Chrome Virtual Keyboard settings appear

[iank]

Hi

My setup is a touch screen (no physical keyboard) that will be public, so browser tabs, etc. are locked down with a fixed home URL.
Users will however be required to enter text, thus the need for a virtual keyboard.

Initial testing has been working fine - sans a virtual keyboard.
From other forum posts I've managed to get the Chrome Virtual Keyboard (by xontab.com) working, with one showstopper problem: when the system starts, my home screen flashes but then switches to a new tab with the VK settings. Thus, the screen is locked on that tab!

Is there a way to prevent extension settings appearing on first launch (with preset settings if possible)?
I realise this might be a question for the extension developer but hoping there is a chrome policy setting that enables this.

I have not tried the Firefox VK extension mentioned elsewhere. Is that a better option?

Lastly, even with the preferred 'always on' setting, the keyboard will hide some browser content, which is not idea.
Ideally, I read somewhere that the system VK could be enabled and I assume would sit below the browser window. This is my preferred option as I'd like the VK to be 'always on' and sacrifice some browser area, provided it does not remain full screen and lower content hidden behind the keyboard.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Ian

[fanthom]

Hello Ian,

The vk extension settings tab appears cause Chrome thinks this is a first run of this extension.

There are 4 possible solutions to this issue:

a) enable full persistence (should be done in specific scenarios only, like private tablet PC) so the settings tab would appear only once

b) experiment with following policy (never used it myself so please do not ask for help how to configure it):
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/ ... onSettings

c) customize the ISO yourself and add extension manually to it along with Chrome profile (may break some kiosk parameters):
https://porteus-kiosk.org/kiosk-customization.html

d) buy customized build with this extension enabled and configured:
https://porteus-kiosk.org/builds.html

Thanks

[iank]

Thanks for your quick response. I'll investigate these options further.

I'm inquirying on behalf of a customer and in the end they may be comfortable paying for a custom build, so that option is not out of the question. Do you have a price guide on what this might be (Assuming you were given a kiosk-config file with everything else OK)? (PM me if you like.)

My main concern is needing new builds with other tweaks from time to time. Is this process something a customer could eventually do themselves? I'm reasonably comfortable with Linux and figure the xvkbd binaries could be packaged into a xzm and options set so the chrome window was resized to sit above the VK.

Thanks again.

[fanthom]

Please contact with build@porteus-kiosk.org to get the details about customization price and process.

"Is this process something a customer could eventually do themselves?"
Yes - if they are familiarized with linux they could follow this guide:
https://porteus-kiosk.org/kiosk-customization.html

"I'm reasonably comfortable with Linux and figure the xvkbd binaries could be packaged into a xzm and options set so the chrome window was resized to sit above the VK."
xvkbd is already present in the ISO. The thing is you wont be able to keep in on top of other windows if browser (or any other app) works in fullscreen:
https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6503

Virtual keyboard which popups on the input field is the only solution.

[iank]

Thanks again fanthom.
I'm progressively leaning towards the custom build over the browser extension option.
If the build@ team can provide a split screen with a split screen (browser / xvkbd) solution, then I'm inclined to recommend that to the customer.
Cheers, Ian