Interface

These parameters define how the Kiosk will behave, and what will be shown to the user.

Restrictions

The Kiosk can be configured to forbid access to some Internet resources. You can define a list of URLs that will be used either as a blacklist (list of forbidden URLs, everything else is allowed) or as a whitelist (only the listed URLs are allowed). You can obviously choose to not restrict the URLs.

The list uses a set of URL patterns. The * has a special meaning. It symbolises any letter, as many as you want. For instance, to allow anything hosted by Google, you can use:

http*://*.google.*

The patterns can be defined as regular expressions. If you don't know what that is, you just don't need this! If you are familiar with regex's, have fun!

By default the file:// protocol, allowing the browser to act as a file browser, is forbiden. To enable this feature, check the User can browse the file system checkbox.

Remote playlist (Online update)

A playlist can be downloaded from a web or ftp site. To do so, check the Use a remote playlist button, and set the URL to access the file. This remote playlist uses an XML format, offering advanced features. See the Scheduler section for details.

The Linutop TV service makes it easy to generate such playlists. If you have a Linutop TV account, the Install tab of the Linutop Configuration Panel offers a simple way to configure the Linutop Kiosk.

Local playlist (Use playlist below)

To add items to this list, simply drag and drop file from the file manager. The type of the file (video or image) will be detected automatically using the file name extension. URLs must be prefixed with the access protocol (usually http://).

Items can be ordered in the tree using drag and drop as well. You can define how long each item will be displayed (in seconds) in the Time column. Videos don't use this parameter, they will be entirely displayed.

The Add and Delete buttons allow to manipulate the list as well.

Playlists can be imported and exported using the Import and Export buttons.

If you display web pages, you might need to perform logins on the websites. Two possibilities can be used, depending on how the website authenticates you.

• If the site uses HTTP authentication (usually a popup window asking for a login and password), the login and password have to be included in the URL:

  http://mylogin:mypassword@mysite.com
  

• If the authentication mecanism is more integrated in the site (Google login for instance), you will need to start a web session to set up things. This can be done by clicking the Set cookies button. This will start a web browser. The navigation arrows will let you access the sites defined in your playlist. Log in sites, and close the window. The login informations will be kept and used during the slideshow.

Loops

The scheduler uses loop blocks to define the various playlists. Each loop must have an id attribute (0 being reserved for the default playlist). A single loop will contain the list of the items to displays:

<schedule>
  <loop id="0">
    <item uri="http://www.google.com" time="10" />
    <item uri="http://my_server/display/an_image.png" type="image" time="5" />
    <item uri="http://my_server/display/a_video.avi" type="video" />
    <item uri="http://my_server/display/an_image_as_web_page" time="5" />
    <item uri="http://my_server/display/a_video_as_web_page" />
  </loop>
</schedule>

The previous example shows the definition of a basic playlist. The <schedule> and <loop> nodes are mandatory. The "id" attribute is also mandatory.

Each item must define an uri" attribute which indicates where the item can be found. It can use several schemes, depending on the type attribute:

• http:// for HTTP access (web server)
• ftp:// for FTP access
• file:// for file access

Authentication is supported. For example, using a FTP authentication in a URI would give:

uri="ftp://username:passwd@server/myfile"

Date and time

Several loops can be defined. Each loop must have a uniq ID, and must define a time period. The loop ID'ed 0 will be the default loop, used if other loops don't match the current date/time.

Here are some examples of loops describing the schedule options:

<schedule>
  <loop id="0">
    <!-- default playlist defined here -->
  </loop>

  <loop id="1" start="14:00" end="18:15">
    <!-- this playlist will be read every day between 14:00 and 18:15 -->
  </loop>

  <loop id="2" start="14:00" end="18:15" weekdays="0246">
    <!--  this playlist will be read every monday, wednesday,
          friday and sunday between 14:00 and 18:15 -->
  </loop>

  <loop id="3" start="2011/03/25 00:00">
    <!-- this playlist will be used starting on march the 25th of 2011 -->
  </loop>

  <loop id="4" start="20:00" end="06:00" idle="1">
    <!-- this playlist is marked as idle. This will shut down the screen of the client -->
  </loop>
</schedule>

Combinations of these examples can be used.

Example

A demo playlist is available at http://display.linutop.com/demos/linutop.xml.