Lessons Learned - Jan 6, 2022

[jameszah]

I did this procedure today, and this is what I learned:

1. Files stored to github.com/my-name/my-project take about a minute to get over to my-name.github.io/my-project, so make sure you add some text to the files to make sure you have your changes.

2. The business of storing the web-pages in the "gh-pages" branch and your manifest.json and .bin files in a sub-folder of the "main" branch was very confusing. I got messages about "json has illegal characters" which actually meant is could not find the json and was getting a 404 error. I eventually moved everything to the "main" branch and got rid of the sub-folder, and go the "settings - pages" of github to say I am using the "main" branch. This may have been a result of not understanding point 1.

3. The procedure here mentions this crucial line

src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/web/install-button.js

but after more time than I am willing to admit, and read through the page https://esphome.github.io/esp-web-tools/ which tells me to use the line

src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/web/install-button.js

That is a bunch of versions numbers forward in the last few months - maybe something to do with esp32-arduino 2.00. The previous line gives an error about "error: didn't get enough status bytes" but the new line pops up a little dialog to install or look at a console, and it all worked the first time.

So that is added to the google record of debugging -- and if all goes well you can go to https://github.com/jameszah/ESP32-CAM-Video-Recorder-junior for a one-click install of a video recorder program on a esp32-cam module with download video to browser functionality. 😄

https://jameszah.github.io/ESP32-CAM-VideoCam/

[witnessmenow]

Thanks for the great feedback!

1. Yeah I have noticed that too, I think behind the scenes the repo gets converted and deployed so it works as a webpage. Including a version number on the webpage is probably a good idea!

2. Unless I'm mistaken, which should already be covered by the guide in the setting up GitHub pages section. Maybe it could be made clearer though. I just really quickly threw this guide together after using it as I didn't see much info out there on it.

3. Wow that is a big difference in versions for sure! I must take a look at the new release and update the docs for it.

Sounds like a cool project! I just love the idea of being able to share a relatively complicated project with people and all they have to do is click one button!

[jameszah]

2. Yes you are right. I was trying to link from gh-pages branch back to main branch, which does not work.

I suppose the merit of of the gh-pages branch is to move a small subset of the project over to github.io rather than all the source code and misc files. Plus to keep these 1 MB binaries on a separate branch so they don't clog up people downloading a zip of source code.

[jameszah]

Some updates here:

https://github.com/esphome/esp-web-tools/issues/288#issuecomment-1238529180

The four file system may appears not to work anymore.

[witnessmenow]

Thanks for updating here, looks like this repo needs to be updated to match the updated info. I'm not realisticly in a position to do it for a few months , but would like to get to it at some point!