Screenshot Monitor Pro

A Node.js package for automated screenshot monitoring with SQLite database storage and configurable capture intervals. Perfect for activity tracking, surveillance, and automated screen recording.

Features

• 📸 Multi-Monitor Screenshot Capture: Takes screenshots from all attached monitors
• 🖼️ Thumbnail Generation: Automatically creates thumbnails for easy browsing
• 💾 SQLite Database: Stores all screenshot metadata and file paths
• ⚙️ Configurable: Customizable capture frequency, quality, and storage paths
• 🔍 Query Interface: Easy API to retrieve and manage screenshots
• 📊 Statistics: Get insights about your screenshot collection
• 🗂️ Organized Storage: Separate folders for screenshots and thumbnails
• 🆔 Unique Filenames: Format: <Monitor ID>-<Timestamp>-<UUID>.<ext>

Installation

npm install screenshot-monitor-pro

Global Installation (CLI Tool)

npm install -g screenshot-monitor-pro

After global installation, you can use the CLI tool directly:

screenshot-monitor start --frequency 60000
screenshot-monitor capture
screenshot-monitor list --limit 5

Quick Start

Using the CLI Tool

# Start monitoring with default settings (30-second intervals)
npm start

# Start monitoring with custom frequency
npm run cli start --frequency 60000

# Capture screenshots from all monitors
npm run capture

# Capture from specific monitor
npm run cli capture --monitor 0

# List recent screenshots
npm run list

# List screenshots from specific monitor
npm run cli list --monitor 0

# Show statistics
npm run stats

# Show statistics for specific monitor
npm run cli stats --monitor 0

# Show available monitors
npm run monitors

Using the JavaScript API

const ScreenshotMonitor = require('screenshot-monitor-pro');

// Initialize with custom configuration
const monitor = new ScreenshotMonitor({
  frequency: 60000, // Take screenshot every 60 seconds
  screenshotQuality: 90,
  thumbnailWidth: 300,
  thumbnailHeight: 200
});

// Start monitoring
async function startMonitoring() {
  await monitor.init();
  await monitor.start();
  
  // Monitor will continue running in the background
  console.log('Screenshot monitoring started!');
}

startMonitoring();

Configuration Options

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | frequency | number | 30000 | Interval between screenshots (milliseconds) | | screenshotQuality | number | 90 | PNG quality (1-100) | | thumbnailWidth | number | 300 | Thumbnail width in pixels | | thumbnailHeight | number | 200 | Thumbnail height in pixels | | userDataPath | string | ~/.screenshot-monitor-pro | Base directory for storage |

API Reference

Constructor

const monitor = new ScreenshotMonitor(config);

Methods

async init()

Initialize the monitor, create directories, and set up the database.

await monitor.init();

async start()

Start the screenshot monitoring process.

await monitor.start();

stop()

Stop the screenshot monitoring process.

monitor.stop();

async captureScreenshot(monitor)

Manually capture a screenshot from a specific monitor.

// Capture from all monitors
const results = await monitor.captureAllScreenshots();

// Capture from specific monitor
const monitors = monitor.getMonitors();
const result = await monitor.captureScreenshot(monitors[0]);

console.log(result);
// Output: { filename, thumbnailFilename, filePath, thumbnailPath, monitorId, monitorName, uuid }

async getScreenshots(limit, offset, monitorId)

Retrieve screenshot entries from the database.

// Get last 10 screenshots from all monitors
const screenshots = await monitor.getScreenshots(10);

// Get screenshots with pagination
const screenshots = await monitor.getScreenshots(20, 40); // 20 items, skip first 40

// Get screenshots from specific monitor
const screenshots = await monitor.getScreenshots(10, 0, 0); // 10 items from monitor 0

// Get screenshots by monitor ID
const screenshots = await monitor.getScreenshotsByMonitor(0, 10);

async getScreenshotById(id)

Get a specific screenshot by its database ID.

const screenshot = await monitor.getScreenshotById(1);

async deleteScreenshot(id)

Delete a screenshot and its thumbnail from storage and database.

await monitor.deleteScreenshot(1);

async getStats(monitorId)

Get statistics about the screenshot collection.

// Get overall statistics
const stats = await monitor.getStats();
console.log(stats);
// Output: { total_screenshots, total_size, first_screenshot, last_screenshot }

// Get statistics for specific monitor
const stats = await monitor.getStats(0);

// Get per-monitor statistics
const monitorStats = await monitor.getMonitorStats();
// Output: Array of stats per monitor

updateConfig(newConfig)

Update the monitor configuration.

monitor.updateConfig({
  frequency: 45000, // Change to 45 seconds
  thumbnailWidth: 400
});

getMonitors()

Get information about available monitors.

const monitors = monitor.getMonitors();
// Output: Array of monitor objects with id, name, width, height, x, y, index

getConfig()

Get the current configuration.

const config = monitor.getConfig();

async close()

Close the database connection.

await monitor.close();

Complete Example

const ScreenshotMonitor = require('screenshot-monitor-pro');

async function example() {
  // Create monitor instance
  const monitor = new ScreenshotMonitor({
    frequency: 30000, // 30 seconds
    screenshotQuality: 95,
    thumbnailWidth: 400,
    thumbnailHeight: 300,
    userDataPath: './my-screenshots'
  });

  try {
    // Initialize
    await monitor.init();
    console.log('Monitor initialized');

    // Start monitoring
    await monitor.start();
    console.log('Monitoring started');

    // Let it run for 2 minutes
    setTimeout(async () => {
      // Get statistics
      const stats = await monitor.getStats();
      console.log('Statistics:', stats);

      // Get recent screenshots
      const screenshots = await monitor.getScreenshots(5);
      console.log('Recent screenshots:', screenshots);

      // Stop monitoring
      monitor.stop();
      console.log('Monitoring stopped');

      // Close database
      await monitor.close();
      console.log('Database closed');
    }, 120000);

  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
  }
}

example();

File Structure

The package creates the following directory structure:

~/.screenshot-monitor-pro/
├── screenshots/
│   ├── 0-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z-550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000.png
│   ├── 1-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z-550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001.png
│   └── ...
├── thumbnails/
│   ├── thumb-0-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z-550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000.png
│   ├── thumb-1-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z-550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001.png
│   └── ...
└── screenshots.db

Filename Format

Screenshots are saved with the format: <Monitor ID>-<Timestamp>-<UUID>.<ext>

• Monitor ID: The ID of the monitor (0, 1, 2, etc.)
• Timestamp: ISO timestamp when the screenshot was taken
• UUID: Unique identifier to prevent filename collisions
• Extension: PNG format for screenshots, PNG for thumbnails

Database Schema

The SQLite database contains a screenshots table with the following columns:

• id: Primary key
• filename: Original screenshot filename
• thumbnail_filename: Thumbnail filename
• timestamp: Capture timestamp
• monitor_id: ID of the monitor that was captured
• monitor_name: Name of the monitor
• screen_width: Original image width
• screen_height: Original image height
• file_size: File size in bytes
• file_path: Full path to screenshot file
• thumbnail_path: Full path to thumbnail file
• uuid: Unique identifier for the screenshot

Error Handling

The package includes comprehensive error handling:

try {
  await monitor.init();
  await monitor.start();
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Monitor error:', error.message);
  // Handle specific error types
  if (error.code === 'ENOENT') {
    console.error('Directory creation failed');
  }
}

Performance Considerations

• Memory Usage: Screenshots are processed in memory and immediately written to disk
• Storage: Monitor disk space usage, especially with high-frequency captures
• Database: SQLite database grows with each screenshot entry
• CPU: Image processing for thumbnails uses CPU resources

CLI Commands

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | start | Start screenshot monitoring | screenshot-monitor start --frequency 60000 | | capture | Capture screenshots from all monitors | screenshot-monitor capture | | capture | Capture from specific monitor | screenshot-monitor capture --monitor 0 | | list | List recent screenshots | screenshot-monitor list --limit 10 | | list | List from specific monitor | screenshot-monitor list --monitor 0 | | stats | Show overall statistics | screenshot-monitor stats | | stats | Show monitor-specific stats | screenshot-monitor stats --monitor 0 | | monitors | Show available monitors | screenshot-monitor monitors | | config | Show current configuration | screenshot-monitor config |

CLI Options

• --frequency <ms>: Screenshot interval in milliseconds
• --quality <1-100>: Screenshot quality percentage
• --thumb-width <px>: Thumbnail width in pixels
• --thumb-height <px>: Thumbnail height in pixels
• --path <directory>: Custom storage directory
• --limit <number>: Number of screenshots to list
• --monitor <id>: Specific monitor ID to target

Platform Support

• ✅ Windows
• ✅ macOS
• ✅ Linux

Dependencies

• screenshot-desktop: Cross-platform screenshot capture
• sqlite3: Database operations
• sharp: Image processing and thumbnail generation
• fs-extra: Enhanced file system operations

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests
5. Submit a pull request

Support

For issues and questions, please open an issue on GitHub.