mpastell/cowlog

Software for recording behaviors from digital video

CowLog

CowLog is a software for recording behaviors from digital video initially developed in the Research Center for Animal Welfare and Department of Agricultural Sciences in the University of Helsinki. It is currently maintained and developed in the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and as my personal free time project.

This repository contains the new desktop branch CowLog 3 of the software based on HTML5 and Javascript using Electron.

The use and architecture of the software is described:

Pastell, M., (2016). CowLog – Cross-Platform Application for Coding Behaviours from Video. Journal of Open Research Software. 4(1), p.e15. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jors.113

The program uses the following frameworks and libraries:

• WebChimera.js
• jQuery
• Bootstrap

Get the release

If you want to use CowLog for your research can download most recent release binary for your platform.

Run most recent version from this repository

If you want to use the most recent version from this repository e.g. for contributing code you need to first install Electron. Then you can run the application using:

git clone https://github.com/mpastell/CowLog.git
cd CowLog
electron CowLog

You will need to add compiled WebChimera.js to node_modules to use VLC support.

If you want to modify the source I suggest you read the Electron documentation first.

Tools

The following tools are used to build the release binaries:

• electron-packager to make binary build for all platforms.
• node-appdmg to package OS X release.
• Inno Setup to make windows installer.

cowlog's Issues

"Cancel" button for preferences dialog throws an error.

VLC support

Add support for VLC player using WebChimera.js https://github.com/RSATom/WebChimera.js

Add volume control

Set audio on for VLC

Set audio on in VLC by default.

Fix progress bar.

The progress bar should work in seeking to video, it stopped working after updating jQuery"

VLC keeps playing after video window is closed

Videos don't close with VLC player when the window is closed.

playback issues in Mac version

I really like the new version, and appreciate the key commands! I've found that, using the mac version, the playback bar does not move when running my .m4v videos using the html5 player. If I instead use the VLC player, the bar moves, but the aspect ratio of the video file is stretched from my widescreen recordings to what looks like 4:3. Overall, super useful, just wanted to report some bugs!