Eye Fi Standalone Server Version 2.0

I'd like to release an updated version of the Eye Fi standalone server in python that I have been working on. This version should work on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Solaris, or wherever else you can load a Python interpreter. As always I love comments so if you are using this feel free to e-mail me or drop me a note!

Source on GitHub: http://github.com/tachang/EyeFiServer

Download (zip): http://www.darkeneddesire.com/EyeFiServer/2.0/EyeFiServer-v2.0.zip

I know some people just like to browse around the source without having to download stuff (I'm one of those people):

http://www.darkeneddesire.com/EyeFiServer/2.0/Release/

This new version has the following features:

• The server can now execute an arbitrary command on each uploaded photo. This is a very dangerous feature and should be used with caution. On the other hand it is also very cool. You can have the server FTP files, display them using an image viewer, or even run sorting programs on the images.
  
• Improved security: the server now generates its own nonces instead of using one that was hard coded. The nonce is based on the random library provided by python. The INTEGRITYDIGEST field is also checked.
• Ability to read settings from a configuration file (there is a included DefaultSettings.ini for reference). The file allows you to configure the listen port, console output, logging, download location, and execute on upload, and upload key.

Some other notable improvements but not really features are the addition of regression tests and support for Python 2.5. The regression tests are interesting since I run them against the official Eye-Fi Manager to make sure my behavior is a close match.

Getting usage information as to how to specify a configuration file:

C:\EyeFiServer\Release>EyeFiServer.py -h
Usage: EyeFiServer.py [options]

Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-c CONFIGFILE, --config=CONFIGFILE
Path to configuration file (example in
DefaultSettings.ini)

Actually specifying a configuration file:
C:\EyeFiServer\Release>EyeFiServer.py -c DebugSettings.ini

Eye Fi Standalone Server

Eye Fi Linux Hacking

So I spent some time over my vacation learning a bit more about Python. What better way to learn a language than to implement something you want or need, right?

I am releasing a standalone Eye-Fi server written in Python. Basically I saw Dave Hansen's post (http://dave-hansen.blogspot.com/2008/12/freestanding-server.html) and went ahead and did it. This software works on Windows with Python 2.6. I have not tested it on Linux/Unix yet but I assume it will work seeing as how it is written in Python. Please let me know if you try this software out and it works or doesn't. I personally would love any comments!

Python script is here: http://www.darkeneddesire.com/EyeFiServer/EyeFiServer.py

General Architecture Notes

This is a standalone Eye-Fi Server that is designed to take the place of the Eye-Fi Manager.

Starting this server creates a listener on port 59278. I use the BaseHTTPServer class included with Python. I look for specific POST/GET request URLs and execute functions based on those
URLs.

Currently all files are downloaded to the directory in which this script is run.

To use this script you need to have your Eye-Fi upload key.
It is in C:\Documents and Settings\[User]\Application Data\Eye-Fi\Settings.xml

Simple search for "eyeFiUploadKey" and replace it with your key.

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Update (4/4/09) - http://returnbooleantrue.blogspot.com/2009/04/eye-fi-standalone-server-version-20.html

Troubleshooting Python's BaseHTTPServer

Everytime I run into some really weird issue I tend to like to write about it if only because it will help me remember it if I ever encounter it at a later date.

One the things I am working on is a standalone Eye-Fi server that receives HTTP SOAP requests from a small wireless device. My previous attempts at implementing one have been mostly successful: I used Apache and PHP to hack something quick together.

Looking back at the code I decided to try my hand at Python and implementing a simple web server. I looked up a tutorial on BaseHTTPServer and went on my merry way. The server worked pretty well when I loaded it through a web browser (IE/Firefox) but seemed to hang when the Eye-Fi card contacted it.

The error was rather interesting in that Python exceptioned indicating the remote host forcibly closed the connection. I was pretty lost as to why that was.

At first I thought it was something wrong with how the BaseHTTPServer was written. So I went looking around the source trying to find anything about TCP timeouts or how to disable them. I eventually broke down and ran WireShark. This showed me that the request was infact getting through to the web server but never making it up to the POST/GET handlers. So I started looking at buffers and how python knows to finish a line. It turns out that there is a bug in the Eye-Fi card. One of the requests it makes does not end with a carriage return or line feed. This causes the server to block on input. Eventually the TCP connection times out and resets are sent.

The solution was simply to upgrade to a later version of the firmware. Firmware 2.0001 seems to work well.