Android App: Simple Kiosk Browser

13 years ago, mid-July | 36 Comments

Kiosk Browser, is as its name suggests, a browser that acts like a kiosk.

You can limit the browser to a specific site or allow external sites to be loaded, optionally in the default standard browser. The browser has some additional features allowing the sending of Toast messages to the user from javascript, showing and hiding the title bar and launching applications on the device.

These special functions available from Javascript are demonstrated by the code below:

 
<input type="button" value="Show Preferences screen" onClick="Kiosk.showPreferences(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Show Platform Settings" onClick="Kiosk.platformSettings(); return false;" />
 
<input type="button" value="Clear cache, form data, history" onClick="Kiosk.clearCaches(); return false;" />
 
<input type="text" size=30 name=something>
<br>
<input type="button" value="Back" onClick="Kiosk.goBack(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Forward" onClick="Kiosk.goForward(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Reload" onClick="Kiosk.reload(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Stop" onClick="Kiosk.stop(); return false;" />
 
 
<input type="button" value="Disable Menus" onClick="Kiosk.disableMenus(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Enable Menus" onClick="Kiosk.enableMenus(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Disable Scaling" onClick="Kiosk.disableScaling(); return false;" />
<input type="button" value="Enable Scaling" onClick="Kiosk.enableScaling(); return false;" />
 
 
 
<input type="submit" value="Android app interface" onClick="Kiosk.showToast('Hello Android!'); return false;" >
 
<input type="button" value="Fullscreen" onClick="Kiosk.hideTitlebar(); return false;" >
<input type="button" value="With title" onClick="Kiosk.showTitlebar(); return false;" >
<input type="button" value="Restart" onClick="Kiosk.endApp(); return false;" >
<input type="button" value="Launch" onClick="Kiosk.launch('fm.last.android','fm.last.android.LastFm'); return false;" >
<input type="button" value="Launch 2" onClick="Kiosk.launch('fm.last.android-1','fm.last.android-1.activity.Profile_RadioTab'); return false;" >
 
 
<a href=http://www.google.co.uk>External</a>

UPDATE: 04-November-2011: Added more javascript interfaces and preferences… (sorry about the 2 updates in one go) Second update allows for zoom to be set from 1 to 200

UPDATE: 29-October-2011: Rearranged some of the options to make preferences a little less messy.

Added an optional “Page Loading” message, this blocks screen access until the page has completely loaded so be aware that it may just sit there forever if your network drops out. The good news is the addition of the labs section may help here.

Also added a ‘Labs’ preference section where experimental stuff can go. Currently there’s one active preference in there called “Network Connect”. What this does is run the kiosk application when the network goes up or down. What this means is that you can have the kiosk automatically run when the device boots (and gets unlocked). Feedback on how useful it is would be useful 😀

Seems I’ve managed to mess up the comments section :/

Some simple documentation is available here

There’s also some information on the next iteration of Kiosk Browser