Scratching Post — Sunbeam Digital Signage

A self-hosted digital notice board / signage system built on ASP.NET Core 8, designed for IIS on Windows Server 2019/2022.

Terminology

Component	Name	Description
Individual slide	Meow	A single content slide — WYSIWYG, embed, or calendar
Slide collection	PURR	Persistent User Requests and Reminders — a device playlist
Priority slide	ASK	Attention Seeking Kitty — overrides collection order (planned)
Display node	Kitten	A device that plays a playlist of Meows
Backend	Scratching Post	The admin panel where all content is managed
Framework	Sunbeam	The underlying system powering everything

Features

• WYSIWYG Editor — TinyMCE with image upload, tables, rich text
• Embed Web Content — iframe any URL as a slide
• ICS Calendar — display upcoming events from any .ics feed
• Device Playlists — assign slides to specific devices with individual durations
• Per-Device Resolution — configure display resolution per device
• URL-Based Devices — access displays via http://server/frontofhouse, http://server/staffroom
• Drag-and-Drop Playlist — reorder slides in the admin
• Live Updates — display polls for changes every 30 seconds
• Full-Screen Display — hidden cursor, clock overlay, progress bar
• Smooth Transitions — fade or slide transitions

Requirements

• Windows Server 2019 or 2022
• IIS with ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle
• .NET 8 SDK (for building) / .NET 8 Runtime (for hosting)

Quick Start

1. Install Prerequisites

Download and install:

• .NET 8 SDK
• ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle (under Hosting Bundle)

2. Build

cd ScratchingPost
dotnet restore
dotnet publish -c Release -o ./publish

3. Deploy to IIS

1. Open IIS Manager
2. Create a new Site (e.g. ScratchingPost)
3. Set the physical path to the publish folder
4. Set the binding (e.g. port 80, or a hostname like sign.local)
5. Set the Application Pool to No Managed Code (the Hosting Bundle handles .NET)
6. Ensure the App Pool identity has write access to the publish folder (for SQLite DB and uploads)

4. First Run

The SQLite database (noticeboard.db) is created automatically on first start with two demo devices seeded:

• Front of House at http://server/frontofhouse
• Staff Room at http://server/staffroom

5. Access

URL	Purpose
http://server/admin	Scratching Post admin panel
http://server/admin/slides	Manage Meows (slides)
http://server/admin/devices	Manage Kittens (devices)
http://server/frontofhouse	Front of House display
http://server/staffroom	Staff Room display

Configuration

Edit appsettings.json:

{
  "MaxUploadSizeMB": 20
}

How It Works

1. Create Meows (slides) — use the WYSIWYG editor for rich content, embed external URLs, or point to an ICS calendar feed
2. Create Kittens (devices) — give each a name, URL slug, and display resolution
3. Build PURRs (playlists) — assign Meows to Kittens with individual durations and drag-and-drop ordering
4. Display — point a browser at http://server/{slug} and it runs full-screen with smooth transitions

The display page polls for changes every 30 seconds, so updates appear on devices without restarting.

Display Controls

Keyboard shortcuts on display pages (useful during setup):

Key	Action
Right Arrow or Space	Skip to next slide
Left Arrow	Go to previous slide
F or F11	Toggle fullscreen
C	Toggle cursor visibility

Data Storage

• Database: SQLite (noticeboard.db) — created automatically, zero config
• Uploads: wwwroot/uploads/ — images uploaded via TinyMCE or the file upload API
• Both need write permissions for the IIS App Pool identity

TinyMCE Note

The WYSIWYG editor uses TinyMCE CDN with no-api-key. This shows a small notification banner. For production, register for a free TinyMCE API key at tiny.cloud and replace no-api-key in Views/Slides/Create.cshtml and Edit.cshtml.

Project Structure

ScratchingPost/
├── Controllers/         # MVC controllers
│   ├── AdminController   # Dashboard
│   ├── SlidesController  # Meow CRUD
│   ├── DevicesController # Kitten CRUD + Playlist management
│   ├── DisplayController # Device display + playlist API
│   └── ApiController     # Image upload, ICS parsing
├── Data/                # EF Core DbContext + seed data
├── Models/              # Slide, Device, DeviceSlide
├── Routing/             # DeviceSlugConstraint
├── Views/               # Razor views (Admin, Slides, Devices, Display)
├── wwwroot/             # Static files
│   ├── css/             # admin.css, display.css
│   ├── js/              # admin.js, display.js (Sunbeam engine)
│   └── uploads/         # User-uploaded images
├── appsettings.json     # Configuration
├── web.config           # IIS configuration
└── NoticeBoard.csproj   # Project file

Version History

• v1.0.0 — Initial release: WYSIWYG slides, embed, ICS calendar, device playlists, drag-and-drop ordering, live polling, IIS-ready deployment