The Linutop Kiosk can use an XML file to define multiple playlists, managed by a scheduler. It is possible to manually create these files.
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:
will show a web page (the type attribute
must be omitted)
type attribute is present, the
webkiosk will download the file, and display it as a local file (the file is
cached, and redownloaded only if needed).
type attribute is missing, the
uri will be used as if it were a web page (no cache).
The two supported types are image and video.
for URLs and images a time attribute must be defined. It
stores the number of seconds that the item should be displayed. For videos,
the next item will be displayed when the video has ended.
http:// for HTTP access (web
server)ftp:// for FTP accessfile:// for file
accessAuthentication is supported. For example, using a FTP authentication in a URI would give:
uri="ftp://username:passwd@server/myfile"
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.
A demo playlist is available at http://display.linutop.com/demos/linutop.xml.