Struggling to unleash the power of Chrome kiosk apps

Question

Our company designs museum and visitor center exhibitory, and my main job is designing touch screen kiosk applications. Enamored by Vidya's introduction to Kiosk Apps using Chrome boxes, I quickly had my boss procure one for testing. I have since gained a firm grasp of Chrome App structure going though Google's tutorials (manifest files, MVC, etc) and have found the performance of our little HP Chromebox plus HTML5 development to be pretty impressive. I'm developing on my Macbook using Chrome Canary to run and test the apps.

I'm adding in this background information so you can better understand my goals. We of coarse need these apps to launch full screen upon power up. No login or user installation is desired. I prepare the boxes in my office, install them at the exhibit, the end. We certainly don't want our multimedia apps to be sitting up on the Chrome Web Store for others to download and install.

So, I've gotten to the point where I want to install a simple kiosk app on our HP Chromebox. Unfortunately Vidya did not go into detail on this part. The page from her article only touches upon adding kiosk_enabled" : true to the manifest file.

So here's what I've tried so far: I've moved my app folder onto an SD card and moved it from there onto our HP Chromebox into the "Downloads" folder (apparently the only folder). I sign into Chrome Browser on the box with my company account (do I have to do this?) and load up chrome:extensions. I click "load unpacked extension..." and select my app folder. The app installs and I am able to manually launch it by clicking "Launch". Next, I click the "Manage kiosk applications..." button and enter the app ID into the field. This is where I get stuck. Clicking "Add" produces an "Invalid Application" error.

Looking around the web I have found lots of confusing information:

• I must "Wipe" the Chromebox in order to use a Ctrl+Alt+K key command to truly enable kiosk mode. (Google's instructions on how to do this stops with Samsung and Asus 'boxes, I have an HP, not to mention the "Manage Kiosk Applications" button is already visible to me).
• I must upload my App to the Webstore as either public or unlisted, and then download and install it onto my Chromebox. Really? I don't want to sell my app or make it available to anyone. It is only meant to run in our exhibit. Our apps could be gigs of data with HD videos!
• I must make my Chromebox "Managed" or "Enterprise" or "Enroll" it for Work and Education Administration. In most cases, we'll be installing one or two of the 'boxes to allow users to navigate though static HTML pages. I don't have a need to manage a fleet remotely (at least not yet). So, the aforementioned complications seem unnecessary, and expensive if I understand things correctly.

Can someone point me to the definitive process for achieving my goal of an auto starting, full screen kiosk application on my Chromebox?

Answer 1

In order to add your app from Manage Kiosk Applications, you will need to publish your app to the Chrome Web Store. If you don't want your app to be public you can publish it as Unlisted, which means that anyone with the link can install it. Unfortunately, if the app is published as Private you will not be able to add it as a kiosk app. [source]

Beyond that, the only thing you need to do to create a kiosk app is to include "kiosk_enabled": true in your manifest.json file.

Answer 2

I'm not an expert on this but kiosk apps are defined by "kiosk_enabled": true in manifest.json. What's important to know, though, is that from what I've seen they can work in three different modes:

1. If they are installed as an unpacked extension (for example, in development) they will be available as apps in your logged in environment and run but full screen mode. They're essentially "normal" apps except that they are full screen.
2. If they are installed using the "Manage kiosk applications..." button then they are available without logging in. On the log in screen at the bottom you'll be able to see the app and click to start it without logging in. However they won't start automatically. AFAIK you also can't load an unpacked extension in this way.
3. If you enable "kiosk mode" for Chrome OS then you can make kiosk apps auto start. At least on the Asus CB you do have to do the CTRL-ALT-K keystroke BEFORE you log in for the first time. This is for an unmanaged device. Now, when you load the app using "Manage kiosk applications..." in chrome://extensions and hover your mouse over it in the dialog you should seen a "enable auto-start" or similar button. You need to select this. Now, when you restart the system the app should automatically start. If you want to cancel this just as the app is loading you can press CTRL-ALT-S. A message indicates this on the screen, too.

Hope that helps, Simon

Answer 3

Can't help you with anything related to kiosk, but you can generate a CRX file from the Extensions page on your development system, get that onto the Chromebox, put the Extensions page of the Chromebox into developer mode, and then drag the CRX to the Extensions page and drop it. You should see a dialog asking you if you want to install it. This is a completely different form of install than loading an unpacked extension and may get around whatever limitations you're seeing.

UPDATE: (1) Extensions page on Chromebox doesn't have to be in Developer Mode, (2) CRX to be dragged must be in the Downloads directory, not on Google Drive. Didn't test external device (SD card or USB drive).