Images, Streaming and Cameras¶

Basic Configuration¶

In order to handle attachments, Supernotify needs to temporarily store images on the file system, so some extra configuration is needed. This includes camera snapshots, a snapshot_url, or any other image source.

• A valid media_path directory, usually somewhere under the main /config directory
• Add this directory to the allowlist_external_dirs in the main HomeAssistant config

- name: SuperNotifier
  platform: supernotify
  media_path: /config/media/supernotify

homeassistant:
  ...
  allowlist_external_dirs:
    - "/config/media/supernotify"

Images and Video¶

These are most commonly used with Mobile Push and Email delivery transports.

Images can be included by:

• Camera Entity
• As created by any Camera Integration
• Image Entity
  • For example an MQTT Image, ideal for Frigate or cameras that stream to MQTT
• Web Image
  • Use snapshot_url in the media section to grab from any HTTP(S) address

Additionally a video clip can be referenced by clip_url where supported by a transport (currently mobile push only).

The media content type will be automatically determined from the grabbed image.

PTZ ( Pan, Tilt, Zoom ) Camera Support¶

Supernotify can ask a camera to move and zoom to a pre-set position before an image snapshot is taken. So for example, if a person rings the doorbell, a camera could zoom in to take a close-up for the notification. This image will taken once and then reused across all supporting delivery transports.

Set the (optional) PTZ preset referenced in the data section, whether in transport, delivery or scenario config, or in the notify action call.

A PTZ delay can be set to wait for camera movement before snapshot taken, and a choice of onvif or frigate for the PTZ control. After the snap, an additional PTZ movement will be commanded to return to the ptz_default_preset defined for the camera.

Automatically Fixing Camera Issues¶

Some cameras, like Hikvision, add JPEG comment blocks which confuse the very simplistic media detection in the SMTP integration, and leads to spurious log entries. Supernotify will automatically rewrite and optimize JPEGs, stripping out comments, to avoid this.

There is a default set of jpeg_opts and png_opts set for email attachments, to optimize and make progressive, and you can set your own for e-mail or other integrations that use attachments. See the Saving section under JPEG and PNG on the PIL Image Writer documentation] for the full set of options available.

These options can be set in the delivery or transport configuration, or in the action call as below. See also Controlling Image Reprocessing to switch this off altogether.

Example Action¶

 - action: notify.supernotify
      data:
        title: "My Home Notification"
        message: "Notify with image snapshot taking close-up of vehicle on driveway"
        delivery:
            data:
                media:
                    camera_entity_id: camera.driveway
                    camera_ptz_preset: closeup
                    camera_delay: 10
                    jpeg_opts:
                      progressive: true
                      optimize: true
                      quality: 50

Cameras¶

Use this for additional camera info:

Home Assistant default camera entities have built-in device tracking, so the entity state will be idle, recording or unavailable if the camera is not available. Supernotify can use this state to switch to an alternative camera if the first choice isn't up. It's also possible to associate a separate device_tracker to the camera, for example using a Unifi or similar integration to track that the camera network device is up.

• Link a device_tracker to the camera
• Notifications will first check its online, then use an alternative if primary is down
• Define alternative cameras to use if first fails using alt_camera
• For ONVIF or Frigate cameras set up for PTZ
• Home preset can be defined using ptz_default_preset so camera can be reset after taking a snapshot
• Delay between PTZ command and snapshot can be defined using ptz_delay
• Choose between ONVIF or Frigate PTZ control using ptz_transport
  • Note that ONVIF may have numeric reference for presets while Frigate uses text labels
  • The camera configuration, or a good ONVIF client like IP Cams, will show the preset number and description. Its good practice to make preset 1 your default.
• Configuration documentation for Camera Schema.

 cameras:
    - camera: camera.driveway
      alt_camera:
        - camera.doorbell
        - camera.courtyard
      device_tracker: device_tracker.driveway_camera
      ptz_method: frigate
      ptz_delay: 10
      ptz_default_preset: Front Door

Purging¶

The media storage directory can grow, so a regular job will purge images older than so many days.

If you want to change the defaults, do this, or set to 0 to switch off

notify:
  - name: Supernotify
    platform: supernotify
    housekeeping:
      media_storage_days: 3

Browse Snapshots via Home Assistant¶

The Media Source integration can be configured to include the Supernotify media directory, so snapshots used for e-mail, mobile push etc can be viewed via the Home Assistant UI. This integration is switched on as part of the Home Assistant default configuration so all you need is to declare the media_dirs, like this:

homeassistant:
  name: My Lovely House
  media_dirs:
    supernotify: /config/media/supernotify

Controlling Image Reprocessing¶

If you don't want to have images reprocessed, perhaps for performance or other reasons, then use this configuration in the delivery or transport configuration, or in the action call.

...
data:
  media:
    options:
      reprocess: never

reprocess defaults to always. It can also be set to preserve where the original image with any comments and other metadata is preserved, and then jpeg_opts or png_opts applied on top.