Big countdown which is fully customizable via GET parameters written in pure simple vanilla javascript perfect to run in a dashboard display.

Features

• Countdown to a specific date & time including days, hours, minutes, seconds
• Custom title & finished message
• Big Responsive full-width display
• simple web-app-capable for fullscreen on iOS
• Variable Theme(s) (switch via menu)
• Dead Simple Code
• locale time & date formats using momentjs

Demo

The latest version of this is running on http://simple-countdown.herokuapp.com/ where you set your own configuration via get parameters.

Example showing a countdown to 20:15 in Berlin/Europe Timezone in german language: http://simple-countdown.herokuapp.com/?to=2020-10-31T19:15:00+01:00&title=Halloween&finishedText=Scary%20Party&locale=de_DE

Key-Binding

• right next theme
• left previous theme
• up increase target time by one hour
• down decrease target time by one hour
• shift+up increase target time by one hour
• shift+down decrease target time by one hour

Docker

You can run the whole thing as a docker container

docker build --pull --no-cache -t countdown:latest .

Then run the docker container

docker run -p 8080:80 --rm -it countdown:latest

This will expose the nginx service: http://localhost:8080

Start

npm install
npm start

Configuration

The countdown target date, title and other stuff can be changed with GET parameters:

Example: http://simple-countdown.herokuapp.com/?to=2018-01-31T19:15:00+01:00&title=Big%20Party&finishedText=Dance&theme=winter&themeFinished=summer

GET variable name	example	description
to	2018-01-31T19:15:00+01:00	the target date & time in ISO-8601 format with optional timezone offset
title	Next Show: Amsterdam	Optional title which is displayed above the countdown
theme	monokai	name of the theme that should be used when countdown is not reached (default: monokai)
locale	de_DE	Single locale string for use when formatting full date & time, see moment locales for a list of supported locales, (default: en_US)
finishedText	Now Live	The text that should be displayed once the date & time counting to is reached, defaults to 00:00:00
finishedTheme	summer	Theme that should be used once the countdown date & time is reached (default: summer)

Themes

There are some themes that can be used in the theme and finishedTheme parameters. Click on the name to see a preview:

• 49ers
• amber
• autumn
• china
• cola
• dark
• default
• europe
• fire
• green
• ice
• matrix
• monokai
• pepsi
• pink
• red
• summer
• usa
• white
• winter

Themes are right now just appended in the styles.scss file.

Deployment

If you’re planning to run your own instance on Heroku:

Dashboard Display

Using a Raspberry Pi3 as a permanent dashboard display is very easy. Setup the raspberry pi with standard noobs and use the pre-installed chrome to startup automatically and open the countdown.

Example X config file:

# /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

# deactivated default lines
#@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
#@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
#@xscreensaver -no-splash
#@point-rpi

# now the new lines:
# disable sleep mode
@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank

# hide mouse cursor
# requires "unclutter" to be installed
#   sudo apt-get install unclutter
@unclutter -idle 0

# read about supported comamnd line arguemnts:
# https://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/
@chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --incognito --disable-infobars --kiosk  http://simple-countdown.herokuapp.com/?to=2018-01-31T19:15:00+01:00&title=Big%20Party&finishedText=Dance&theme=winter&themeFinished=summer&locale=de_DE