MMM-Dilbert

This module is used to display Dilbert comics from www.dilbert.com created by the great Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays). Despite limited functionality, the module has considerable configurability and comes with an autocorrect feature to ensure that the module can overcome any temporary networking hiccups that would otherwise require the mirror to be restarted to overcome.

End User Dependencies

Just an installation of Magic Mirror² and a working internet connection.

Installation

1. Run git clone https://github.com/kjb085/MMM-Dilbert.git in the directory ~/MagicMirror/modules
2. Run npm install --production to install the required dependencies
3. Add MMM-Dilbert to your config file ~/MagicMirror/config/config.js

{
	module: "MMM-Dilbert",
	position: "top_right",
	config: {
    	...
	}
}

Example

config: {
	headerType: 'title',
	showTitleBelowImage: false,
}

Config Options

Primary

Option	Default	Description
type	'today'	What day's Dilbert comic to display Options today, random
headerType	default	Header display content defaulting "Daily Dilbert" or the comics title Note: If comic does not have a title, default will be displayed Options: default, title
showHeader	true	Whether or not to display the hader
showTitleBelowImage	true	Whether or not to display the comic's title below the comic Note: Not all comics have a title
showRating	true	Show the star rating of the comic
customStyles	{}	Custom CSS to be applied to elements of the module with style name written in camel case. Applicable elements: container, title, stars Example: { container: { maxHeight: 25vh }, title: { fontSize: 1em, color: '#af2f27' } }

Today Type Only

Option	Default	Description
updateHour	3	At what hour the module should request a new comic from www.dilbert.com NOTE: New comics do not appear to be released at midnight EST, so I've set this default to 3am, which should be safe for most users to ensure the current day's comic is always displayed

Random Type Only

Option	Default	Description
updateInterval	1	How frequently to update the comic displayed by the module in hours

Auto Correction

Option	Default	Description
autoCorrect	true	When this is set to true, the module will attempt to update more frequently if there's an error retrieving comic data from www.dilbert.com
refreshPeriod	2	How frequently to attempt to request valid comic data from the site in minutes
autoCorrectAttemptLimit	5	How many attempts to make before aborting auto correction and falling back to a default update state

Dev Dependencies

If you plan on modifying the existing code, these tools will be helpful as the the css was created using sass. Once you have npm installed, simply run npm install for the subsequent npm packages to be installed.

• node-sass
• nodemon

Note: To make use of the installed packages run the below commands:

• npm run build-css to compile scss to css and running
• npm run watch-css will watch the scss file for changes and compile on save
• npm run compile-hb to compile changes made to the html template
• npm run view-complete to compile handlebars and build css from scss

To Do

There is no timeline or guarantee than any of these will be accomplished. Willing to review pull requests if anyone else wants to take these on.

• Write tests
• Add ability to cycle through user defined comics
• Explore taking this concept and create a generic web scraper module that allows complete configurability via a config