Taplist.IO Free Digital Web Based Tap List

[TaplistIO]

Just a follow-up on a small feature request, you can create kegs directly from the beverage database, and send them to the keg room, to "on deck", or to any free tap:

 

[wyzazz]

So after setting up a FireTV Stick and RPI2B as a display, I decided to setup an old windows laptop with a busted keyboard as a display. I have a lot of old PC's lying around and figured this might be a good option for out in the garage (away from the basement bar & main kegerator) or something similar in the future. This is a great way to run Taplist.io if you don't have a FireTV Stick or RPI , but you have a slew of old PC's sitting around. Here is how I did it.

1. I setup a fresh install of Windows 7 with the user set to autologin. If you don't know how to do this please follow the instructions in this link.

2. Next you need to grab the latest version of 32-bit Chromium for windows from here. (Make sure you grab the 32-bit .zip!) And unzip it to C:\Program Files (x86)\. This way the path to chrome.exe reads C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32\chrome.exe.

3. Next we need to create a batch file to start Chromium. Open notepad (Start -> Search Box -> "notepad.exe") and place the following text inside.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32\chrome.exe" --noerrdialogs --disable-session-crashed-bubble --disable-infobars --kiosk https://www.taplist.io/display

Then go to File -> Save As, and navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32, in the File name: box type "taplist.io.bat" and change the Save as type: to All Files.

Note: You may get some UAC or Administrative Permission prompts. Please accept these to continue saving this file where you want. It's also a good idea to navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32 to ensure that taplist.io.bat is saved there.

4. Now we want to run the .bat file to test it. Using Windows Explorer navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\chrome-win32 and double-click taplist.io.bat. This should launch the Chromium browser and give you the pairing window for Taplist.io. Please follow the instructions to pair your display the first time.

5. You may notice that there are some popup windows that display, pressing the ESC key got rid of those for good on my end. There may also be a scrollbar on the side if you have a lot of taps displayed, press and hold the CTRL key and the + or - key to get the display zoomed in/out to where you want it. Once you have the zoom set it will stay that way. If you would like to now close Chromium you can do so with the key combination CTRL+Shift+Q.

6. If you would like to auto-start Chromium you can do so by placing a shortcut to this .bat file in the startup folder for your user. Simply Right-Click the taplist.io.bat file and select Create Shortcut from the menu. Then Right-Click on that shortcut and choose Cut from the menu. Now navigate to the following path using Windows Explorer C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. (The easiest way to do this is to open an explorer window and copy/paste the above path in to the title bar.) Then Right-Click on an empty space in that folder and select Paste.

7. That's it! Restart the computer and Taplist.io should launch on startup! Again please note that this is not supported by Taplist.io. If you have any trouble following my instructions please let me know and I'll attempt to clarify them and help you along with setting up your PC.

 

[ejluttmann]

For those interested in a Raspberry Pi setup, I set it up using the FullPageOS distribution (https://github.com/guysoft/FullPageOS) to display a single webpage in full screen. Downloaded http://docstech.net/FullPageOS/2016-07-20_2016-05-27-fullpageos-jessie-lite-0.7.0.zip, unziped, burned image to SD card, remounted SD card on PC, modified the URL in fullpageos.txt to "https://www.taplist.io/display", ejected SD card, mounted SD card in to rpi, plugged rpi into the network and powered it up. Booted right up to the activate screen.
You can also edit the fullpageos-network.txt file to setup your wifi access if your not plugging directly into the network.

 

[wyzazz]

For those interested in a Raspberry Pi setup, I set it up using the FullPageOS distribution (https://github.com/guysoft/FullPageOS) to display a single webpage in full screen. Downloaded http://docstech.net/FullPageOS/2016-07-20_2016-05-27-fullpageos-jessie-lite-0.7.0.zip, unziped, burned image to SD card, remounted SD card on PC, modified the URL in fullpageos.txt to "https://www.taplist.io/display", ejected SD card, mounted SD card in to rpi, plugged rpi into the network and powered it up. Booted right up to the activate screen.
You can also edit the fullpageos-network.txt file to setup your wifi access if your not plugging directly into the network.

I had no idea that a distro like that even existed, very cool!

 

[TaplistIO]

Some new stuff:

"On deck" keg management is easier now, & will optionally show up on your tap list (configurable as a setting):

There's now an activity stream, for adding and removing kegs. Might be able to link this to Twitter (or whatever) in the future:

Not screenshottable, but have also made a bunch of small improvements - thanks to all the intrepid homebrewers who have been giving feedback!

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I got my pi setup as a display for this. I've got 4 taps setup and working. It's awesome!! Huge fan so far. When do you plan to allow more taps? I'd like to expand to 8.

Also, for feature requests.... What about a visual indicator for nitro beers? A check box when tapping. Sometimes I have the same beer on twice on both co2 and nitro or one time I'll tap on nitro and the next on co2.

 

[wyzazz]

Awesome work Kegbot!!!!

Sandy, I have 8 taps running on it currently. You shouldn't have any issues adding more taps, let me know if you need any assistance!

 

[TaplistIO]

I got my pi setup as a display for this. I've got 4 taps setup and working. It's awesome!! Huge fan so far. When do you plan to allow more taps? I'd like to expand to 8.

Sorry about the tap limitation, that's now removed!

Also, for feature requests.... What about a visual indicator for nitro beers? A check box when tapping. Sometimes I have the same beer on twice on both co2 and nitro or one time I'll tap on nitro and the next on co2.

Hmm, not a bad idea. Maybe some sort of general way to show labels about kegs would have other uses too. As a short term fix, you could clone the beverage type and just have a "nitro" version — may not ideal, of course..

thanks for the feedback!
mikey

 

[KennyPowers55]

This is awesome! We just started using raspberry pints but we were disappointed on how limited it was. This is so much better.
https://taplist.io/taplist-749478

 

[day_trippr]

This is awesome! We just started using raspberry pints but we were disappointed on how limited it was. This is so much better.

Just out of interest, compared to Taplist.IO, what did you find limiting with RaspberryPints?

Cheers!

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I have used both and I find Taplist.IO to be better as well. You can input information however you like in Taplist. Rpints forced you to use SG, instead of plato, and would only calculate ABV based on SG. You couldn't enter your own ABV. There were some other issues like that that I had with it.

Overall I think Taplist.IO is far more flexible. It was WAY easier to setup. I had it up and running on my raspberrypi in minutes. The backend is easy to configure from virtually any device. Definitely a fan of TapList. I would be happy to see a "premium" tier of some sort so that the dev could get some ROI on his investment. Maybe include some custom branding and removal of Taplist branding. I could definitely see this as useful for commercial tap rooms. Being able to control individual displays from the same backend with very minimal hardware (just a rpi or firetv) per display. Pretty awesome.

 

[KennyPowers55]

Just out of interest, compared to Taplist.IO, what did you find limiting with RaspberryPints?

Cheers!

The first thing my brewing sidekick pointed out was that it was lacking the ability to select a specific color for the beer. She made a beer with blackberry that came out neon purple and that option was not available in pints. That seemed to be the breaking point for her.

 

[dfborn]

Any chance you're going to add support for volume tracking / display? Even something as simple as a "button" to push to manually track dispensing would be great.

 

[TaplistIO]

Hehe - Never meant to start a holy war, but since we're on the subject: not only does Taplist.io compare with Rpints, but it also "competes" with my other project, Kegbot. Which has been around almost as long as HBT itself!

So I expressly took some of the lessons and problems I've seen with both Kegbot and Rpints and designed Taplist.io around them: simplicity over openness, to be sure. I know day_trippr and others pour a bunch of blood sweat and tears into Rpints, but they really do serve very different interests, so its sort of an apples and oranges comparison, imo. (I'm certainly very grateful for the kind words & validation, tho!)

The first thing my brewing sidekick pointed out was that it was lacking the ability to select a specific color for the beer. She made a beer with blackberry that came out neon purple and that option was not available in pints. That seemed to be the breaking point for her.

Funny you should mention, I spent probably an inordinate amount of time on getting this feature "right" in taplist.io. Here's how: I have no artistic talent, so I found someone who does, on elance, and paid a few hundred bucks to get nice layered keg illustrations drawn. Then I wrote some support for changing the middle layer - the keg "fluid" - to an arbitrary color, and finally wrote an endpoint to merge & serve the whole image up as a nice single transparent PNG.

If you customize the keg srm, it'll use the equivalent color in hex (thanks homebrewtalk), you can also override it to anything you want, sometimes with funny results..

Any chance you're going to add support for volume tracking / display? Even something as simple as a "button" to push to manually track dispensing would be great.

Yeah! To be honest the only reason it isn't exposed is because I'd porbably start going crazy with hardware & flow meter support . Under the hood, each keg you tap has the concept of a volume, there's just no public api to change it right now. That just came up recently in a discussion on the topic. Long story short, expect this to be opened up soon, I'd love to see what folks do with it!

I would be happy to see a "premium" tier of some sort so that the dev could get some ROI on his investment. Maybe include some custom branding and removal of Taplist branding. I could definitely see this as useful for commercial tap rooms.

Thank you! I've loved the inventiveness of the hbt'ers and other non-commercial users using it so far, so been a little reluctant to hold my hat out. Some examples of customized lists: 1, 2 - sorry to put anyone on the spot! But yes, costs - while low - are nonzero, and I'd love to find a sweet spot where some better commercial features could support and subsidize "the basics" for home users, keeping the core product "free forever" in the spirit of great products like github. More on this in the coming months I think.

Being able to control individual displays from the same backend with very minimal hardware (just a rpi or firetv) per display. Pretty awesome.

Yes! I know I'm a broken record here on this subject, but the firetv is really a delight for this kind of application. As a developer, it's a really great "stock" android platform in almost all regards. And for signage apps like this, it can be truly "set it and forget it". I'm a big believer!

Thanks for all the feedback! cheers,
mikey

 

[dfborn]

Long story short, expect this to be opened up soon, I'd love to see what folks do with it!

Any chance you can give an estimate on what "soon" means? I'm about to move forward with a rpints project, but considering waiting. Volume tracking is a must for me.

 

[TaplistIO]

Any chance you can give an estimate on what "soon" means? I'm about to move forward with a rpints project, but considering waiting. Volume tracking is a must for me.

Probably not in the next several weeks, unfortunately; focus is still on getting "display" flawless and great looking. For the DIY route, Kegbot (which has a TV/fullscreen mode) supports very detailed volume tracking and the community is still active.

 

[John Paul Stoddard]

I played around with it some last night...I found it easy to use...Combined with the free Beer Labelizer I came up with this. https://taplist.io/taplist-485974...

 

[wyzazz]

I'd be all about a premium tier or paid-for option for Taplist.io to get more advanced features! And having a physical button to keep track of pours/volume would be awesome! While flowmeters are more accurate, they tend to add quite a bit of cost when you have 8+ taps.

 

[TaplistIO]

Nice looking list, glad you found it easy to get it going!

I should probably mention -- if anyone had difficulty customizing things before, I just launched a new "live preview" mode that makes it a lot easier to see and customize the look and feel. More options are coming soon, here's what it looks like:

cheers,
mikey

 

[John Paul Stoddard]

Is there a way to Change Font Colors?


~ ~ NEVER MIND ~ figured it out

 

[raysmithtx]

I played with this a bit this afternoon. Currently using the Raspberry Pints system. I see more potential users with this because of it's simplicity to set up.

The only problem so far is that the app doesn't seem to be releasing when idle to allow the screen saver to activate. Screensaver will activate when idle but not with the app going. Is it something I'm doing wrong?

 

[TaplistIO]

The only problem so far is that the app doesn't seem to be releasing when idle to allow the screen saver to activate. Screensaver will activate when idle but not with the app going. Is it something I'm doing wrong?

Hmm, first I've heard of this issue, probably because many folks *don't* want the screensaver to start. Should be an easy option for me to add, though; I will look into this soon.

 

[raysmithtx]

Hmm, first I've heard of this issue, probably because many folks *don't* want the screensaver to start. Should be an easy option for me to add, though; I will look into this soon.

I've used the screensaver with lots of old family pictures along with a motion detector on my RP system since the beginning. When you approach the kegerator (outside), the screensaver goes off and it plays an audio clip from classic movies. I know I can't do that with taplist but everyone seems to really enjoy the screensaver. Lots of times people just stand back and enjoy seeing old family pics. while drinking their beer.

Thanks for considering my request.

 

[raysmithtx]

Just wanted to say this is working great. If anyone is looking for an EASY way to display what they have on tap then this is the ticket.

Not quite as flexible as RaspberryPints but the set up for this is dead simple.

This is my current setup

 

[John Paul Stoddard]

Just wanted to say this is working great. If anyone is looking for an EASY way to display what they have on tap then this is the ticket.

Not quite as flexible as RaspberryPints but the set up for this is dead simple.

This is my current setup

beers sound great

 

[TaplistIO]

Glad it is working for you! "Easy" is feature number one .. Though I have some more customization stuff just on the horizon.

Also, I meant to follow up here: there is now ~beta-quality Portrait Mode support. Navigate to your display in Settings -> Displays and change orientation, it should immediately rotate. You'll want to use the single column theme ("Griddy") as others have not been updated yet.

 

[TaplistIO]

Small new feature: The taplist.io homepage now shows a rotating list of recent updates by various folks. Great for inspiration, some folks have made some cool customizations!

 

[raysmithtx]

Small new feature: The taplist.io homepage now shows a rotating list of recent updates by various folks. Great for inspiration, some folks have made some cool customizations!

It seems to show the same 9 displays even if I refresh the page. Is it supposed to be random?

 

[TaplistIO]

It seems to show the same 9 displays even if I refresh the page. Is it supposed to be random?

It's the 9 most recently updated venues, and cached for a modest amount of time (30 minutes, but maybe longer).

 

[SevenOaks]

Thank you for this, Kegbot. I saw this thread for the first time today, went to the web site and got my tap list set up in short order - and all from my iPhone. This is sweet! https://taplist.io/taplist-911961