Avatar

Small utility providing user avatar pics in various sizes with good caching.

Setup

install node.js and npm
go to project folder and run npm install
.bin/avatar <port> (starts the server, port is optional)

Note: installation can be a bit tricky, since the required lib (node-canvas) depends on a lib call "cairo", which must be installed properly on the system. (See: https://github.com/LearnBoost/node-canvas#installation)

Usage

Query params:

t - user name or email of the user
h - hash to identify the user (optional, if not set t is used)
u - url of possible user pic (optional)
c - force a color (optional)
s - preferred size of pic (optional, default is 150)

Caching

max-age is set to 7 days
etag is the current date

Production

endpoint: http://getcatchapp.com:8888/ cloudfront: http://d35va0jwnexy3a.cloudfront.net on: web.hojoki.com folder: /var/avatar user: bitbucket

Start/Stop Avatar Service

Avatarservice is located at our Webserver (web.hojoki.com). Use the Startscript at:

/opt/hojoki/deploy/trunk/script/webserver/startAvatar.sh

It takes the Parameters start [num], stop and status [num].

start [num]: Starts num instances of avatar and installs iptables Rules to balance RR between them. Default num is 6
stop: Stops all Avatar Processes and deletes RR iptable Rules
status [num]: Checks if the number of Avatarsevices and iptables Rules matches num. On success it will do nothing; on failure it will restart all Avatarservices. Default num is 6

Timm has a cronjob running, which auto restarts the avatar process on the server using the status option.

boehr / avatar