Installation Instructions and Usage (Version 1)
These are the instructions for installing the server software of which the Raspberry Pi car parking sensors will send data to. The software provides a UI for viewing available car parking spaces which can be viewed from a web browser.
For the purposes of this guide, we will be setting up the server on a test environment using the XAMPP program to host a server on a computer. The XAMPP program can be downloaded from the XAMPP website.
Once the server software has been installed, download the files from the /server/ directory of the repository. Place the folder in the root of the server directory.
For XAMPP setup, this directory is usually called htdocs and is found in the install directory. Also ensure that the software is running at this point.
The next step is to create a database on the server using the script found in /admin/db.sql. Make note of the database name and the login details.
For XAMPP setup, you can create the database by going to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and creating a database. You can paste the script found in /admin/db.sql into the SQL tab at the top of the page to create the tables.
When the database is created, you need to open the file /config.php located in the root directory of the website. Here you must change the values of DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASS and DB_DATABASE to match the details you used in the previous step. (For XAMPP, the default USER and PASS are "root" and "" respectively.)
In this file, also change the variables URL_BASE, PI_PASSWORD and TITLE.
- URL_BASE is the base URL to access the website on the server.
- PI_PASSWORD is the password the pi's will require to update data on the server.
- TITLE is the title of the website used in the website UI.
The server should now be setup correctly. Heading over to the URL (http://localhost/[DIRECTORY IN HTDOCS]/ for XAMPP) should display the home page of the site.
To add a new car park, click on the 'Park Management' button in the navigation bar. This page will display the current registered on the database. To add a new car park, complete the form at the bottom of the page. Car parks may also be edited or deleted using the buttons to the right.
NOTE: The ID on the left in the rows is the unique identifier for that car park. This number will be needed when registering the pi's on the database during setup.
There is a basic API JSON interface built into the website. This can be accessed at /api.php in the server root. It gives some basic information about the car parks in a JSON format. This could then be used for future applications, such as possibly having sat nav's communicating with this data.