kiosk mode - what's the deal?

[tomp]

I have used kiosk mode in a fairly complex FM6 application successfully.

I have redesigned/developed the application for FM7 and am considering deploying in kiosk mode again.

I have frequently encountered comments in various forums that kiosk mode is 'weird' and should be avoided. So I checked out references to plugins such as Secure FM and Menu Control as alternatives to accomplish the same intent.

While my evaluation is not exhaustive, I don't need all the 'power' of the plugins and in Secure FM I have not been able to figure out how to turn off the toggle to status area and the ability to scroll through found records. I can't have my users discovering they can do that.

So I'm back to .....

WHAT'S WRONG WITH KIOSK MODE?

Other than being weird, can anyone tell me WHY it should be avoided and what problems it might cause??

Right now I'm leaning towards, what to me is, the straight forward, simplistic solution to my needs - using kiosk again in FM7.

TIA for any insight.

tomp

[CobaltSky]

Hi tomp,

Modern operating systems provide multitasking as a matter of course. That is, they allow the user to launch a number of quite different applications and to switch back and forth between them at will - even facilitating the copying and pasting of data between disparate environments.

This is no accident or marketing gimmick. There is a common expectation in most workplaces that staff will view their data in one program while typing a memo, drafting an email and checking guidelines on the company's web site.

Any application which takes over the user's computer, blots out all other applications, over-rides all the operating system widgets and disables multitasking is therefore highly unsuitable for most purposes and is directly contrary to the design guidelines for development on any contemporary operating system.

Such an application is suited primarily for those situations where it may be *desirable* to overturn the entire paradigm of the OS's interface ... such as for instance, maybe a kiosk. :? Those wily folks down at FMI were really onto something when they gave it that name!

As regards the tool that shows/hides the status area, you can disable it without a plug-in by calling the:

[color:"white"]_____Show/Hide Status Area [Lock; Hide]

command - eg in a script that runs on start up (the lock attribute causes the widget to become greyed out and inaccessible until you explicitly lock it again).

With the status area locked, the user will not be able to scroll through the records either. Keyboard and mouse scroll wheel actions will be disabled and you will need to provide buttons and scripts to support all navigation.

So, in short, their are a number of alternatives before. Kiosk mode is certainly one of those alternatives, but it may or may not be the most appropriate. [color:"white"]_____

[Inky Phil]

Hi tomp

I am glad you asked that question cos I too have run my solution in kiosk mode and have often wondered why no-one else seems to want to do so. It is interesting therefore to read Ray's comments and I now understand better why I seem to be one of the few people who actually likes (yes - LIKES!) kiosk mode.

FWIW, I feel that Kiosk mode gives 2 distinct advantages, 1 for the user and one for the developer.

In the case of the developer the advantage is that the user can only do what you allow them to do and how you allow them to do it - if they want to find something then the only way to find something is through the 'find something' button.

For the user the advantage is that, assuming the developer has done his job thoroughly, there is only one way to do something and it should be obvious and instinctive. If the user wants to find something it would make sense to hit the 'find something' button and then be led through a series of well thought out choices that will find what they want with the least possible effort on their behalf.

As Ray knows, I work to the international 'chimp'standard, that is if a chimp could use it then the chances are it is ready for the user (although this may not always be the case!!!). I realise that there must be a lot of users out there who do not need such a simplistic approach but I wouldn't mind betting that for everyone who has used a solution to it's fullest potential by exploring all the possibilities there is another one who couldn't be bothered to use it at all cos it was 'a bit confusing'. Maybe it is just the industry I am in - who knows.

Anyway I say Kiosk mode rocks!!!- although, it goes without saying, Ray's answer was by far more correct than mine.

Regards

Phil

ps on windows hitting the windows key while in kiosk mode gives the user the best of both worlds as it allows them to flip between the desktop and the kiosked file. I do not know if there is an equivelant key on a mac

[Ted S]

Ray,

Thanks for the explanation. I have never had a use for the kiosk mode so I have never tried it or attempted to learn much about it.

So in addition to the fact that it eliminates multitasking for the OS it also only allows one FileMaker user at a time, right?

Sounds like the audience for this would pretty limited.

[CobaltSky]

Hi Ted,

Kiosk mode is best know for its use in standalone 'runtime' solutions - the kind that people will access on a computer sitting out in a public place. It blacks out everything on the screen and shows only the layout contents, no menu bars or other frills.

However it is not so widely known that kiosk mode can also be invoked in a more conventional database - including a multi-user database. And of course, as Phil has mentioned, power users may realize that they can still use the command-tab technique to navigate to other applications despite the fact that the menus are not available.

So the truth is you *can* use kiosk mode for various things other than kiosks - and the question then becomes whether you *should*.

I don't hold a hard line view on this - but I do think there is reason for caution. For every solution I've seen where kiosk mode works well, there are others where it is not such a good call. It pays to consider carefully.

[Reed]

The best use I've found for Kiosk mode is to control exactly which programs you want people to be able to use. (And to use Filemaker to control and track which programs have been used by whom and for how long.)

You can use filemaker buttons to launch/switch to other applications, and on a mac there's no way (short of the power switch) to do anything the kiosk doesn't allow.

On windows, users still have access to the alt and windows keys. Sometimes this is nice, but sometimes the developer might want to disable these keys.

I found source code on the MSDN web site that builds with visual studio.net that will disable these shortcut keys. I can't attach the zipped files because they're 1.2 MB but I've posted them here:

http://www.chem.umn.edu/services/massspec/taskkeys.zip

The other thing that's nice in a multi-user environment is that you can control which users need to use kiosk mode and which can use the file normally by changing their privileges.

HTH,

Dana

[Vaughan]

"...on a mac there's no way (short of the power switch) to do anything the kiosk doesn't allow."

Have you tested it with Panther's Expose?

[Reed]

Hitting any of the function keys for Expose or Dashboard don't do anything in 10.4.1 I don't have any machines where I can test Panther as of two weeks ago. I think I remember testing this on 10.3.8 a while back but I can't be sure.

For me, most of the clients I need to support are on XP or 2000, only the server and development (at least the stuff that's not windows specific) box are macs.

[Inky Phil]

from OS 10.2 ( and possibly earlier) as Ray said you can command-tab to load the dock over a kiosked solution thereby accesing your desktop with the option to hide the kiosk into the dock, and of course hitting the windows key on a pc will get you your desktop.

Phil