KioskBox README
Author: Eitan Romanoff
You can find me on #rit-foss on freenode or at [email protected]


The "KioskBox" currently runs on a mac mini, with OSX 10.5.8 and a PPC (since that's the initial hardware that was given to me). Outlined below is a how-to to modify this particular box.


Startup:
For ease of use, status script resources should be placed on the desktop. This is so that if something goes horribly wrong, it can be relaunched easily by anyone. The script runs in two parts: A python launcher that collects links VIA an RSS feed, and an Applescript cycler, which auto-launches a browser and cycles through given links. The python script gives the links to the applescript via run-time arguments.

Should this be running on startup, do note a few things. 1) It works most reliably when there is an internet connection present at login, so the use of an ethernet connection is recommended. It should also work if it can connect (and register) on a wireless network that is added to the mac's "default" wireless networks. Obviously, it will not be able to access pages if there are no available networks at startup (giving you not found pages), but it should work well upon finding a connection.


Creating the applet for startup:
Simply right-click the python script and select "Build Applet". This will make allow the program to run via double-click, on startup, and so forth. Whenever any of the code changes, you should create a new applet. This applet can also be run on startup by adding it to "startup items".


Changing options:
The kiosk_config file contains options that are pulled by the python script. Here, you can change the following items:
	- Location of the files (python startup, the cycler, and the config file)
	- The server to ping for internet testing (default is www.google.com)
	- The number of times to try a ping for internet testing (default is 3)
	- The timer between pings (default is 30 seconds)
	- A list of possible hosts and feed connections to pull from.

Follow the format defined by the defaults when changing a value. Also note that the script pulls from the first feed whose host is up and running.


Creating an RSS feed:
The RSS feed used follows the Mozilla Live Bookmarks style where you have a broadcast that represents folder of bookmarks, and items which are bookmark links. It is suggested that you host your own RSS feed following the format below. Note that only the links are really necessary, the rest gets ignored when parsing:

<rss version="2.0">
	<channel>
		<title>RIT Bookmarks!</title>
		<link>http://rit.edu</link>
		<description>Bookmarks for RIT Students!</description>
		<item>
			<title>RIT Homepage</title>
			<link> http://rit.edu </link>
			<description>Homepage for RIT</description>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Just Press Play</title>
			<link> http://play.rit.edu/ </link>
			<description></description>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

Simply add another item for adding more links.


Changing the browser used:
Changing the browser requires tinkering. The Power PC Mac Mini running OSX 10.5.8 only has two browsers that support applescript, and are runnable on PPC. These are Opera 10.0 and Safari. Non-PPC macs may be able to run more updated browsers, so long as there is applescript support. Be sure to change any references from Opera to whatever browser you are using. The process name, as well as item of the application that is used to reference the URL bar is dependent on the browser and will require some experimentation.


A note for future work:
In the near future, the next revision of the script will simply use py-appscript for all x86/x64 mac machines. Furthermore, the ability to specify a browser will be added.