ISBN Scanner Problems

[zwiebrobert68]

Hi,

I've found your Project just recently and was catched by the fact that you are able to run it locally and by having an ISBN Scanner.

I fired up docker and installed your latest Version (1.8.0).

Everything is running fine except the ISBN Scanner. I do only get a black window.

I've tried it on Windows with different browsers like Edge, Chrome, Firefox (all on the latest versions). Too I tried two different Android Phones (Version 14 and 16) with different Browser (Chrome, Firefox, Fennec, Samsung Internet). All with the same result as on the Desktop.

To test my phones and camera settings I've tried in all Browsers described above on Android 14 (Samsung Galaxy A52s) a Website called isbnfetch.com . Here the camera worked instantly, so I think there must be some problem with your ISBN Scanner.
Sine I am no developer I do not know how to submit more detailed Logs or Infos to you.

Kind regards
Robert

[codebude]

Thanks for the detailed report, Robert, that's really helpful! A quick question first: which URL are you using to open LibrisLog? Is it http:// (e.g. http://192.168.x.x:8001 or a hostname without https)?

The ISBN scanner needs a camera, and browsers only allow camera access on secure pages (HTTPS). A plain http:// address silently disables the camera everywhere, which matches exactly what you are seeing. The same setup works on isbnfetch.com because that site is HTTPS.

Quick test: open http://localhost:8001 in a browser on the machine that runs the Docker containers. The scanner should work there. If it does, that confirms the cause. The proper fix is putting LibrisLog behind HTTPS, for example with a reverse proxy such as Caddy, Traefik or Nginx (Caddy and Traefik fetch Let's Encrypt certificates automatically). Until then, as a desktop workaround you can enable Chrome's chrome://flags/#unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure and add your local address.

If the scanner still shows a black window even on localhost, or if you are already on HTTPS, please tell me the exact error message inside the scanner dialog ("No camera device found." vs. "Unable to start barcode scanner...") and, if possible, what the browser console (press F12, then Console) shows. Then we will dig deeper.

[zwiebrobert68]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. Sorry to have bothered you with that. It was beyond my knowledge, that the camera only works in https settings. Of course I did use plain http, since it is the default setting and i use it only in my home setup.
As you mentioned, it worked perfect with localhost.
Propably you could add this info to your docs. I didn´t see it there, but if i have overlooked it please excuse it beforehand.
Thanks for your great work and your program.
Kind regards

[codebude]

Hi @zwiebrobert68 ,

good to hear that we found the reason. And no, unfortunately the docs didn't mention it clearly enough.
I updated the docs and added an additional check to LibrisLog that shows a warning in case the app runs in insecure context. Both things are part of #95 and will be available with the next release.

As a forecast, docs will look like:

I hope this will help other users in the future. Thanks again for your valuable feedback. :-)