Email, Archiving, Schedules, and Other Features

Launch the EvoCam application and follow this step-by-step guide to set up EvoCam to capture and save images on your web server. After you're done, you may want to read the "Customizing EvoCam" section, which includes information on customizing your webcam with text captions, picture badges, clocks and effects.

Email
Archiving
Schedules
Other Features


Email

EvoCam can email a copy of all captured images to any email address. The image is sent as a MIME attachment to the email, and it is encoded so that it is viewable on most MIME-compatible email applications.

Sending Emails Automatically

To enable emailing, check the 'Send image as email' checkbox in the 'Options' tab. The first time you check the 'Send image as email' checkbox, you will be asked to specify the address of your SMTP server for outgoing email, the 'from' address from which emails will appear to originate, the 'to' address to send the email to, and the subject line of the email message.

Sending Emails Manually

You can also send an email with the current image at any time. Choose the 'Send Image as Email' command from the 'File' menu, and enter the 'to' address for the email and the subject line of the email message.

Archiving

EvoCam can archive a copy of all captured images to an archive folder. To enable archiving, check the 'Archive all images' checkbox in the 'Options' tab. The first time you check the 'Archive all images' checkbox, you will be asked to locate the folder in which the images will be archived. To change the location for archived images at any time, click the small folder icon to the right of the checkbox. To prevent EvoCam from completely filling your hard disk, archiving will be automatically disabled if available disk space drops below 1 MB (or 1024 KB).

To specify the format of the archive, click the 'Archiving OptionsÉ' button, and choose whether to save sequentially numbered images, a timelapse QuickTime movie, or both.

Sequentially Numbered Images

When saving sequentially numbered images, EvoCam uses a unique timestamp for the filename, equal to the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight on January 1, 2001.

Timelapse QuickTime Movie

When saving a timelapse QuickTime movie, EvoCam appends each image to the end of a movie called 'Timelapse Movie' located in the chosen archive folder. If the movie file does not exist, a new one is created.

To specify the speed of the movie when it is played back, use the popup menu in the 'Archiving Options' dialog to choose the speed (in frames per second) of the movie. For example, if you have set up EvoCam to periodically refresh at 1 minute intervals, and you choose 10 fps as the playback speed of the movie, each hour will be compressed into 6 seconds of video.

EvoCam can automatically begin a new timelapse movie when certain events occur. To specify when to begin a new timelapse movie, click the 'Archiving Options' button in the 'Options' tab. You can choose to begin a new timelapse movie each time EvoCam is opened, whenever the movie exceeds a given size, daily at a specific time, or any combination of these settings.

If you need to share timelapse movies with users on other operating systems, click the 'Archiving Options' button in the 'Options' tab and check the 'Add .mov extension to saved timelapse movies' checkbox. With this setting, timelapse movies will be saved as 'Timelapse.mov' instead of 'Timelapse Movie'.

Schedules


EvoCam's Schedule feature allows you to specify when your camera goes online and offline automatically. You can specify a different schedule for each day of the week. In the popup menu next to the day of the week, you can choose "Off", "On", "On/Off", "Custom", and "Daylight".

'Off' Schedule

This schedule causes EvoCam to be offline for the entire 24 hour period.

'On' Schedule

This schedule causes EvoCam to be online for the entire 24 hour period.

'On/Off' Schedule

This schedule causes EvoCam to turn on at a specific time, and turn off at another specific time. For example, you can use this type of schedule if you want EvoCam to be online from 9am to 5pm each day. If you need to specify multiple on/off times, you should use a 'Custom' schedule, explained below.

'Custom' Schedule

A custom schedule allows you to specify multiple on/off times. When you choose 'Custom', EvoCam displays a timeline for that day. The timeline shows the 24 hour day broken into 15 minute segments, and you can click and drag in the timeline to set whether EvoCam is online or offline for

'Daylight' Schedule

This schedule causes EvoCam to be online whenever it is daylight. EvoCam does this automatically based on the amount of light being received by the camera, and you do not need to make any adjustments for the time of year or for daylight savings changes. If you have multiple camera views in one webcam window, EvoCam will be online if any of the cameras detect daylight.

Using an Offline Image

If you want your webcam to display a static image whenever you are not running EvoCam, or whenever EvoCam enters an offline period in a schedule, use the 'Offline Image' command in the 'Options' menu.

Other Features

EvoCam also has the following miscellaneous features:

FTP/Email Transcript

Whenever EvoCam attempts to upload an image to an FTP server or send an email, it creates a "EvoCam Transcript" file in your Documents folder. This file, which you can open by clicking the 'View FTP/Email Transcript' button in the 'Status' tab, contains a transcript of the last FTP and/or session. This file can be useful when troubleshooting FTP upload or email problems.

Advanced FTP Settings

The 'Advanced FTP Settings' dialog, accessible via the 'Server' tab or via the 'Advanced FTP Settings' menu item in the 'Options' menu, allows you to specify whether to use Passive FTP, whether to use a temporary file when uploading, and whether EvoCam should stay connected to your FTP server between uploads. When using the 'Stay Connected' feature, you can manually disconnect from your FTP server using the 'Disconnect FTP Server' command in the 'File' menu.

Show/Hide Settings

The small triangle below the image allows you to show or hide the settings tabs.

Time Until Refresh

The progress bar below the image shows how long is remaining until the next scheduled refresh. If neither uploading or saving is enabled in the 'Options' tab, no progress bar is displayed. If the refresh interval is changed, the progress bar immediately updates to show the new time remaining until the next refresh. If desired, the progress bar can be hidden using the 'Hide Progress Bar' command in the 'Options' menu.

Refresh Now / Stop Button

The 'Now' button below the image immediately uploads/emails/saves/archives the currently displayed image, and resets the timer for the next refresh. While uploading, the 'Now' button becomes a 'Stop' button. Clicking 'Stop' will to cancel the upload attempt in progress. If desired, the 'Now' button can be hidden using the 'Hide Now Button' command in the 'Options' menu.

Reducing Processor Usage

To reduce EvoCam's processor usage when it is running in the background, use the 'Reduce Processor Usage' command in the 'Options' menu. When this option is enabled, EvoCam will update its video display less frequently.

Disabling the Video Preview

To disable the video preview in a webcam window, use the 'Disable Video Preview' command in the 'Options' menu, or click the webcam window's zoom box. This option is useful when using Timbuktu (or similar software) to remotely administer a computer running EvoCam.

Reveal EvoCam in Finder

The 'Reveal EvoCam in Finder' command in the 'File' menu makes the EvoCam application's icon visible in the Finder. This is useful if you need to access badge images or settings files in your EvoCam folder.

Web Menu

The 'Web' menu has links to useful web pages (Evological's web site, EvoCam's web page, and online purchase page) and an automatic version check feature that checks if you are running the latest available version of EvoCam. If you do not have the latest version, you can download it. Note: The automatic version check feature is available only on Mac OS 8.6 and later.