Avatar

Small utility providing user avatar pics in various sizes with good caching.

Setup

• install node.js and npm
• go to project folder and run npm install
• .bin/avatar <port> (starts the server, port is optional)

Note: installation can be a bit tricky, since the required lib (node-canvas) depends on a lib call "cairo", which must be installed properly on the system. (See: https://github.com/LearnBoost/node-canvas#installation)

Usage

Query params:

• t - user name or email of the user
• h - hash to identify the user (optional, if not set t is used)
• u - url of possible user pic (optional)
• c - force a color (optional)
• s - preferred size of pic (optional, default is 150)

Caching

• max-age is set to 7 days
• etag is the current date

Production

endpoint: http://getcatchapp.com:8888/ cloudfront: http://d35va0jwnexy3a.cloudfront.net on: web.hojoki.com folder: /var/avatar user: bitbucket

Start/Stop Avatar Service

Avatarservice is located at our Webserver (web.hojoki.com). Use the Startscript at:

/opt/hojoki/deploy/trunk/script/webserver/startAvatar.sh

It takes the Parameters start [num], stop and status [num].

• start [num]: Starts num instances of avatar and installs iptables Rules to balance RR between them. Default num is 6
• stop: Stops all Avatar Processes and deletes RR iptable Rules
• status [num]: Checks if the number of Avatarsevices and iptables Rules matches num. On success it will do nothing; on failure it will restart all Avatarservices. Default num is 6

Timm has a cronjob running, which auto restarts the avatar process on the server using the status option.