Autoplay for Kiosk

[Raj Kulshrestha]

Hi,

I am trying to design an application in Autoplay which will do the following:

1. Run a series of Videos in a loop when there is no activity.

2. When a user uses the mouse, the menu page comes up. From here I know how to set up the navigation so that the user can access the internet, reach the website of the client and browse thru etc. Some pages will also have PDf files which can be fired off and the user can print the pages.

3. However, after 2 minutes of inactivity, I need the application to reset to playing the Videos [in point 1] and also close any open applications. At the moment, the only open applications are likely to be the browser and Acrobat Reader.

4. This way, the next visitor to the kiosk will be able to start his activity of using the application for new searches or information afresh.

The platform will be Windows XP.

Appreciate any help with this.

Regards
Raj Kulshrestha

[TJS]

Attached is an example that you can use to get started on your kiosk framework. You'll find code in the following areas:

1. Project>On Startup: Initializes defaults and attempts to load custom config from INI if it is available.
2. AttractLoop>On Show: Loads any images in the configured folder and starts the timer at the configured interval
3. AttractLoop>On Timer: Cycles the images.
(You'll need to change 2 and 3 to cycle your videos instead of images.)

4. AttractLoop>On Key: Stops the timere and jumps to the menu page
5. Menu>On Show: Initializes the counter and starts the timer
6. Menu>On Key, On Mouse Move or On Mouse Button: Resets the counter
7. Menu>Exit Button: Exits the app
8. Menu>Lauch Buttons: Launch IE and Acrobat respectively
9. Menu>View Attract Loop Button: Recurses the running processes on the system looking for apps that match those configured to be managed and closes all that match then returns to the attract loop
10. Menu>On Timer: Watches to see if the configured timeout has been exceeded and if so returns to the attract loop

The config file is in the project DOCS folder named KioskConfig.ini

Hope this helps...

[yosik]

TJS, a VERY nice project!!
Thanks for posting this.

Yossi

[TJS]

Thanks Yossi. That means a lot coming from you.

[s8831533]

Hello,TJS
Can i ask you a question?
Your KioskConfig.ini file how to create?
Can you tell me,thanks.

[TJS]

Sure.
1. Create a new text file
2. Rename that file to KioskConfig.ini
3. Edit the file in your favorite text editor (i.e. Notepad) as follows

[AttractLoop]
Interval=1000
Timeout=10000
ImagesPath="\\AutoPlay\\Images\\AttractLoop"

[ManagedApps]
IE = iexplore.exe
Acrobat = acrord32.exe


The part is square brackets indicate the "sections" and the parts with the equal signs represent the value pairs (VALUE=VALUE_NAMES).

The Interval (time between slides in the attract loop) and the Timeout (time that the framework waits before returning to the attract loop) are configurable. The values are in milliseconds so 1 second = 1000, 1 minute = 60000.

The managed apps section requires the name of the program's main executable.

Hope this helps...