CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidfirefoxkiosk-modechrome-for-android
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ᴍᴇʜᴏᴠ

Reputation: 5266

Kiosk mode for Chrome or Firefox

I need to write a kiosk launcher for a number of Android devices. It is supposed to launch Chrome or Firefox, showing a specific webpage in fullscreen. That page already calls the HTML5 requestFullScreen() API, but it doesn't work because that call is not coming from a user-generated event, and therefore gets declined by a browser for security reasons.

I did some searching and I found the following questions:

Both of these answers end up pointing to the existing apps or browsers, some of those are doing exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. This feels like an overkill, as I'm already using an app to get this thing going. And I can't use a special browser like suggested here because major browsers like Firefox or Chrome are more reliable in terms of updates and supported features.

But at the same time, the fact that these apps exist means that whatever I need to do is, well, doable. From Kiosk Browser Lockdown:

[Pro features]

Fullscreen mode / Hidden Toolbar

My question is this: what are the Android APIs they use to accomplish this? Is there anything I'm missing at this point? What are the documentation pages, guides or articles I should be looking for?

Thank you

Upvotes: 4

Views: 13757

Answers (2)

ViaTech
ViaTech

Reputation: 2843

Do you 100% have to use Chrome or Firefox?

It is easier to do what you are saying by developing a kiosk app with a custom WebView that only shows the webpage you want to show. I could be wrong on this, but I believe WebViews on Android are technically Chrome (or something like it) on the back end, but either way, using one I doubt you would need to worry about updates. However, that is not what you asked... so I will describe a solution using Chrome or Firefox. My solution also means you need to have access to the devices you are loading your software on though, not a commercial app, because you need ADB.

It is completely possible to setup a Kiosk app in Android to only allow Chrome or Firefox to be used, and this is easily done if you set the application you load onto the device (to do whatever task you need) as the device owner. This is easy to do via ADB using a Command Prompt or Android Studio Terminal.

Just FYI...I am not positive setting up a 'true' Kiosk App is possible without device owner privileges, you cannot actually lock an app to the screen without it. In the case I describe, you get a true Kiosk implementation using a device owner, not a nifty work around that mimics that functionality like most of the apps you see in the market, however, I would also bet that those apps have some type of device admin privileges, which are less powerful than device owner, but still powerful.

The 'real' way I describe would be done via ADB (or the command line) with a similar snippet to the following command (I used this in a recent enterprise application that seems pretty similar to what you are describing):

adb shell dpm set-device-owner 
com.viatechsystems.guestservices/android.app.admin.DeviceAdminReceiver
  • You would replace "com.viatechsystems.guestservices" with your Kiosk application's package name. You will get a confirmation message on the console once the device owner is set via ADB, but realize that this command could fail if a Device Owner is already set via some other method. To fix that issue, reset your device and try the command again and you should be good to go.

As far as locking your app (or in your case Chrome or Firefox, just find out what the package name is first) into Kiosk Mode after device owner has been set, you need to run this snippet, or something like it, in your application's main activity:

DevicePolicyManager DPM = 
(DevicePolicyManager)getSystemService(Context.DEVICE_POLICY_SERVICE);

ComponentName ownerName = new 
ComponentName(WHATEVER_CLASS_YOU_USE_TO_DISABLE_APPS.this 
DeviceAdminReceiver.class);

//this.getPackageName() GETS CURRENT PACKAGE
String[] packages = {
//THIS IS CURRENT APP
this.getPackageName()
//YOU NEED TO USE CHROME OR FIREFOX PACKAGE 
//NAME HERE INSTEAD FOR WHAT YOU WANT
};
DPM.setLockTaskPackages(ownerName, packages);
startLockTask(); //LOCKS PACKAGES IN KIOSK MODE

Now that should do what you needed, however in my recent app's case I needed to also ensure that if a user somehow got out of the Kiosk mode (which is technically possible on reboot, even with a Boot Listener implemented), they would only be able to open the application I wanted, and nothing else.

To do this you need to hide/disable applications with the device owner privileges you achieved earlier when you set your custom application to lock down Chrome, or Firefox, or whatever you want into Kiosk mode.

I can tell you how to find all of the package names on the device you load your app on, but I'm guessing you can figure that out... hint if you have issues, you use Android's Package Manager.

In this instance the package/app we want to hide is "com.example.HideThisPackage", simply replace it with whatever package name you want to hide/disable as the device owner.

//THIS VARIABLE AGAIN
DevicePolicyManager DPM = 
(DevicePolicyManager)getSystemService(Context.DEVICE_POLICY_SERVICE);

//THIS VARIABLE AGAIN
ComponentName ownerName = new 
ComponentName(WHATEVER_CLASS_YOU_USE_TO_DISABLE_APPS.this 
DeviceAdminReceiver.class);

//USED TO HIDE INSTALLED APPS AFTER DEVICE OWNER ENABLED
DPM.setApplicationHidden(ownerName, com.example.HideThisPackage, true);

Then you should be good to go, let me know if you need any additional pointers but I used code almost exactly like this to do what it seems like you are describing a few months ago.

Upvotes: 1

sancelot
sancelot

Reputation: 2063

I have similar problem with an commercial application running either in the linux system or windows OS. This application is made to run in a browser. By the past, we opened a browser window, that we customised. and closing main window. : * hiding menubar. * hiding button bar. * keeping close / lower window buttons

Fullscreen mode can not be used, since it hides window buttons.

Today, more and more browser based applications will arise (angularjs and similar applications coming...).

I found Atom Application can do this, using chromium .

Does this mean I have to embed a webbrowser with my application setup ??? And stick to some browser (eg. chromium) , altough my application is compatinble with many .

Upvotes: 0

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