual script is triggered using the standard Alerts tab and are verified by DeepStack rather than in the Immediate Actions tab.

 

[jaydeel]

I point the curl script to the directory for the camera and it hasn't failed, yet.

Interesting. Can you provide a little more detail?
1. What is the action in the Immediate tab? A custom script or a Blue Iris command?
2. What is the path for camera directory? User created/managed, or managed by Blue Iris?
3. What does the Alerts tab script do?
Sorry if I'm being dense.

 

[sebastiantombs]

1. There is no action in the Immediate tab at all. The only immediate action is to capture the jpg. I started out, first try, using that and produced too many falses. The light bulb went off in my head and I switched it to Alerts with DS verification.

2. I'll be specific with the path since I'm OCD and keep alerts in sub directories for each camera. It is managed by BI and follows the BI directory structure on a separate drive.
J:\Blue Iris\Alerts\cam name\
I manually set the directory name rather than use "&CAM" for some reason, probably just habit.
New is split over two other drives for 24/7 recording, E: and M:.

3. The Alerts tab fires the curl script when DS verifies the alert, the same way it fires sounds or other actions. Then BI deletes the jpgs as needed for more space for new alerts and jpgs.

Incidentally, I've expanded the use of Pushover onto all of the perimeter cameras, 13 total, and it's working like a charm.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I just took some screen caps for you and copied the curl command, sans login information, to better illustrate what I've done.

curl command -

https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json

-s --form-string "token=redacted" --form-string "user=redacted" --form-string "message=<b>&CAM</b> &MEMO" --form-string "html=1" --form-string "device=Driveway North" --form-string "sound=C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5\sounds\not-kiddin.wav" --form-string "url_title=Stream Alert via UI3" --form-string "url=&LAN/ui3.htm?rec=&ALERT_DB&maximize=1" -F "attachment=@J:\Blue Iris\Alerts\DWN_A\&ALERT_PATH"

 

[wittaj]

WOW - I will give this a try. The macro idea is pretty cool.

I guess the other question we haven't been able to answer is how is the generic pushover email able to get the alert thumbnail from the video, but the API cannot?

 

[jaydeel]

I just took some screen caps for you and copied the curl command, sans login information, to better illustrate what I've done.

Thanks. Much clearer. I'm using pretty much the same configuration except for the subfolders and the following.
Using the 'Record' tab JPEGs was an experiment.

I get the marked-up JPEGs in the Alerts folder even if I've I've set the 'Trigger' tab 'Add to alerts' list to 'Database only'.
This is despite the following statement in the help pdf.
I recall that Ken was going back & forth on this when he first introduced this feature.

I can delete the markups and it does not result in lost alert list entries after a database compact/repair.

BTW, does your mobile device actually play the Blue Iris sound for the pushover notification?
The way I read the API is that you can specify only its 'built-in' sounds, or custom sounds that you've uploaded to your pushover account dashboard.
see Pushover Updates - Custom sounds

 

[jaydeel]

I guess the other question we haven't been able to answer is how is the generic pushover email able to get the alert thumbnail from the video, but the API cannot?

This has never dawned on me b/c I've never used the pushover email.
Now I'm curious too. I'll look over the API again.

EDIT: On the email action have you unchecked all the attach checkboxes?