RecipeBook

Python web-app (Flask) to browse Nextcloud Cookbook recipes on the local network. Designed for use with E-Ink screens.

For a version that works with Tandoor, please navigate to RecipeBook-Tandoor

Deploy with Docker • Local Build • Screenshots • Version History

Overview

I created this to access recipes from Nextcloud Cookbook and easily view them on Kindle's web browser whilst cooking. The view is designed for such screens, and is not as nice as the actual app. Therefore, accessing your Nextcloud website with a mobile device or tablet would just as effectively provide kitchen access to Cookbook.

Please note that the web application is very basic and should not be run on untrusted networks. It is not designed to be exposed publicly.

The machine running the app should have access to the Nextcloud user data (directly or via network share). The recipe data is supplied to the RecipeBook container by volume binding the folder. See LinuxServer.io and Docker for more information on Docker containers.

This is my first project using Flask and building Docker containers. Feedback is appreciated.

Application Setup

Install and run using docker, examples provided below.

Access main page at <your-ip>:5000. See below for changing port number.

Usage

This container is designed to run on the same machine hosting Nextcloud data. The volume binding below is for the directory containing the recipes stored by Nextcloud Cookbook. Alternatively, the data can be copied to another location, and then that location can be bound to /code/recipe_data

If using the LSIO NextCloud docker container, the folder may be in the following location:

<volume bound to NextCloud data "/data">/<user>/files/Recipes

Example configurations to build container are shown below. Environmental Variables are listed with default values and do not need to be specified. Healthcheck is optional.

docker-compose

---
version: "2"
services:
  recipe:
    image: nbpub/recipelook:latest
    container_name: recipebook
    volumes:
      - <path/to/recipes-folder>:/code/recipe_data
    ports:
      - 5000:5000
    environment:
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      - PAGE_TITLE=Recipe Book
      - IMAGE_SIZE=Full
      - FONT_SMALL=30
      - FONT_LARGE=36
      - ENABLE_API=False	  
    healthcheck:
      test: wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:5000 || exit 1
      interval: 300s
      timeout: 10s
      start_period: 5s
    restart: unless-stopped

docker cli (click here for more info)

docker run -d \
  --name=recipebook \
  -e TZ=America/Los_Angeles \
  -e PAGE_TITLE=Recipe Book \
  -e IMAGE_SIZE=Full \
  -e FONT_SMALL=30 \
  -e FONT_LARGE=36 \
  -e ENABLE_API=False \  
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -v <path/to/recipes-folder>:/code/recipe_data \
  --health-cmd wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost/ || exit 1 \
  --health-interval 300s \
  --health-timeout 10s \
  --health-start-period 5s \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  nbpub/recipelook:latest

Parameters

Container images are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 5001:5000 would expose port 5000 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 5001 outside the container.

Parameter	Function
-p 5000:5000	Default Flask port. Internal port should not be changed.
-e TZ=America/Los_Angeles	Set timezone for logging using tzdata.
-e PAGE_TITLE=Recipe Book	Home page title. Displays on tab.
-e IMAGE_SIZE=Full	Default image size to load. Can be changed to Thumbnails. Recipe pages have a toggle button to switch between sizes.
-e FONT_SMALL=30	Default size for "small" sections: Description and Reviews. Can be changed to any <integer> to adjust web-page display.
-e FONT_LARGE=36	Default size for "large" sections: Ingredients and Instructions. Can be changed to any <integer> to adjust web-page display.
-e ENABLE_API=False	Set to True to add an endpoint at <your-ip>:5000/api/info to return system statistics (temperature, load, CPU and RAM usage) as JSON.
-v /code/recipe_data	Recipes in this folder are read and displayed on the homepage. A refresh button is provided to re-parse recipes in the volume. Set to Read-only with ":ro"

Supported Architectures

Images are available for the following architectures:

Architecture
x86-64
arm64
armhf

Pulling from DockerHub should provide the correct image for your system. The application is built on the Python-alpine base image. Debian images are available by adding debian- before a tag.

Tags	Description
latest	Images built with each commit
v1.0, v1.1	Stable releases, see history below.
tandoor	Tandoor compatible v1.0 image, no Debian image

See DockerHub Repository

History

Version 1.0 | docker: v1.0

• Initial release (16 Nov 2021)
• mount recipes in /recipe_data not /code/recipe_data

Tandoor Compatability docker: tandoor

• This version works differently, so I made a new repository
• Github and Docker images will not updated past Version 1.0

---

Current Version

Version 1.1 docker: v1.1, latest

• update Python, Flask (March 2023)
• add API call for system info
  • adds psutil as dependency
• restructured code
  • using "application factory" design in flask, moved initial loading + checks to __init__.py
  • added error page for No Recipe Data, rest of application will not load
  • JSON API is separate blueprint and file
• change mount point for recipe data, added checks and logging for data path
• building docker images via Github workflows
  • multi-stage builds with Python slim-bullseye and alpine base images
• wget instead of curl for healthchecks - no need to install curl on alpine image

---

Version 1.2???

• Code
  • Add tests
  • clean up CSS styling
  • Cache cleaning - delete recipe images from static
• Deployment
  • Volume binding for configuration folder, let user poke through directories
  • Allow recipe_data folder be specified by environmental variable, instead of hard-coded in app
  • Use non-root user in dockerfile, allow using non-root user for container (root required to make directory)

---

Screenshots

Home Page, lists all recipes

Filter Button

Text Search, recipe titles only

Recipe Page example, full-sized image

Recipe Page example, thumb-sized image, Ingredients

Recipe Page example, continued . . . Instructions

Recipe Page example, continued . . . Reviews

Build Locally

Instructions may not be comprehensive. Docker deployment is recommended.

If you want to run RecipeBook without Docker, a python virtual environment is recommended. See Flask Installation for more details. Python 3.9 or newer is recommended.

1. Download the code in the repository. Click the green code button at the top of the page for options.

2. Extract the folder contents. Copy the files+folders within "app" directory and "requirements.txt" to a new directory newdirectory. Rename "ExampleRecipes" to "recipe_data" if you want to test with example data. All other contents can be deleted.

3. Copy your recipe data folder to "recipe_data" within newly made directory: newdirectory/recipe_data OR see Step 7

4. Create and activate venv within new directory.

$ cd newdirectory
$ python -m venv venv
$ . venv/bin/activate

5. Install Flask, dependencies. psutil should be removed from requirements.txt

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

6. Optional Modify the path to recipe data. See line 18 of init.py. If you are using the ExampleRecipe folder, specify its location. Using a raw text string may be beneficial, but shouldn't be required. path = r'path/to/ExampleRecipes'

   • Modify local variables that are typically specified by environmental variables. See lines 6-15 of the same file.
     • getenv("<environmental variable name>", "<parameter to be changed>".
   • Enable the API by setting line 40 to True. Ensure psutil is installed.

7. Run! Open site in web browser http://localhost:5000 . Adjust Flask parameters as desired, see Flask Quickstart.

$ flask --debug run

8. Press Ctrl+C to stop server. Deactivate venv when finished.

$ deactivate