🏠 Dispensa Manager

Self-hosted pantry management system — Track your food inventory, scan barcodes, get AI-powered recipe suggestions, and reduce waste.

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✨ Features

📦 Inventory Management

• Barcode scanning — Scan products with your phone camera using QuaggaJS
• AI identification — Take a photo and let Google Gemini identify the product
• Smart locations — Track items across Pantry, Fridge, Freezer, and custom locations
• Expiry tracking — Automatic shelf-life estimation based on product type and storage
• Opened product tracking — Reduced shelf-life calculation when packages are opened
• Vacuum-sealed support — Extended expiry dates for vacuum-sealed items

🤖 AI-Powered (Google Gemini)

• Expiry date reading — Photograph a label and extract the expiry date automatically
• Product identification — Point your camera at any product for instant recognition
• Recipe generation — Get personalized recipes based on what's in your pantry
• Smart chat assistant — Ask questions about your inventory, get cooking tips
• Shopping suggestions — AI-powered purchase recommendations

🛒 Shopping List

• Bring! integration — Sync with the Bring! shopping list app
• Smart predictions — Know what you'll need before you run out
• Auto-remove on scan — Products are removed from the shopping list when scanned in
• DupliClick integration — Online grocery ordering (Gruppo Poli)

🍳 Cooking Mode

• Step-by-step guidance — Follow recipes with a hands-free cooking interface
• Text-to-Speech — Voice readout of recipe steps (configurable TTS endpoint)
• Built-in timer — Automatic timer suggestions based on recipe instructions
• Ingredient tracking — Mark ingredients as used during cooking

📊 Dashboard

• Waste tracking — Monitor consumed vs. wasted products over 30 days
• Expiry alerts — Visual warnings for expired and soon-to-expire items
• Safety ratings — Smart assessment of expired product safety (by category)
• Quick recipe bar — One-tap recipe suggestion using expiring products

📱 Progressive Web App

• Mobile-first design — Optimized for phones, works on tablets and desktop
• Installable — Add to home screen for a native app experience
• Multi-device — Settings and data sync across devices on the same server

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🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Web server with PHP 8.0+ (Apache or Nginx)
• PHP extensions: pdo_sqlite, curl, mbstring, json
• HTTPS recommended (required for camera access on mobile)

Installation

Option A: Docker (recommended)

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dadaloop82/dispensa.git
cd dispensa

# 2. Create configuration file
cp .env.example .env
nano .env

# 3. Start with Docker Compose
docker compose up -d

# → Open http://localhost:8080

Option B: Manual

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dadaloop82/dispensa.git
cd dispensa

# 2. Create configuration file
cp .env.example .env

# 3. Set permissions
chmod 755 data/
chmod 664 data/.gitkeep
chown -R www-data:www-data data/

# 4. Edit your configuration
nano .env

Configuration (.env)

# Required for AI features (get a key at https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey)
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

# Optional: Bring! shopping list integration
BRING_EMAIL=your_email@example.com
BRING_PASSWORD=your_password

# Optional: Text-to-Speech for cooking mode
TTS_URL=http://your-home-assistant:8123/api/events/tts_speak
TTS_TOKEN=your_long_lived_token
TTS_ENABLED=true

Web Server Configuration

Apache (.htaccess)

The app works out of the box with Apache if placed in the web root or a subdirectory. Make sure mod_rewrite is enabled and AllowOverride All is set.

<Directory /var/www/html/dispensa>
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-server.local;
    root /var/www/html/dispensa;
    index index.html;

    location /api/ {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        location ~ \.php$ {
            fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            include fastcgi_params;
        }
    }

    # Deny access to sensitive files
    location ~ /\.env { deny all; }
    location ~ /data/ { deny all; }
    location ~ /backup\.sh { deny all; }
}

HTTPS Setup (Recommended)

Camera access requires HTTPS on most mobile browsers. Options:

• Let's Encrypt with Certbot (for public-facing servers)
• Self-signed certificate (for local network only)
• Reverse proxy (e.g., Caddy, Traefik) with automatic TLS

Cron Job (Optional)

Set up a cron job for smart shopping predictions:

# Run every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * * php /path/to/dispensa/api/cron_smart_shopping.php >> /path/to/dispensa/data/cron.log 2>&1

Backup (Optional)

The included backup.sh creates local daily backups of your database:

# Run daily at 3 AM
0 3 * * * /path/to/dispensa/backup.sh

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🏗️ Architecture

dispensa/
├── index.html              # Single-page application (SPA)
├── manifest.json           # PWA manifest
├── .env.example            # Configuration template
├── backup.sh               # Local database backup script
├── LICENSE                 # MIT License
│
├── api/
│   ├── index.php           # Main API router (all endpoints)
│   ├── database.php        # SQLite schema, migrations, helpers
│   └── cron_smart_shopping.php  # Background job for predictions
│
├── assets/
│   ├── css/style.css       # All application styles
│   ├── js/app.js           # All application logic
│   └── img/                # Static images
│
└── data/                   # Runtime data (gitignored)
    ├── dispensa.db         # SQLite database (auto-created)
    ├── backups/            # Local DB backups
    └── *.json              # Token/cache files

API Endpoints

Category	Action	Method	Description
Products	search_barcode	GET	Find product by barcode
	lookup_barcode	GET	Look up barcode on Open Food Facts
	product_save	POST	Create or update a product
	products_list	GET	List all products
Inventory	inventory_list	GET	List inventory items
	inventory_add	POST	Add product to inventory
	inventory_use	POST	Use/consume from inventory
	inventory_summary	GET	Count by location
AI	gemini_identify	POST	Identify product from photo
	gemini_expiry	POST	Read expiry date from photo
	gemini_chat	POST	Chat with AI assistant
	generate_recipe	POST	Generate recipe from inventory
Shopping	bring_list	GET	Get Bring! shopping list
	bring_add	POST	Add items to Bring!
	smart_shopping	GET	Smart shopping predictions
Settings	get_settings	GET	Get server configuration
	save_settings	POST	Update server configuration

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🔒 Security Notes

• Credentials are stored in .env (server-side, never committed to Git)
• Database stays local — never pushed to remote repositories
• API keys are passed server-side only — never exposed to the browser
• The API uses parameterized SQL queries (PDO prepared statements) against injection
• Input validation on all inventory operations (quantity bounds, location whitelist)
• Consider adding authentication if the server is accessible from the internet

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🛠️ Development

# Run PHP's built-in server for local development
php -S localhost:8080 -t /path/to/dispensa

# Check PHP syntax
php -l api/index.php
php -l api/database.php

The application uses no build tools — edit files directly and refresh.

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📋 Roadmap

• Multi-language support (i18n) — 3 languages (it/en/de), 347 keys
• User authentication / multi-user support
• Docker container for easy deployment — see Dockerfile + docker-compose.yml
• REST API documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger) — see docs/openapi.yaml
• First-run setup wizard — 4-step guided configuration
• API rate limiting — file-based, 3 tiers (120/15/5 req/min)
• CI/CD pipeline — GitHub Actions (lint, Docker build, translation validation)
• Offline mode with service worker
• Export/import inventory data
• Notification system (Telegram, email) for expiring products

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🌐 Translations

The app supports multiple languages via JSON translation files in the translations/ folder.

Language	Status
🇮🇹 Italian (it)	✅ Complete (base)
🇬🇧 English (en)	✅ Complete
🇩🇪 German (de)	✅ Complete

Want to add your language? See the Translation Guide — just copy translations/it.json, translate the values, and submit a PR!

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

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👨‍💻 Author

Stimpfl Daniel — dadaloop82@gmail.com

• GitHub: @dadaloop82