Overview

Help for developers/contributors.

Note

The development on the Raspberry PI can be time consuming. Use your pc for development and deploy the code changes to a Raspberry PI.

Getting the code¶

Open a terminal, navigate into your working directory and run the following command:

# cloning the repositories
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ArPIHomeSecurity/arpi_management.git

# switch to the development branch
git checkout dev_vXXXX
git submodule foreach git checkout dev_vXXXX

# switch to a released version
git checkout vXXXX
git submodule foreach git checkout vXXXX

This command will download the source code of management project of the ArPI Home security system with the server and the web application components.

+ arpi_management: managing the software components
|--arpi_server: backend
|--arpi_webapplication: frontend

Prerequisites for development¶

Core Requirements¶

Python 3.11+ - Backend development with modern async support
Python pipenv - Dependency management for server and management tools
Node.js 18+ - Frontend development with latest LTS features
Docker & Docker Compose - Containerized development environment
Git - Version control with submodule support

Platform-Specific Dependencies¶

For Backend Development (PyGObject on Ubuntu/Debian)¶

sudo apt install \
    gcc \
    libgirepository1.0-dev \
    libcairo2-dev \
    pkg-config \
    python3-dev \
    gir1.2-gtk-3.0 \
    postgresql-client \
    redis-tools

Environment Setup¶

Backend Environment (Python)

cd server
pipenv install --dev
pipenv shell

Frontend Environment (Angular)

cd webapplication
npm install --dev

# Install Angular CLI globally if not present
npm install -g @angular/cli@18

Database Environment (Docker)

cd server
./scripts/start_database.sh

MQTT Environment (Docker)

cd server
./scripts/start_mqtt.sh

Features¶

Hardware clock¶

The software is configured to use a DS1307 hardware clock. The configuration is prepared during the installation of the board (arpi_management/scripts/install_environment.sh).

The hardware clock is updated every hour from system clock and updates the system clock on reboot (arpi_management/arpi_server/etc/cron/hwclock).

GSM module¶

The software is configured to work with a GSM module (tested with SIM900A) on serial port /dev/ttyAMA0 9600 Baud. The console on serial port is disabled.

NoIP¶

You can use a NoIP provider for accessing the security system remotely on the same domain name.

Certbot¶

You can switch the connection of the web application to a signed HTTPS connection with the help of Certbot.

System Architecture¶

The complete system architecture is available on a dedicated page with fullscreen viewing capabilities for better diagram visibility.