zoneminder/README.txt

  15/01/06        ZoneMinder 1.22.0 README                174

                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               

                               
                          ZoneMinder
                               
                            v1.22.0
                               
                               
                               

                               
            Open Source Linux Video Camera Security
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                   http://www.zoneminder.com
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               
                               

Contents
1. Introduction                                              4
2. Requirements                                              5
3. Components                                                6
4. Building                                                  9
5. Installation                                             10
6. Upgrading                                                12
7. Installing from RPM                                      13
8. Tutorial                                                 14
 8.1.Defining Monitors                                     14
 8.2.Defining Zones                                        20
 8.3.Viewing Monitors                                      23
 8.4.Controlling Monitors                                  24
 8.5.Filtering Events                                      24
 8.6.Viewing Events                                        26
 8.7.Options and Users                                     27
9. Camera Control                                           29
 9.1.Control Capabilities                                  29
 9.2.Control Scripts                                       31
10.  Mobile Devices                                         33
11.  Troubleshooting                                        34
12.  Change Log                                             38
 12.1. Release 1.22.0                                      38
 12.2. Release 1.21.4                                      41
 12.3. Release 1.21.3                                      43
 12.4. Release 1.21.2                                      43
 12.5. Release 1.21.1                                      44
 12.6. Release 1.21.0                                      46
 12.7. Release 1.20.1                                      46
 12.8. Release 1.20.0                                      47
 12.9. Release 1.19.5                                      48
 12.10.Release 1.19.4                                      49
 12.11.Release 1.19.3                                      50
 12.12.Release 1.19.2                                      51
 12.13.Release 1.19.1                                      52
 12.14.Release 1.19.0                                      52
 12.15.Release 1.18.1                                      54
 12.16.Release 1.18.0                                      54
 12.17.Release 1.17.2                                      56
 12.18.Release 1.17.1                                      57
 12.19.Release 1.17.0                                      57
 12.20.Release 0.9.16                                      58
 12.21.Release 0.9.15                                      59
 12.22.Release 0.9.14                                      60
 12.23.Release 0.9.13                                      60
 12.24.Release 0.9.12                                      61
 12.25.Release 0.9.11                                      62
 12.26.Release 0.9.10                                      63
 12.27.Release 0.9.9                                       64
 12.28.Release 0.9.8                                       65
 12.29.Release 0.9.7                                       66
 12.30.Release 0.0.1                                       67
13.  To Do                                                  68
14.  Bugs                                                   69
15.  Non-Bugs                                               70
16.  License                                                71


1.
   
   
   Introduction
   
Welcome  to  ZoneMinder, the all-in-one Linux  GPL'd  security
camera solution.

A while back my garage was burgled and all my power tools were
stolen! I realised shortly after that if I'd just had a camera
overlooking the door then at least I'd have know exactly  when
and  who did the dirty deed. And so ZoneMinder was born.  It's
still  relatively  new but hopefully it has  developed  to  be
something  that  can be genuinely useful and  prevent  similar
incidents or even perhaps bring some perpetrators to justice.

ZoneMinder   is  designed  around  a  series  of   independent
components  that  only  function when necessary  limiting  any
wasted resource and maximising the efficiency of your machine.
A  fairly  ancient Pentium II PC should be able to  track  one
camera  per  device at up to 25 frames per  second  with  this
dropping  by half approximately for each additional camera  on
the  same device. Additional cameras on other devices  do  not
interact  so  can  maintain this frame rate.  Even  monitoring
several  cameras  still will not overload  the  CPU  as  frame
processing  is  designed to synchronise with capture  and  not
stall it.

As  well  as being fast ZoneMinder is designed to be  friendly
and  even more than that, actually useful. As well as the fast
video  interface core it also comes with a user  friendly  and
comprehensive PHP based web interface allowing you to  control
and  monitor your cameras from home or even at work or on  the
road. It supports variable web capabilities based on available
bandwidth.  The web interface also allows you to  view  events
that  your  cameras have captured and archive them  or  review
them time and again, or delete the ones you no longer wish  to
keep.  The  web pages directly interact with the core  daemons
ensuring  full co-operation at all times. ZoneMinder can  even
be installed as a system service ensuring it is right there if
your computer has to reboot for any reason.

The  core of ZoneMinder is the capture and analysis of  images
and  there  is  a  highly configurable set of parameters  that
allow  you  to  ensure that you can eliminate false  positives
whilst  ensuring that anything you don't want to miss will  be
captured and saved. ZoneMinder allows you to define a  set  of
'zones'   for   each   camera  of  varying   sensitivity   and
functionality. This allows you to eliminate regions  that  you
don't wish to track or define areas that will alarm if various
thresholds are exceeded in conjunction with other zones.

ZoneMinder  is  fresh off the keyboard and so  comes  with  no
warranty whatsoever, please try it, send your feedback and  if
you get anything useful out of it let me know.

ZoneMinder is free but if you do get ZoneMinder up and running
and   find   it  useful  then  please  feel  free   to   visit
http://www.zoneminder.com/donate.html where any donations will
be  appreciated  and will help to fund future improvements  to
ZoneMinder.  This  would be especially  relevant  if  you  use
ZoneMinder  as  part  of your business,  or  to  protect  your
property.


2.
   
   
   Requirements
   
ZoneMinder  needs a couple of things to work.  Ordinarily  the
`configure'  script  will check for the presence  of  required
(and  optional)  components but it is useful  to  be  prepared
beforehand.

Firstly,  it  uses  MySQL so you'll need  that.  In  order  to
compile   you  need  to  make  sure  you  have  a  development
installation and not just a runtime; this is because it  needs
to use the MySQL header files. If you are running an RPM based
distribution then it's probably worth installing all the  pure
mysql rpm files to be sure you have the right ones.

Next  it  does  things  with JPEGs so  you'll  need  at  least
libjpeg.a  which I think come as standard nowadays  with  most
distributions. Users have reported varying degrees of  success
with  other jpeg libraries such as jpeg-mmx but these are  not
officially supported. If you plan to use network cameras  then
the Perl Compatible Regular Expression library (libpcre.a) can
prove useful but is not always essential. ZoneMinder also uses
the  netpbm  utilities  in  a very  limited  way  to  generate
thumbnails  under  certain circumstances though  this  can  be
modified.

ZoneMinder  can  generate MPEG videos if necessary,  for  this
you'll  need either ffmpeg (recommended) or the Berkeley  MPEG
encoder (mpeg_encode). If you don't have either, don't  worry,
as  the options will be hidden and you'll not really miss  too
much.  Some  of the authentication uses openssl MD5 functions,
if  you get a grumble about these during configuration all  it
will  mean is that authentication won't be used for streaming.
The web interface uses PHP and so you need that in your apache
or  other  web  server  as well, make sure  MySQL  support  is
available  either statically or as a module.  There  are  also
various perl modules that you may need that vary depending  on
which options you choose on installation, for more details see
later in this document.

Finally,  there  is  quite a bit of  image  streaming  in  the
package. So if you don't have FireFox  or another browser that
supports  image  streaming natively I recommend  you  get  the
excellent        Cambozola       java       applet        from
http://www.charliemouse.com/code/cambozola/ which will let you
view  the  image  stream  in  Internet  Explorer  and  others.
Otherwise  you're limited to just refreshing still  images  or
mpeg based streams, if you have compatible plugins.

Hardware-wise, ZoneMinder has been used with various video and
USB  cameras  with the V4L interface. It will also  work  with
most  Network  or IP cameras. I don't have a  lot  of  cameras
myself  so  I've not had change to test it with a  huge  range
personally  however  there  is a  list  of  devices  that  are
definitely known to work on the web site. Please let  me  know
if  your  camera works and is not listed. You do need to  have
Video4Linux installed. I've not got too many machines so  I've
only  really  used it on various RedHat/Fedora  distributions,
which  seem  to  have  everything there by  default  I  think.
SlackWare   does  need  a  bit  more  tinkering   than   other
distributions; there is a document on the web site  describing
what  users have had to do to get it working. Please  give  me
feedback on other distributions not listed on the site.


3.
   
   
   Components
   
ZoneMinder  is  not  a single monolithic  application  but  is
formed  from  several  components. These components  primarily
include  executable compiled binaries which do the main  video
processing  work,  perl scripts which usually  perform  helper
and/or external interface tasks and php web scripts which  are
used for the web interface.

A  brief  description  of  each of  the  principle  components
follows.

zmc - This is the ZoneMinder Capture daemon. This binary's job
is  to sit on a video device and suck frames off it as fast as
possible, this should run at more or less constant speed.

zma  -  This  is the ZoneMinder Analysis daemon. This  is  the
component  that  goes through the captured frames  and  checks
them  for  motion which might generate an alarm or  event.  It
generally  keeps up with the Capture daemon but if  very  busy
may skip some frames to prevent it falling behind.

zmf - This is the ZoneMinder Frame daemon. This is an optional
daemon  that can run in concert with the Analysis  daemon  and
whose  function  it  is to actually write captured  frames  to
disk.  This  frees up the Analysis daemon to do more  analysis
(!) and so keep up with the Capture daemon better. If it isn't
running  or  dies  then the Analysis daemon just  writes  them
itself.

zms  -  This  is  the  ZoneMinder Streaming  server.  The  web
interface  connects with this to get real-time  or  historical
streamed  images. It runs only when a live monitor  stream  or
event  stream is actually being viewed and dies when the event
finishes or the associate web page is closed. If you find  you
have  several  zms  processes running when  nothing  is  being
viewed then it is likely you need a patch for apache (see  the
Troubleshooting section). A non-parsed header version of  zms,
called  nph-zms,  is also installed and may  be  used  instead
depending on your web server configuration.

zmu  -  This is the ZoneMinder Utility. It's basically a handy
command  line interface to several useful functions. It's  not
really meant to be used by anyone except the web page (there's
only  limited  'help' in it so far) but can be  if  necessary,
especially for debugging video problems.

zmfix - This is a small binary that exists only to ensure that
the  video  device  files  can be read  by  the  main  capture
daemons. It is often the case that these device files are  set
to be accessible by root only on boot. This binary runs setuid
and  ensures that they have appropriate permissions.  This  is
not a daemon and runs only on system start and then exits.

As  well  as  this  there are the web PHP  files  in  the  web
directory  and  some  perl scripts in the  scripts  directory.
These  scripts all have some configuration at the top  of  the
files which should be viewed and amended if necessary and  are
as follows.

zmpkg.pl - This is the ZoneMinder Package Control script. This
is  used  by the web interface and service scripts to  control
the execution of the system as a whole.

zmdc.pl  - This is the ZoneMinder Daemon Control script.  This
is  used  by  the  web  interface and the zmpkg.pl  script  to
control and maintain the execution of the capture and analysis
daemons,  amongst  others. You should not  need  to  run  this
script yourself.

zmfilter.pl  -  This  script controls the execution  of  saved
filters  and will be started and stopped by the web  interface
based  on whether there are filters that have been defined  to
be  autonomous.  This  script  is  also  responsible  for  the
automatic uploading of events to a 3rd party server.

zmaudit.pl  - This script is used to check the consistency  of
the  event  file  system and database. It can delete  orphaned
events,  i.e.  ones that appear in one location  and  not  the
other  as well as checking that all the various event  related
tables  are in line. It can be run interactively or  in  batch
mode either from the command line or a cron job or similar. In
the  zmconfig.pl  there  is an option to  specify  fast  event
deletes  where the web interface only deletes the event  entry
from  the  database itself. If this is set  then  it  is  this
script that tidies up the rest.

zmwatch.pl - This is a simple script purely designed  to  keep
an eye on the capture daemons and restart them if they lockup.
It  has  been known for sync problems in the video drivers  to
cause  this  so this script makes sure that nothing  important
gets missed.

zmupdate.pl  -  Currently  this  script  is  responsible   for
checking whether a new version of ZoneMinder is available  and
other   miscellaneous   actions  related   to   upgrades   and
migrations.  It is also intended to be a `one stop  shop'  for
any  upgrades and will execute everything necessary to  update
your installation to a new version.

zmvideo.pl  -  This script is used from the web  interface  to
generate  video files in various formats in a common way.  You
can also use it from the command line in certain circumstances
but this is not usually necessary.

zmx10.pl  -  This is an optional script that can  be  used  to
initiate  and  monitor X10 Home Automation  style  events  and
interface with an alarm system either by the generation of X10
signals  on  ZoneMinder  events or  by  initiating  ZoneMinder
monitoring  and  capture  on  receipt  of  X10  signals   from
elsewhere,  for  instance the triggering of an  X10  PIR.  For
example  I have several cameras that don't do motion detection
until  I  arm my alarm system whereupon they switch to  active
mode  when an X10 signal is generated by the alarm system  and
received by ZoneMinder.

zmtrigger.pl  -  This is an optional script  that  is  a  more
generic  solution  to external triggering of  alarms.  It  can
handle  external connections via either internet socket,  unix
socket  or file/device interfaces. You can either use  it  `as
is' if you can interface with the existing format, or override
connections  and channels to customise it to your  needs.  The
format   of  triggers  used  by  zmtrigger.pl  is  as  follows
"<id>|<action>|<score>|<cause>|<text>|<showtext>" where

o    'id' is the id number or name of the ZM monitor
  
o    'action' is 'on', 'off', 'cancel' or `show' where 'on'
forces an alarm condition on, 'off' forces an alarm condition
off and 'cancel' negates the previous 'on' or 'off'. The
`show' action merely updates some auxiliary text which can
optionally be displayed in the images captured by the monitor.
Ordinarily you would use 'on' and 'cancel', 'off' would tend
to be used to suppress motion based events. Additionally 'on'
and 'off' can take an additional time offset, e.g. on+20 which
automatically 'cancel's the previous action after that number
of seconds.
o    'score' is the score given to the alarm, usually to
indicate it's importance. For 'on' triggers it should be non-
zero, otherwise it should be zero.
o    'cause' is a 32 char max string indicating the reason
for, or source of the alarm e.g. 'Relay 1 open'. This is saved
in the `Cause' field of the event. Ignored for 'off' or
'cancel' messages
o    'text' is a 256 char max additional info field, which is
saved in the `Description' field of an event. Ignored for
'off' or 'cancel' messages.
o    `showtext' is up to 32 characters of text that can be
displayed in the timestamp that is added to images. The `show'
action is designed to update this text without affecting
alarms but the text is updated, if present, for any of the
actions. This is designed to allow external input to appear on
the images captured, for instance temperature or personnel
identity etc.
Note that multiple messages can be sent at once and should  be
LF  or CRLF delimited. This script is not necessarily intended
to  be  a  solution in itself, but is intended to be  used  as
`glue' to help ZoneMinder interface with other systems.

zmcontrol-*.pl - These are a set of example scripts which  can
be  used  to control Pan/Tilt/Zoom class cameras. Each  script
converts a set of standard parameters used for camera  control
into  the actual protocol commands sent to the camera. If  you
are using a camera control protocol that is not in the shipped
list  then you will have to create a similar script though  it
can  be  created entirely separately from ZoneMinder and  does
not  need to named as these scripts are. Although the  scripts
are  used to action commands originated from the web interface
they  can  also  be  used directly or from other  programs  or
scripts,  for  instance  to  implement  periodic  scanning  to
different presets.

zmtrack.pl  -  This script is used to manage the  experimental
motion tracking feature. It is responsible for detecting  that
an alarm is taking place and moving the camera to point to the
alarmed  location,  and then subsequently returning  it  to  a
defined standby location. As well as moving the camera it also
controls  when motion detection is suspended and  restored  so
that  the  action  of  the camera tracking  does  not  trigger
endless further alarms which are not justified.

zm  - This is the (optional) ZoneMinder init script, see below
for details.

Finally,  there are also a number of ZoneMinder  perl  modules
included. These are used by the scripts above, but can also be
used by your own or 3rd party scripts. Full documentation  for
most modules is available in `pod' form via `perldoc' but  the
general purpose of each module is as follows.

ZoneMinder.pm - This is a general ZoneMinder container module.
It  includes the Base.pm, Config.pm Debug.pm, Database.pm, and
SharedMem.pm modules described below. It also exports  all  of
their  symbols  by  default.  If you  use  the  other  modules
directly you have request which symbol tags to import.

ZoneMinder/Base.pm - This is the base ZoneMinder perl  module.
It  contains only simple data such as version information.  It
is included by all other ZoneMinder perl modules

ZoneMinder/Config.pm  -  This module  imports  the  ZoneMinder
configuration from the database.

ZoneMinder/Debug. pm - This module contains the defined  Debug
and  Error functions etc, that are used by scripts to  produce
diagnostic information in a standard format.

ZoneMinder/Database.pm - This module contains database  access
definitions  and functions. Currently not a  lot  is  in  this
module  but  it  is  included  as  a  placeholder  for  future
development.

ZoneMinder/SharedMem.pm - This module contains standard shared
memory  access  functions. These can be  used  to  access  the
current  state of monitors etc as well as issuing commands  to
the  monitors  to  switch  things  on  and  off.  This  module
effectively provides a ZoneMinder API.

ZoneMinder/ConfigAdmin.pm  -  This  module  is  a  specialised
module  that  contains the definition, and other  information,
about  the  various configuration options. It is not  intended
for use by 3rd parties.

ZoneMinder/Trigger/*.pm - These modules contain definitions of
trigger  channels  and connections used  by  the  zmtrigger.pl
script.  Although they can be used `as is',  they  are  really
intended as examples that can be customised or specialised for
different interfaces. Contributed modules for new channels  or
connections  will be welcomed and included in future  versions
of ZoneMinder.




4.
   
   
   Building
   
To  build ZoneMinder the first thing you need to do is run the
included    configure   script   to   define   some    initial
configuration. If you are happy with the default settings  for
the  database host (`localhost'), name (`zm'), user (`zmuser')
and password (`zmpass') then you can just type

./configure   --with-webdir=<your   web   directory>   --with-
cgidir=<your cgi directory>

where  --with-webdir is the directory to  which  you  want  to
install  the PHP files, and --with-cgidir is the directory  to
which  you want to install CGI files. These directories  could
be /var/www/html/zm and /var/www/cgi-bin for example.

If  you  want  to override any of the default database  values
then you can append them to the configure command, for example
to use a database password of `zmnewpass' do

./configure   --with-webdir=<your   web   directory>   --with-
cgidir=<your cgi directory> ZM_DB_PASS=zmnewpass

and  so on. The values you can use are ZM_DB_HOST, ZM_DB_NAME,
ZM_DB_USER and ZM_DB_PASS. Other than the database name, which
is substituted into the database creation script, these values
can easily be changed after this step.

If  the  script  cannot  find  your  MySQL  installation,  for
instance  if it is installed in an unusual location,  then  --
with-mysql  identifies  the  root  directory  where  you  have
installed it, usually /usr.

If  you want to use real MPEG based streaming you will need to
have  built and installed the ffmpeg tools. You can then  also
use  -with-ffmpeg=<path to ffmpeg root> to help configure find
it if it's not installed in a default location. Note, you have
to  make  sure  you  have  installed the  ffmpeg  headers  and
libraries  (make  installlib) as well as  the  binaries  (make
install), or a development package with them in.

If  you  have  built ffmpeg with any additional options  which
require extra libraries in the link stage then you can use  --
with-extralibs  to  pass  these  libraries  to  the  configure
script,  to prevent unresolved dependencies. Otherwise  ignore
this option.

If  you  are  on a 64 bit system you may find that the  -with-
libarch option helps you correctly define your library paths.

There are also two further parameters you can add if your  web
user and group are not both 'apache'. These are --with-webuser
and --with-webgroup.

Type

./configure -help

for details on these, and other, options.

Now  you can just type 'make' to do the build. The first  time
you  run  this  you may get a warning about a  Makefile  being
rebuilt  in  the  scripts directory, and make will  terminate.
This  is  normal and you can just rerun make to  complete  the
build.


5.
   
   
   Installation
   
For  a new installation the next thing you will need to do  is
create  your database and database users. So type the commands
as follows,

mysql mysql < db/zm_create.sql

mysql mysql

grant  select,insert,update,delete  on  <database  name>.*  to
'<database    user>'@localhost   identified   by    '<database
password>';

quit

mysqladmin reload

You  may  need to supply a username and password to the  mysql
commands  in  the  first  place to  give  yourself  sufficient
privileges  to perform the required commands. If you  want  to
host  your  database on a different machine  than  that  which
ZoneMinder  is running on then you will need to  perform  this
step  on  the  remote  machine and  reference  the  ZoneMinder
machine  instead  of  localhost. If  you  are  running  remote
databases you probably already know all this, if you  are  not
then don't worry about it!

At this stage typing

make install

will install everything to the desired locations, you may need
to   su  to  root  first  though  to  give  yourself  adequate
permissions.  The installation routine will copy the  binaries
and   scripts   to  your  chosen  install  location,   usually
/usr/local/bin and then move zms (and nph-zms) to your cgi-bin
area. It will then copy the web files to your chosen directory
and  ensure  they have the right permissions, and install  the
ZoneMinder  perl  modules in the standard perl  locations.  It
will  also  install a copy of the zm.conf file  (generated  by
configure)   to   your   system   configuration   area   (e.g.
/usr/local/etc). Finally it tries to link zm.php to  index.php
but will not overwrite an existing file if it already exists.

The 'zm' script does not get installed automatically as it  is
not necessary for the operation of the ZoneMinder setup per se
and   is   not  necessarily  likely  to  work  correctly   for
distributions  other  than those from  the  RedHat  or  Fedora
families.  However  if you want to ensure that  ZoneMinder  is
started  on  reboot  etc  copy it to  your  init.d  directory,
usually  something  like /etc/rc.d/init.d or  /etc/inid.d  and
then add it by doing

chkconfig --add zm

or similar command for your distribution. ZoneMinder will then
start  up when your machine reboots and can be controlled  (by
the  root  user)  by doing 'service zm start' or  'service  zm
stop'  etc.  You  may need to use the `-levels'  parameter  to
chkconfig to ensure that ZoneMinder is started when  you  need
it to.

If you do this you should find that you have files named S99zm
in some of the /etc/rcX.d directories and K99zm in some of the
others. The S99zm files are used for starting up ZoneMinder on
system  boot and the K99zm ones are used to close it on system
shutdown. The 99 part is a priority, which may run from  0  to
99  and  indicates where in the startup and shutdown sequences
that  ZoneMinder  should start or stop. So  S99zm  means  that
ZoneMinder should be one of the last things to startup,  which
is  good  as  it needs things like the database to be  running
first.

However,  by  the same token, the K99zm scripts indicate  that
ZoneMinder  should  be one of the last things  to  shut  down,
which is bad, as by then the database etc will have gone away.
So  for tidiness you should rename any K99zm files to K00zm to
indicate  that ZoneMinder should be one of the first  elements
to  stop. This way you will avoid any nasty messages  on  your
console about the database having gone away and also will give
ZoneMinder  chance to shutdown in a controlled manner  without
introducing any corruption.

As  mentioned  above, this script is for Redhat, and  related,
distributions  only.  I  would be  grateful  for  any  similar
scripts  for  other distributions so if you know  of  one,  or
create one, then please send it to me.

If you are running a distribution which doesn't support the zm
script, or if you just prefer more direct control, you can now
start ZoneMinder by typing

zmpkg.pl start

which,  after a few seconds, should return without error.  You
can  subsequently stop and restart everything by changing  the
`start' parameter to `stop' or `restart'.

Now  fire up your web browser, point it at your zm.php and off
you go.

Note, if you ever need to uninstall ZoneMinder you can do this
by simply typing

make uninstall

though  as  with installation you may need to change  user  to
have  sufficient  privileges. This will remove  all  installed
files,  however you will need to manually remove any databases
you have created.


6.
   
   
   Upgrading
   
If you are upgrading from a previous version of ZoneMinder you
should   follow   the  Building  instructions  above.   Before
proceeding, ensure that any previous version of ZoneMinder has
been stopped, then type

make install

to   install   the   binaries,  scripts,  modules,   web   and
configuration files.

The  next step in an upgrade is to run the zmupgrade.pl script
to make any changes to the database or file system required by
the  new  version.  Ordinarily you  can  run  this  from  your
ZoneMinder build directory by doing

zmupdate.pl -version=<from version> [--user=<database user> --
pass=<database password>]

where  `from  version' relates to the version of  ZM  you  are
upgrading  from, 1.21.1 for example, and not the  version  you
are  upgrading to. All updates from that version onwards  will
be  applied; however zmupdate.pl will only work with  upgrades
from  1.19.0 onwards. The `user' and `pass' options allow  you
to  specify  a  database  user and  password  with  sufficient
privilege  to `alter' the structure of the database.  This  is
not necessarily the database user you use for ZoneMinder.

The update script will offer you the chance to make a database
backup  before making any changes. You can use this to restore
your  database if the upgrade fails or if you simply  wish  to
roll  back in the future. Be aware that if you have a  lot  of
entries  in  your database and/or limited disk space  doing  a
backup may not be feasible or even work. Also the backup  only
applies to the database and will not save any images or  other
event  detail saved on disk. If successful the backup will  be
saved  in  the  current directory and will be named  <database
name>-<from  version>.dump. Any previous backups of  the  same
name  will be overwritten without warning. The backup file  is
in  the form of a simple sql script and can be used to restore
the database simply by typing

mysql < zm-1.21.4.dump

for example.

After  having  done any backup, the database upgrade  will  be
applied. Check that this is successful before continuing.

Once  the  upgrade process is complete, you can  then  restart
ZoneMinder  using  the zmpkg.pl script or  using  the  service
control  commands  for  your distribution.  You  should  check
/var/log/messages and the other ZoneMinder logs for the  first
few   minutes  to  ensure  that  everything  comes   back   up
successfully.


7.
   
   
   Installing from RPM
   
Installing from the RPM is distribution specific so make  sure
you download the correct RPM for the distribution that you are
using.

All  documents  including this README  are  installed  to  the
systems default document folder.

Fedora Core: /usr/share/doc/zm-{version number}

Mandrake:

The  packaged version of Zone Minder installs all  binarys  to
/usr/lib/zm including the web pages. So don't worry  when  you
do  not see any files installed to the root directory for your
web server. The web pages for Apache are aliased by zm.conf in
the  apache/conf.d  directory which  vary  depending  on  your
distribution:

Fedora Core: /etc/httpd/conf.d/zm.conf

Mandrake:

The  Configuration file for setting up the database is located
at /etc/zm.conf and will need to be edited to add the user and
password  that  you want Zone Minder to use.  After  you  have
installed the Zone Minder package this will be the first thing
you  want to do. So use your favourite editor and add  in  the
user  name and password you want Zone Minder to use.  You  can
also change the database name if you would like.

vi /etc/zm.conf

Start the mysqld service so you can build the database

service mysqld start

Then run zminit to create the database

/usr/lib/zm/bin/zminit

The  user  and  password that zminit  asks  for  are  for  the
database  only. For the user enter root and leave the password
blank  (unless of course you changed the password). You should
see  some information showing that it has created the database
and no errors.

Set the run levels for the services that Zone Minder requires.
I  like  to  set the run levels to 3 and 5 with the  following
command:

chkconfig -levels 35 mysqld on

chkconfig -levels 35 httpd on

Now start the web server and Zone Minder:

service httpd start

service zm start

You  should  now  be  able to access the Zone  Minder  console
through the web browser http://localhost/zm

Log files will be located in /var/log/zm

Events are located at /var/lib/zm


8.
   
   
   Tutorial
   
What  you see now (and subsequently) is the initial view  that
appears when running in non-authenticated mode. Authentication
is an option that lets you specify whether anyone that goes to
the  ZoneMinder web pages must log themselves in, in order  to
be  given  permissions to perform certain  tasks.  Running  in
authenticated mode is recommended if your system  is  open  to
the  internet  at all. During installation a fully  privileged
user `admin' has been created with a password also of `admin'.
If  you  are  using  authentication  you  should  change  this
password as soon as possible.

Once  you've  logged  in,  or  if  you  are  running  in   un-
authenticated  mode, you will now see the  ZoneMinder  Console
window.  This will resize itself to avoid being too  intrusive
on your desktop. Along the top there are several informational
entries  like  the  time of the last update  and  the  current
server  load. There will also be an indication of  the  system
state which will probably say `stopped' to begin with. This is
a  link that you can click on to control the ZoneMinder system
as a whole.

Below that are various other links including one detailing the
current user (in authenticated mode only) and one allowing you
to  configure  your bandwidth. This last one  enables  you  to
optimise your settings depending on where you are, the  actual
values relating to this are defined in the options. If you are
using  a  browser on the same machine or network  then  choose
high, over a cable or DSL link maybe choose medium and over  a
dialup  choose low. You can experiment to see which  is  best.
This  setting  is  retained  on a per  machine  basis  with  a
persistent  cookie. Also on this line are a  number  of  other
links that will be covered below.

Please bear in mind that from here on the descriptions of  the
web pages are based on what you will see if you are running as
a  fully  authenticated  user.  If  you  are  running  in  un-
authenticated  mode  or as a less privileged  user  then  some
elements may not be shown or will be disabled.


8.1. Defining Monitors
To  use  ZoneMinder properly you need to define at  least  one
Monitor.  Essentially, a monitor is associated with  a  camera
and  can  continually check it for motion detection  and  such
like. So, next click 'Add New Monitor' to bring up the dialog.
You will see a bunch of things you have to fill in.

To  help  you get started on the video configuration the  best
thing     is     to     use     a    tool     like     'xawtv'
(http://bytesex.org/xawtv/) to  get  a  picture  you're  happy
with,  and  to check your camera works. Please note that  just
because  you  can see a video stream in these tools  does  not
necessarily  guarantee  that  your  camera  will   work   with
ZoneMinder.  This is because most tools just `map'  the  video
image   through  onto  screen  memory  transparently   without
intercepting it, whereas ZoneMinder needs to capture the image
and, usually, inspect it. This is called frame grabbing and to
check  it you should use the facility in xawtv, or other tool,
to  capture  either  one or more still images  or  possibly  a
movie.  If this works and the images or movie are not  garbage
then the chances are that ZoneMinder will work fine also.

Once  you have validated your camera run 'zmu -d <device_path>
-q  -v' to get a dump of the settings (note, you will have  to
additionally supply a username and password to zmu if you  are
running  in  authenticated mode). You  can  then  enter  these
values   into  the  video  related  options  of  the   monitor
configuration panel. The 'device_path' referred to here is the
path  to your video device file, for instance /dev/video0 etc.
If  'zmu' gives you an error related to permissions run 'zmfix
-a' to make sure you can access all the video devices.

There  are  a  small number of camera setups  that  ZoneMinder
knows  about  and  which can be accessed by  clicking  on  the
`Presets' link. Selecting one of the presets will fill in  the
monitor  configuration with appropriate values  but  you  will
still need to enter others and confirm the preset settings.

The  options are divided into a set of tabs to make it  easier
to  edit. You do not have to `save' to change to different tab
so  you  can  make all the changes you require and then  click
`Save'  at the end. The individual option are explained  in  a
little more detail below,

`Monitor' Tab
   Name  -  The name for your monitor. This should be made  up
   of  alphanumeric characters (a-z,A-Z,0-9)  and  hyphen  (-)
   and underscore(_) only. Whitespace is not allowed.
   
   Source  Type  -  This determines whether the  camera  is  a
   local one attached to a physical video or USB port on  your
   machine,  a  remote network camera or an image source  that
   is   represented  by  a  file  (for  instance  periodically
   downloaded from a alternate location). Choosing one or  the
   other  affects which set of options are shown in  the  next
   tab.
   
   Function  -  This essentially defines what the  monitor  is
   doing. This can be one of the following;
   
    o    None - The monitor is currently disabled and no streams
      can be viewed or events generated.
      
o    Monitor - The monitor will only stream feeds but no image
analysis is done and so no alarms or events will be generated,
o    Modect - or MOtion DEteCTtion. All captured images will
be analysed and events generated where motion is detected.
o    Record - In this case continuous events of a fixed length
are generated regardless of motion which is analogous to a
convention time-lapse video recorder. No motion detection
takes place in this mode.
o    Mocord - This is a hybrid of Modect and Record and
results in both fixed length events being recorded and also
any motion being highlighted within those events.
o    Nodect - or No DEteCTtion. This is a special mode
designed to be used with external triggers. In Nodect no
motion detection takes place but events are recorded if
external triggers require it.
   Generally  speaking it is best to choose  `Monitor'  as  an
   initial setting here..
   
   Enabled  - The enabled field indicates whether the  monitor
   should  be  started in an active mode or in a more  passive
   state.  You will nearly always want to check this box,  the
   only  exceptions  being  when you want  the  camera  to  be
   enabled  or  disabled by external triggers or  scripts.  If
   not enabled then the monitor will not create any events  in
   response ot motion or any other triggers.
   
   Maximum  FPS - On some occasions you may have one  or  more
   cameras  capable of high capture rates but  find  that  you
   generally do not require this performance at all times  and
   would  prefer  to  lighten the load on  your  server.  This
   option permits you to limit the maximum capture rate  to  a
   specified  value. This may allow you to have  more  cameras
   supported  on your system by reducing the CPU  load  or  to
   allocate  video bandwidth unevenly between cameras  sharing
   the  same  video device. This value is only a  rough  guide
   and  the lower the value you set the less close the  actual
   FPS  may approach it especially on shared devices where  it
   can  be  difficult  to synchronise two  or  more  different
   capture  rates  precisely. There is a global  configuration
   option  that allows you to turn this limiting  off  in  the
   event of an alarm.
   
   Reference  Image  Blend  %ge  -  Each  analysed  image   in
   ZoneMinder is a composite of previous images and is  formed
   by  applying  the current image as a certain percentage  of
   the  previous  reference image. Thus,  if  we  entered  the
   value  of 10 here, each image's part in the reference image
   will  diminish  by a factor of 0.9 each time  round.  So  a
   typical reference image will be 10% the previous image,  9%
   the one before that and then 8.1%, 7.2%, 6.5% and so on  of
   the  rest  of  the  way. An image will  effectively  vanish
   around  25 images later than when it was added. This  blend
   value  is  what is specified here and if higher  will  make
   slower  progressing events less detectable as the reference
   image  would change more quickly. Similarly events will  be
   deemed  to  be  over  much sooner as  the  reference  image
   adapts   to   the  new  images  more  quickly.  In   signal
   processing  terms  the higher this value  the  steeper  the
   event  attack and decay of the signal. It depends  on  your
   particular  requirements what the appropriate  value  would
   be  for  you but start with 10 here and adjust it  (usually
   down) later if necessary.
   
   Triggers  -  This  small  section  lets  you  select  which
   triggers  will  apply  if the run  mode  has  been  set  to
   `triggered' above. The most common trigger is X10 and  this
   will   appear  here  if  you  indicated  that  your  system
   supported it during installation. Only X10 is supported  as
   a  shipped  trigger with ZoneMinder at present  but  it  is
   possible  that  other  triggers will  become  available  as
   necessary.  You  can  also just use `cron'  jobs  or  other
   mechanisms  to  actually control the camera and  keep  them
   completely   outside  of  the  ZoneMinder   settings.   The
   zmtrigger.pl  script is also available to implement  custom
   external triggering.
   
`Source' Tab (local device)
   Device  Path/Channel - Enter the full path  to  the  device
   file  that  your  camera is attached to, e.g.  /dev/video0.
   Some  video  devices,  e.g.  BTTV  cards  support  multiple
   cameras  on  one device so in this case enter  the  channel
   number  in  the Channel box or leave it at zero  if  you're
   using a USB camera or one with just one channel.
   
   Device  Format  -  Enter  the video  format  of  the  video
   stream.  This  is  defined in various  system  files  (e.g.
   /usr/include/linux/videodev.h) but the two most common  are
   0 for PAL and 1 for NTSC.
   
   Capture  Palette  -  Finally for  the  video  part  of  the
   configuration  enter the colour depth. ZoneMinder  supports
   a  handful of the most common palettes, so choose one here.
   If  in  doubt  try grey first, and then 24 bit  colour.  If
   neither of these work very well then YUV420P or one of  the
   others   probably  will.  There  is  a  slight  performance
   penalty  when  using palettes other than  grey  or  24  bit
   colour  as an internal conversion is involved. These  other
   formats  are intended to be supported natively in a  future
   version  but for now if you have the choice choose  one  of
   grey or 24 bit colour.
   
   Capture  Width/Height - The dimensions of the video  stream
   your  camera  will supply. If your camera supports  several
   just   enter   the  one  you'll  want  to  use   for   this
   application,  you  can always change it  later.  However  I
   would  recommend  starting with no larger than  320x240  or
   352x288   and  then  perhaps  increasing  and  seeing   how
   performance  is affected. This size should be  adequate  in
   most  cases. Some cameras are quite choosy about the  sizes
   you  can  use here so unusual sizes such as 197x333  should
   be avoided initially.
   
   Orientation - If your camera is mounted upside down  or  at
   right  angles you can use this field to specify a  rotation
   that  is  applied  to  the image as it  is  captured.  This
   incurs an additional processing overhead so if possible  it
   is  better to mount your camera the right way round if  you
   can. If you choose one of the rotation options remember  to
   switch  the  height and width fields so  that  they  apply,
   e.g.  if  your  camera captures at 352x288 and  you  choose
   `Rotate  Right'  here then set the height  to  be  352  and
   width  to  be 288. You can also choose to `flip' the  image
   if your camera provides mirrored input.
   
`Source' Tab (remote device)
   Remote Host/Port/Path - Use these fields to enter the  full
   URL  of  the  camera.  Basically  if  your  camera  is   at
   http://camserver.home.net:8192/cameras/camera1.jpg     then
   these   fields   will  be  camserver.home.net,   8192   and
   /cameras/camera1.jopg respectively. Leave the  port  at  80
   if  there  is  no  special port required.  If  you  require
   authentication  to access your camera then  add  this  onto
   the        host        name       in        the        form
   <username>:<password>@<hostname>.com. This will usually  be
   24 bit colour even if the image looks black and white.
   
   Remote  Image  Colours - Specify the amount of  colours  in
   the  captured  image.  Unlike with local  cameras  changing
   this  has no controlling effect on the remote camera itself
   so  ensure that your camera is actually capturing  to  this
   palette beforehand.
   
   Capture Width/Height - As per local devices.
   
   Orientation - As per local devices.
   
`Source' Tab (file device)
   File  Path - Enter the full path to the file to be used  as
   the image source.
   
   File  Colours - Specify the amount of colours in the image.
   Usually 24 bit colour.
   
   Capture Width/Height - As per local devices.
   
   Orientation - As per local devices.
   
 `Timestamp' Tab
   Timestamp  Label  Format - This relates  to  the  timestamp
   that  is  applied  to each frame. It is a `strftime'  style
   string.  It  is actually passed through strftime  and  then
   through printf to add the monitor name so a format of  '%%s
   -  %y/%m/%d  %H:%M:%S' (note the double % at the beginning)
   would   be  recommended  though  you  can  modify   it   if
   necessary. If you don't want a timestamp or have  a  camera
   that  puts  one on itself then leave this field  blank.  If
   you  add  a second %%s placeholder in the string this  will
   be  filled  by  any  of  the `show text'  detailed  in  the
   zmtriggers.pl section.
   
   Timestamp  Label  X/Y - The X and Y values determine  where
   to  put  the  timestamp. A value of 0 for the X value  will
   put  it  on the left side of the image and a Y value  of  0
   will  place  it  at  the top of the  image.  To  place  the
   timestamp  at  the bottom of the image use  a  value  eight
   less than the image height.
   
`Buffers' Tab
   Image  Buffer Size - This option determines how many frames
   are  held  in  the ring buffer at any one  time.  The  ring
   buffer  is the storage space where the last `n' images  are
   kept,  ready  to be resurrected on an alarm  or  just  kept
   waiting  to be analysed. It can be any value you like  with
   a  couple  of provisos, (see next options). However  it  is
   stored  in shared memory and making it too large especially
   for large images with a high colour depth can use a lot  of
   memory. A value of no more than 50  is usually ok.  If  you
   find  that  your system will not let you use the value  you
   want  it  is probably because your system has an  arbitrary
   limit  on  the size of shared memory that may be used  even
   though  you may have plenty of free memory available.  This
   limit   is   usually  fairly  easy  to  change,   see   the
   Troubleshooting section for details.
   
   Warm-up  Frames  -  This  specifies  how  many  frames  the
   analysis  daemon  should process but not  examine  when  it
   starts.  This  allows it to generate an accurate  reference
   image  from a series of images before looking too carefully
   for any changes. I use a value of 25 here, too high and  it
   will  take a long time to start, too low and you  will  get
   false alarms when the analysis daemon starts up.
   
   Pre/Post  Event Image Buffer - These options determine  how
   many  frames  from  before and after  an  event  should  be
   preserved  with it. This allows you to view  what  happened
   immediately prior and subsequent to the event. A  value  of
   10 for both of these will get you started but if you get  a
   lot  of  short events and would prefer them to run together
   to  form  fewer  longer ones then increase the  Post  Event
   buffer  size.  The pre-event buffer is a  true  buffer  and
   should  not  really  exceed  half  the  ring  buffer  size.
   However  the  post-event buffer is just  a  count  that  is
   applied  to  captured  frames and so can  be  managed  more
   flexibly.  You should also bear in mind the frame  rate  of
   the  camera  when  choosing these values.  For  instance  a
   network  camera capturing at 1FPS will give you 10  seconds
   before and after each event if you chose 10 here. This  may
   well  be  too much and pad out events more than  necessary.
   However  a  fast video card may capture at  25FPS  and  you
   will  want to ensure that this setting enables you to  view
   a reasonable time frame pre and post event.
   
   Alarm  Frame Count - This option allows you to specify  how
   many  consecutive alarm frames must occur before  an  alarm
   event  is  generated. The usual, and default,  value  is  1
   which   implies  that  any  alarm  frame  will   cause   or
   participate in an event. You can enter any value up  to  16
   here  to  eliminate bogus events caused perhaps  by  screen
   flickers  or  other transients. Values  over  3  or  4  are
   unlikely  to  be useful however. Please note  that  if  you
   have    statistics   recording   enabled   then   currently
   statistics  are  not  recorded for the first  `Alarm  Frame
   Count'-1 frames of an event. So if you set this value to  5
   then  the first 4 frames will be missing statistics whereas
   the  more  usual  value  of 1 will ensure  that  all  alarm
   frames have statistics recorded.
   
`Control' Tab
   Note:  This  tab and its options will only  appear  if  you
   have  selected the ZM_OPT_CONTROL option to indicated  that
   your   system  contains  cameras  which  are  able  to   be
   controlled via Pan/Tilt/Zoom or other mechanisms.  See  the
   Camera  Control  section elsewhere  in  this  document  for
   further details on camera control protocols and methods.
   
   Controllable - Check this box to indicate your  camera  can
   be controlled.
   
   Control  Type - Select the control type that is appropriate
   for  your  camera. ZoneMinder ships with a small number  of
   predefined  control protocols which will  works  with  some
   cameras  without modification but which may have to amended
   to  function  with others, Choose the edit link  to  create
   new control types or to edit the existing ones.
   
   Control  Device  -  This  is the device  that  is  used  to
   control  your  camera. This will normally be  a  serial  or
   similar port. If your camera is a network camera, you  will
   generally not need to specify a control device.
   
   Control Address - This is the address of your camera.  Some
   control  protocols require that each camera  is  identified
   by  a  particular, usually numeric id. If your camera  uses
   addressing then enter the id of your camera here.  If  your
   camera  is a network camera then you will usually  need  to
   enter  the  hostname  or IP address of  it  here.  This  is
   ordinarily the same as that given for the camera itself.
   
   Auto  Stop Timeout - Some cameras only support a continuous
   mode  of movement. For instance you tell the camera to  pan
   right and then when it is aligned correctly you tell it  to
   stop.  In some cases it is difficult to time this precisely
   over  a  web interface so this option allows you to specify
   an   automatic   timeout  where   the   command   will   be
   automatically  stopped. So a value of 0.25  here  can  tell
   the  script  to  stop moving a quarter of  a  second  after
   starting.  This  allows  a  more  precise  method  of  fine
   control. If this value is left blank or at zero it will  be
   ignored,  if  set  then  it will be  used  as  the  timeout
   however  it  will  only be applied for  the  lower  25%  of
   possible speed ranges. In other words if your camera has  a
   pan  speed range of 1 to 100 then selecting to move  at  26
   or  over  will be assumed to imply that you want  a  larger
   movement that you can control yourself and no timeout  will
   be  applied.  Selecting  motion at  lower  speeds  will  be
   interpreted  as requiring finer control and  the  automatic
   timeout will be invoked.
   
   Track  Motion  -  This and the following four  options  are
   used  with the experimental motion function. This will only
   work if your camera supports mapped movement modes where  a
   point on an image can be mapped to a control command.  This
   is  generally  most common on network cameras  but  can  be
   replicated  to  some degree on other cameras  that  support
   relative  movement  modes. See the Camera  Control  section
   for   more  details.  Check  this  box  to  enable   motion
   tracking.
   
   Track  Delay  -  This is the number of seconds  to  suspend
   motion  detection  for  following  any  movement  that  the
   camera may make to track motion.
   
   Return  Location - If you camera supports a `home' position
   or  presets  you can choose which preset the camera  should
   return to after tracking motion.
   
   Return  Delay - This is the delay, in seconds, once  motion
   has  stopped being detected, before the camera  returns  to
   any defined return location.
   
 `X10' Tab
   Note:  This  tab and its options will only  appear  if  you
   have  indicated  that  your system supports  the  X10  home
   automation protocol during initial system configuration.
   
   X10   Activation  String  -  The  contents  of  this  field
   determine  when a monitor starts and/or stops being  active
   when  running  in `Triggered; mode and with  X10  triggers.
   The format of this string is as follows,
   
     n : If you simply enter a number then the monitor will be
     activated  when an X10 ON signal for that  unit  code  is
     detected  and will be deactivated when an OFF  signal  is
     detected.
     
     !n  :  This inverts the previous mode, e.g. !5 means that
     the monitor is activated when an OFF signal for unit code
     5 is detected and deactivated by an ON.
     
     n+  :  Entering a unit code followed by + means that  the
     monitor  is activated on receipt of a ON signal for  that
     unit code but will ignore the OFF signal and as such will
     not be deactivated by this instruction. If you prepend  a
     '!'  as  per the previous definition it similarly inverts
     the mode, i.e. the ON signal deactivates the monitor.
     
     n+<seconds>  : As per the previous mode except  that  the
     monitor will deactivate itself after the given number  of
     seconds.
     
     n-  :  Entering a unit code followed by - means that  the
     monitor  is  deactivated on receipt of a OFF  signal  for
     that  unit code but will ignore the ON signal and as such
     will not be activated by this instruction. If you prepend
     a '!' as per the previous definition it similarly inverts
     the mode, i.e. the OFF signal activates the monitor.
     
     n-<seconds>  : As per the previous mode except  that  the
     monitor  will activate itself after the given  number  of
     seconds.
     
   You  can  also combine several of these expressions  to  by
   separating   them   with  a  comma   to   create   multiple
   circumstances  of activation. However for  now  leave  this
   blank.
   
   X10  Input Alarm String - This has the same format  as  the
   previous  field but instead of activating the monitor  with
   will  cause  a  forced alarm to be generated and  an  event
   recorded  if the monitor is Active. The same definition  as
   above  applies except that for activated read  alarmed  and
   for  deactivated read unalarmed(!). Again leave this  blank
   for now.
   
   X10  Output  Alarm String - This X10 string  also  has  the
   same  format as the two above options. However it works  in
   a  slightly  different way. Instead of ZoneMinder  reacting
   to  X10  events  this option controls how ZoneMinder  emits
   X10  signals  when the current monitor goes into  or  comes
   out  of  the alarm state. Thus just entering a number  will
   cause  the  ON  signal for that unit code to be  sent  when
   going  into alarm state and the OFF signal when coming  out
   of  alarm state. Similarly 7+30 will send the unit  code  7
   ON  signal  when going into alarm state and the OFF  signal
   30  seconds  later regardless of state. The combination  of
   the    X10   instruction   allows   ZoneMinder   to   react
   intelligently  to,  and  also  assume  control  of,   other
   devices when necessary. However the indiscriminate  use  of
   the  Input  Alarm and Output Alarm signals can  cause  some
   horrendous  race  conditions such as a light  going  on  in
   response to an alarm which then causes an alarm itself  and
   so  on.  Thus  some circumspection is required here.  Leave
   this blank for now anyway.
   
`Misc' Tab
   Event  Prefix  - By default events are named  `Event-<event
   id>',  however you are free to rename them individually  as
   you  wish.  This option lets you modify the  event  prefix,
   the  `Event-`  part, to be a value of your choice  so  that
   events  are  named differently as they are generated.  This
   allows  you  to  name  events according  to  which  monitor
   generated them.
   
   Section Length - This specifies the length (in seconds)  of
   any  fixed length events produced when the monitor function
   is  `Record'  or  `Mocord'. Otherwise it is  ignored.  This
   should  not  be  so  long  that  events  are  difficult  to
   navigate  nor so short that too many events are  generated.
   A length of between 300 and 900 seconds I recommended.
   
   Frame  Skip  -  This  setting  also  applies  only  to  the
   `Record'  or  `Mocord'  functions and  specifies  how  many
   frames  should  be  skipped  in the  recorded  events.  The
   default  setting  of zero results in every  captured  frame
   being  saved.  Using  a value of one would  mean  that  one
   frame  is  skipped between each saved, two means  that  two
   frames  are  skipped  between  each  saved  frame  etc.  An
   alternate way of thinking is that one in every `Frame  Skip
   +  1'  frames is saved. The point of this is to ensure that
   saved  events  do not take up too much space  unnecessarily
   whilst  still allowing the camera to capture  at  a  fairly
   high  frame  rate. The alternate approach is to  limit  the
   capture frame rate which will obviously affect the rate  at
   which frames are saved.
   
   FPS Report Interval - How often the current performance  in
   terms  of  Frames Per Second is output to the  system  log.
   Not  used in any functional way so set it to maybe 1000 for
   now.  If  you watch /var/log/messages (normally)  you  will
   see  this value being emitted at the frequency you  specify
   both for video capture and processing.
   
   Default  Scale  - If your monitor has been defined  with  a
   particularly large or small image size then you can  choose
   a  default scale here with which to view the monitor so  it
   is easier or more visible from the web interface.
   
   Web  Colour  - Some elements of ZoneMinder now use  colours
   to  identify  monitors  on certain views.  You  can  select
   which   colour   is  used  for  each  monitor   here.   Any
   specification  that  is  valid for HTML  colours  is  valid
   here,  e.g. `red' or `#ff0000'. A small swatch next to  the
   input box displays the colour you have chosen.
   
Finally, click 'Save' to add your monitor.

On  the main console listing you will now see your monitor and
some of its vital statistics. Most columns are also links  and
you  get  to  other functions of ZoneMinder  by  choosing  the
appropriate  one. Describing them left to right, they  are  as
follows.

The  first  column is the Id, clicking on this gives  you  the
opportunity to edit any of the settings you have just  defined
your monitor to have.

The next column is the Name column, clicking on this will give
you  the watch window where you can view a live feed from your
camera along with recent events. This is described more  fully
below.

Following that are the Function and Source columns, which  may
be  represented  in various colours. Initially  both  will  be
showing  red.  This means that that monitor is not  configured
for  any  function and as a consequence has no  zmc  (capture)
daemon  running on it. If it were orange it would mean that  a
zmc  daemon was running but no zma (analysis) daemon and green
means  both  are  running. In our case it is  red  because  we
defined  the Monitor to have a Function of None so no  daemons
are required.

To  get the daemons up and running you can either click on the
source  listed  in  the  Source column and  edit  the  monitor
properties  or click on the Function listed and change  it  to
'Monitor',  which  will ensure that one  or  more  appropriate
daemons are started automatically. You need to ensure that you
have  started ZoneMinder before any of these settings actually
has any effect.

Having  a  device status of red or orange does not necessarily
constitute  an  error  if  you have  deliberately  disabled  a
monitor or have just put it into Passive mode.

If  you  have several cameras (and thus monitors) on a  device
the  device status colour reflects all of them for the capture
daemon.  So if just one monitor is active then the  daemon  is
active  for  both even if all the other monitors are  switched
off.

Once  you have changed the function of your monitor, the  main
console window will be updated to reflect this change. If your
device status does not go green then check your system and web
server logs to see if it's something obvious.

You can now add further monitors if you have cameras set up to
support  them.  Once  you have one or more  monitors  you  may
notice  the  '<n> Monitors' title becomes a link. Clicking  on
this  link  will open up a window which allows you  to  assign
your monitors to groups. These let you select certain monitors
to  view.  For  instance you may only  wish  to  view  outdoor
monitors  while indoors. You can also choose to  view  all  of
them.  If  you  choose  a group then your  selection  will  be
remembered via a cookie and will be used until you change  it.
You  can  call your groups anything you like, though  `Mobile'
has a special meaning (see Mobile Devices below).

There  may  also be a `Cycle' link which allows you  to  cycle
through  a  shot from each of your monitors (in  the  selected
group  unless  they are switched off) and get  a  streamed  or
still  image from each in turn. Similarly if you  see  a  link
titled  `Montage'  it  will allow you  view  all  your  active
enabled  cameras  (in the selected group)  simultaneously.  Be
aware however that this can consume large amounts of bandwidth
and  CPU  so should not be used continuously unless  you  have
resource to burn.


8.2. Defining Zones
The  next important thing to do with a new monitor is  set  up
Zones  for  it  to  use. By default you'll  already  have  one
generated for you when you created your monitor but you  might
want to modify it or add others. Click on the Zones column for
your  monitor  and you should see a small popup window  appear
which  contains  an  image from your camera  overlain  with  a
stippled  pattern representing your zone. In the default  case
this  will  cover  the whole image. The colour  of  the  zones
appearing  here  is  determined by what  type  they  are.  The
default zone is Active and so will be red, Inclusive zones are
orange, exclusive zones are purple, preclusive zones are  blue
and inactive zones are white.

Beneath  the zones image will be a table containing a  listing
of  your  zones. Clicking on either the relevant  bit  of  the
image  or on the Id or Name in the table will bring up another
window  where you can edit the particulars for your Zones.  As
you can see there are quite a few, so now is a good time to go
through them.

The Zone view is split into two main areas, on the left is the
options are area and on the right is the zone drawing area.  A
default or new zone will cover the whole drawing area and will
overlay any other zones you already have on there. Unlike  the
previous  zones  image, the current zone  is  coloured  green,
other zones will be orange regardless of type. Your first task
is  to  decide  if you want the zone over the whole  image  or
whether  you  can narrow down the detection area; the  smaller
the zone, the less processing time it takes to examine it.  If
you wish to the edit the dimensions of the zone you can either
manually  fill in the table containing the zone  points  under
the  image, or click on the zone corners once to select it (it
should  turn  red), and then click on the desired location  to
relocate it. Moving your mouse over a point will highlight the
corresponding entry in the points table and vice versa.

To  add a new point, click on the `+' next to the point  entry
in  the  point  table.  This will add another  point  directly
between that and the next point. To delete a point, select it,
and  then click on the `-` link. The `X' that appears  in  the
same area just allows you to deselect that point and leave  it
in  the  same place. You can make zones almost any  shape  you
like;  except  that zones may not self-intersect  (i.e.  edges
crossing over each other) .

Once you have your zone the correct size and shape, you should
now  fill in the rest of the configuration. These options  are
as follows.

   Name  -  This is just a label to identify the zone by.  You
   can  change  this to be more representative  if  you  like,
   though   it   isn't  used  much  except  for  logging   and
   debugging.
   
   Type  -  This  is  one  of the more important  concepts  in
   ZoneMinder and there are five to choose from.
   
    o    Active - This is the zone type you'll use most often, and
      which will be set for your default zone. This means that this
      zone will trigger an alarm on any events that occur within it
      that meet the selection criteria.
      
o    Inclusive - This zone type can be used for any zones that
you want to trigger an alarm only if at least one other Active
zone has already triggered one. This might be for example to
cover an area of the image like a plant or tree which moves a
lot and which would trigger lots of alarms. Perhaps this is
behind an area you'd like to monitor though, in this case
you'd create an active zone covering the non-moving parts and
an inclusive zone covering the tree perhaps with less
sensitive detection settings also. If something triggered an
alarm in the Active zone and also in the Inclusive zone they
would both be registered and the resulting alarm would be that
much bigger than if you had blanked it out altogether.
o    Exclusive - The next zone Type is Exclusive. This means
that alarms will only be triggered in this zone if no alarms
have already been triggered in Active zones. This is the most
specialised of the zone types and you may never use it but in
its place it is very useful. For instance in the camera
covering my garden I keep watch for a hedgehog that visits
most nights and scoffs the food out of my cats bowls. By
creating a sensitive Exclusive zone in that area I can ensure
that a hedgehog alarm will only trigger if there is activity
in that small area. If something much bigger occurs, like
someone walking by it will trigger a regular alarm and not one
from the Exclusive zone. Thus I can ensure I get alarms for
big events and also special small events but not the noise in
between.
o    Preclusive - This zone type is relatively recent. It is
called a Preclusive zone because if it is triggered it
actually precludes an alarm being generated for that image
frame. So motion or other changes that occur in a Preclusive
zone will have the effect of ensuring that no alarm occurs at
all. The application for this zone type is primarily as a
shortcut for detecting general large-scale lighting or other
changes. Generally this may be achieved by limiting the
maximum number of alarm pixels or other measure in an Active
zone. However in some cases that zone may cover an area where
the area of variable illumination occurs in different places
as the sun and/or shadows move and it thus may be difficult to
come up with general values. Additionally, if the sun comes
out rapidly then although the initial change may be ignored in
this way as the reference image catches up an alarm may
ultimately be triggered as the image becomes less different.
Using one or more Preclusive zones offers a different
approach. Preclusive zones are designed to be fairly small,
even just a few pixels across, with quite low alarm
thresholds. They should be situated in areas of the image that
are less likely to have motion occur such as high on a wall or
in a corner. Should a general illumination change occur they
would be triggered at least as early as any Active zones and
prevent any other zones from generating an alarm. Obviously
careful placement is required to ensure that they do not
cancel any genuine alarms or that they are not so close
together that any motion just hops from one Preclusive zone to
another. As always, the best way is to experiment a little and
see what works for you.
o    Inactive - This final zone type is the opposite of
Active. In this zone type no alarms will ever be reported. You
can create an Inactive zone to cover any areas in which
nothing notable will ever happen or where you get constant
false alarms that don't relate to what you are trying to
monitor. An Inactive zone can overlay other zone types and
will be processed first.
   It  was mentioned above that Inactive zones may be overlaid
   on  other  zones to blank out areas however  as  a  general
   principle you should try and make zones abut each other  as
   much   as  possible  and  not  overlap.  This  helps  avoid
   repeated  duplicate  processing  of  the  same  area.   For
   instance  an Inclusive zone overlaying an Active zone  when
   all  other  settings are the same will always trigger  when
   the  Active zone does which somewhat defeats the object  of
   the  exercise.  One exception to this is Preclusive  zones.
   These  may  be  situated within Active areas are  they  are
   processed  first and if small may actually save  processing
   time by preventing full analysis of the image.
   
   Presets  -  This contains a predefined list of some  common
   zone  settings.  Selecting one will fill  in  some  of  the
   other  fields in the page and help you to pick  appropriate
   values  for  your zones. Note that it may be that  none  of
   the presets will be appropriate for your purposes so it  is
   worth  going through the individual options below to ensure
   that each has a sensible value.
   
   Units  - This setting which details whether certain of  the
   following   settings  are  in  Pixels  or  Percent,   where
   `Percent'  refers to a percentage area of the zone  itself.
   In  general  `Pixels'  is more precise whereas  percentages
   are  easier  to  use to start with or if you  change  image
   sizes   frequently.  If  you  change   this   setting   all
   appropriate  values below are redisplayed  in  the  correct
   context.  A  good  tip  would be  to  initially  enter  the
   settings  in Percent and then change to Pixels if you  wish
   to  be more precise. Be aware though that repeated flipping
   between  the settings may cause rounding errors. Note,  the
   sense  of the percentage values refers to the area  of  the
   zone  and  not the image as a whole. This makes  trying  to
   work out necessary sizes rather easier.
   
   Alarm  Colour - The option after that allows you to specify
   what  colour  you'd like any alarms this zone generates  to
   be  highlighted on images. Pick anything you like that will
   show  up against your normal image background. This  option
   is  irrelevant for Preclusive and Inactive zones  and  will
   be  disabled. For Inactive zones all subsequent options are
   likewise disabled.
   
   Alarm Check Method -This setting allows you to specify  the
   nature  of  the  alarm checking that will take  place,  and
   more  specifically  what  tests are  applied  to  determine
   whether  a  frame  represents an alarm or  not.  The  three
   options  are  `AlarmPixels', `FilteredPixels'  and  `Blobs'
   and  depending  on  which option  is  chosen  some  of  the
   following other settings may become unavailable. The  first
   of  these indicates that only a count of individual alarmed
   pixels  should be used to determine the state of  a  image,
   the  second indicate that the pixels should be filtered  to
   remove  isolated pixels (see below) before  being  counted,
   and  the third uses a more sophisticated analysis which  is
   designed   to  aggregate  alarmed  pixels  into  continuous
   groups,  or  `blobs'. Blob analysis default,  however  this
   method  takes slightly longer and so if you find  that  one
   of  the  other methods works just as well for you  and  you
   wish  to maximise performance you can opt for that instead.
   Some  of  the  more useful alarm related features  such  as
   highlighted  analysis images are only  available  with  the
   `Blob' setting.
   
   Min/Maximum  Pixel Threshold - These setting  are  used  to
   define  limits for the difference in value between a  pixel
   and  its  predecessor in the reference image. For greyscale
   images  this  is simple but for colour images  the  colours
   are  averaged first, originally this used an RMS (root mean
   squared)  algorithm  but  calculating  square  roots   mugs
   performance  and does not seem to improve detection.  Using
   an  average  means that subtle colour changes  without  any
   brightness  change may go undetected but this  is  not  the
   normal  circumstance. There is also the  option  to  use  a
   more  sophisticated integer algorithm to calculate a Y  (or
   brightness) value from the colours themselves.
   
   Filter  Width/Height - To improve detection of valid  event
   ZoneMinder applies several other functions to the  data  to
   improve  its  ability  to distinguish  interesting  signals
   from  uninteresting noise. The first of these is  a  filter
   that  removes  any  pixels that do  not  participate  in  a
   contiguous  block  of  pixels above a certain  size.  These
   options  are  always  expressed in  pixels  and  should  be
   fairly  small, and an odd number, three or five is  a  good
   value  to  choose  initially. Application  of  this  filter
   removes  any tiny or discontinuous pixels that  don't  form
   part of a discrete block.
   
   Zone  Area - This field differs from the others in that  it
   may  not  be  written to. It is there purely  as  a  useful
   reference, when working in pixel units, of the area of  the
   zone.
   
   Min/Maximum  Alarmed  Area  - The  following  two  settings
   define  the  minimum  and maximum  number  of  pixels  that
   exceed  this  threshold that would cause an alarm.  If  the
   units  are  Percent this (and following options) refers  to
   the  percentage of the frame and not the zone, this  is  so
   these  values  can  be related between zones.  The  minimum
   value  must  be  matched or exceeded for  an  alarm  to  be
   generated whereas the maximum must not be exceeded  or  the
   alarm  will  be  cancelled. This is  to  allow  for  sudden
   changes  such as lights coming on etc, which you  may  wish
   to  disregard. In general a value of zero for any of  these
   settings  causes  that  value to be  ignored,  so  you  can
   safely  set a maximum to zero and it will not be used.  The
   use  of  just  a number of pixels is however a  very  brute
   force  method  of detection as many small events  dispersed
   widely are not distinguished from a compact one.
   
   Min/Maximum  Filtered  Area  -  These  are  two  additional
   bounds  that specify the limits of pixels that would  cause
   an  alarm  after this filtering process. As  the  filtering
   process  can only remove alarmed pixels it makes  no  sense
   for  the  Minimum and Maximum Filtered Area  to  be  larger
   than  the  equivalent  Alarmed Area  and  in  general  they
   should be smaller or the same.
   
   Min/Maximum  Blob  Area - The next  step  in  the  analysis
   phase is the collation of any remaining alarmed areas  into
   contiguous blobs. This process parses the image  and  forms
   any  pixels  that adjoin other alarmed pixels into  one  or
   more larger blobs. These blobs may be any shape and can  be
   as  large  as  the zone itself or as small as the  filtered
   size. The Minimum and Maximum Blob Size settings allow  you
   to  define  limits within which an alarm will be generated.
   Of these only the Minimum is likely to be very useful.
   
   Min/Maximum  Blobs - Finally the Minimum and Maximum  Blobs
   settings  specify the limits of the actual number of  blobs
   detected.   If   an  image  change  satisfies   all   these
   requirements it starts or continues an alarm event.
   

8.3. Viewing Monitors
As  this  point  you should have one or more Monitors  running
with  one  or  more Zones each. Returning to the main  Console
window  you  will  see  your monitors listed  once  more.  The
columns  not explored so far are the Monitor name, and various
event  totals for certain periods of time. Clicking on any  of
the  event totals will bring up a variation on the same window
but  click  on the Monitor name for now. If it is not  a  link
then  this  means that that monitor is not running  so  ensure
that  you  have  started  ZoneMinder  and  that  your  Monitor
function is not set to `None'. If the link works, clicking  on
it  will  pop  another  window up which should  be  scaled  to
contain a heading, an image from your monitor, a status and  a
list of recent events if any have been generated.

Depending on whether you are able to view a streamed image  or
not the image frame will either be this stream or a series  of
stills.  You have the option to change from one to  the  other
(if  available) at the centre of the top heading.  Also  along
the top are a handful of other links. These let you change the
scale  of  the image stream, modify image settings (for  local
devices) or close the window. If you have cameras that can  be
controlled, a `Control' link should also be present  which  is
described below.

The  image  should be self-explanatory but if  it  looks  like
garbage  it is possible that the video configuration is  wrong
so  look  in  your system error log and check  for  or  report
anything  unusual. The centre of the window will have  a  tiny
frame  that  just  contains a status;  this  will  be  'Idle',
'Alarm'  or  'Alert' depending on the function of the  Monitor
and  what's going on in the field of view. Idle means  nothing
is  happening, Alarm means there is an alarm in  progress  and
Alert  means  that an alarm has happened and  the  monitor  is
`cooling down', if another alarm is generated in this time  it
will just become part of the same event. These indicators  are
colour coded in green, red and amber.

By  default if you have minimised this window or opened  other
windows  in  front it will pop up to the front if it  goes  to
Alarm state. This behaviour can be turned off in `options'  if
required.   You  can  also  specify  a  sound  file   in   the
configuration,  which will be played when an alarm  occurs  to
alert  you  to  the  fact if you are  not  in  front  of  your
computer.  This should be a short sound of only  a  couple  of
seconds  ideally. Note that as the status is  refreshed  every
few  seconds it is possible for this not to alert you to every
event  that takes place, so you shouldn't rely on it for  this
purpose if you expect very brief events. Alternatively you can
decrease  the  refresh  interval  for  this  window   in   the
configuration though having too frequent refreshing may impact
on performance.

Below  the  status  is  a  list of  recent  events  that  have
occurred,  by default this  is a listing of just the  last  10
but clicking on 'All' will give you a full list  and 'Archive'
will  take you to the event archive for this monitor, more  on
this   later. Clicking on any of the column headings will sort
the events appropriately.

From  here you can also delete events if you wish. The  events
themselves are listed with the event id, and event name (which
you  can change), the time that the event occurred, the length
of  the event including any preamble and postamble frames, the
number  of  frames comprising the event with the  number  that
actually  contain  an alarm in brackets and finally  a  score.
This column lists the average score per alarm frame as well as
the maximum score that any alarm frame had.

The  score  is an arbitrary value that essentially  represents
the percentage of pixels in the zone that are in blobs divided
by  the square root of the number of blobs and then divided by
the  size of the zone. This gives a nominal maximum of 100 for
a zone and the totals for each zone are added together, Active
zones  scores are added unchanged, Inclusive zones are  halved
first  and Exclusive zones are doubled. In reality values  are
likely  to  be  much less than 100 but it does give  a  simple
indication of how major the event was.


8.4. Controlling Monitors
If  you  have  defined  your  system  as  having  controllable
monitors  and you are looking at a monitor that is  configured
for control, then clicking on the `Control' link along the top
of  the window will change the short event listing area  to  a
control  area.  The  capabilities  you  have  defined  earlier
determine  exactly what is displayed in this window. Generally
you  will  have  a  Pan/Tilt control area along  with  one  or
subsidiary areas such as zoom or focus control to the side. If
you have preset support then these will be near the bottom  of
the window. The normal method of controlling the monitor is by
clicking on the appropriate graphics which then send a command
via  the  control  script  to  the  camera  itself.  This  may
sometimes take a noticeable delay before the camera responds.

It  is  usually the case that the control arrows are sensitive
to  where you click on them. If you have a camera that  allows
different  speeds to be used for panning or zooming  etc  then
clicking  near the point of the arrow will invoke  the  faster
speed  whilst  clicking near the base of  the  arrow  will  be
slower.  If  you have defined continuous motion  then  ongoing
activities can be stopped by clicking on the area between  the
arrows, which will either be a graphic in the case of pan/tilt
controls or a word in the case of zoom and focus controls etc.

Certain  control  capabilities such  as  mapped  motion  allow
direct  control by clicking on the image itself when  used  in
browsers which support streamed images directly. Used in  this
way you can just click on the area of the image that interests
you  and the camera will centre on that spot. You can also use
direct image control for relative motion when the area of  the
image you click on defines the direction and the distance away
from  the centre of the image determines the speed. As  it  is
not always very easy to estimate direction near the centre  of
the  image,  the  active area does not  start  until  a  short
distance away from the centre, resulting in a `dead'  zone  in
the middle of the image.


8.5. Filtering Events
The  other columns on the main console window contain  various
event  totals for your monitors over the last hour, day,  week
and month as well as a grand total and a total for events that
you  may  have archived for safekeeping. Clicking  on  one  of
these  totals  or  on the 'All' or 'Archive'  links  from  the
monitor  window described above will present you  with  a  new
display. This is the full event window and contains a list  of
events  selected according to a filter which will also pop  up
in  its  own window. Thus if you clicked on a 'day' total  the
filter  will indicate that this is the period for which events
are  being  filtered.  The  event listing  window  contains  a
similar  listing  to the recent events in the monitor  window.
The  primary differences are that the frames and alarm  frames
and  the score and maximum score are now broken out into their
own  columns,  all of which can be sorted by clicking  on  the
heading.  Also  this  window will not  refresh  automatically,
rather  only  on request. Other than that, you can  choose  to
view events here or delete them as before.

The other window that appeared is a filter window. You can use
this  window to create your own filters or to modify  existing
ones. You can even save your favourite filters to re-use at  a
future  date.  Filtering itself is fairly  simple;  you  first
choose how many expressions you'd like your filter to contain.
Changing  this  value will cause the window to redraw  with  a
corresponding  row for each expression. You then  select  what
you  want  to  filter  on  and how the expressions  relate  by
choosing  whether  they are 'and' or 'or'  relationships.  For
filters  comprised of many expressions you will also  get  the
option  to  bracket  parts of the filter  to  ensure  you  can
express  it as desired. Then if you like choose how  you  want
your  results sorted and whether you want to limit the  amount
of events displayed.

There are several different elements to an event that you  can
filter  on,  some of which require further explanation.  These
are  as follows, 'Date/Time' which must evaluate to a date and
a  time  together, 'Date' and 'Time' which are variants  which
may only contain the relevant subsets of this, 'Weekday' which
as expected is a day of the week.

All of the preceding elements take a very flexible free format
of  dates  and  time  based  on  the  PHP  strtotime  function
(http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php).    This
allows  values such as 'last Wednesday' etc to be  entered.  I
recommend acquainting yourself with this function to see  what
the allowed formats are. However automated filters are run  in
perl  and  so are parsed by the Date::Manip package.  Not  all
date  formats are available in both so if you are  saved  your
filter  to  do automatic deletions or other tasks  you  should
make  sure that the date and time format you use is compatible
with  both  methods. The safest type of format to use  is  `-3
day' or similar with easily parseable numbers and units are in
English.

The  other  things  you  can filter on  are  all  fairly  self
explanatory, except perhaps for 'Archived' which you  can  use
to  include  or  exclude Archived events.  In  general  you'll
probably  do most filtering on un-archived events.  There  are
also  two  elements, Disk Blocks and Disk Percent which  don't
directly  relate  to the events themselves  but  to  the  disk
partition on which the events are stored. These allow  you  to
specify  an  amount  of  disk usage either  in  blocks  or  in
percentage as returned by the `df' command. They relate to the
amount  of disk space used and not the amount left free.  Once
your  filter is specified, clicking 'submit' will  filter  the
events  according  to your specification. As  the  disk  based
elements are not event related directly if you create a filter
and  include the term `DiskPercent > 95' then if your  current
disk usage is over that amount when you submit the filter then
all  events will be listed whereas if it is less then none  at
all  will. As such the disk related terms will tend to be used
mostly  for automatic filters (see below). If you have created
a  filter  you want to keep, you can name it and  save  it  by
clicking 'Save'.

If  you do this then the subsequent dialog will also allow you
specify whether you want this filter automatically applied  in
order  to  delete events or upload events via ftp  to  another
server  and mail notifications of events to one or more  email
accounts.  Emails  and  messages  (essentially  small   emails
intended for mobile phones or pagers) have a format defined in
the  Options screen, and may include a variety of tokens  that
can  be  substituted for various details  of  the  event  that
caused  them.  This includes links to the event  view  or  the
filter as well as the option of attaching images or videos  to
the  email  itself. Be aware that tokens that represent  links
may  require  you  to log in to access the  actual  page,  and
sometimes may function differently when viewed outside of  the
general  ZoneMinder context. The tokens you  can  use  are  as
follows.

    %EI%  Id of the event
    %EN%  Name of the event
    %ET%  Time of the event
    %ED%  Duration of the event
    %EF%  Number of frames in the event
    %EFA% Number of alarm frames in the event
    %EST% Total score of the event
    %ESA% Average score of the event
    %ESM% Maximum score of the event
    %EP%  Path to the event
    %EPS% Path to the event stream
    %EPI% Path to the event images
    %EPI1%     Path to the first alarmed event image
    %EPIM%     Path to the (first) event image with the
highest score
    %EI1% Attach first alarmed event image
    %EIM% Attach (first) event image with the highest score
    %EV%  Attach event mpeg video
    %MN%  Name of the monitor
    %MET% Total number of events for the monitor
    %MEH% Number of events for the monitor in the last hour
    %MED% Number of events for the monitor in the last day
    %MEW% Number of events for the monitor in the last week
    %MEM% Number of events for the monitor in the last month
    %MEA% Number of archived events for the monitor
    %MP%  Path to the monitor window
    %MPS% Path to the monitor stream
    %MPI%      Path to the monitor recent image
    %FN%  Name of the current filter that matched
    %FP%  Path to the current filter that matched
    %ZP%  Path to your ZoneMinder console

Finally  you  can also specify a script which is run  on  each
matched  event. This script should be readable and  executable
by  your  web server user. It will get run once per event  and
the  relative  path to the directory containing the  event  in
question.    Normally   this   will    be    of    the    form
<MonitorName>/<EventId> so from this path you can derive  both
the monitor name and event id and perform any action you wish.
Note  that  arbitrary commands are not allowed to be specified
in  the filter, for security the only thing it may contain  is
the full path to an executable. What that contains is entirely
up to you however.

Filtering  is  a powerful mechanism you can use  to  eliminate
events  that  fit  a  certain pattern however  in  many  cases
modifying the zone settings will better address this. Where it
really  comes  into  its  own is generally  in  applying  time
filters, so for instance events that happen during weekdays or
at  certain  times  of  the day are highlighted,  uploaded  or
deleted. Additionally using disk related terms in your filters
means  you  can automatically create filters that  delete  the
oldest events when your disk gets full. Be warned however that
if  you  use this strategy then you should limit the  returned
results to the amount of events you want deleted in each  pass
until the disk usage is at an acceptable level. If you do  not
do  this then the first pass when the disk usage is high  will
match, and then delete, all events unless you have used  other
criteria  inside  of limits. ZoneMinder ships  with  a  sample
filter  already installed, though disabled. The  PurgeWhenFull
filter can be used to delete the oldest events when your  disk
starts filling up. To use it you should select and load it  in
the filter interface, modify it to your requirements, and then
save it making you sure you check the `Delete Matching Events'
option.  This will then run in the background and ensure  that
your disk does not fill up with events.


8.6. Viewing Events
From  the monitor or filtered events listing you can now click
on  an  event to view it in more detail. If you have streaming
capability  you will see a series of images that make  up  the
event.  Under  that  you  should  also  see  a  progress  bar.
Depending on your configuration this will either be static  or
will  be  filled in to indicate how far through the event  you
are.  By  default  this functionality is turned  off  for  low
bandwidth settings as the image delivery tends to not be  able
to  keep  up  with real-time and the progress bar cannot  take
this  into  account. Regardless of whether  the  progress  bar
updates, you can click on it to navigate to particular  points
in the events.

You will also see a link to allow you to view the still images
themselves. If you don't have streaming then you will be taken
directly  to  this page. The images themselves  are  thumbnail
size and depending on the configuration and bandwidth you have
chosen  will either be the full images scaled in your  browser
of  actual scaled images. If it is the latter, if you have low
bandwidth  for example, it may take a few seconds to  generate
the  images. If thumbnail images are required to be generated,
they  will  be kept and not re-generated in future.  Once  the
images  appear  you  can  mouse over them  to  get  the  image
sequence number and the image score.

You  will  notice  for the first time that  alarm  images  now
contain  an  overlay  outlining the blobs that  represent  the
alarmed  area. This outline is in the colour defined for  that
zone  and  lets  you  see what it was that caused  the  alarm.
Clicking on one of the thumbnails will take you to a full size
window  where  you  can see the image in all  its  detail  and
scroll  through the various images that make up the event.  If
you have the ZM_RECORD_EVENT_STATS option on, you will be able
to  click the 'Stats' link here and get some analysis  of  the
cause  of the event. Should you determine that you don't  wish
to  keep the event, clicking on Delete will erase it from  the
database and file system. Returning to the event window, other
options  here  are  renaming  the  event  to  something   more
meaningful, refreshing the window to replay the event  stream,
deleting  the  event,  switching between  streamed  and  still
versions  of the event (if supported) and generating  an  MPEG
video of the event (if supported).

These  last two options require further explanation. Archiving
an  event  means that it is kept to one side and not displayed
in  the  normal event listings unless you specifically ask  to
view  the  archived events. This is useful for keeping  events
that  you think may be important or just wish to protect. Once
an  event is archived it can be deleted or unarchived but  you
cannot  accidentally delete it when viewing normal  unarchived
events.

The final option of generating an MPEG video is still somewhat
experimental  and its usefulness may vary. It  uses  the  open
source ffmpeg encoder to generate short videos, which will  be
downloaded  to your browsing machine or viewed in place.  When
using the ffmpeg encoder, ZoneMinder will attempt to match the
duration  of the video with the duration of the event.  Ffmpeg
has  a  particularly rich set of options and you  can  specify
during configuration which additional options you may wish  to
include  to suit your preferences. In particular you may  need
to  specify  additional,  or different,  options  if  you  are
creating  videos of events with particularly slow frame  rates
as  some  codecs only support certain ranges of  frame  rates.
Details of these options can be found in the documentation for
the encoders and is outside the scope of this document.

Building an MPEG video, especially for a large event, can take
some  time and should not be undertaken lightly as the  effect
on  your host box of many CPU intensive encoders will  not  be
good.  However once a video has been created for an  event  it
will  be  kept  so  subsequent  viewing  will  not  incur  the
generation   overhead.  Videos  can  also   be   included   in
notification emails, however care should be taken  when  using
this option as for many frequent events the penalty in CPU and
disk space can quickly mount up.


8.7. Options and Users
The final area covered by the tutorial is the options and user
section.  If you are running in authenticated mode  and  don't
have  system privileges then you will not see this section  at
all  and  if you are running in un-authenticated mode then  no
user section will be displayed.

The  various options you can specify are displayed in a tabbed
dialog  with each group of options displayed under a different
heading.  Each  option is displayed with  its  name,  a  short
description and the current value. You can also click  on  the
`?'   link   following  each  description  to  get  a   fuller
explanation about each option. This is the same as  you  would
get  from zmconfig.pl. A number of option groups have a master
option near the top which enables or disables the whole  group
so  you  should be aware of the state of this before modifying
options and expecting them to make any difference.

If  you  have  changed the value of an option you should  then
`save' it. A number of the option groups will then prompt  you
to  let  you  know  that the option(s) you have  changed  will
require  a  system restart. This is not done automatically  in
case  you  will  be changing many values in the same  session,
however  once  you  have made all of your changes  you  should
restart ZoneMinder as soon as possible. The reason for this is
that  web  and  some  scripts will pick  up  the  new  changes
immediately  but some of the daemons will still be  using  the
old values and this can lead to data inconsistency or loss.

One  of  the options you may notice in the `System' tab allows
you  to specify the default language for your installation  of
ZoneMinder.   Versions  1.17.0  and  later  support   multiple
languages  but  rely on users to assist in  creating  language
files  for specific languages. To specify a language you  will
have to give the applicable code, thus for UK English this  is
en_gb, and for US English it would be en_us, if no language is
given  then  UK  English is assumed. Most  languages  will  be
specified  in  this nn_mm format and to check which  languages
are  available  look  for  files named  zm_lang_*.php  in  the
ZoneMinder build directory where the parts represented by  the
`*'  would  be  what  you would enter as a language.  This  is
slightly  unwieldy and will probably be improved in future  to
make it easier to determine language availability. On checking
which  languages are available it may be that  your  preferred
language  is  not currently included and if this is  the  case
please consider doing a translation and sending it back to  it
may  be included in future releases. All the language elements
are given in the zm_lang_en_gb.php file along with a few notes
to help you understand the format.

As  mentioned  above, you may also see a `users'  tab  in  the
Options  area.  In this section you will see  a  list  of  the
current  users  defined on the system. You  can  also  add  or
delete  users from here. It is recommended you do  not  delete
the   admin  user  unless  you  have  created  another   fully
privileged  user  to  take over the same role.  Each  user  is
defined with a name and password (which is hidden) as well  as
an  enabled setting which you can use to temporarily enable or
disable  users,  for  example a guest user  for  limited  time
access.  As  well  as  that there is a language  setting  that
allows  you  to  define  user specific  languages.  Setting  a
language here that is different than the system language  will
mean  that  when  that user logs in they  will  have  the  web
interface  presented  in their own language  rather  than  the
system default, if it is available. Specifying a language here
is  done  in  the same way as for the system default  language
described above.

There  are  also five values that define the user permissions,
these  are  `Stream',  `Events',  `Control',  `Monitors'   and
`System'  Each  can have values of `None',  `View'  or  `Edit'
apart  from `Stream' which has no `Edit' setting. These values
cover  access to the following areas; `Stream' defines whether
a  user is allowed to view the `live' video feeds coming  from
the  cameras. You may wish to allow a user to view  historical
events  only in which case this setting should be `none'.  The
`Events' setting determines whether a user can view and modify
or  delete  any  retained  historical  events.  The  `Control'
setting  allows you to indicate whether the user  is  able  to
control  any Pan/Tilt/Zoom type cameras you may have  on  your
system.  The `Monitors' setting specifies whether a  user  can
see  the current monitor settings and change them. Finally the
`System' setting determines whether a user can view or  modify
the  system settings as a whole, such as options and users  or
controlling the running of the system as a whole.

As  well as these settings there is also a `Bandwidth' setting
which  can be used to limit the maximum bandwidth that a  user
can  view at and a `Monitor Ids' setting that can be used  for
non-'System'  users  to restrict them to only  being  able  to
access streams, events or monitors for the given monitors  ids
as  a  comma  separated list with no spaces. If  a  user  with
`Monitors'  edit  privileges is limited to  specific  monitors
here  they will not be able to add or delete monitors but only
change the details of those they have access to. If a user has
`System' privileges then the `Monitors Ids' setting is ignored
and has no effect.'

That's pretty much is it for the tour, though there is  a  lot
more to ZoneMinder as you will discover. You should experiment
with  the  various setting to get the results  you  think  are
right for your requirements.


9.
   
   
   Camera Control
   
Version   1.21.0  of  ZoneMinder  introduced  a  new  feature,
allowing you to control cameras from the web interface and  to
some extent automatically. Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras have  a
wide range of capabilities and use a large number of different
protocols   making  any  kind  of  generic  control   solution
potentially  very difficult. To address this  ZoneMinder  uses
two key approaches to get around this problem.

1) Definition of Capabilities - For each camera model you use,
an  entry  in  the camera capabilities table must be  created.
These  indicate what functions the camera supports and  ensure
that  the interface presents only those capabilities that  the
camera supports. There are a very large number of capabilities
that  may  be  supported  and it is very  important  that  the
entries  in  this  table reflect the actual abilities  of  the
camera. A small number of example capabilities are included in
ZoneMinder, these can be used `as is' or modified.

2)  Control  Scripts  - ZoneMinder itself does  not  generally
provide  the  ability to send commands to cameras  or  receive
responses.  What it does is mediate motion requests  from  the
web interface into a standard set of commands which are passed
to a script defined in the control capability. Example scripts
are provided in ZoneMinder which support a number of serial or
network  protocols but it is likely that for many cameras  new
scripts will have to be created. These can be modelled on  the
example ones, or if control commands already exist from  other
applications, then the script can just act as a  `glue'  layer
between ZoneMinder and those commands.

It  should  be  emphasised  that the  control  and  capability
elements of ZoneMinder are not intended to be able to  support
every  camera  out of the box. Some degree of  development  is
likely to be required for many cameras. This should often be a
relatively straightforward task however if you have  a  camera
that you want to be supported then please feel free to get  in
touch and I should be able to provide an estimate for how much
effort  this is likely to be. It is also the case that I  have
only  been  able to access this limited number of  cameras  to
test  against;  some  other cameras may use  different  motion
paradigms  that  don't fit into the control  capability/script
architecture  that  ZoneMinder uses. If you  come  across  any
cameras  like this then please forward as much information  to
me  as possible so that I may be able to extend the ZoneMinder
model to encompass them.


9.1. Control Capabilities
If  you  have a camera that supports PTZ controls and wish  to
use it with ZoneMinder then the first thing you need to do  is
ensure  that  it  has  an accurate entry in  the  capabilities
table.  To  do this you need to go to the Control tab  of  the
Monitor  configuration dialog and select `Edit'  where  it  is
listed by the Control Type selection box. This will bring up a
new  window  which lists, with a brief summary,  the  existing
capabilities. To edit an existing capability to modify  select
the  Id or Name of the capability in question, or click on the
Add  button to add a new control capability. Either  of  these
approaches  will create a new window, in familiar style,  with
tabs along the top and forms fields below. In the case of  the
capabilities  table there are a large number of  settings  and
tabs, the mean and use of these are briefly explained below.

`Main' Tab
   Name  - This is the name of the control capability, it will
   usually  make sense to name capabilities after  the  camera
   model or protocol being used.
   Type  -  Whether  the  capability  uses  a  local  (usually
   serial) or network control protocol.
   Command  - This is the full path to a script or application
   that  will  map  the  standard set  of  ZoneMinder  control
   commands  to equivalent control protocol command. This  may
   be  one  of  the shipped example zmcontrol-*.pl scripts  or
   something else entirely.
   Can  Wake  -  This  is the first of the  actual  capability
   definitions.  Checking this box indicates that  a  protocol
   command  exists  to  wake  up the camera  from  a  sleeping
   state.
   Can Sleep - The camera can be put to sleep.
   Can  Reset  -  The  camera can be  reset  to  a  previously
   defined state.
`Move' Tab
   Can Move - The camera is able move, i.e. pan or tilt.
   Can  Move Diagonally - The camera can move diagonally. Some
   devices  can  move  only vertically or  horizontally  at  a
   time.
   Can  Move  Mapped  - The camera is able  internally  map  a
   point  on an image to a precise degree of motion to  centre
   that point in the image.
   Can  Move  Absolute - The camera can move  to  an  absolute
   location.
   Can  Move  Relative  - The camera can more  to  a  relative
   location, e.g. 7 point left or up.
   Can  Move Continuous - The camera can move continuously  in
   a  defined  direction until told to stop  or  the  movement
   limits are reached, e.g. left.
`Pan' Tab
   Can Pan - The camera can pan, or move horizontally.
   Min/Max Pan Range - If the camera supports absolute  motion
   this  is the minimum and maximum pan co-ordinates that  may
   be specified, e.g. -100 to 100.
   Min/Man  Pan Step - If the camera supports relative motion,
   this  is  the  minimum and maximum amount of movement  that
   can be specified.
   Has  Pan Speed - The camera supports specification  of  pan
   speeds.
   Min/Max  Pan  Speed  - The minimum and  maximum  pan  speed
   supported.
   Has  Turbo  Pan  - The camera supports an additional  turbo
   pan speed.
   Turbo Pan Speed - The actual turbo pan speed.
`Tilt' Tab
   Definition of Tilt capabilities, fields as for `Pan' tab.
`Zoom' Tab
   Can Zoom - The camera can zoom.
   Can  Zoom  Absolute - The camera can zoom  to  an  absolute
   position.
   Can  Zoom  Relative  - The camera can zoom  to  a  relative
   position.
   Can  Zoom Continuous - The camera can zoom continuously  in
   or out until told to stop or the zoom limits are reached.
   Min/Max  Zoom Range - If the camera supports absolute  zoom
   this  is the minimum and maximum zoom amounts that  may  be
   specified.
   Min/Man  Zoom Step - If the camera supports relative  zoom,
   this  is the minimum and maximum amount of zoom change that
   can be specified.
   Has  Zoom Speed - The camera supports specification of zoom
   speed.
   Min/Max  Zoom  Speed - The minimum and maximum  zoom  speed
   supported.
`Focus' Tab
   Definition  of  Focus capabilities, fields  as  for  `Zoom'
   tab, but with the following additional capability.
   Can Auto Focus - The camera can focus automatically.
`White' Tab
   Definition  of  White Balance capabilities, fields  as  for
   `Focus' tab.
`Iris' Tab
   Definition  of  Iris Control capabilities,  fields  as  for
   `Focus' tab.
`Presets' Tab
   Has Presets - The camera supports preset positions.
   Num  Presets - How many presets the camera supports. If the
   camera  supports  a huge number of presets  then  it  makes
   sense to specify a more reasonable number here, 20 or  less
   is recommended.
   Has   Home  Preset  -  The  camera  has  a  defined  `home'
   position, usually in the mid point of its range.
   Can  Set  Presets  -  The  camera supports  setting  preset
   locations via its control protocol.

9.2. Control Scripts
The  second key element to controlling cameras with ZoneMinder
is  ensuring that an appropriate control script or application
is present. A small number of sample scripts are included with
ZoneMinder  and  can  be used directly or  as  the  basis  for
development. Control scripts are run atomically,  that  is  to
say  that one requested action from the web interface  results
in  one  execution of the script and no state  information  is
maintained. If your protocol requires state information to  be
preserved then you should ensure that your scripts do this  as
ZoneMinder  has  no  concept of the state  of  the  camera  in
control terms.

If  you  are  writing a new control script then  you  need  to
ensure  that  it supports the parameters that ZoneMinder  will
pass  to it. If you already have scripts or applications  that
control your cameras, the ZoneMinder control script will  just
act  as glue to convert the parameters passed into a form that
your  existing application understands. If you are  writing  a
script to support a new protocol then you will need to convert
the  parameters passed into the script to equivalent  protocol
commands.   If   you  have  carefully  defined  your   control
capabilities  above then you should only expect commands  that
correspond to those capabilities.

The  standard set of parameters passed to control  scripts  is
defined below,

   --device=<device>  - This is the control  device  from  the
   monitor definition. Absent if no device is specified.
   --address=<address> - This is the control address from  the
   monitor definition. This will usually be a hostname  or  ip
   address  for network cameras or a simple numeric camera  id
   for other cameras.
   --autostop=<timeout> - This indicates whether an  automatic
   timeout  should be applied to `stop' the given command.  It
   will  only be included for `continuous' commands, as listed
   below,  and will be a timeout in decimal seconds,  probably
   fractional.
   --command=<command> - This specifies the command  that  the
   script should execute. Valid commands are given below.
   
   --xcoord=<x>, --ycoord=<y> - This specifies the x and/or  y
   coordinates  for  commands which require them.  These  will
   normally be absolute or mapped commands.
   
   --width=<width>,  --height=<height> -  This  specifies  the
   width  and  height of the current image, for mapped  motion
   commands  where the coordinates values passed must  have  a
   context.
   
   --speed=<speed>  -  This  specifies  the  speed  that   the
   command should use, if appropriate.
   
   --panspeed=<speed>, --tiltspeed=<speed>  -  This  indicates
   the  specific  pan  and tilt speeds for diagonal  movements
   which may allow a different motion rate for horizontal  and
   vertical components.
   
   --step=<step>  - This specifies the amount of  motion  that
   the  command should use, if appropriate. Normally used  for
   relative commands only.
   
   --panstep=<step>,  --tiltstep=<step> - This  indicates  the
   specific  pan  and tilt steps for diagonal movements  which
   may  allow a different amount of motion for horizontal  and
   vertical components.
   
   --preset=<preset>  - This specifies the  particular  preset
   that relevant commands should operate on.
   
The  `command'  option  listed  above  may  take  one  of  the
following commands as a parameter.

   wake - Wake the camera.
   
   sleep - Send the camera to sleep.
   
   reset - Reset the camera.
   
   move_map  -  Move  mapped to a specified  location  on  the
   image.
   
   move_pseudo_map  - As move_map above. Pseudo-mapped  motion
   can  be  used  when  mapped motion  is  not  supported  but
   relative  motion  is  in which case mapped  motion  can  be
   roughly approximated by careful calibration.
   
   move_abs_<direction>  -  Move  to  a   specified   absolute
   location.  The  direction  element  gives  a  hint  to  the
   direction to go but can be omitted. If present it  will  be
   one  of `up', `down', `left', `right', `upleft', `upright',
   `downleft' or `downright'.
   
   move_rel_<direction>  -  Move a  specified  amount  in  the
   given direction.
   
   move_con_<direction>  -  Move  continuously  in  the  given
   direction until told to stop.
   
   move_stop - Stop any motion which may be in progress.
   
   zoom_abs_<direction>  - Zoom to a specified  absolute  zoom
   position.  The  direction  element  gives  a  hint  to  the
   direction to go but can be omitted. If present it  will  be
   one of `tele' or `wide'.
   
   zoom_rel_<direction>  -  Zoom a  specified  amount  in  the
   given direction.
   
   zoom_con_<direction>  -  Zoom  continuously  in  the  given
   direction until told to stop.
   
   zoom_stop - Stop any zooming which may be in progress.
   
   focus_auto - Set focusing to be automatic.
   
   focus_man - Set focusing to be manual.
   
   focus_abs_<direction>  -  Focus  to  a  specified  absolute
   focus  position. The direction element gives a hint to  the
   direction to go but can be omitted. If present it  will  be
   one of `near' or `far'.
   
   focus_rel_<direction>  - Focus a specified  amount  in  the
   given direction.
   
   focus_con_<direction>  - Focus continuously  in  the  given
   direction until told to stop.
   
   focus_stop - Stop any focusing which may be in progress.
   
   white_<subcommand>  -  As per the  focus  commands,  except
   that direction may be `in' or `out'.
   
   iris_<subcommand> - As per the focus commands, except  that
   direction may be `open' or `close'.
   
   preset_set - Set the given preset to the current location.
   
   preset_goto - Move to the given preset.
   
   preset_home - Move to the `home' preset.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

10.
   
   
   Mobile Devices
   
ZoneMinder  has  always  had a minimal  WML  (Wireless  Markup
Language) capability to allow it to function on mobile  phones
and  similar  devices.  However  as  of  1.20.0  this  is  now
deprecated  and  has been replaced with a new XHTML  -  Mobile
Profile  mode  as  well as the default HTML4.  XHTML-MP  is  a
small,  and  limited,  version of XHTML  intended  for  mobile
devices  and  is  based on XHTML Basic. It  does  not  contain
scripting  or  other  dynamic elements and  essentially  is  a
subset of HTML as most people know it.

The  ZoneMinder XHTML-MP interface allows you to log into your
installation  via your phone or mobile devices and  perform  a
limited  number of tasks. These include viewing recent events,
and   monitoring  live  streams.  However  unlike   the   full
interfaces  these  elements  are  presented  as  still  images
requiring manual refreshing. For now the XHTML-MP interface is
presented  as a prototype interface; rather than one  offering
full  capabilities. As such, please feel free to make comments
or     offer     suggestions     via     the     forums     on
http://www.zoneminder.com.

As  well  as XHTML-MP, ideally I'd like to be able to offer  a
WML2.0  interface. WML2.0 is a blending of  WML1.3,  which  is
traditional  WAP, and XHTML. As such it offers  the  scripting
that WML has traditionally included plus the better control of
mark-up  that is the realm of XHTML. Unfortunately so far  I'm
unaware  of any devices that support WML2.0 even if  they  say
they are WAP2 compliant, certainly I've never had a phone that
does.  If  you  find out that a particular phone does  support
this  then  please let me know (or better still  send  me  the
phone!).

If  you wish to use the XHTML-MP interface to ZoneMinder there
is  no  extra  configuration required to  enable  it  per  se.
However ZoneMinder needs to be able to figure out what kind of
content  to  deliver to particular browsers, so you  have  two
choices.  You  can edit zm.php and include a  definition  that
corresponds to your phone, describing a small number of  basic
capabilities, you will see a couple of examples already there,
or  you  can  use the comprehensive open source WURFL  package
available from http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/. You will need to
download  both  the  WURFL php files and  the  wurfl.xml  file
itself.  WURFL  is  a resource containing information  on  the
capabilities  of a huge number of mobile phones,  devices  and
browsers. Thus once it has matched your phone it can determine
various   capabilities  it  may  possess.  This   means   that
ZoneMinder itself only has to deal with these capabilities and
not the individual phone types.

To  use  WURFL you should install the php files  in  the  same
directory  as  ZoneMinder  and  then  create  a  `wurfl'  sub-
directory  and  ensure  it  is  readable  and  writeable   (or
preferably owned by) your web server user. You should put  the
wurfl.xml  file  in there. One other thing  you  may  need  to
change,  as the xml file is quite large, is the `memory_limit'
setting  in php.ini as the default setting of 8Mb may  be  too
small.  Once you've done this you should find that your  phone
or device is recognised and if it can support XHTML-MP it will
receive that interface. If your phone is very new, or you  are
using an old version of the XML file you might find that it is
not present however. The WURFL library uses a caching strategy
to avoid reloading the whole XML file each time so check if  a
sensible  looking cache file has been created in  the  `wurfl'
sub-directory also check the wurfl.log in the same place.

The WURFL is a third party application and as such I am unable
to  offer support directly for it. If you feel your device  is
missing  or incorrectly represented please contact the authors
via  their  own channels. If on the other hand  you  have  any
comments on ZoneMinder on your device specifically please  let
me know and I would be pleased to hear about it.

As  support for cookies in mobile devices is patchy  at  best,
the  groups  feature is not fully implemented in the  XHTML-MP
views.  Instead  if there is a group called  `Mobile'  already
defined then that group will always be effective, if not  then
all monitors available to the logged in user will be visible,




11.
   
   
   Troubleshooting
   
If  you  are  having problems with ZoneMinder  here  are  some
things  to  try. If these don't work then check the ZoneMinder
FAQ  at http://www.zoneminder.com/faq.html and then the forums
at  http://www.zoneminder.com/forums.html  first  and  see  if
anyone has had the same problem in the past. If not then  feel
free  to  get in touch and I'll see if I can suggest something
else.  Please ensure that you read the posting guidelines  and
go  through  the steps listed below before posting or  mailing
though.

The first thing you need to do is check the ZoneMinder logs to
see  if you can find out what is and what isn't working.  Most
components  of  ZoneMinder  can emit  informational,  warning,
error  and debug messages in a standard format. These messages
can  be  logged  in  one  or more locations.  By  default  all
messages  produced by scripts are logged in <script  name>.log
files  which  are  placed  in the  directory  defined  by  the
ZM_PATH_LOGS configuration variable. This is initially defined
as  `/tmp'  though it can be overridden (see the  Options  and
Users section above). So for example, the zmpkg.pl script will
output messages to /tmp/zmpkg.pl, an example of these messages
is

03/01/06 13:46:00.166046 zmpkg[11148].INF [Command: start]

where the first part refers to the date and time of the entry,
the  next  section is the name (or an abbreviated version)  of
the  script, followed by the process id in square brackets,  a
severity  code (INF, WAR, ERR or DBG) and the debug  text.  If
you change the location of the log directory, ensure it refers
to an existing directory which the web user has permissions to
write  to.  Also  ensure  that no logs  are  present  in  that
directory the web user does not have permission to open.  This
can happen if you run commands or scripts as the root user for
testing  at  some  point. If this occurs then subsequent  non-
privileged runs will fails due to being unable to open the log
files.

As well as specific script logging above, information, warning
and  error messages are logged via the system syslog  service.
This  is  a  standard  component on Linux systems  and  allows
logging of all sorts of messages in a standard way and using a
standard format. On most systems, unless otherwise configured,
messages   produced   by   ZoneMinder   will   go    to    the
/var/log/messages file. On some distributions they may end  up
in  another  file, but usually still in /var/log. Messages  in
this  file  are similar to those in the script log  files  but
differ slightly. For example the above event in the system log
file looks like

Jan  3 13:46:00 shuttle52 zmpkg[11148]: INF [Command: start]

where you can see that the date is formatted differently  (and
only  to 1 second precision) and there is an additional  field
for  the  hostname (as syslog can operate over a network).  As
well  as  ZoneMinder entries in this file  you  may  also  see
entries from various other system components.

A  number  of  users  have asked how to suppress  or  redirect
ZoneMinder messages that are written to this file.  This  most
often  occurs due to not wanting other system messages  to  be
overwhelmed  and  obscured  by the  ZoneMinder  produced  ones
(which  can be quite frequent by default). In order to control
syslog  messages  you need to locate and edit the  syslog.conf
file on your system. This will often be in the /etc directory.
This  file  allows  configuration of syslog  so  that  certain
classes  and  categories of messages are routed  to  different
files  or  highlighted  to a console, or  just  ignored.  Full
details  of  the format of this file is outside the  scope  of
this  document  (typing `man syslog.conf' will give  you  more
information) but the most often requested changes are easy  to
implement.

The   syslog  service  uses  the  concept  of  priorities  and
facilities  where the former refers to the importance  of  the
message and the latter refers to that part of the system  from
which  it  originated.  Standard  priorities  include  `info',
`warning',  `err'  and  `debug'  and  ZoneMinder  uses   these
priorities when generating the corresponding class of message.
Standard facilities include `mail', `cron' and `security'  etc
but  as well this, there are eight `local' facilities that can
be  used  by  machine specific message generators.  ZoneMinder
produces it's messages via the `local1' facility.

So armed with the knowledge of the priority and facility of  a
message,  the  syslog.conf  file  can  be  amended  to  handle
messages however you like.

So to ensure that all ZoneMinder messages go to a specific log
file  you  can  add the following line near the  top  of  your
syslog.conf file

# Save ZoneMinder messages to zm.log#

local1.*                        /var/log/zm/zm.log

which  will ensure that all messages produced with the  local1
facility  are  routed to fhe /var/log/zm/zm.log file.  However
this  does  not necessarily prevent them also going  into  the
standard  system log. To do this you will need to  modify  the
line  that determines which messages are logged to this  file.
This may look something like

# Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher.

# Don't log private authentication messages!

*.info;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none
/var/log/messages

by default. To remove ZoneMinder messages altogether from this
file you can modify this line to look like

*.info;local1.!*;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none
/var/log/messages

which  instructs syslog to ignore any messages from the local1
facility.  If  however you still want warnings and  errors  to
occur in the system log file, you could change it to

*.info;local1.!*;local1.warning;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.n
one;cron.none     /var/log/messages

which  follows  the ignore instruction with a further  one  to
indicate  that any messages with a facility of  local1  and  a
priority of warning or above should still go into the file.

These  recipes  are just examples of how you  can  modify  the
logging  to  suit  your  system, there  are  a  lot  of  other
modifications  you could make. If you do make any  changes  to
syslog.conf you should ensure you restart the syslogd  process
or   send  it  a  HUP  signal  to  force  it  to  reread   its
configuration file otherwise your changes will be ignored.

The  discussion  of  logging above  began  by  describing  how
scripts  produce error and debug messages. The  way  that  the
binaries   work  is  slightly  different.  Binaries   generate
information,  warning  and  error  messages  using  syslog  in
exactly  the  same way as scripts and these messages  will  be
handled   identically.  However  debug  output   is   somewhat
different.  For the scripts, if you want to enable  debug  you
will  need  to  edit  the script file itself  and  change  the
DBG_LEVEL constant to have a value of 1. This will then  cause
debug messages to be written to the <script>.log file as  well
as the more important messages. Debug messages however are not
routed  via syslog. Scripts currently only have one  level  of
debug  so  this  will cause any and all debug messages  to  be
generated.  Binaries work slightly differently and  while  you
can  edit  the  call  to zmDbgInit that is  present  in  every
binary's  `main' function to update the initial value  of  the
debug level, there are easier ways.

o     Use  debug. ZoneMinder has various debug in it  that  by
  default will go into your system log (via syslog). These will
  be of the form of
  
     "Sep  14  14:50:11  localhost  zma-0[1975]:  INF  [Front:
     221000 - Processing at 4.26 fps ]"
     
where  the zma-0 part identifies the daemon and the device  it
is  running on. Entries with INF in are informational and  not
an  error, if you see ERR then it is one, though not  all  are
fatal.  WAR  would  indicate a warning. You can  prevent  this
information from being emitted by setting the ZM_DBG_LEVEL_zmc
environment variable to -1 or less once things are working. If
you  want to run any of the daemons from the command  line  to
test,  setting ZM_DBG_PRINT to 1 will output the debug on  the
console.  You  can  also  use the USR1  and  USR2  signals  to
increase or decrease the amount of debug being emitted.

The best places to look for errors are in the system error log
(normally  /var/log/messages on RedHat), the ZoneMinder  logs,
and   the  web  server  log  (/var/log/httpd/error_log  unless
otherwise defined). There should be something in one of  those
that gives you some kind of tip off.

Some other things you can check.

o     Device  configuration. If you can't get your cameras  to
  work  in  ZoneMinder, firstly make sure that  you  have  the
  correct settings. Use xawtv or something like that to  check
  for settings that work and then run zmu -d <device> -q -v to
  get the settings. If you can't get them to work with that then
  the likelihood is they won't work with ZoneMinder. Also check
  the  system logs (usually /var/log/messages) for  any  video
  configuration errors. If you get some and you're sure they're
  not  a  problem  then  switch off ZM_STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG  in
  zmconfig.pl or the `options' tab.
  
o     Start  simple.  Begin with a single monitor  and  single
  zone. You can run the zmc capture daemon from the command line
  as 'zmc --device <device>' (or whatever your video device is).
  If it returns immediately there's a problem so check the logs,
  if it stays up then your video configuration is probably ok.
  To  get  more  information out of it use debug as  specified
  below.  Also check that the shared memory segment  has  been
  created by doing 'ipcs -m'. Finally, beware of doing tests as
  root and then trying to run as another user as some files may
  not be accessible. If you're checking things as root make sure
  that you clean up afterwards!
  
o    Web server. Ensure that your web server can serve PHP
files. It's also possible that your php.ini file may have some
settings which break ZoneMinder, I'm not a PHP guru but
setting safe mode may prevent your PHP files from running
certain programs. You may have to set configuration to allow
this. Also since the daemons are started by your web server,
if it dies or is shut down then the daemons may disappear. In
this version the daemons are run under the control of a script
which should trap expected signals but it is possible this
doesn't cover all circumstances. If everything else works but
you can't get images in your browser a likely cause is a
mismatch between where your web server expects to execute CGI
scripts and where you have installed the zms streaming server.
Check your server configuration for the correct CGI location
and ensure you have supplied the same directory to the
ZoneMinder configure script via the -with-cgidir option.
o    One of the more common errors you can see in the log
files is of the form 'Can't shmget: Invalid argument'.
Generally speaking this is caused by an attempt to allocate an
amount of shared memory greater than your system can handle.
The size it requests is base on the following formula, ring
buffer size x image width x image height x 3 (for 24 bits
images) + a bit of overhead. So if for instance you were using
24bit 640x480 then this would come to about 92Mb if you are
using the default buffer size of 100. If this is too large
then you can either reduce the image or buffer sizes or
increase the maximum amount of shared memory available. If you
are using RedHat then you can get details on how to change
these settings at
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/database/RHDB-2.1-
Manual/admin_user/kernel-resources.html.
o    You should be able to use a similar procedure with other
distributions to modify the shared memory pool without kernel
recompilations though in some cases this may be necessary. You
can also sometimes get shared memory errors if you have
changed the monitor image size for instance. In this case it
is sometimes that an old process is hanging onto the shared
memory and will not let it be resized. Ensure that you do a
full ZoneMinder restart and/or manually delete the shared
memory segment to check. Use the ipcs and ipcrm system
commands to check and remove segments if necessary.
o    If you get odd javascript errors and your web console or
other screens come up with bits missing then it's possible
that there is a problem with the PHP configuration. Since
version 0.9.8 ZoneMinder has used short PHP open tags to
output information, so instead of something like this '<?php
echo $value ?>', it will be something like this '<?= $value
?>' which is easier and quicker to write as well as being
neater. More information about this directive can be seen at
the following location,
http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.directives.php#ini.
short-open-tag. However although by default most PHP
installations support this form, some will need to have it
switched on explicitly. To do this you will first need to find
your php.ini file (do a 'locate php.ini' or 'find / -name
php.ini'. Be aware however that sometimes you might find more
than one, so ensure you identify the one that is actually
being used. You will then need to find the line that starts
'short_open_tag = ' and change the Off value to On. This will
correct the problem. However in some cases you may have
explicitly switched it off, so that XML compliant documents
can be more easily served, or you may even not have permission
to edit the file. In this case you can go into the web
directory of ZoneMinder and run 'sh retag.sh' which will
replace all the short open tags in the files themselves with
the longer variant. You will obviously have to remember to do
this for each subsequent version of ZoneMinder that you
install as well.
o    Paths. I admit it, the various paths in ZoneMinder can be
bit of a nightmare mainly because some relate to real
directories and others to web paths. Make sure that they are
all correct and that permissions are such that the various
parts of ZoneMinder can actually run.
o    Missing perl modules. There are various perl modules used
by the various scripts. If you get errors about missing ones,
the easiest way to install them is to type the following (you
will probably need to be root),
  perl -MCPAN -eshell
  
  this  will  then  (eventually, after some  configuration  if
  it's  your first time) present you with a prompt. From there
  you  can type install module, e.g. Archive::Zip and the rest
  should  be  more  or  less automatic as it  will  chase  any
  dependencies   for   you.  There   may   be   some   initial
  configuration  questions it might  ask  you  on  startup  if
  you've  never run it before and to speed things up  I  would
  not  install  a  new Bundle at this point  (it  can  end  up
  building you a whole new perl if you're not careful)  if  it
  asks    you   but   everything   else   should   be    quite
  straightforward.  You  can often also install  perl  modules
  via your ordinary package manager, e.g. yum or apt.
  
o    Unsupported palettes. ZoneMinder currently is designed to
  use the simple palettes of greyscale and 24 bit as well as now
  the  YUV420P and some other palettes. This should cover most
  cameras but it's possible that there are ones out there that
  might  want  to  use more esoteric formats  that  ZoneMinder
  doesn't support. This will often show up as the capture daemon
  being  unable to set picture attributes. If this occurs  try
  using different palettes starting with greyscale and if  you
  can't get anything to work let me know and I'll try and  add
  it.
  
o    USB bus problems. If you have multiple USB cameras on one
bus then it can appear as if ZoneMinder is causing your
cameras to fail. This is because the bandwidth available to
cameras is limited by the fairly low USB speed. In order to
use more than one USB camera with ZoneMinder (or any
application) you will need to inform the driver that there are
other cameras requiring bandwidth. This is usually done with a
simple module option. Examples are usb_alt=<n> for the OV511
driver and cams=<n> for CPIA etc. Check your driver
documentation for more details. Be aware however that sharing
cameras in this way on one bus will also limit the capture
rate due to the reduced bandwidth.
o    Incorrect libjpeg.a detection. It seems to be the case
that in some cases the library file libjpeg.a is reported as
missing even when apparently present. This appears to actually
be down to the g++ compiler not being installed on the host
system. Since ZoneMinder contains both C++ and C files you
need to be able to compile both of these file types and so
usually need to ensure you have gcc and g++ installed (though
they are often the same binary).
o    Httpd and zms memory leaks. It has been reported by some
users with RedHat 9 that the zms process fails to terminate
correctly when the controlled window is killed and also that
it, and it's associated httpd process, continue to grow in
memory size until they kill the system. This appears to be a
bug in early versions of  apache 2. On other systems it may
appear that zms is leaking and growing. However what grows is
the total and shared memory size while the non-shared memory
size stays constant. It's a little odd but I think what it
happening is that as zms picks images out of the shared memory
ring buffer to display, as each slot is read the size of that
bit of memory is added to the shared memory total for the
process. As streamed images are not read consecutively it's a
semi-random process so initially most of the buffer slots are
new and the shared memory size grows then as time goes on the
remaining unaccessed slots reduce until once all have been
read the shared memory use caps out at the same size as the
actual segment. This is what I would have expected it to be in
the first place, but it seems to do it incrementally. Then
once this total is hit it grows no further. As it's shared
memory anyway and already in use this apparent leak is not
consuming any more memory than when it started.
Also,  if  you  are using IE under Windows  and  get  lots  of
annoying clicks when various windows refresh then you'll  need
to   edit   your   registry   and   remove   the   value   for
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\Navigating\.
current or download the registry script to do it for you  from
http://www.zoneminder.com/downloads/noIEClick.reg


12.
   
   
   Change Log
   

12.1.     Release 1.22.0
Major  architectural changes as well as a whole raft of  other
enhancements and fixes.

o     FEATURE  -  Zones can now be (virtually)  any  shape  of
  polygon.   This   means  that  triangular,  octagonal,   duo
  decahedrons etc are now supported. The only exceptions to this
  are self-intersecting shapes which will be flagged. This adds
  a lot more flexibility to the definition of zones. Zones can
  be drawn semi-interactively.
  
o    FEATURE - Certain preset zones settings are now supplied
to allow quicker configuration of zones. These are intended to
be a guide only, and not definitive settings but form a useful
starting point.
o    FEATURE - The zmpkg.pl scripts now attempts to determine
the supported syntax of the `su' command so it should work
even with distributions like Slackware that don't support the
-shell option. Previously this required a hand edit.
o    FEATURE - Some common perl functionality has been moved
to perl modules which have been included. This also allows
other scripts to use the ZoneMinder modules to create
additional functionality particularly in the area of
triggering. All scripts have been converted to use these
modules.
o    FEATURE - A (small currently) number of monitor presets
have been added to the monitor configuration view. This allows
quicker initial configuration of certain (mostly network)
cameras without having to know all the paths. Contributions
detailing other cameras will be gratefully accepted.
o    FEATURE - Signal loss on locally attached video sources
is now detected. This will create a short Signal Lost event on
signal loss, followed by a Signal Reacquired event when it
comes back. While the signal is lost no recording will take
place in any mode.
o    FEATURE - The zmtrigger.pl script has been completed
revamped to support both incoming and outgoing triggers.
Certain example triggers and connections have been included in
the trigger modules but this is intended to be an example only
and to provide a basis for users to customise and add their
own functionality. Users will also be able to contribute
modules tailored to specific external systems.
o    FEATURE - More configuration has been moved to the
zm.conf file. All components now use this file for initial
configuration. Scripts may also use a local copy, in the same
directory, to allow overrides etc.
o    FEATURE - The zmconfig.pl script is no more! Building now
only requires the `configure' step and then make etc. Database
parameters can be supplied to the configure script.
o    FEATURE - The configure script now includes more system
compatibility checking including checks for required and
optional perl modules.
o    FEATURE - All libjpeg output is now trapped and handled
as regular format debug.
o     FEATURE - Some jpeg data is cached on first use  instead
  of  being regenerated each time. This should speed  up  jpeg
  handling to some degree.
  
o     FEATURE  -  Event data can be optionally  saved  to  COM
  fields in the jpeg file header.
  
o    FEATURE - A system summary command has been added to zmu.
o    FEATURE - Filtering can now be done on the event id
field.
o    FEATURE - Filtering can now be done on the event
description field.
o    FEATURE - The `check all' on event lists etc is now a
toggle checkbox.
o    FEATURE - In Mocord mode, events can now be forced to
close when the event has reached the section length even if an
alarm is in progress. Previously this would have resulted in
an extended event.
o    FEATURE - The `groups' view has been overhauled and
rationalised.
o    FEATURE - A default event replay rate has been added.
o    FEATURE - Videos can now be created from filters.
o    FEATURE - Added tokens for event cause (%EC%) and
description (%ED%) for filter generated emails. The %ED% token
was previously used for event length, this has now changed to
%EL%. You will need to update any filters that use this token
to use the new value.
o    FEATURE - There is now a separate auto-execute checkbox
from filters to allow definition of a script but not execution
if this is not desired.
o    FEATURE - When filters are loaded, a hint appears to
indicate what automatic function options they have been saved
with.
o    FEATURE - Improved the behaviour of the automatic PTZ
stop feature when using Pelco type PTZ cameras.
o    FEATURE - The configure script now allows an option to
compile all debug out from the binaries.
o    FEATURE - The configure script now takes a generic `extra
libs' option to allow specification of any extra libraries
that may be required for compilation due to additional ffmpeg
options etc. The mp3lame option has been removed.
o    FEATURE - Mime support for streaming has been enhanced to
allow easy configuration of additional formats of data
streaming. The streaming daemons themselves have also been
improved to support the generation of other stream formats.
o    FEATURE - The handling of video viewing via the `video'
view has been improved to allow embedded viewing of videos as
well as easy saving locally.
o    FEATURE - The alarm sound that can be configured to play
when viewing a monitor with a current alarm has now been
improved to not depend on the refreshing of the status which
resulted in clipped audio.
o    FEATURE - Script debug now follows the same format as all
debug and uses the syslog facility. This means that all
important messages go into the /var/log/messages file (or
equivalent). This can be modified by redirecting the local1
facility in syslog.conf to go elsewhere, or be ignored, if so
desired.
o    FEATURE - A new raw streaming format has been added for
live monitor streams. This produces a low cpu impact raw rgb
feed.
o    FEATURE - A zm.pid file is now placed in /var/run/zm when
ZoneMinder is running, and removed when stopped. This can be
used by other elements to check the status of ZoneMinder. The
pid in the file is that of the master zmdc.pl server instance.
o    FEATURE - The continuous/triggered settings for monitors
have now been removed. They have been replaced by an Enabled
flag that indicates whether a monitor is actually doing the
task assigned to it. This can be used by scripts to disable or
enable monitors depending on external triggers without having
to change the Function or start and stop daemons. The state of
this flag is now saved in `run states' to allow ZoneMinder to
be started with some monitors initially disabled.
o    FEATURE - Restructured zmfilter.pl to better handle
filters and ensure that auto functions are performed in a
logical sequence (e.g. not deleted before being archived).
o    FEATURE - Added link to Zones configuration to the live
watch view.
o    FEATURE - The event link in the xHTML interface now goes
somewhere useful.
o    FEATURE - Reformatted a number of xHTML views to use
tables for better layout.
o    FEATURE - The default reference image blend percentage
has been changed to 7% to persist events slightly longer.
o    FEATURE - The monitor configuration view has been re-
organised slightly and some fields have moved between tabs.
o    FEATURE - When motion is detected the centre of the
region of motion is written to shared memory, where is can be
used for tracking. This can now optionally be a simple median
of the motion extents or (in blob mode) a weighted centre for
better location of irregularly shaped events.
o    FEATURE - Added event progress and navigation bar to
event view (currently not on IE). This allows partial replay
of events and an indication of how far through the event it
is. This is off by default for low bandwidth settings as the
image replay tends not to be able to keep up.
o    FEATURE - Added --with-libarch to configure for 64 bit
builds. This allows an alternative library path to be
specified for 64 bit versions of system libraries.
o    FEATURE - Made zmaudit optional and with a configurable
delay. Systems with large numbers of events may wish to turn
zmaudit off and run manually at off peak hours or increase the
execution interval.
o    FEATURE - All logging now done via Debug.pm. This helps
bring script logging more into line with that in the binaries.
The process is not yet complete however.
o    FEATURE - Language selection now a dropdown showing
available languages.
o    FEATURE - The zmcontrol-kx-hcm10.pl script has been
renamed to the more generic zmcontrol-panasonic-ip.pl script
as it should work with all Panasonic IP cameras.
o    FEATURE - Added PTZ control script for Neu-Fusion NCS370
IP cameras.
o    FIX - The zms script has been corrected to accept any
authentication method regardless of what has been configured
to be used.
o    FIX - The zmc processes now exit if any 4xx error is
reported from remote network image sources.
o    FIX - The experimental zmtrack.pl script was broken and
didn't work. This has now been corrected.
o    FIX - Versions 0.4.8, 0.4.9-pre1 and CVS ffmpeg are now
supported correctly.
o    FIX - A problem with event statistics not always being
output was fixed.
o    FIX - A problem with the JPEG file quality setting being
ignored was fixed.
o    FIX - A problem with brackets in filters has been fixed.
o    FIX - The console view previously could spawn instances
of zmdc.pl when ZM wasn't running. This has now been
corrected.
o    FIX - The console view has been optimised to speed up
display by up to a factor of ten.
o    FIX - Scaling of stills event views has now been
rationalised to not ever be smaller than 100% as the image is
always sent at at least this resolution.
o    FIX - A problem with zmaudit.pl mishandling recovered
events has been fixed.
o    FIX - Fixed number of minor memory access issues.
o    FIX - Fixed `undefined pid' error in zmdc.pl.
o    FIX - Changed a bunch of Info calls to Debug to reduce
log clutter.
o    FIX - Fixed a couple of problems with the authentication
relay methods in zms.
o    FIX - Fixed issue with control permissions whereby a user
also  needed monitor edit permissions to be able to control a
monitor.
o    FIX - Logs created by root are chowned to web user to
help prevent permission issues.
o    FIX - Problems with different type sizes when accessing
shared memory on 64 bit systems have been fixed.
o    FIX - The zmvideo script now quotes filenames correctly
and so won't die if they have unusual characters in them.
o    FIX - Fixed issue with streaming events with out of
sequence frames causing immense timeouts.
o    FIX - Most mysql queries in the web interface did not
have their result resources freed. This was untidy but
generally did not have any deleterious consequences. However
all queries are now properly freed.
o    FIX - Password handling in the user configuration form
was a bit ugly. This has been tidied up.
o    FIX - Some configuration has had default values changed.
o    LANGUAGE - A Czech translation has been included. Thanks
for user `' for this file.

12.2.     Release 1.21.4
A whole bunch of improvements and fixes.

o     FEATURE  -  The  video  generation  interface  has  been
  redesigned and expanded. This allows you to see what  videos
  have  been generated previously and manage, view or download
  them.  You  can also specify more precisely what  input  and
  output options to pass to ffmpeg and what video formats  you
  want to support. These options are available from the Options-
  >Tools view.
  
o    FEATURE - Historical video is now supported from the
XHTML mobile device interface allowing you to replay previous
events etc.
o    FEATURE - A new timeline view has been added. This is an
enhanced graphic activity view that represents events as
colour coded bars on a time based chart. Passing your mouse
over the activity will display images and details from the
events in the chart. You are able to choose whether you see
this view or the traditional events view as a default. Since
this view can be a large file and dynamic loading of event
images can be bandwidth intensive this preference can be
specific on a bandwidth specific basis. The option to switch
between the traditional list and the timeline view is
available at all times however. IMPORTANT NOTE: This view is a
beta version only and due to extensive use of CSS currently
only renders correctly on FireFox type browsers. Even then as
it can use huge numbers of elements it is possible it may
degrade or crash your browser. Specifically Internet Explorer
seems to get totally confused and renders some elements twice
and others in the wrong place etc. I hope to remedy this
situation for the next release but for now using this view
with IE is not recommended.
o    FIX - References to the video device files are now
expressed as full file paths rather than just numbers. This
allows files other than /dev/videoX to be used easily.
o    FIX - Integration with all versions of ffmpeg, including
CVS, is now supported. At least until the next ffmpeg
interface change anyway!
o    FEATURE - Monitors can now use a file path as a video
source. This allows you to use scripts such as wget or other
webcam type applications to generate your images which can
then be fed into ZoneMinder as a monitor and analysed and
archived etc.
o    FEATURE - Users can now be defined with a maximum
bandwidth setting. This prevents low privilege users from
swamping the system with lots of high bandwidth streaming.
o    FEATURE - Debug levels for the binaries can now be
controlled in a limited fashion from the Options screen. For
more details see the help on the Options->Tools-
>ZM_EXTRA_DEBUG* options.
o    FEATURE - The user authentication methods have been
revised to separate authentication at the web front end from
authentication at back end streaming. Thus there are now
several more authentication options to allow more fine
control. The most significant of these ZM_AUTH_TYPE now offers
a choice of `remote' authentication which allows you to use a
third party authentication scheme such as http basic
authentication and have that users name passed via the
REMOTE_USER environment variable. Providing there is a user of
that name known to ZoneMinder they will be automatically
logged in. Be warned however that there is no facility for
this user to log out so ensure that you do not lock yourself
into a low privilege account. Also you may need to remove user
cookies when you change authentication methods.
o    FEATURE - Users now have a `control' permission which
determines whether they are able to control PTZ style cameras.
As with the other permissions there are three levels, None,
View and Edit. Unlike some of the other options it may not be
obvious what levels do what. The `None' level bars access to
any control functionality, the `View' level permits users to
actually control the positioning and settings of a camera
(rather than just look at them which is what might be
expected) and the `Edit' level allows users to modify the
various control capabilities.
o    FIX - A bug was fixed where the streamed images were
using the quality settings for saved files.
o    FIX - Jpeg errors are now reported via the generic
ZoneMinder error and debug mechanism rather than just to
standard output as is the default in libjpeg.
o    FIX - The time taken to load and refresh the console view
has been reduced. This is especially significant where you may
have lots of monitors.
o    FIX - Paths to the control scripts were hard coded with a
full path. This broke the packaged ZoneMinder distributions so
the paths are now relative to the ZM_PATH_BIN config unless
they start with a `/'.
o    FIX - The masks used for shared memory have now been
refined to prevent invalid values from causing duplicates.
o    FEATURE - Monitors can now be re-ordered from the console
view to allow you to choose how you would like them arranged.
o    FEATURE - Motion detection can now be temporarily
disabled from the watch view. This is most useful with PTZ
type cameras where you can switch off motion detection whilst
repositioning the camera. Just don't forget to switch it back
on again afterwards!
o    FEATURE - A default scale per bandwidth setting can now
be defined. This allows you to reduce the size of streams etc
on slow connections.
o    FEATURE - Monitors can now be defined with a default
scale. This allows you to reduce the viewing size of a monitor
that might be capturing at a large image size. This works in
conjunction with the bandwidth specific scaling so if you
bandwidth setting is 50% and your monitor is also 50% then at
that bandwidth you will be viewing at 25%. This is to ensure
that all monitors maintain relative scaling at all bandwidths.
o    FEATURE - The choice of streaming versus stills views as
default can now be specified per bandwidth setting.
o    FEATURE - In the past there has been some confusion about
what the `prev' and `next' options do when scrolling through
events. They actually move to the previous or next event in
the list from which the event was selected rather than in
chronological order. Previously this order was descending
date/time in most cases meaning that the previous event would
be one that occurred after the current event. In order to
prevent this confusion and allow users to define a default
order which they prefer there are now two more options in
Options->System called ZM_EVENT_SORT_FIELD and
ZM_EVENT_SORT_ORDER which allow you to choose your own sort
type and order. The default for these is now date/time
ascending meaning oldest first which is opposite to the
previous default and you will need to update these options to
retain the previous behaviour. Note also that this ordering
applies only to event lists and not the `last x events' in the
watch window which are still newest first.
o    FIX - A curious problem with logging in on PHP 4.4 has
now been fixed.
o    FEATURE - Following requests and some confusion about how
often filters are executed versus reloaded from the database,
this is now a configurable options (Options->System->
ZM_FILTER_EXECUTE_INTERVAL). Please read the help on this
option for guidance on what values to use.
o    FEATURE - A `Filters' button has been added to the main
console view allowing easier access to the filters view.
o    FEATURE - Support for the HTTPS protocol has been added
allowing streaming etc to function over secure links.
o    FEATURE - The layout and functionality of the XHTML
screens has been enhanced to make them more useful overall.
o    FEATURE - Following virtual extinction of donations I
have added a small one time nag screen which invites you to
donate to ZoneMinder after a month of use. That's all it does
and once dismissed you will never see it again!
o    LANGUAGE - A lot of new tokens have been added. These
have been included in all the language files in English. It
would be appreciated if anyone who is able to edit their
zm_lang_xx_yy.php language files and translate these tokens
could email them back to me so I can include them in future
releases.

12.3.     Release 1.21.3
Additional bug fix release.

o     FIX - Images from rotated monitors had been broken in  a
  previous release. This has been corrected.
  
o    FIX - The bogus deletion of events by zmaudit has finally
been completely fixed.
o    FIX - Fixed a problem where Axis PTZ controls sometimes
caused the camera to move in an incorrect direction.
o    FIX - Fixed an issue where the `goto preset' command did
not pass the appropriate preset number (and so defaulted to 1)
for the Axis, Panasonic and VISCA protocols.
o    FIX - A problem existed where renaming monitors did not
rename the symbolic link to the events directory. Thanks to
forum user `tommy' for suggesting the fix to this issue.
o    FIX - The README document has been restructured slightly
to make it easier to find the information you require. This
includes the addition of an Upgrading section to clarify the
process of upgrading from a previous version.

12.4.     Release 1.21.2
Minor-ish bug fixes to the 1.21.1 release.

o    FIX - If the defined image timestamp format for a monitor
  contained only time directives and no %%s directives then the
  timestamp was not included in the image at all.
  
o    FIX - An ugly divide by zero error was present on new
installations where no monitors had yet been defined.
o    FIX - The Pelco-D protocol control script did not
properly support Iris control.
o    FIX - Fixed a nasty problem in zmaudit which meant that
older events sometimes didn't get tidied up and deleted
properly.
o    FIX - Fixed an issue with the multi-part jpeg streams
having frame boundaries output at the end of each image and
not the beginning. Apart from this not being ideal
semantically it also meant that ZM had trouble parsing it's
own output!
o    FEATURE - Some of the scripts have a new debug format
that is more similar to the one used in the binaries.

12.5.     Release 1.21.1
Menage of various new features and bug fixes.

o     FIX - The HTTP refresh method of updating the Cycle view
  was broken. This is now fixed.
  
o    FIX - There was an arbitrary limit on the size of a blob
due to the dimensioning of the field in the database. This has
been increased to allow all possible blob sizes to be
accounted for.
o    FIX - On some platforms there is no definition of the
`round' function. Previous versions of ZM have detected this
and included one if no other is present. However changes in
1.21.0 meant that this did not always happen and the function
went undefined. This has been corrected.
o    FEATURE - Support has been added to allow monitors to be
defined as mirrored. Thus images can now be flipped
horizontally or vertically before processing as well as
rotated as in previous versions.
o    FIX - Made the `Options' link only appear if the user has
sufficient permissions.
o    FIX - Fixed issue where the PTZ control function to set
camera presets never passed the preset number so preset 1 was
always used.
o    FEATURE - A custom title can now be added via the normal
Options dialog (ZM_WEB_TITLE_PREFIX). This title will be used
in all browser windows and allows you to distinguish between
multiple ZM installations for example.
o    FEATURE - Ordinarily ZoneMinder will resize the console
window to fit the number of monitors displayed. If you are
using a tabbed browser this can be a little irritating. A new
option (ZM_WEB_RESIZE_CONSOLE) has been added to control this
behaviour.
o    FEATURE - Version 1.21.0 added support for events to be
labelled with Cause and Notes fields. However these could not
be modified directly from the web interface. This has been
amended so that an `Edit' link is now present in the events
listing. Clicking on this allows you to modify these fields
for one or more events so they can be identified as belonging
to a particular incident.
o    FEATURE - There has long been a dichotomy between the
functions that can be applied via interactive filters versus
background saved filters. This release addresses this to some
extent allowing you, for instance, to archive or unarchive
matching events, or edit them as described above. This is not
a complete solution and it is expected that the functionality
will converge further in the future.
o    FEATURE - Previously in the c/c++ code accessor functions
had to be called to access the value of configuration options.
This was expensive when done repeatedly so some classes used
cached local variables to avoid this. The configuration has
been rewritten to provide all configuration options as members
of the configuration class which are initialised once on
startup and then can be accessed directly with no further
overhead.
o    LANGUAGE - Support for the Danish language has now been
included. Thanks for forum user `voronwe' for his work on
this. Select dk_dk in the languages preferences to use this
language.
o    FEATURE - Events viewed in the events listing view can
now be saved locally by clicking on the `Export' button. This
creates a tar or zip file of the selected file groups, such as
images, videos etc, as well as, optional, HTML pages
describing the basic details about the event and frame
details. This allows a basic navigation and viewing of the
events outside of the regular ZoneMinder interface. This
format is different, and improved, over that that created in
the background filter function and it is expected that these
functions will converge at some point.
o    FIX - Clearing the `Track Motion' checkbox in the Control
section of the Monitor configuration would not be saved
resulting in this setting being stuck in an `on' state. This
has been corrected.
o    FIX - The `Play All' link in the event view allows a
sequence of events to be streamed consecutively. This is fine
in a streamed view but meaningless in the stills view so has
been removed.
o    FEATURE - The `show' trigger command in zmtrigger.pl has
been added to allow miscellaneous externally sourced text to
be displayed in the image timestamps.
o    FEATURE - Add the `Auto Stop Timeout' monitor control
option to allow finer control of Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras with
support for only basic continuous modes of motion.
o    LANGUAGE - The German language files have been updated.
o    FEATURE - Support for control of Axis network cameras has
been added. This uses the zmcontrol-axis-v2.pl script and
should work with all Axis PTZ network cameras that use version
2 of the Axis API.
o    FEATURE - The zmaudit.pl script has been modified to be
faster and access disk a lot less. Previously it was possible
for this script to frequently thrash disks while determining
timestamps on directories.
o    FEATURE - A contributed patch by Ross Melin has been
included. This gives you the option of using an alternative
mailing method in the zmfilter.pl script if the default method
does not work correctly. To use the new method go to Options-
>Email and set ZM_NEW_MAIL_MODULES to on.
o    FIX - Previously the ZM_EMAIL_HOST config was not passed
to the zmfilter.pl script so hosts other than localhost were
not used. This has been fixed.
o    LANGUAGE - A translation for the Romanian language has
been added. To use it select ro_ro as the language.
o    FIX - In previous versions the path to the zms daemon
from web pages was in the form of a local web path without
hostname. This has been reported as not working with certain
media players where the hostname is not implied, as with
browsers. The paths to the streaming server now always have
the hostname prepended so that they are always a full valid
url.
o    FIX - Monitors that are inactive no longer have an active
link for streaming as this has no real purpose.
o    FEATURE - An experimental Pelco-P control script has been
added to support PTZ cameras that support this protocol. This
script has not really been tested but is included as a basis
for further development or customisation.
o    FIX - The zmfilter.pl script now respects the
ZM_FAST_DELETE option and will fully delete any events rather
than assuming that zmaudit.pl will clear up if it just removes
the primary database record.
o    FIX - The montage view layout now correctly utilises the
ZM_MAX_MONTAGE_COLS option when determining the dimensions and
layout of the montage window.
o    FEATURE - A contributed patch by forum user `lazyleopard'
has been included. This allows a specified number of frames to
be discarded to alleviate problems with broken interlaced
frames where multiple cameras share one bttv chip and produce
a `comb edge' like image. To invoke this option go to Options-
>Config and set ZM_CAPTURES_PER_FRAME to greater than 1, a
value of 3 is recommended in the first instance.
o    FEATURE - Several users have reported problems using the
Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library, mostly to
do with it not being found or an incorrect version being used.
This version allows an alternative method of parsing the
output from network cameras that does not depend on libpcre at
all. Which method is used is controlled by the option Options-
>Network->ZM_NETCAM_REGEXPS. If this option is on then the
traditional regular expression based parsing is implemented,
provided you have built with libpcre. If the option is off or
libpcre is missing then a more basic parsing is used instead.
This new method should be slightly faster as it does not have
the overhead of regular expression parsing, however this also
makes it slightly more inflexible. If you experience problems
using the new method with your netcam then you should try
switching to the regular expression based method, and report
the issue via the forums, preferably with a snapshot of the
output of your camera.

12.6.     Release 1.21.0
Addition of camera control, plus several bugfixes.

o     FEATURE  -  Added support for Pan/Tilt/Zoom and  general
  camera control.
  
o    FIX - The montage view layout has been modified to allow
better dynamic layout of windows. Views should now be laid out
in a more logical arrangement. This is a relatively temporary
change and the montage view will shortly be rewritten to use
flowing `div' tags which should add more flexibility and be
less complex.
o    FIX - All stream views now have an `alt' tag to highlight
which monitor they should be displaying.
o     FIX - Detection of which markup language to use, HTML or
  XHTML-MP has now been optimised to ensure that the test only
  happens once per session.
  
o     FIX - Some constants were defined unquoted, this has now
  been corrected.
  
o    FIX - The zmtrigger.pl script had an old, and incorrect,
initial section using constants that were no longer valid.
This has now been fixed.
o    FIX - The regular expression patterns used to parse the
zm.conf file have been modified to ensure that they should
always work.
o    FIX - In previous versions it was possible for a process
to die and not be reaped by zmdc.pl. This could have resulted
in processes remaining as zombies resulting in them not being
restarted after crashing. This has now been fixed so all dying
processes will be caught and handled.
o    FIX - The frame view has been restructured to ensure that
it has a consistent look and does not display unwanted
wrapping.
o    FIX - A couple of remnant hard coded text elements have
been replaced with tokens as they should have been originally.
o    FIX - Previously separate `object' and `embed' tags were
used for Internet Explorer and non-IE browsers. These have
been merged so that browsers will use whichever tag is
appropriate. Any player controls that were present should now
be hidden as well.
o     FIX - A problem was present whereby the Maximum FPS  set
  in the bandwidth settings was not being respected in the live
  streams. This is now fixed.
  
o     FIX - If users were created with restricted monitor ids,
  it was sometimes possible that permission errors would still
  be  issued  if they tried to view streams or other  elements
  associated  with monitors in their list. This has  now  been
  corrected such that any restrictions are applied correctly.
  
o    FIX - Users created with only `view streams' permissions
were presented with a `permission denied' error in the area of
the Watch window normally containing the recent events list.
Whilst this was technically correct it was unnecessary and
untidy, and has now been changed just to be blank.

12.7.     Release 1.20.1
Mostly  bug  fixes,  large and small with a  couple  of  minor
features included.

o     FIX - A dependency on the regular expression library was
  introduced in 1.20.0 which caused some people to have  build
  problems. This library has traditionally been is necessary to
  support network cameras but not otherwise. This situation has
  now been restored.
  
o    FEATURE - Added ZM_RAND_STREAM option. This option adds a
time code onto the url of each stream to prevent it from being
cached which had caused some broken image problems with some
browsers, notably Mozilla.
o    FIX - Made zms check ZM_OPT_AUTH before loading user
details. This should have been in there in 1.20.0 but was
omitted and should fix the issue where streams did not work
with authentication off.
o     FIX - There was some debug code left behind in
zm_xhtml.php. This was unnecessary and has been removed.
o     FIX - Fixed user sql, added debug and wrapped in check
for libcrypto in zm_user.cpp. This should correct bogus
loading of user data which may have affected some people. You
can also now just bump up the debug level to see what the auth
strings being used are.
o    FIX - The xHTML console page now uses the mobile group as
it should have in 1.20.0
o    FIX - Modified database username to be binary. You need
to run the zmalter-1.20.0 sql script as usual to change your
Users table to disallow case-insensitive checking which may
have been breaking some people's streams.
o    FIX - Fixed incorrect constant definitions in
zmtrigger.pl. This script had not been updated along with the
other scripts.
o    FIX - Fixed bogus double .jpg suffix on diagnostic
images, also included them (if they exist) in frame view.
o    FIX - Corrected broken check for libcrypto (the check
happened before any definition) causing build problems for
some people who do not have MD5 library installed.
o    FIX - Added permissions mode to mkdir in zm_actions.php
to remove php warning.
o    FIX - Added space before -m in zmu command in
zm_actions.php
o    FIX - Added quotes around brightness etc SQL in
zm_actions.php to avoid errors when values are empty.
o    FIX - Added line length to fgets in zm_config.php.z to
prevent php warning
o    FIX - Slightly enlarged a couple of window sizes in
zm_config.php.z to work better with different browsers.
o    FIX - Defined empty array in html_view_states to prevent
php warnings.
o    FEATURE - Console window now sizes itself according to
how many monitors in list, though there is a minimum size.
o    FIX - Corrected bug in zmfilter.pl.z which meant that
images were not always correctly uploaded.

12.8.     Release 1.20.0
Improved and added features, several minor bug fixes.

o      FEATURE   -  Certain  configuration  (Mostly   database
  settings) is now stored in a new file zm.conf. This means that
  database access settings can be changed without recompilation.
  It  also  allows  the  creation of  ZoneMinder  rpms.  Watch
  zoneminder.com for details. Thanks for forum user `oskin' for
  his work on this.
  
o    FEATURE - The WML interface is now deprecated and the
XHTML-MP interface is the new supported interface for mobile
devices.
o    FEATURE - Monitor groups have now been added allowing
subsets of monitors to be viewed independently.
o    FEATURE - A generic external triggering interface has
been included via the zmtrigger.pl script. A new monitor
function `Nodect' has been added to support this.
o    FEATURE - Interaction between the web pages and the
streaming daemons and other utilities has previously been not
as secure as it could have been and open to possible abuse.
This has now been addressed and zms and zmu both now use
(optional) authentication strings to validate access. You need
to have openssl installed so that the MD5 libraries can be
linked. See the ZM_AUTH_METHOD and ZM_AUTH_SECRET
configuration items for further details.
o    FEATURE - The maximum daemon restart delay in zmdc.pl was
previously fixed at 15 minutes. This may have been too long
for some users, for example if power has failed to a camera
then a 15 minute delay on restoration is not desirable. This
maximum is now configurable via the ZM_MAX_RESTART_DELAY
configuration item.
o    FEATURE - The web files have been changed to use the
newer style autoglobals, e.g. $_SERVER rather than
$HTTP_SERVER_VARS. This should enable use on PHP5 without any
modification.
o    FIX - The use of two database users has been somewhat
redundant for a number of versions now. In 1.20.0 there is
only one database user. The zmupdate.pl script unfortunately
cannot handle the migration as it needs to access the database
so you should make a note of the username and password of the
privileged user and then re-enter that using zmconfig.pl when
rebuilding ZM.
o    FIX - The zmupdate.pl script previously held a database
connection open for days at a time but only used to use it
periodically. This has now been changed to be only open while
in use.
o    FIX - Debug output and it's relationship with environment
variables etc was previously broken. This has been tidied up
and made much easier to use and understand.
o    FIX - A number of SQL queries have been analysed and
optimised to run much faster.
o    FIX - The monitor status was not always being reported
correctly in the monitor watch window. This has been
corrected.
o    FIX - Image numbering in the zmf daemon was sometimes
wrong if more or less than three significant digits were used.
This has been corrected.
o    FIX - Image capture timeouts used by zmwatch.pl to
restart apparently frozen zmc processes were being calculated
incorrectly on occasion. This was causing some unnecessary
processes to be restarted. This calculation has been fixed.
o    FIX - Complete DOCTYPE headers were added to HTML output
and some HTML was tidied up to be more compliant.
o    FIX - There was a problem with the interaction between
monitor statuses and the status web window. This meant that
sometimes the window did not pop to the front, or play the
alarm sound, properly. This has been corrected.
o    FIX - Some network cameras send data in a format which
was previously not recognised by the regular expression
engine. This has been modified to allow these cameras (NC1000
etc) to function with ZoneMinder.
o    FIX - A bug in event streaming when events are of very
short duration has been fixed. Thanks to forum user `reza' for
spotting this one.
o    FIX - A possible exploit in the login page was identified
and has now been fixed. Thanks again to forum user `reza'
highlighting this problem also.

12.9.     Release 1.19.5
Various miscellaneous fixes and features.

o     FIX - Sorting event lists by duration was broken and has
  now been corrected.
  
o    FEATURE - The zmfix utility previous corrected file
permissions on video device files only. This has been modified
to do likewise to the X10 device serial port if enabled.
o    FIX - The modification suggested by forum user `oskin'
has been incorporated into the code to try and reduce or
remove video for linux errors.
o    FIX - The remote network camera parsing code has been
patched to try
o    FIX - The error reported when a `shmget' call fails has
been changed to include further information about the cause.
o    LANGUAGE - Fixed missing semicolon in German language
file.
o    FEATURE - Added `<<' and `>>'  links to the page selector
in the events list as suggested by forum user `unclerichy'.
o    FEATURE - Brightness, colour, hue and contrast are now
saved persistently for a monitor rather than being reset each
time the system is restarted. This feature is based on a patch
submitted by forum user `oskin'.
o    FEATURE - In previous versions the events folder has been
keyed by the monitor name. This has caused problems in the
past with various characters appearing which are legal in
names but not in filesystems. From this version all files
related to monitors are keyed on the monitor id rather than
the name. To help you navigate through these files the monitor
name still exists but as a link only. Please ensure you run
zmupdate.pl to update your events directory.
o    FEATURE - You may now optionally have thumbnail images in
your event lists. To enable this functionality set
ZM_WEB_LIST_THUMBS on in Options->Web. You can also control
the width or height of these thumbnails but should only set
one dimension only and leave the other blank or zero.
o    FEATURE - You can now specify how many image thumbnails
appear across and down the page in the event stills listing.
In Options->Web set the ZM_WEB_FRAMES_PER_LINE and/or
ZM_WEB_FRAME_LINES options.
o    FEATURE - ZoneMinder uses ffmpeg
(http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/) for video generation and
processing. Recently a new version (0.4.9-pre1) was released
which changed the interface that ZoneMinder uses and so broke
compilation. This version will detect which version of ffmpeg
you have and compile accordingly.
o    FEATURE - You can now specify a prefix for events
generated by particular monitors. This will replace the
default `Event-` one.
o    FEATURE - If you use filters to send event notification
emails you can now have them sent in HTML format. This is done
automatically if your mail body includes a `<html>' token,
o    FEATURE - An experimental feature has been added which
lets you view several events in sequence. In event listing you
can check the events you want to view and then click the
`View' button. This will allow you to navigate through only
those events in the normal manner (via Prev and Next links)
but also to view them in sequence by clicking on the `Play
All' link. This will replay each event and then automatically
move onto the next one. You can stop this progression at any
time by pressing `Stop' (which only stops the sequence and not
the currently playing event). The timing of the replay is done
depending on the calculated length of the event (plus one
second) and so may not exactly correspond to the real event
length. In particular this is unlikely to work if replaying
events using MPEG video and buffering players as the timing
will likely be incorrect. If you are viewing an event but
haven't checked any in the list the `Play All' button will
just work down the current event list.
o    FIX - A default php error level excluding notice warnings
is now explicitly set.
o    FEATURE - Previously events have been created even if
only one frame has generated an alarm. This has not always
been desirable as sometimes glitches and flickers create large
numbers of events, however no mechanism existed for limiting
this. In this version you can now specify the minimum number
of consecutive alarmed frames that are necessary to create an
event. This is the `Alarm Frame Count' described above. Note
that if an alarm is in progress single isolated alarmed frames
will still prolong it and the count only applies to the
initial frames that would cause the event.

12.10.    Release 1.19.4
Language fixes and updates.

o     FIX  -  The  US  English language file  was  recursively
  including itself rather than the UK English file as the base
  language.
  
o    LANGUAGE - The Brazilian Portuguese language file
detailed in the previous release has actually been included in
this one.
o    LANGUAGE - The Argentinian Spanish, Polish and Italian
translations have all been updated with tokens introduced in
version 1.19.3.

12.11.    Release 1.19.3
Minor tweaks, fixes and language updates.

o     FEATURE - All stills views now use the single image mode
  of  zms  rather than spawning off a zmu process to write  an
  image  which is then read. This reduces complexity of double
  buffering significantly and also reduces the chance of errors
  caused by multiple simultaneous image generation.
  
o    FEATURE - The generated MIME types when creating streamed
video were previously assigned by zms depending on which of a
limited number of output formats was specified. This has now
been changed so that the ffmpeg libavformat library itself now
generates these identifiers. The consequence of this is that
many more video formats supported by your version of ffmpeg
should now be available via zms.
o    FEATURE - When viewing a single frame of an event you can
select a `stats' link to view the statistics that apply to
that frame, if you have the RECORD_EVENT_STATS option switched
on. This can be used to help configure your zones for optimal
motion detection. Previously only pixel count values were
displayed here which made it difficult to configure zones
configured in percentage terms. These values are now displayed
in both pixel and percentage terms to assist in zone
configuration. Note that the percentage values are based on
the current size of the zone so if this is changed then the
value displayed will not be applicable at the time of event
generation.
o    FIX - When doing motion detection an extra blob, that
could never be removed, was sometimes included. This could
have caused false triggering and has not been corrected.
o    FIX - A problem was reported whereby when using bulk
frame records to reduce database load the last frame record
was not written. Replaying the event via the web interface
resulting in the event being truncated. A correction has been
made so prevent this and ensure that the last frame of an
event is always recorded.
o    FIX - If an analysis daemon terminates abnormally or the
host computer crashes then events can be left in a state
whereby they effectively have zero length and are useless. A
change to zmaudit.pl was made such that any `open' events such
as this which have not been updated for at least five minutes
are closed and updated to reflect their actual content so that
they may be viewed or saved. Events recovered in this way are
named with a `(r)' mark to help identify them.
o    FIX - In more recent versions of MySQL the password hash
generated is 50 characters long, which overflows the previous
password field in the database which was only 32 characters
long. This field has been extended to 64 characters to
accommodate this.
o    FIX - The montage view had an error whereby the refresh
timeout for stills was mislabelled causing continuous refresh
attempts which rendered the view mostly unusable. The
constants in question are now correctly referenced.
o    FIX - The default, bandwidth specific, rate and scales
were not always used as the records in the database were
misnamed. This is now corrected though you may need to reset
the values that were used previously as these will be lost if
they had been changed.
o    FIX - It was previously the case that old images could be
left in the `images' directory for a long period, sometimes
resulting in incorrectly assuming correct operation. A fix was
made to zmaudit.pl which modified the previous clean up of old
WAP images so that any old images left in this directory are
removed after a short period. Please ensure that if you have
customised the web interface and have images you wish to keep
that they are not left in the temporary images folder as they
will now be deleted.
o    FIX - A JavaScript error in the Zone configuration screen
was identified and fixed.
o    LANGUAGE - A Brazilian Portuguese translation has been
supplied by Victor Diago and is available by selecting `pt_br'
as the language type.
o    LANGUAGE - Updated versions of the Dutch and Argentinian
Spanish translations have been included.

12.12.    Release 1.19.2
Minor features, fixes and language updates.

o     FEATURE  -  The default replay rate and live  and  event
  scale settings are now configurable on a per bandwidth basis
  rather than globally. This allows you to view at full  scale
  when you have high bandwidth and at smaller scales when you do
  not have so much resource. You will need to re-configure your
  previous defaults as they will be lost.
  
o    FEATURE - Filters can now include a specification of the
preferred sort order of the results.
o    FEATURE - Filters can now include a specification to
limit the results to a predefined maximum
o    FEATURE - Two new filter elements have been added. These
are disk blocks and disk percentage. These are event
independent and return the amount of disk space used on the
event partition in terms of disk blocks or percentage as
returned by df(1). Thus filters using these criteria will
either match all events or none at all depending on the disk
usage at the time of filter execution. The addition of these
terms along with the ability to sort and limit filter results
now means it is possible to create a filter that will
automatically clear out old events once disk usage exceeds a
certain value. Included in the database schemas for both new
installations and upgrades is a sample filter called
PurgeWhenFull which can be used to do this. It is initially
not set to do anything automatically so if you want to use it,
you should load it into the filter selection window, modify it
to your taste and then save it, selecting `auto delete'.
Please note that filters created using disk related terms to
delete events should always contain a limit term also
otherwise it is possible for all events to match and thus be
deleted. Using a limit ensures that only a small number are
affected at any one time.
o    FEATURE - Filters can now be defined to automatically
execute an external script or program of your choosing. This
can be specified when the filter is saved. Note that for
security reasons this cannot be just any arbitrary command but
must be readable and executable by your web server effective
user. The script or program you specify here will be executed
in the events root directory once for each event and will be
passed one parameter containing the relative path to the event
directory. This will normally be of the form
<MonitorName>/<EventId> so it it possible to determine both
the monitor and event in question from the path. Note also
that a flag is set per event as with other auto actions
indicating that an executable script has been run on that
event and so to exclude it from subsequent matches. However if
you have several filters all with executable scripts you will
find that only the first gets executed as the flag will be set
following successful completion and so no further scripts will
be run on that event. Successful completion is indicated by
the script returning a zero exit status, any other status
indicates an error and the executed flag will not be set.
o    FIX - In some circumstances temporary diagnostic images
were being saved instead of highlighted analysis images. This
is now corrected.
o    FIX - When viewing a list of frames in an event, the link
to the diagnostic image was incorrect. This is now fixed.
o    FIX - The Archive link from the monitor watch window has
been fixed. Previously this generated a bogus window.
o    FIX - The zone definition have been updated so that
selecting the various types of zones etc only disables those
options you no longer have access to rather than wiping them
out entirely. This is also true of the zone when saved. Thus
you can now more easily change a zone to be temporarily
inactive for example and have your previous active settings
restored in the future.
o    FIX - Selecting an event from the list generated by a
filter that included a Monitor Name term did not previously
work properly. This is now fixed.
o    FIX - A number of the constants used internally have been
renamed to be more consistent. Hopefully nothing is broken!
o    FIX - Following notification of a potential vulnerability
in zms by Mark Cox, all non-trivial string and buffer copies
are now limited by the maximum size of the destination. Mark
has also askedme to include the following notice relating to
this, which I am very happy to do.
"This issue was discovered by Mark J Cox <mark@awe.com>.   The
Common
Vulnerabilities  and  Exposures  project  (cve.mitre.org)  has
assigned the
name CAN-2004-0227 to this issue."

o    LANGUAGE - An additional Italian language translation has
  been added. One, by Davide Morelli, was included in 1.19.1 but
  not announced. However like buses another one has come along,
  from Tolmino Muccitelli, and so they are both now present. The
  original translation is accessible by selecting it_it as the
  language whereas the new one is it_it2. I would prefer if they
  were  merged as two versions of one language is not easy  to
  maintain when I don't know what the differences mean!
  
o    LANGUAGE - A version of Argentinian Spanish by Fernando
Diaz has also been included and is accessible by setting your
language to es_ar. As with all the language translations I
cannot vouch for the completeness or accuracy of the language
files so feel free to feedback any updates you think should be
made.
o    NOTE - None of the non-English language files in this
release do not contain any translations of the new, or
modified, tokens which have been introduced in this release.
All new or modified tokens are included in the language files
in English. There will shortly be a point release which
includes these language updates assuming I can get
translations of them in a reasonable timescale.

12.13.    Release 1.19.1
Minor bugfixes and enhancements.

o     Ffmpeg Configure Changes. The configure script has  been
  modified to look for the ffmpeg libraries in their installed
  location rather than in a build directory. This is to  avoid
  having  to  build  the  library when  it  might  already  be
  installed.
  
o    Pcre Configure Changes. The configure script has been
modified to look for the pcre.h header file in both
/usr/include and /usr/include/pcre rather than just the latter
as previously.
o    Remote Image Parsing. Further improvements have been made
to handle additional patterns of images with differing styles
of terminations or none at all.
o    Event Image Numbering. An additional configuration option
(ZM_EVENT_IMAGE_DIGITS) has been added to allow the user to
define how many significant figures should be used to number
individual event images.
o    Frame Listing Timestamp Bug. Fixed a bug where in the
event frame listing view the timestamps were not correctly
displayed.
o    Event Filters Bug. Fixed (again) a bug where several
fields used in event filters did not generate valid database
queries.
o    Zmu Device Authentication. Removed the previous
requirement to pass in a username and password to zmu when
just querying a device as this was slightly broken and was
unnecessary anyway.

12.14.    Release 1.19.0
Some major enhancements and bugfixes.

o     MPEG video streaming. ZoneMinder now supports true video
  streaming  if configured with the -with-ffmpeg option.  This
  allows one or both of live or event streaming to be in  this
  format rather than motion JPEG style as before. Note however
  that is still somewhat experimental and may not work on your
  system. The reason for this is due to the variation in plugins
  and video movie formats. Currently I have got it working well
  with  browsers on Windows platforms using the Windows  Media
  Player plugin and the 'asf' video format. I have also managed
  to  get event streaming working on Mozilla using mplayer  (I
  think) though it jumps in and out of it's place in the window
  a  bit. I would appreciate any feedback or advice on formats
  and  plugins that work on your system. Also note that  video
  streaming tends to get buffered before being displayed. This
  can result in the 'live' view being several seconds delayed.
  
o    Motion JPEG Capture. Previously image capture from
network devices has been limited to single stills capture
only. This has now changed and if you entered a remote camera
path that returns the multipart/x-mixed-replace MIME type then
this will be parsed and images extracted from the stream. This
is much faster than before and frame rates can be as fast now
with network cameras as with capture cards and video. This
feature also has the side-effect that one ZoneMinder
installation can use another as a remote video source.
o    NPH Streaming. After months of frustration I have finally
figured out why streams were corrupted using Cambozola
versions after 0.22. It turned out that apache was injecting
characters into the streams which was screwing up the headers.
I believe this to be because the initial header had no content-
length header, as the length is indeterminate. So I have added
a zero content length header which I believe fixes the problem
though perhaps not in the best way. I have also made the
installation link the existing zms binary to nph-zms so that
you can now use zms in non-parsed-header mode. If it detects
it is in this mode then the content-length header is not
output, though several other additional ones are. In nph mode
the false character injection seems to disappear so I suspect
this is a better way to use zms.
o    Bulk Frame Records. With the recent advent of the
'Record' and 'Mocord' modes a lot of people have started using
ZoneMinder as a pseudo-DVR. This meant that a lot of database
activity was taking place as each captured frame required its
own entry in the database. The frames table has now been
reorganised so that 'bulk' frames may be written at defined
intervals to reduce this database activity. The records act as
markers and individual frame timings are interpolated in
between. Bulk frames are only used when no alarm or motion
detection activity is taking place and normal frame records
are kept otherwise.
o    Event List Ordering and Scrolling. It was previously the
case that the `Next' and `Prev' buttons on the event view did
not always go to the event that was expected and sometimes
disappeared altogether. This behaviour has now been modified
and these buttons will now take you to the next and previous
events in the list which the event was selected from. Thus if
the list was sorted on ascending scores then the `next' event
is the one below which has a higher score etc. A possibly
counterintuitive side effect of this is that as the default
list is sorted by descending time the `next' event is the one
below in the list which will actually be earlier and the
`previous' event is later. So long as you remember that next
and prev refer to the order of the list you should be ok.
o    Zone Percentage Sizes. Zone motion detection parameters
can be defined either in terms of total pixels or as a
percentage. This percentage was defined relative to the size
of the image as a whole. However this was difficult to
calculate or estimate especially with several zones of varying
sizes. In version 1.19.0 this has been changed so that the
percentage relates to the size of the zone itself instead.
This should make calculations somewhat easier. To convert your
existing zones you can run zmupdate.pl with the -z option,
though this should be done only once and you should backup
your database beforehand in case of error.
o    Console View System Display. The console display was
slight revamped to indicate disk space usage (via the `df'
command) on the events partition,
o    Zone Form Validation. Changes applied in version 1.18.0
to prevent invalidate entries in the zone definition form
actually had the opposite effect due to JavaScript treating
everything as a string and not a number (e.g. 5 is greater
than 123). This is now corrected.
o    Default Rate and Scales. You can now specify (in the
options dialog) the default scale you would like to view live
and event feeds at. You can also give a default rate for
viewing event replays.
o    More Rates. Additional faster rates have been included,
up to 100 times.
o    Frame Buffer Size. Previously it was possible for frames
being sent from the analysis daemon to the frame server to
exceed the defined maximum buffer size in which case the write
would fail. It is now possible to define a larger size if
necessary to prevent this. Note that you may have to adjust
your system configuration to accommodate this. For further
details check the help for the ZM_FRAME_SOCKET_SIZE option.
o    Filter Name Duplication. Following recent changes to the
filters table, several people reported that when saving
filters they actually got a duplicate. This resulted in
several copies of filters all with the same name as the
constraint on unique filter names was not present. Well it is
now so when upgrading your database all the filters will be
renamed from `myfilter' to `myfilter_<id>' where `<id>' is the
id number in the database (which is then removed). In general
the higher the id number the more recent the filter. So you
should go through your filter list deleting old copies and
then rename the last one back to it's original name.
o    Filter Form. Problem were reported with the filtering
form where several selections generated SQL errors. This is
now fixed.
o    Filter Image Attachments. A fix was made to zmfilter.pl
to prevent it trying to attach<63> alarm images to non-alarm
events.
o    Video Rate Specification. A fix was made to zmvideo.pl
that corrected a problem with no default frame being used if
none was passed in.
o    RBG->BGR Black Screen. Fixed an issue with black screens
being reported in RGB24 mode if RGB->BGR invert was not
selected.
o    Monitor Deletion. Fixed a problem with event files not
being deleted when monitor was.
o    A translation for the Dutch (nl_nl) language has been
included.

12.15.    Release 1.18.1
Minor bugfixes.

o     Filter  Monitor  Name  Bug. A bug  was  present  in  the
  previous  release  where monitor names where  not  correctly
  handled in filters. This is now fixed.
  
o    Database Upgrade Change. Users upgrading from releases
prior to 1.18.0 please note that now as part of the upgrade
process all your filters will have any automatic actions
unset. This is because the previous affinity to a particular
monitor has now been removed and you may be left with several
filters all doing the same thing to all of the events or have
filters which for instance delete events on only one monitor
but which now would delete them for all of them. It is
recommended that you review your list of saved filters and
delete duplicates before adding any monitor specific terms and
resetting the actions for any that remain.

12.16.    Release 1.18.0
Major optimisations, important new features and some bugfixes.

o     Optimisations and Performance Improvements. This release
  contains  several major performance improvements in  various
  areas.  The first of these is that image processing for  YUV
  style input formats are now pretty much handled at almost the
  same speed as native RGB formats. As this is what the capture
  daemons spend most of their time doing, the improvement helps
  reduce  the  amount  of  CPU time by a  significant  degree.
  Application of these changes also highlighted a bug that had
  existed  previously in YUV conversion which caused incorrect
  conversions for certain values. The other two main areas  of
  optimisation  are  in the Blend and Delta  image  functions.
  Normally  when  doing motion detection the analysis  daemons
  spend about 99% of their time comparing a captured image with
  the  reference image and then blending the two ready for the
  next capture. Both of these functions have been significantly
  improved.  In previous versions there were two  options  for
  calculating  image  deltas (or differences),  a  simple  RGB
  average and a Y channel calculation. Historically the RGB one
  was  faster  however with the optimisations  the  Y  channel
  calculation (which is more accurate) is now 15-20% faster and
  so has become the default though you can select either method
  by the ZM_Y_IMAGE_DELTAS configuration option. A new method of
  image  blending has also been added which is up to  6  times
  faster  than the old one which is retained for compatibility
  and because in some unusual circumstances it may still be more
  accurate  (see the ZM_FAST_IMAGE_BLENDS option for details).
  Altogether these optimisations (along with other common sense
  ones  such as not maintaining a reference image in  `Record'
  mode where it is not used) significantly reduce the CPU load
  for most systems, especially when alarms are not in progress.
  If an alarm is detected then a lot of file system and database
  activity takes place which is limited by the speed of  these
  resources so the gain will not be as much.
  
o    Remote Authentication. This document has previously
indicated that basic authentication for network cameras could
be used by entering a hostname of the form of
<user>:<pass>@<hostname>. This was not actually the case as
the relevant authentication header was never sent. This is now
fixed and addresses of this form can now be used.
o    Filter Date Parsing. The zmfilter.pl date parsing now
correctly reports when dates or times which it cannot parse
are used.
o    Monitor Independent Filters. Previously filters were
closely tied to a monitor and a new filter had to be created
for each monitor. This has now changed and filters can now
specify an associated monitor in the same was as other
parameters. Links have now been added to the main console view
to allow you to view lists of events from all monitors in one
and saved filters can now affected as many or as few monitors
as you wish. IMPORTANT: Please note that as part of the
upgrade process all your filters will have any automatic
actions unset. This is because the previous affinity to a
particular monitor has now been removed and you may be left
with several filters all doing the same thing to all of the
events or have filters which for instance delete events on
only one monitor but which now would delete them for all of
them. It is recommended that you review your list of saved
filters and delete duplicates before adding any monitor
specific terms and resetting the actions for any that remain.
o    New Filter Operators. Two new filter operators and their
inverse have been added. You can now indicate whether a value
is in a set of other values, for example `cat' is in the set
of `cat, dog, cow, horse'. You can also use regular
expressions so `cat' matches `^c.*'. The `not in set' and `not
matches' operators are also available.
o    Additional Scales. Enhancements to the scaling algorithm
mean that non binary scales are now just as easy to apply,
thus new scales such as 0.75x have been added. Others can be
easily included if necessary.
o    Montage Sizing. The montage view allows you to view all
of your active cameras in one window. However if your cameras
are different sizes then this becomes very untidy. You can now
constrain the image size of each monitor in this view to a
fixed size with the ZM_WEB_MONTAGE_WIDTH and
ZM_WEB_MONTAGE_HEIGHT configuration options. Monitor images
will be enlarged or reduced as necessary.
o    Compact Montage. The traditional montage view includes
individual small menus for each monitor and a status display.
This results in a somewhat cluttered display and the
refreshing of the status displays may generate more accesses
than desirable. Using the ZM_WEB_COMPACT_MONTAGE configuration
option allows this montage view to only include the monitor
streams and one overall menu bar with no status displays.
o    Monitor Name Constraint. The name given to a monitor is
used in file paths and several other areas. Thus it is
important that it follows certain conventions but up until
this release these names were unrestricted. The monitor form
now limits monitor names to alphanumeric characters plus
hyphen and underscore.
o    Timestamp Change. Traditionally ZoneMinder has time-
stamped each image as it is captured. This ensures that all
images have their capture time recorded immediately. However
there are several side-effects which may be undesirable.
Firstly the time and resource is spent time-stamping images
that are not recorded and which are discarded, secondly the
timestamp is included in any motion detection and may
potentially trigger an alarm if detection parameters are very
sensitive. The third effect is that as the timestamp is added
to the image at it's native resolution, if the image is scaled
then the timestamp is scaled also. This may not be a problem
for enlargement but if the image size is reduced then it may
become illegible. This version now allows you, via the
ZM_TIMESTAMP_ON_CAPTURE configuration option, to indicate
whether the timestamps should be added on capture, as before,
or only added when the image is viewed or recorded. Setting it
to this later value allows timestamps to be added to scaled
images. This is little performance impact either way.
o    Scaleable Stills View. The stills view of a monitor (when
streaming is not available or desired) is now scaleable in the
same way as the streamed view.
o    Double Buffered Stills View. The stills view has now been
restructured to allow a double buffering approach. Thus a new
image is loaded in the background and only written to screen
when complete. This removes the refresh flicker that means
that the screen blanks periodically however uses more
JavaScript so may not be suitable for all platforms. Whether
ZoneMinder uses double buffering or not is controlled by the
ZM_WEB_DOUBLE_BUFFER configuration option.
o    Fixed Length Event Bug. A bug was reported whereby the
fixed length events that could be specified for use in Record
or Mocord mode could sometimes result in events a multiple of
that length. So events that were meant to be 15 minutes long
could sometimes be 30 or even 45 minutes. This was especially
the case with monitors that had low frame rates. This is now
fixed.

12.17.    Release 1.17.2
Minor features, bug fixes and additional languages.

o     Pending  Process Bug. A bug was found whereby a  process
  that  was  scheduled  to be started in the  future  (due  to
  repeated failures) would drop out of the pending queue if  a
  further explicit restart was attempted. This is now fixed.
  
o    Strsignal Function. The strsignal function was included
from version 1.17.1 however this is not ubiquitous on all
distributions. The existence of this function is now tested
for by the configure script and it is not used if not present.
o    Add Max Alarm Threshold. Previously the alarm threshold
(which is the amount a pixel has to differ from it's
counterpart in the reference image) existed only in a
`minimum' form meaning pixels that were more different
matched. A maximum has now been added to assist in screening
out large changes in brightness. In addition to this a number
of new consistency checks have been added to the zone
definition form to try and prevent bogus or invalid settings.
o    Diagnostic Zone Images. A regularly requested feature is
that of adding extra information to allow diagnostics of the
process of image detection. This has previously been somewhat
hit and miss but in this version a new configuration option
ZM_RECORD_DIAG_IMAGES has been included to allow this. This
option will generate several images for each captured frame in
an alarm including each reference image and a series of images
containing the image differences at various stages in the
process. It is not possible to record these for the image
prior to an alarm but those following it are included and
should assist in tuning the zones to provide optimal motion
detection.
o    Event Images Renamed. The capture and analysis images
recorded during an event have been renamed from capture-
???.jpg to ???-capture, and from analyse-???.jpg to ???-
analyse.jpg. This is to allow all images (including diagnostic
ones) to be associated with the frame sequence number more
easily. This means that old events will no longer be able to
be viewed as the wrong image will be being searched for. To
avoid this you can use the new `zmupdate.pl' utility to rename
all your old images by doing `perl zmupdate.pl -r' as an
appropriately privileged or root user.
o    Version checking. ZoneMinder will now optionally check
for new versions of itself at zoneminder.com. This is done
with a simple http get and no personal information otherwise
than your current version of ZoneMinder is transmitted or
recorded. If new versions are found you may be alerted of them
via the web interface. This is an initial step towards
enhancing and automating the upgrade process.
o    Force Java. Previously ZoneMinder could be forced to
override it's detection of browser capabilities to prevent the
Cambozola Java applet being used. However sometimes the
opposite effect was desired and using the applet was preferred
to native image handling. This has now been made possible by
making the ZM_CAN_STREAM option tri-state allowing `auto',
`yes' or `no' to be used to provide all alternatives.
o    Alarms Cleared on Exit. In previous versions if an alarm
was present when the analysis daemon (zma) exited the alarm
would remain flagged. This had little effect except if the
monitor was being watched however it was a bit annoying so any
alarm flag is now cleared when this daemon exits.
o    New Languages. Translations for Japanese (ja_jp), French
(fr_fr) and Russian (ru_ru) are now included.

12.18.    Release 1.17.1
Bugfixes and additional languages.

o     Login  Bug. A bug was identified whereby an unauthorised
  user could gain access to the console view of ZoneMinder. This
  was the only view available and no access to any camera views
  or configuration was possible. This bug is now fixed.
  
o    New Languages. Two new language files were added. These
allow ZoneMinder to use the German (de_de) and Polish (pl_pl)
languages.
o    Language File Format. The format of the language file was
changed to allow the specification of character set and locale
as well as have more flexibility in the calculation of plural
forms.
o    Option Language. The prompts and help text for the
options is now also available for translation. A guide is
included in the language file to allow this if necessary.
Currently language translations exclude the options settings
as this is a rarely accessed area and contains a great deal of
text. The new format allows individual options to be
translated piecemeal as the opportunity arises.

12.19.    Release 1.17.0
Language changes and other enhancements.

o     Version  Numbering. ZoneMinder version numbers have  now
  changed. This is to allow more frequent `point' releases which
  are  expected  to happen for instance whenever new  language
  files  are  included. Previously all releases had  the  same
  version increment so it was difficult to tell the significance
  of  any particular release. Now the version number is in the
  x.y.z format where a change in x signifies a major fundamental
  or  architectural rework, a change in y will indicate a  new
  release  containing  incremental feature  changes  or  fixes
  recommend to all users and a change in z will generally mean
  minor non-functional or critical modifications which would not
  be  recommended as important to all users. As ZoneMinder has
  been referred to by the point release up until now, e.g. .15,
  .16 etc the next number in that sequence has been retained for
  continuity  and  to  avoid having any ambiguity  in  version
  numbers.
  
o    Language Support. ZoneMinder now allows specification of
system and user specific languages other than UK English.
These languages are given in language files named
zm_lang_nn_mm.php which can be created from the default
zm_lang_en_gb.php file. If your language is not included then
please consider doing a translation by checking this file and
submitting your changes back for inclusion in future releases.
o    Syntactic Improvements. Previously setting `NOTICE'
errors on in PHP would flag tens or hundreds of violations in
the ZoneMinder web files. Whilst not strictly errors this
represented sloppy coding and sometimes covered up genuine
bugs. All the files have been revisited and revised to ensure
that a many of these problems as possible have been eliminated
and only the very few where the fix would be significantly
less optimal than the problem remain.
o    Stream Scaling Resizing. Previously when watching a
stream and modifying the scale of the streamed feed only the
actual feed would change size and the containing frames and
windows would remain the same. This was fine for changes to
smaller scales but problematic for larger scales. This has
been changed for that the window and frames will now resize
appropriately.
o    Mmap Return Value. A problem identified by users in the
forum relating to checking of return values from the mmap
function call has been corrected.
o    Minor Bugs. A number of minor bugs and inconsistencies
were corrected.

12.20.    Release 0.9.16
Major usability enhancement and fixes.

o     Run  States. Instead of the old `start/stop'  links  the
  current system state is now a link which takes you to a dialog
  which allows you to start, restart or stop the system. You can
  also  save  the  current run state which basically  takes  a
  snapshot of the current monitor functions and saves that. You
  can  then reselect that state later which basically involves
  resetting the monitors to have these saved functions and then
  doing a system restart.
  
o    New Monitor Functions. Instead of Passive, Active, and
X10, the modes are now Monitor (= old Passive) which just
allows you to watch the feed, Modect (= old Active) which is
MOtion DetECT and which will capture events as previously,
Record which continuously records with no analysis and MoCord
which is a hybrid of Modect and Record and which will
continuously record but also do motion detection and highlight
where this has occurred. The Record and Mocord functions both
records events whose length in seconds is defined by the
'Section Length' monitor attribute. You can additionally
specify a 'Frame Skip' value to tell it to not record 'n'
frames at a time, when not alarmed.
o    X10 Function removed. The X10 mode has been removed and
replaced by an indication of whether the monitor is
'continuous' or 'triggered'. This basically just indicates
whether it may be controlled outside of zmdc and zmpkg.
Additionally the X10 triggers may now be specified in an X10
section. This has changed to allow for other types of triggers
to be added more easily.
o    Paginated Event listings. The event listings are
paginated by default. You can list all of the events if you
like by choosing the appropriate option. There are shortcuts
to pages of events at the top of the listing. If these produce
strange looking sequences like 1,2, 3, 5, 9, 17, 37 etc this
is deliberate and uses an exponential algorithm intended to
allow you to quickly navigate through the list to a particular
page in the minimum number of clicks.
o    Scaleable Streams. Event and monitor streams can now be
scaled to a certain extent allowing you to view at a different
resolution than that captured. This area may be somewhat
incomplete especially in terms of monitoring at a higher
screen size where the frame is not adjusted properly.
o    Variable Frame Rates. Event streams can now be viewed at
various rates allowing faster review (if your bandwidth
allows) to long events, or slower for more precision.
o    Scaleable/Variable MPEG generation. Generation of MPEG
videos now also allows you to specify the scale relative to
the original image and also the frame rate. Again, for long
events captured in the perpetual recording modes this will
allow a faster review of the period the event covers.
o    Tabbed Monitor options. Specification and modification of
monitors is now in a tabbed form for easier navigation.
o    Additional stream headers. The stream headers have been
changed to hopefully ensure that they are less likely to be
cached.
o    Maximum process restart delay. zmdc.pl now has an upper
limit (15 minutes) to the time it waits before restarting
continuously crashing processes.
o    Intelligent Module inclusion. zmfilter.pl now includes
Archive::Zip and other modules on an as needed basis so won't
complain about them being missing unless they have been
explicitly configured to be used.
o    Adaptive Watchdog. zmwatch now more adaptive to actual
frame rates.
o    Fixed zmfilter CPU sucking bug. zmfilter.pl will now
restart on failure to read shared memory. Previously this
could go into a nasty CPU sucking loop!
o    New zmconfig options. zmconfig.pl has a new option to run
with no database if necessary
o    File reorganisation. Various administrative file changes
and reorganisations.
o    Compiler warnings. Various tweaks and modifications to
reduce compiler and memory warnings.
o    SQL Buffer size. Increased SQL buffer size to cope with
large pre-event buffers, plus a couple of other buffers have
been enlarged.
o    Incorrect Frame time offsets. The time offsets in alarmed
frames were incorrect and based on the time of storage rather
than capture. This gave the impression that there was a delay
after the first alarmed frame and messed up some streaming
timings. This has been fixed.
o    Event Frame listing. You can now view details of the
frames captured such as their time and score etc by clicking
on the scores in the events views.
o    Refined shared memory handling. Fixed zmfilter, zmwatch
and zmx10 to allow zero as a valid shared memory id to allow
them to keep on working if the segment has been marked for
deletion
o    Frame daemon stability. Changed image buffer in zmf to be
static rather than dynamic. This has made zmf much more
stable.
o    MPEG overwrite option. Fixed the 'Overwrite' checkbox in
video generation to actually overwrite the video. Modded the
page slightly also.
o    Daemon control improved. Changing between monitor
functions, e.g. Modect, Mocord etc now restarts the correct
daemons.
o    Improved time based filters. Filters that include time
based clauses now get executed regardless of whether new
events are being generated.
o    Audit daemon started unconditionally. zmaudit is now
started regardless of the setting of FAST_DELETES as zmfilter
depends on it being there.
o    Filtering more active. zmfilter is now started in
'Monitor' mode. It does not run in when monitors are
completely off however.
o    Stills paged. The stills view of events is now paginated
for easier navigation.
o    Archive images optional. Normally when an alarm is
detected a set of raw images is saved along with a mirror set
of images containing motion highlighting. This second set can
now optionally be disabled.
o    Settings in auth mode. Control of camera brightness,
contrast etc did not previously work when running in
authorised mode. This is now fixed.
o    zms parameter bug fixed. The streaming server incorrectly
parsed and assigned one of it's arguments. This is now fixed.
o    zmu brighness bug. Previously camera brightness was not
correctly parsed from command line options passed to zmu.
o    Event window width variable. Event windows now scale to
fit the event image size.

12.21.    Release 0.9.15
Various bug fixes from the last release and before.

o     Bandwidth.  A bug was introduced in .14 which  caused  a
  corrupted  console  display  and  manic  refreshes  on   new
  installations.  This was due to a missing bandwidth  setting
  when no existing cookie was detected. This is now fixed.
  
o    Again in .14 a problem occurred for a new release whereby
zmconfig wanted to know the database details and but also
previously wanted to access the database before it had asked
the questions. This has now been addressed though it does
require that zmconfig is run twice initially, once to created
the scripts and once to import the configuration into the
database.
o    In association with the previous error, the
zm_config_defines.h file was not created in the absence of the
database as this was what was used to assign configuration
ids. This now takes place regardless of the database.
o    The SQL to create the Users table was mistakenly omitted
from the .12 database upgrade script this has now been
corrected.
o    A bug in zmfilter was pointed out whereby the dynamic
loading of the Zip or Tar archive modules depending on a
preference actually wasn't. It was looking for both and
loading both at compile time. This has now been modified to be
fully runtime.
o    The database user definitions in the zmvideo script
indicated one database user while the database connection used
a different one. This prevented any videos being generated.
o    A problem was found if using the zmf frame server and
greyscale images. The option to colourise JPEG images is
intended to be used to ensure that all JPEG files are written
with a 24 bit colourspace as certain tools such as ffmpeg
require this. However in the circumstances described above
images written by zma directly were colourised whereas those
written by  zmf weren't. A change has been made whereby if set
all greyscale JPEG images are colourised in all circumstances.

12.22.    Release 0.9.14
Major new feature and important bug-fixes.

o     Web  configuration. Following many requests and to  make
  ZoneMinder easier to administer the configuration system has
  been changed slightly. You should now still run zmconfig.pl to
  specify  an initial configuration but you now only  need  to
  answer the first few questions to give a core set of options
  including the database options. The remainder of configuration
  options can then be ignored to start with and all but the core
  options will be written to the database. You can then view and
  modify  these options from the web interface and apply  then
  without  recompilation, which is now only necessary  if  you
  change the core configuration.
  
o    Following a number of requests the .sock file directory
is now configurable in zmconfig.
o    Y channel bug. When using colour cameras a motion
detection problem was present if fast RGB images deltas
(ZM_FAST_RGB_DIFFS) was off. This was an overflow error in the
calculation of the Y channel and caused excessive image
differences to be calculated. This has now been fixed.
o    The use of the Term::Readkey perl module in zmaudit.pl
has been removed. This module had been removed from
zmconfig.pl previously but had lingered in this script.
o    A bug was found in zmx10.pl causing a crash if time
delayed X10 events were used. This has now been fixed.
o    Removed use of `zmu' binary from zmwatch.pl and zmx10.pl.
Previously these scripts had used zmu to determine last image
time and alarm state information. The use of this script was a
bit overkill and the introduction of user permissions
complicated matter slightly so these scripts now access the
shared memory directly.
o    Shared memory permissions. Following introduction of a
user permissions system the previous 777 mode for shared
memory was deemed insecure. Consequently from now on shared
memory is only accessible from the owner. This means that zmu
will only work when run as root or the web user unless you set
it setuid where it should still be secure as it will require
authentication.
o    All SQL buffers in the C++ code have been enlarged. There
was previously an issue with a buffer overflow on certain
occasions.

12.23.    Release 0.9.13
Beta  version  of several features and fixes, never  generally
released.

o     Following a number of requests the .sock file  directory
  is now configurable in zmconfig.
  
o    Changed some of the core video calls to be V4L2
compatible. This primarily involved opening the video devices
and memory maps as read/write and not just read-only.
o    Shared memory has now been rationalised to prevent some
common problems. Remember to shutdown the whole ZM package
before installing, from this version on it will remove all old
shared memory segments.
o    Fixed not numeric comparison in zmwatch which was
causing, or appeared to be causing, some errors.
o    Fixed zone image map bug for percentage zones. When you
had defined a zone in percentage terms, the image map used to
select it for editing was broken. This is now fixed.
o    New contrast/brightness etc adjustments feature. This
accessible from the Settings link on the monitor window. It's
fairly basic at present but should work for most types of
cameras. If you have any device or driver specific auto-
brightness, auto-contrast etc enabled the changes you make may
appear to work but may be overridden by the auto feature
immediately so check for that if your changes do not appear to
be having an effect. Also if you have a number of cameras
being multiplexed onto one device then any changes here will
probably affect all your cameras.
o    Some redundant window scrollbars removed.
o    Added user and access control. If enabled in config
(ZM_OPT_USE_AUTH) then you will need to define and login as ZM
users. There will be one users already defined, with username
'admin' and password 'admin'. This user is defined will full
permissions and clicking on the 'Options' link from the main
console window will allow you to modify and create users with
various permission sets which hopefully will satisfy most
requirements. These users (except any defined with 'system'
edit capability) can be restricted to certain cameras by
adding the monitor ids as a comma-separated list (no spaces)
to the appropriate field. Users limited to specific monitors
may not create or delete monitors even if defined with monitor
edit permissions.
o    Some windows now (optionally) use a JavaScript timeout to
refresh themselves rather than a refresh header. Since refresh
headers were interrupted if a link of the page was linked
there were previously various forced refreshes from child
windows to restart the refresh process. By using JS refresh
timers which are not interrupted these extraneous refreshes
have been mostly eliminated.

12.24.    Release 0.9.12
Mostly bug-fixes with a couple of minor features.

o     Double  first  images. Fixed a problem where  the  first
  image of an event was being recorded twice. I don't think this
  was at the cost of any of the other images but one copy was an
  extra.
  
o    Made zmdc connect more intelligent. On the suggestion of
a couple of people I have made the zmdc.pl server spawning and
waiting a bit more intelligent. Rather than waiting a fixed
(short) amount of time, it now polls every second for a while,
stopping if the connection is made. Thanks to Todd McAnally
for the initial suggestion.
o    Added image view to events lists. Again a partial
implementation of a suggested feature. If you click on the
score column you will now get a snapshot of the event frame
with the highest score. This is to enable you to quickly see
what the event was about without having to watch the stream or
view all the static images.
o    Make delta times variable precision. A couple of problems
had been reported where long events got negative durations.
This was due to an overflow in a time difference routine. This
had been operating on fixed precision allowing high precision
for short deltas. This routine has been changed to allow
variable precision and events will now have to be several days
long to wrap in this way.
o    Fixed round detection problem. Although the existence or
otherwise of the `round' function is correctly detected, the
appropriate header file with the results of this test was not
included which was not helpful. This has been corrected.
o    Fixed monitor rename bug. Renaming a monitor did not
correctly modify the events directory to reflect this. This
has now been fixed.
o    OPT_MPEG bug. A bug was reported (by Fernando Diaz) where
the results of the ZM_OPT_MPEG configuration variable was not
correctly imported into the scripts. This now happens as
intended.
o    Fixed zmvideo.pl event length bug. The zmvideo.pl script
which is used to generate video MPEG files tries to calculate
the correct frame rate based on the length of the event and
the number of frames it contains. Previously it did not take
account of the pre and post event frames and so passed a much
shorter value to the mpeg encoder than it should. This will
only have affected short events encoded with ffmpeg but will
have resulted in much faster frame rates than necessary. This
has now been corrected to take the whole event length into
account.
o    Fixed remote camera memory leak. A memory leak was
reported when capturing with remote cameras, this is now
fixed.
o    Orientation. Added option to rotate or invert captured
images for cameras mounted at unusual angles.
o    Fixed filter bug. A bug in the zmfilter.pl script was
detected and reported by Ernst Lehmann. This bug basically
meant that events were not checked as often as they should
have been and many may have been left out for filters that had
no time component. The script has now been updated to reflect
Ernst's suggested changes.
o    Stylesheet change. Previously the stylesheet didn't
really work very well on Mozilla, Netscape and browsers other
than IE. This turned out to be because I was using HTML style
comments in there instead of C style ones. This has now been
corrected so you should see the correct styles.
o    Zmconfig.pl ReadKey. Thanks to a ridiculously sensible
suggestion from Carlton Thomas this module has been removed
from zmconfig.pl. Originally Term::ReadKey was in there for
funky single character unbuffered input but that has long
since disappeared so just regular perl input methods are used
now. This removes one of the most irritating features about
ZoneMinder installs.
o    Delete monitor confirm. Due to some unfortunate accidents
by users, attempts to delete monitors will now require
confirmation.
o    Detect linmysqlclient.a. Added better detection script
into `configure' top spot when libmysqlclient.a is missing.

12.25.    Release 0.9.11
Various new features and fixes.

o     Added  stats  view  - If you have the RECORD_EVENT_STATS
  directive set and are viewing a still image from an event you
  can  now  view the statistics recorded for that frame.  This
  tells  you  why that frame triggered or participated  in  an
  alarm.  This  can  be  useful in tuning the  various  motion
  detection parameters and seeing why events occurred.
  
o    Tabulated events - The main events view is now tabulated
to look a bit nicer.
o    New video palette support - As well as the existing
greyscale and 24 bit RGB palettes, you can now choose YUV420P
and RGB565. Rewrote the palette/colours area a bit to enable
support for other palettes in the future if requested. Bear in
mind though that YUV palettes are converted into RGB
internally so if you have the choice RGB24 may be faster as
it's the 'native' format used within.
o    Added preclusive zones - Added a new zone type, the
preclusive zone. For full details see the relevant section
above but in brief this is a zone type that if alarmed will
actually prevent an alarm. This completes the pantheon of zone
types I think.
o    Fixed Mozilla JavaScript - Various JavaScript
functionality did not function on Mozilla, Netscape and other
browsers. This is now (hopefully) fixed.
o    Allow image and mpegs to be attached to emails - Added
new tokens (%EI1%, %EIM% and %EV%) to the filter emails. This
allows the first alarm image, most highly scored alarm image
and an alarm MPEG to be attached to alarm notification emails.
Use %EV% especially with care!
o    Fixed possible motion detection bug - I found a few
double declared local variables left over from the rewrite.
This may have affected the motion detection algorithm. Fixed
now anyway.
o    Modified scoring - Alarm scoring has been modified to
give more granularity for smaller events. This will have the
effect of raising the scores for small events while large ones
will still be about the same.
o    Fixed /cgi-bin path problem - Previously you could
specify the real path to you cgi-bin directory if you have one
but not the web path. You can now do both.
o    Improved video handling in browser - The MPEG/video area
of the web GUI had been a bit neglected and looked somewhat
ugly. This has now been improved to a degree and looks a bit
nicer.
o    Added ffmpeg support - Historically ZoneMinder has only
supported the Berkeley mpeg encoder which was slow and rather
limited. ZoneMinder now supports the ffmpeg encoder as well
which is much much faster and makes generation of MPEG videos
at realistic frame rates more of a reality. As ffmpeg has so
many options and everyone will probably want a different
emphasis you can now also specify additional ffmpeg options
via zmconfig.pl.
o    Colourise greyscale image files - In past versions,
captured greyscale images were stored as JPEG files with a
corresponding greyscale colourspace. This saved a small amount
of space but meant that mpeg_encode had to do a conversion to
encode them, and ffmpeg just fell in a heap. Now you can
optionally opt to have greyscale images saved as full 24 bit
colourspace images (they still look the same) at the price of
a small penalty in CPU and disk but allowing you to easily and
quickly create MPEG files. This option is one by default but
can be switched off if you do not require any MPEG encoding.
o    Fast RGB diffs - Previously ZoneMinder used quite a loose
method for calculating the differences between two colour
images. This was basically averaging the differences between
each of the RGB components to get an overall difference. This
is still the default but by setting ZM_FAST_RGB_DIFFS to 'no'
you can now make it calculate the Y (or brightness value) of
the pixels and use the difference between those instead. This
will be more accurate and responsive to changes but is may be
slower especially on old machines. There is a slight double
whammy here if you have a YUV palette for capture and set this
option off as the image will be converted to RGB and then
partially converted back to get the Y value. This is currently
very inefficient and needs to be optimised.
o    Fixed STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG - Previously this actually
behaved the opposite of what it was supposed to, ie. if you
wanted it strict it wasn't and vice versa. Thanks to Dan
Merillat for pointing this one out.
o    Web colour change - I thought the old red, green and
amber text colours were just a bit too gaudy so I've toned
them down a bit. Hope you like them!

12.26.    Release 0.9.10
Many bug-fixes and major feature enhancements.

o     Configure  `round'  bug  -  Fixed  a  problem  with  the
  configure script that didn't  detect if the 'round' function
  was already declared before try to do it itself.
  
o    Low event id bug - Fixed bug where events with an id of <
1000 were being cleaned up by zmaudit.pl by mistake.
o    Source file restructuring - The source files have been
broken up and renamed extensively to support the first stage
of the code being straightened out. Likewise the class
structure has been rationalised somewhat. The php file names
have also changed in some cases so it might be best to delete
all your php and css files from the zone minder install
directory first as the old ones won't be overwritten and will
be left behind.
o    Streamed cycle view -  The monitor cycle view (the one
where each monitor is displayed sequentially) now supports
streams as well as stills.
o    New `montage' view - Added a montage view showing all
your cameras simultaneously either streaming or stills. The
width of this window (in terms of number of monitors) is a
configuration option.
o    Network camera support - A major change in this version
is support for remote or network cameras. This is currently
implemented as series of http grabs of stills rather than
being able to break up motion jpeg streams. However frame
rates of from 2-10 should be achievable depending on your
network proximity to the cameras.
o    Option BGR->RGB swap - Added the option to switch on or
off the inversion of RGB to BGR for local cameras. It is on by
default to maintain compatibility with previous releases.
o    zmu suspend alarm option - Added new -n option to zmu to
effectively suspend alarm detection for a monitor. This is
intended for short term use and to support PTZ cameras where
alarm detection is desired to be suspended while the camera
changes orientation or zoom level.
o    FPS limiting - Added a new option to monitors to add a
maximum capture rate. This allows you to limit the amount of
hits a network camera gets or to reduce the system load with
many cameras. It also works with multi-port cards and limiting
the capture rate on one camera allows the spare FPS to be
allocated to other devices. For instance with two cameras and
no throttle, I get about 4FPS each. Throttling one to 2FPS
allows the other to operate at 6FPS so you can allocate your
capture resources accordingly. This limiting can be disabled
while alarms are occurring as a global option in zmconfig.pl.
o    Alarm reference update - Added option to not blend
alarmed images into the reference image. See the help in
zmconfig.pl for caveats.
o    Disappearing monitors - Fixed the disappearing monitor
problem in the console view where monitors with no events were
randomly not being shown.
o    Clean and tidy - Cleaned up a load of compiler warnings
and miscellanea to ensure a cleaner happier build.
o    Streamed image headers - Made all headers in streamed
images have full CRLF termination which will hopefully now
prevent the problems with broken streams that had existed
mostly with Mozilla (and hopefully won't break anything else).
o    Expire streams - Added expiry headers to streamed images
so they will always display fully.
o    Event navigation - Added next, prev, delete & next,
delete & prev navigation to events to allow you to quickly
review events in sequence as had been requested by a number of
people.
o    USR blocking - The debug USR signals were not being
blocked properly leading to nasty effects in zmc mostly.
o    zmfilter execution - Previously zmfilter execution was
not synchronised with the monitor state or the analysis daemon
leading to it sometimes being run unnecessarily. From now on
the zmfilter process will only run when a monitor is active
and so actually potentially generating alarms.
o    zmdc short statuses - Removed the logging of the short
status values that zmdc.pl returns to it's clients which had
been clogging up the log file.
o    Bugs and pieces - Fixed various bug(ettes) that I came
across that that I don't think had been reported or noticed so
I don't think we need to talk about them here do we.

12.27.    Release 0.9.9
Mainly bug-fixes and minor feature enhancements.

o     Added  zmu -q/--query option - There is now a new  query
  option for zmu. When combined with -d it gives the config of
  the device and when used with -m it dumps the current settings
  for  the monitor and zones. Mostly useful for bug reporting.
  The  previous  version of zmu used with just  -d  gave  this
  information for a video device by default. This now requires
  the -q option also to bring into line with it's -m equivalent.
  
o    Added creation of events directory - Previously the
'events' directory was not created on install, this has been
fixed.
o    Can now retag PHP files if necessary - Version 0.9.8 was
the first version to use short_open_tags in the PHP files.
This caused grief to some people so this script will put them
back to the long verion.
o    Frame and event lengths fractional - A new field has been
added to the Frames table. This is 'Delta' and is a fractional
number of seconds relative to the event start time. This is
intended to support the real-time playback of events rather
than just 'as fast as possible' or with a configured delay as
at present. The event length is now also fractional.
o    Corrected extraneous Width to be Height - The last
version of zmu included a Width comment which should have been
height.
o    Changed colour depth to bits - Having colour depths
expressed in bytes has caused no end of problems. This is now
changed to be bits and can be changed via a dropdown to limit
what can be entered. Don't forget to run the zmalter script to
update your DB.
o    Renamed terminate to zm_terminate - The use of
'terminate' in zmc.cpp caused a conflict on some systems so
renamed it to something more specific.
o    Zone deletion problem - A problem was found such that
when deleting zones the appropriate daemons were not being
asked to restart daemons correctly.
o    Console changes - The current version number is now
displayed in the console. A refresh button has also been added
along with a minor reorg.
o    Added delete button enable to checkAll - Using the 'Check
All' button in the main monitor window previously did not
enable the delete button. This is now fixed.
o    Reload on click - In previous versions the console window
would reload if a monitor window for example was clicked. Thsi
was removed in the last version which meant that sometimes the
console never go refreshed as it's timing loop was broken.
This functionality has now been reinstated.

12.28.    Release 0.9.8
Several new features and bug-fixes

o     Upgrade note - If you have installed 0.9.7 and  wish  to
  save your configuration then copy your existing zmconfig.txt
  file  over  to  your  0.9.8  directory  and  before  running
  zmconfig.pl.
  
o    Added multiple options to zmu - You can now give multiple
options to zmu and get all the responses at once. However this
is currently in a deterministic order and not related to the
order you give them.
o    Added -v/--verbose option to zmu - Zmu has been made more
human friendly though it still remains primarily for daemon
use. Giving the -v or --verbose option prints out a bit more
as a response to each command.
o    Add -d/--device to zmu - This option is designed to allow
you to get your video device working with another application
such as xawtv and then use zmu -d to print out the settings
it's using
o    (especially with the -v option). These options can then
be used as a starting point for your ZoneMinder configuration.
o    Added FPS in status field - The status field in the web
monitor views now contains an FPS setting as well as the
status.
o    Zmconfig changes - zmconfig handles missing options
better and rewrites config file even in non-interactive mode.
o    Fixed config problems in zmcfg.h - Some config was not
being set up correctly in zmcfg.h.
o    Zmwatch now works on image delay and not fps - Previously
the zmwatch daemon detected capture daemon failure by trying
to use the FPS setting. This was imprecise and prone to false
readings. It now uses the time delay since the last captured
image.
o    Added zmpkg.pl and zm scripts - There are now two new
scripts. zmpkg.pl is in charge of starting and stopping
ZoneMinder as a whole package and zm is designed to be
(optionally) installed into your init.d directory to use
ZoneMinder as a service.
o    Fixed bug in Scan mode - The monitor cycle or scan mode
had stopped working properly due to images not being
generated. This is now fixed.
o    Revamped the console window slightly - The console window
has now been reformatted slightly to give more and better
information including server load.
o    Added email and messaging to filters - Filters now allow
you to send emails or messages (basically just short emails
intended for mobile devices) on alarms. The format and
possible content for these emails is in zmconfig_eml.txt and
zmconfig_msg.txt.
o    Made zmdc more aggresive in killing old processes - The
zmdc.pl daeamon will now kill any ZoneMinder processes it
finds on startup or shutdown to prevent orphans from being
left around.
o    Configuration changes - Previously there were a lot of
files generated by configure. Now only zmconfig.pl is
generated this way and all the other configuration files are
created by zmconfig.pl (from .z files) to centralise
configuration more.
o    Fixed cambolzola opt bug - There was a bug in the
Cambozola options, I can't remember what it was but it's
fixed!
o    Retaint arguments in zmdc.pl - In some installations zmdc
was complaining about tainted arguments from the socket. These
are now detainted prior to sending and after receiving.
o    Forced alarms - You can now force alarms when looking at
the monitor window should anything catch your attention. You
have to remember to switch them off as well though.
o    Looser video configuration - Some video configuration
errors can now be ignored via the STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG option.
o    Monitor window refresh on alarm - When the monitor window
is active and an alarm has occurred the most recent alarms
list is immediately refreshed to show it.

12.29.    Release 0.9.7
Yes,  a  big jump in release number but a lot of changes  too.
Now somewhat more mature, not really an alpha any more, and  a
lot of bugs fixed too.

o    Added zmconfig.pl script to help with configuration.
  
o    Revamped to work better with configure scripts
o    Monitors now have more configuration options, including
some that were statically defined before such as location and
format of the image timestamps.
o    Removed Alarms table from schema as not required, never
was actually...
o    Added a number of new scripts, see the scripts directory
o    Added Fast delete to PHP files. This allows the web
interface to only delete the event entries themselves for
speed and then have the zmaudit script periodically tidy up
the rest.
o    Added event filter to enable bulk viewing, upload or
deletion of events according to various attributes. Filter can
be saved and edited.
o    Added last event id to shared memory for auto-filtering
etc.
o    Changed zmu -i option to write to monitor named image
file.
o    Made shared memory management somewhat more sensible.
o    Now stores DB times as localtime rather than UTC avoiding
daylight saving related bugs.
o    Fixed bug with inactive zones and added more debug.
o    Changed main functions to return int.
o    Added help and usage to zmu.
o    Fixed browser acceptance problem, more easily defaults to
HTML.
o    Split out the PHP files into a bunch with specific
functions rather than one monolithic one.
o    Fixed NetPBM paths and changed _SERVER to
HTTP_SERVER_VARS.
o    Added HUP signal on zone deletion.
o    Added NETPBM_DIR and conditional netpbm stuff.
o    Removed hard coded window sizes, all popup window
dimensions can be specified in zmconfig.php
o    Changed form methods to 'get' from 'post' to avoid
resubmit warnings all the time.
o    Added conditional sound to alarm on web interface.
o    Fixed syntax error when adding default monitor.
o    Some of the web views have changed slightly to
accommodate the separate events view.
o    And much much more, probably...

12.30.    Release 0.0.1
Initial release, therefore nothing new.


13.
   
   
   To Do
   
Seeing  as  ZoneMinder is so young and  has  kind  of  evolved
rather  than  being planned there are a bunch of  improvements
and enhancements still to do, here is just a sample.

o     Perhaps  split  out  devices - I  think  devices  should
  probably  be  a separate table and class from monitors.  Not
  critical but would represent a better model.
  
o    Comments - Needs many more, but that's just me I'm
hopeless at commenting things out. I'll get round to it soon
though honest! You're lucky to even get this document.
o    Optimised zones - The zones could do with being sorted
out a bit to optimise the processing of overlapping ones, at
the moment you can waste resource unless your zones are kept
very tidy.
o    Create zones using server side image maps - This would
make it easier to precisely define and see where your zone is
going to go. Not critical but handy but a bugger to do.
o    Zone Definitions - Allow zones to be defined according to
a colour coded bitmap or as polygons. Currently all zones are
rectangular this would add a bit of flexibility. Would need a
bit of a rewrite though. This will incur a slight penalty on
startup and a very slight one on processing for all reasonably
shaped zones. Work has already begun on this feature.
o    Mouseover help - A bit more help popping up when you
mouseover things would be handy. A bit more help full stop
actually.
o    Automatic device configuration - Video 4 Linux supports
various device queries, it should be possible to get most of
the device capability information from the device itself. The
zmu utility does this now but it's not yet integrated into the
web pages.
o    Extend the API. Well ok it's not really got an API yet
but the image data is held in shared memory in a very simple
format. In theory you could use the capture daemon to gab the
images and other things could read them from memory or the
analysis daemon could read images from elsewhere. Either way
this should be done through an API, and would need a library I
think. Also the zmu utility could probably do a whole lot more
to enable other things to manage when the daemons become
active etc.
o    Allow ZoneMinder to 'train' itself by allowing the user
to select events that are considered important and to discard
those that should be ignored. ZoneMinder will interpolate, add
a bit of magic, and recommend settings that will support this
selection automatically thereafter. The hooks for this are
already in to some extent.
o    Add sound support to allow a captured audio channel to be
associated with a video device. Work on this feature has
already begun.

14.
   
   
   Bugs
   
o     When  opening a link to an event etc from a notification
  email  the  window that is opened is just a regular  browser
  window  and  not  in the context of a proper ZoneMinder  web
  interface.  Thus it comes up too big usually  (not  a  major
  issue) and also things like 'Delete' don't work as it wants to
  do things to its parent (which is more of a major issue).
  
o    The .sock files used by the *nix sockets I suspect may
have the odd permission issue now and again. I think
everything recovers from it but it needs checking out.
Probably bucket loads more, just fire them at me.


15.
   
   
   Non-Bugs
   
o     Yes, those are tabs in the indents; I like tabs so don't
  go  changing  them to spaces please. Also, yes  I   like  my
  opening braces on their own line most of the time, what's the
  point of brackets that don't line up?
  
Everything  else  that  isn't definitely  broken  is  probably
deliberate, or was once anyway.


16.
   
   
   License
   
ZoneMinder is released under the GPL, see below.



ZoneMinder  README, $Date$,  $Revision:
1.9 $

Copyright (C) 2004  Philip Coombes

This  program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This  program  is  distributed in the hope  that  it  will  be
useful,  but  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even  the  implied
warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY  or  FITNESS  FOR  A  PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.