Hey there, sorry I didn’t get back to you on your question. I’m glad you found a module that works for you! After the frosty reception I received on my initial post I kinda forgot about it all and figured I wouldn’t get much traction on the module to justify making it more user-friendly. If anyone else needs help, you can use github issues.

@sdetweil
It appears as though the issue arises when the calendar has custom (non-standard) timezones. node-ical parses the file properly however there is no code to digest the parsed VTIMEZONE entries and apply them to referencing events. Looking at this VTIMEZONE entry, it seems rather hack-y so it probably is not worth it to parse. I notice that all of the weird entries are originate from an iPhone.

Here’s an example ical file of an offending text:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 16.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Customized Time Zone
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:16011104T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:16010311T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
CREATED:20210906T061657Z
DTEND;TZID="Customized Time Zone":20210605T110000
DTSTAMP:20210906T061658Z
DTSTART;TZID="Customized Time Zone":20210605T100000
LAST-MODIFIED:20210906T061657Z
PRIORITY:5
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Top secret stuff
TRANSP:OPAQUE
UID:04000000[.....]
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:BUSY
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

@robertybob I currently have it so that it uses the css “cover” attribute which stretches to fill. Is that what you want?

@sdetweil perhaps this is why https://www.npmjs.com/package/fs gets a million downloads a week even though it does nothing. I believe including core modules in package.json presents an unnecessary security risk (i.e., npm path is controlled by an individual). Unless there’s a way to include a package in package.json as a comment?

@sdetweil what’s the purpose of installing core node features as a module? Looking at npm path it says "This is an exact copy of the NodeJS ’path’ module published to the NPM registry. "

Good point on express, I had thought I was just calling the express object but I do use express.static

@sdetweil how would package.json have a listed dependency for fs and path (included in Node) or MagicMirror’s logger? I suppose express is a dependency I could maintain independently, but I rely upon the MM expressInstance.

I remade most of Darick Carpenter’s BackgroundSlideshow because the original was crashing my magic mirror with synchronous file system calls. This one has far fewer options, but has no dependencies and should be easier to implement and use.

Installation

There are no dependencies or node-modules required for this module. To install, run the following commands:

cd ~/MagicMirror/modules/
git clone https://github.com/scottdrichards/MMM-SimpleBGSlideshow

Usage

You can add the following to your main configuration file:

{
    module: 'MMM-SimpleBGSlideshow',
    position: 'fullscreen_below',
    config: {
        imagePaths: ['images/'],
        slideshowSpeed: 15000,
        randomizeImageOrder: false,
    }
}

Configuration

Parameter	Usage	Example
imagePaths	An array of paths for images to be taken from	["images","oldImages"]
slideshowSpeed	Number of milliseconds to show each image	10000
sortImagesBy	Sort the images by name, random, created (file creation, not image date taken), or modified	created
sortImagesDescending	Sort the images in descending order	true
randomizeImageOrder	Randomize the order to show images. Each image will still be shown once per rotation	false
recursiveSubDirectories	Include subdirectories of image paths?	false
validImageFileExtensions	Which image extensions to include. Make sure to only do extensions that the browser can render.	"bmp,jpg,jpeg,gif,png"
brightenText	Brightens the all MagicMirror text for easier viewing	true
gradient	An object that describes the gradient to be applied so that text/modules are easier to read.	see below

Here is how to configure the gradient object

{
  direction: "linear", //vertical, horizontal, radial`
  opacity: 0.75, // 1 is black
  stop1: "40%", // linear first stop, radial start gradient
  stop2: "80%" // linear second start, radial end gradient (i.e., 120%)
}

See the project here: https://github.com/scottdrichards/MMM-SimpleBGSlideshow/

I am doing a fullscreen image transition between two images by fading one of them out to reveal the next one for a slideshow module. Unfortunately, it only updates about a couple times a second. My raspberry pi is passively cooled. Is there just not the horsepower to achieve a good transition?

@sdetweil Thank you! I am running it now, I’m still getting

[12.04.2021 08:39.20.358] [ERROR] Moment Timezone has no data for Customized Time Zone. See http://momentjs.com/timezone/docs/#/data-loading/.

but it appears as though there are fewer errors and the module does seem to be displaying my events. Perhaps I have some buggy iCal events in there. If I get a chance to dive in more, I’ll see what I can update.

@sdetweil perfect, thanks a bunch!