Shinobi/DEVELOPMENT.md

Shinobi Developer Guide

Thanks to @Kagetsuki for taking the time to write this!

General Devlopment Outline

Shinobi [currently] runs directly out of the repository rather than from a package you install. A full Shinobi install will try to embed itself into the system, so ideally a machine running Shinobi would only be running Shinobi; but when developing Shinobi that would be fairly inconvenient. This guide is going to outline a development process where Shinobi will be fairly contained, and development won't have any wide reaching effects on the system or generally require any sort of super user access.

Prerequisites

To get all of Shinobi at once you can use the Ninja Way. Learn more about that here https://shinobi.video/docs/start#content-the-ninja-way

• Node.js : You'll need Node and NPM, and for this guide we recommend you set up a user-local install of NVM and install the latest LTS release. Keeping the Node installation managed and separate from the system Node/NPM will help keep things clean and contained. Node.js version must be at least version 8.11. Use Node.js 9 to be ready for future development.

• MariaDB/MySQL or SQLite3 : You'll also need either MariaDB/MySQL or SQLite (version 3) or both. SQLite will be esepcially easy to develop with as clearing the DB is as simple as deleting a file and you can keep the DB instance you're working with by copying it. It is recommended to use at least version 15.1.

• FFmpeg : You'll also need FFmpeg. This is the video processing engine at the core of Shinobi. You will need at least version 3.3.3.

Development

First off you need to clone the Shinobi repository. Either the regular Shinobi repository or the CE repository should work, but the regular will likely have more updates (but has a different license). If you're specifically concerned about OSS then just clone the CE edition, but if you're more concerned about fixing an issue or adding a feature then go for the regular repository. Be sure to work on a fork of the repository if you intend to submit a patch/merge request.

Obtaining the repository

To clone Shinobi:

git clone https://gitlab.com/Shinobi-Systems/Shinobi.git

or to clone Shinobi CE:

git clone https://gitlab.com/Shinobi-Systems/ShinobiCE.git

Then cd into either the "Shinobi" or "ShinobiCE" directory.

Grabbing packages

To install the required Node packages you need to install them with NPM:

npm install

If the install fails you may need to install additional packages on your system or you may need to change how you installed Node/NPM or change your installation method.

Setting your cloned repository for quick development

First we need a base conf.json to modify. Shinobi doesn't have a conf.json by default as adding it to the repository would end up conflicting or altering the configuration on running instances of Shinobi whenever someone updated.

cp conf.sample.json conf.json

Generally for development SQLite is going to be easier with SQLite, as we don't have to maintain a MariaDB/MySQL installation and we may need to reset the database often. To set the DB to SQLite:

node tools/modifyConfiguration.js databaseType=sqlite

You can confirm this worked by checking conf.json for the following line

near the end of the file

"databaseType": "sqlite"

Currently Shinobi doesn't use a model framework or seeding system, so setting up the database basically involves copying the pre-set instance bundled with the repository:

cp sql/shinobi.sample.sqlite shinobi.sqlite

Resetting the DB

If you need to reset the database, you can now do so by deleting the shiobi.sqlite file and copying the sql/shinobi.sample.sqlite file again. Just be sure to stop any running Shinobi instances before you do so.

Enabling the Super User Interface

In order to access the "Super User Interface", where we'll create our initial users, we need to copy the super.sample.json file to super.json:

cp super.sample.json super.json

And that's it! As long as that file exists we can access the Super User Interface. The default login information is user: 'admin@shinobi.video' password: 'admin'. This can of course be changed; but for development we advise leaving it as the default.

Running Shinobi

Shinobi is usually run with the PM2 process manager, but for development we'll run the "camera" and "cron" processes directy. To monitor output, we recommend you use a terminal multiplexer like byobu, tmux, or screen. In one terminal window, run node cron.js and in another run node camera.js. Shinobi should now be running on port 8080 on your local machine (you can change the port in conf.json) and accessable at http://localhost:8080 in your browser. Any source code changes you make will require restarting either the camera or cron process [or both].