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Configure Advanced Website Kiosk Settings for Android
The website kiosk settings allow you to lock a device down to a single website or set of essential websites. This configuration will enable you to restrict users from accessing websites that are not approved by your organization. The advanced settings for website kiosk in Hexnode allow you to streamline your web kiosk experience based on your use case.
With the Advanced Website Kiosk settings for Android devices, you can remotely configure and manage the web app kiosk experience of the end-users.
Enable Advanced website kiosk settings
To activate “Advanced Website Kiosk Settings”, first select Hexnode Browser Lite or Hexnode Kiosk Browser from “Website Kiosk Settings”.
- Go to Policies > New Policy. Name the Policy and provide a description.
- Select Kiosk Lockdown > Android Kiosk Lockdown > Website kiosk Settings > Configure.
- Select Hexnode Browser Lite / Hexnode Kiosk Browser, single tab/ Hexnode Kiosk Browser, multiple tabs.
- You can optionally choose to open apps in full screen and show Hexnode Browser app icon in kiosk mode. You can also allowlist a set of websites to allow unrestricted access.
Notes:
- You can access single or multiple tabs on your Hexnode Kiosk Browser based on the chosen option.
- Android TV OS supports only those features available for Hexnode Browser Lite.
Configure Advanced website kiosk settings
Now, go to Advanced Website Kiosk Settings and start configuring.
The below configurations are applicable to both ‘Hexnode Browser Lite’ and ‘Hexnode Kiosk Browser’ unless specified otherwise.
Toolbar
Note:
- Configuring toolbar options works on Hexnode Browser Lite and Hexnode Kiosk Browser in single-tab mode only. These configurations do not apply to Hexnode Kiosk Browser in multi-tab mode.
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Browser toolbar | Check this option to show the toolbar of the browser. |
If enabled,
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Back button | Check this option to show back button on the toolbar. |
| Show Forward button | Check this option to show forward button on the toolbar. |
| Show Reload button | Check this option to show page reload button on the toolbar. |
| Show Home button | Check this option to show home button on the toolbar. |
| Show Print icon (Android 4.4+) |
Check this option to show print icon on the toolbar.
Note:
For example: In case of Fire OS 7, com.mopria.printplugin is used along with com.android.printspooler for printing. If this third-party plugin is not enabled in the background, the print action fails with a toast message “blocked package com.mopria.printplugin“.
|
| Show ‘Clear Session’ option | When checked, the clear session option is shown on the toolbar. |
| Show browser title on the toolbar | Choose whether to show the browser title on the toolbar. |
If “Show browser title on the toolbar” option is checked,
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Browser title | Choose the Hexnode Browser Lite or Hexnode Kiosk Browser single-tab mode title. You can either set the browser title as the web app’s name or choose a custom title. |
If custom title is chosen,
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Enter a title to be displayed on the browser toolbar. |
Theme color
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Theme color | Choose a theme color for the toolbar. You can choose from a set of 10 colors. When any of the colors is chosen, a reset button appears to the right of the box clicking on which you are able to reset the default theme. |
Appearance
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Screen orientation | Choose the orientation of the browser screen. You can choose from ‘As per device settings’, ‘Landscape left’, ‘Portrait’, ‘Landscape right’, ‘Invert’. Default is as per device settings. |
| Pinch-to-zoom web page | Make it possible to zoom in the page with the pinch-to-zoom gesture. |
| Enable overview mode
(Supported only on Hexnode Browser Lite) |
Check this option to zoom out the web page as much as possible so that the whole width of the page is displayed on the screen. |
| Use wide viewport
(Supported only on Hexnode Browser Lite) |
If checked, the web view of the Hexnode Browser Lite will be adjusted with respect to the normal viewport of the device. That is, the viewport will be reoriented to render a clear and legible webpage on the device.
 If disabled, the web view will have a viewport constrained to the dimensions of the webpage.  |
| Web page view
(Supported only on Hexnode Browser Lite) |
Choose how you would like to view the web page. The selected option will get updated only after the next reload of the page. You can choose from Default, Desktop and Custom. If custom option is selected, a custom name is to be entered. |
Scheduled Refresh
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Reload web app after every _ second(s) of inactivity | Enter the amount of time in seconds after which the web page must be reloaded. A maximum of 86400 seconds (1 day) can be given. Minimum value is 1 second. |
| Do not reload if on home page | Check this option to stop the home page (the URL added as a web app) from reloading on no interaction for a time period set under the option Reload web app after every ___ second(s) of inactivity. |
| Reload web app when connected to a network | Check this option to reload a web page when connected to a network or when switched from one network to another. Enabled by default. |
| Refresh current page every _ minute(s) | Enter the amount of time in minutes after which the web page must be reloaded. A maximum of 1440 minutes (1 day) can be given. Minimum value is 1 minute. |
Privacy and Security
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Ignore SSL errors | Check this option to hide security warnings due to SSL errors. SSL connection errors occur when you are trying to connect to an SSL-enabled website and your browser (client) is unable to make a secure connection to the website’s server. |
Developer Options
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Remote debugging | Check this option to debug the web app from Chrome on your computer. Remote debugging lets you inspect a page running on the Android device from your development machine (Mac, Windows or Linux computer). |
Remote debugging: You can remote debug live content on Android devices from your computer.
Follow the below steps to inspect the device with the Chrome browser:
- Enable the Android Developer options menu.
- On your Android device, navigate to Settings.
- Select About the device (About phone).
- Tap the Build number 7 times.
- Enable USB debugging on Android device.
- On your Android device, navigate back to Settings.
- The Developer options menu is now visible. Under Developer options menu enable USB debugging.
- Enable USB discovery in Chrome.
- On your computer open Chrome and type in chrome://inspect.
Developer options page loads by default.
- Under Devices, enable Discover USB devices check box.
- Connect the Android device to the computer.
- Connect the Android device to your computer with a USB cable.
- On your Android device, allow USB debugging if you see an alert for permission.
The prompt to allow USB debugging disappears soon as the device is in kiosk mode.
- Inspect the page.
- On your computer open Chrome and go to chrome://inspect.
- Click on Pages on the menu side bar.
- Find the page you want to inspect and click inspect below the page title.
This enables the debug mode when the USB cable is connected.
Content
JavaScript
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Allow JavaScript | Check this option to allow JavaScript on your browser. Allowed by default. JavaScript is a handy feature that allows more interaction with web pages in web browsers. For e.g. websites like Google Maps won’t work as intended if you disable JavaScript on your browser. |
Media
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto-play video | Decide if video is allowed to auto-play. |
| Allow file upload | Check this option to make the browser support file upload. Available in Android 5.0 and later. |
| Block file download | Check this option to block file download using the Hexnode Kiosk Browser v4.5+ and Hexnode Browser Lite v11.9.8+. |
| Open file after download | Check this option to automatically open files after download. The apps that are required to open the downloaded files must be added as the background app for this feature to work. Supported on Hexnode Kiosk Browser v4.5+ and Hexnode Browser Lite v11.9.8+. |
| Keep download history | Uncheck this option to clear the download history. Supported on Hexnode Kiosk Browser v4.5 or later. |
| Capture and upload image | Check this option to capture an image directly from the device camera and upload it. But you need to add the camera package to the list of background apps. This option will not work if Camera is disabled in Policies > Android > Restrictions > Basic. Available in Android 5.0 and later. |
| Clear downloaded files | Check this option to clear browser downloads and any downloaded files on the device from the Hexnode Browser. The files get removed every time on loading the home page of the web app. To enable this option, ensure that your Hexnode Browser is v4.2+ with Hexnode MDM app 11.6.0+ or Hexnode for Work app v7.6.0+. |
| Set download path | Enter a location on the device internal storage where the files downloaded via the Hexnode Kiosk Browser will get stored. For example: /storage/emulated/0/Download.
If the provided download path is incorrect, then the browser automatically downloads the files to “/Storage/emulated/0/Download”. Supported on Hexnode Kiosk Browser v4.7+ with Hexnode MDM app v12.0.5+ and Hexnode for Work v8.0.5+. |
Browsing History
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Cache settings (Supported only on Hexnode Browser Lite) |
Web caching temporarily stores certain files and pages to increase the speed of page loading and to reduce bandwidth usage. Here you have four options from which you can choose the cache settings:
|
| Clear cache | Check this option to empty the cache on page reload. |
| Clear cookies | Check this option to clear cookies. A cookie is a piece of data that a website puts on the device so the website knows that this device has visited before. This allows webpages to customize their content based on information from previous visits. |
| Clear web storage | Check this option to clear web storage. Web storage offers a way for web applications and pages to store data locally in web browsers. The data that is stored is persistent meaning that it does not expire with a session. |
| Clear browsing history | Check this option to clear browsing history. Browsing history is the list of web pages a user has visited recently along with associated data such as page title and time of visit. Browsing history will be cleared on every page reload. After the browsing history is cleared, pressing the back button will exit from the web app if on single app kiosk with high auto-launch delay or on multi app kiosk. However, pressing back button will not take any effect if on single app kiosk with app auto-launch delay set to 0 seconds. |
Forms
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Clear forms on page reload | Check this option to remove the auto complete pop up from the form on page reload. |
| Save form data | Form data are saved by default. Uncheck this option to prevent form data from being unintentionally saved. Works on devices running Android 8.0 and below. |
Location
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Allow web apps to use location services | Check this option to allow web apps to use location services for a variety of reasons such as providing targeted content specific to your neighbourhood or general area. |
Hardware and Software Keys
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Disable Software Keys (Navigation Bar, Keyboard) | Check this option to disable software keys. You can’t access navigation bar or type using keyboard if this option is checked. |
| Disable back button | Check this option to disable back button. |
Other Settings
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Resume browsing session after home/recent apps button is pressed | Check this option to prevent the home page of the web app from loading when home/recent apps button is pressed. |
| Show an exit prompt when back button is pressed | If checked, on clicking the back button while in the web app’s home page, an exit prompt will be shown on the device.
It is supported on both Hexnode Kiosk Browser and Hexnode Browser Lite. |
| Disable text selection | Check this option to prevent text selection. |
| Redirect from blocked URL | When a blocked page is reloaded, users are taken to the first page of the web app instead of reloading the same page. |
| Hexnode Browser can open external apps | If enabled, Hexnode Kiosk Browser can open external apps on encountering certain links. For Example, the dialer app will be opened on clicking the phone number link. |
| Pull down to refresh the web page | Check this option to allow the user to refresh the Hexnode Browser Lite screen manually by swiping down. |
| Refresh web page after screensaver is dismissed | Check this option to reload the webpage immediately after the screensaver is dismissed. |
| Load Kiosk home page when the device is idle for __ second(s)/minutes(s) | If enabled,the user will be redirected to the Hexnode Kiosk Browser Home page when the device is kept idle for the specified time.
Specify the required time in seconds or minutes. It can range between 1 sec and 1440 minutes (1 day). This feature is supported on Hexnode Kiosk Browser v 4.7+ with Hexnode MDM app v12.0.5+ and Hexnode for Work app v8.0.5+. |
| Open web app in a new tab | If checked, each web app will be opened in a new tab. This feature is supported on Hexnode Kiosk Browser v4.5 or later. |
| Maximum number of tabs allowed | Check this option to choose the maximum number of tabs that can be opened at a time using Hexnode Browser Lite v4.5 or later. You can enter a value between 0 and 99. |
| Allow private browsing | Check this option to enable private browsing in Hexnode Browser Lite v4.5 and later. |
| Maximum number of incognito tabs allowed | Check this option to specify the maximum number of incognito tabs that can be opened at a time using Hexnode Kiosk Browser (v4.5+). You can enter a value between 0 and 99.
This option can only be enabled if Allow Private Browsing is enabled. |
Associate the policy with target devices
To associate Advanced Website Kiosk Settings policy with target entities,
- Go to Policy targets and click on Devices/Device Groups/Users/User Groups/Domains.
- Click on +Add button corresponding to the required policy targets and select the required target entities.
- Save the Policy.
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