Desktop controller

This is a tiny client-server app written in express and angular to remote control a destkop computer. It allows control the computer volume and power it off. Nevertheless it can be easily customized to add any desired feature.

I have developed and tested it on a Linux desktop computer but it should work also in OS X. For Windows users volume control will not work as it is based on (node-loudness)[https://github.com/LinusU/node-loudness] package.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

You must have node.js and its package manager (npm) installed. You can get them from http://nodejs.org/.

Set up

Install Dependencies

There are two kinds of dependencies in this project: server and frontend code.

tools via npm, the [node package manager][npm].
frontend dependencies via bower, a [client-side code package manager][bower].

npm is preconfigured to automatically run bower so you can simply do:

npm install

Behind the scenes this will also call bower install. You should find that you have two new folders in your project.

node_modules - contains the npm packages for the tools we need
app/public/bower_components - contains the frontend dependencies

Note that the bower_components folder would normally be installed in the root folder but this project changes this location through the .bowerrc file. Putting it in the public folder allows express to serve the files.

You can optionally generate app icons by doing:

grunt appIcons

Starting the app

You can start the application by simply doing:

node bin/www

Now the app should be reachable from a browser by accessing to http://<your_ip>:4242/

Starting the app as a service

You can use pm2 to have the controller running as a service. To do so start by installing pm2 globally:

npm install pm2 -g

The start the application via pm2:

pm2 start bin/www

Save the process list:

pm2 save

And finally you can set pm2 to autostart with the computer by running the above command and following the instructions:

pm2 startup

Directory Layout

app/                    --> all of the source files for the application
    public/             --> all frontend files
        assets/app.css  --> stylesheet
        src/            --> all frontend javascript files
    routes/             --> express routes
    views/              --> express views in ejs
    app.js              --> express base app
bin/
    www                 --> startup script

Updating

You can update the tool dependencies by running:

npm update

This will find the latest versions that match the version ranges specified in the package.json file.

You can update the frontend dependencies by running:

bower update

This will find the latest versions that match the version ranges specified in the bower.json file.

atanarro / desktopcontroller