battery-tracker-app/README.md

# Battery Tracker

A self-hosted web app for tracking rechargeable batteries — where they are, what condition they're in, and which devices they're installed in.

Built with Flask + SQLAlchemy. Runs on a Raspberry Pi or any Linux box with a systemd user service.

## Features

### Batteries
- Add batteries in bulk (auto-generated labels like "Eneloop 001", "Eneloop 002")
- Track status: **Available**, **Installed**, **Retired**
- Store metadata: size (AA/AAA/18650/…), chemistry (NiMH/Li-ion/…), capacity, tested capacity, charge cycles, purchase date, storage location, notes
- Visual health indicator when tested capacity is recorded (good/warn/bad)
- Battery percentage field — set manually or synced from Home Assistant; resets to 100% when a charge is logged
- Retire and unretire batteries

### Devices
- Add devices with a name, battery slot count, type (Remote Control, Flashlight, Sensor, …), and notes
- Install batteries into devices — by brand/quantity or by picking a specific battery
- Bulk install multiple batteries at once from the dashboard
- Mixed-brand warning when batteries from different brands share a device
- Link a device to a Home Assistant battery sensor to automatically track charge level
- Edit device details in-place

### Dashboard
- Overview stats (total / available / installed / retired) + **Low Battery** count when any battery is below 20%
- Full battery table with client-side filtering by status, brand, size, storage location, and free-text search
- Column picker (Chemistry, Capacity, Storage, Purchase Date, Cycles, Battery %) stored in localStorage
- Quick-assign available batteries to a device without leaving the page
- Bulk actions: Unassign, Retire, Delete, Set Field (storage location or brand), Install in Device

### Home Assistant Integration (optional)
- Link any device to a Home Assistant entity (e.g. `sensor.tv_remote_battery`)
- A background poller fetches the current percentage on a configurable interval (default 5 min) and updates all installed batteries in that device
- Low-battery warning badge (< 20%) on the dashboard, device detail, and battery detail pages
- Fully optional — when `HOMEASSISTANT_URL` is not set the app works exactly as before

### UI
- Mobile-friendly: card-style table rows on small screens, full-width filter controls, stacked form buttons
- Dark mode — follows the OS system preference automatically (`prefers-color-scheme`)
- No JavaScript framework — vanilla JS only

---

## Tech Stack

| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Web framework | Flask 3.x |
| ORM | SQLAlchemy 2.x (raw session, no Flask-SQLAlchemy) |
| Database | SQLite (dev) / MariaDB (prod) |
| WSGI server | Waitress |
| Process manager | systemd user service |
| Tests | pytest (71 acceptance tests) |

---

## Setup

### Prerequisites
- Python 3.10+
- `python3-venv`

### Install

```bash
git clone <repo-url>
cd battery-tracker-app

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

### Run (development)

```bash
source .venv/bin/activate
flask run
# → http://127.0.0.1:5000
```

### Run (production — systemd user service)

```bash
bash sbin/install-service.sh   # prompts for host/port + optional HA config, installs and enables the service
systemctl --user start battery-tracker
systemctl --user status battery-tracker
journalctl --user -u battery-tracker -f
```

### Database

SQLite is used by default (`batteries.db` in the project root). To switch to MariaDB, set the environment variable before starting:

```bash
export DATABASE_URL="mysql+pymysql://user:pass@host/dbname"
```

See `MIGRATION.md` for migrating an existing SQLite database to MariaDB, and for the schema migration commands needed when upgrading an existing database.

### Home Assistant integration

Set these environment variables before starting (or enter them when running `install-service.sh`):

```bash
export HOMEASSISTANT_URL="http://homeassistant.local:8123"
export HOMEASSISTANT_API_KEY="<long-lived access token>"
export HOMEASSISTANT_POLL_INTERVAL="300"   # seconds, default 300
```

Then link a device to its HA sensor entity ID on the device's edit page (e.g. `sensor.tv_remote_battery`). The app will poll HA every interval and update the battery percentage for all installed batteries in that device.

### Seed data (optional)

```bash
source .venv/bin/activate
python seed.py
```

---

## Running Tests

```bash
source .venv/bin/activate
pytest tests/ -v
```

Tests use a fresh temporary SQLite database per test and exercise the full HTTP stack.

---

## Project Structure

```
app.py                  Flask app factory + all routes
models.py               SQLAlchemy models (Battery, Device)
config.py               Database URL + HA config
ha_client.py            Home Assistant REST API wrapper
ha_poller.py            Background thread — polls HA, updates battery_percentage
seed.py                 Optional seed data script
migrate_to_mariadb.py   SQLite → MariaDB migration script
MIGRATION.md            Schema migration instructions + MariaDB procedure
requirements.txt
sbin/
  install-service.sh    systemd user service installer (prompts for HA config)
templates/
  base.html             Layout, CSS variables, dark mode, nav
  dashboard.html        Battery list with filters, bulk actions, HA% column
  battery_add.html      Add batteries form
  battery_detail.html   Battery detail + edit (includes battery_percentage field)
  battery_delete.html   Delete confirmation
  assign.html           Assign battery to device
  device_list.html      Device list with type filter
  device_add.html       Add device form
  device_detail.html    Device detail + install + edit (includes ha_entity_id field)
tests/
  conftest.py           pytest fixtures
  test_acceptance.py    50 acceptance tests
  test_ha_integration.py  21 HA integration tests
```