In case you want to start an external application from your SiteCaster project, you need to switch to the SiteCaster expert mode.
Open the project in the SiteCaster editor. In the URL address field of your browser you must add &expert at the end of the URL and then press Enter to reload the project.
After activation of the expert mode you see the pen button in the menu bar. Now create an image (note that this will work with most other elements as well) on your project page, select the image and press the expert mode pen button. You can resize the inspector on the right via drag and drop to access the following lines easier.
Go to additionalLink and select JSON object in the dropdown menu. Then replace “image” with “script” in the text field.
Next go to linkActive to select Boolean from the dropdown menu and check the checkbox.
Finally go to scriptSource, select String and add the following line for SiteKiosk Windows with the path to the desired application
siteKiosk.system.windows.skLegacy.externalApps.run("PathToYourApplication", false);
to the scriptSource text field, e.g.
siteKiosk.system.windows.skLegacy.externalApps.run("C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe", false);
Please note that from SiteCaster 1.5 the command is much shorter: siteKiosk.system.run("C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe", false);
In both cases the second parameter of the run function is a boolean value that needs to be false if an existing instance of the application should be focused instead of opening a new one and true if an additional instance should be opened.
Should the scriptSource property not be available, scroll down to Add property and add it there by filling out the fields and hitting the plus button, e.g.:
It is strongly recommended to also add your external application in the SiteKiosk configuration under Applications so that SiteKiosk can close the application when the screensaver is activated.
Once the project is published to the client, a click on the element will open the application.
The above is the notation to make it work under SiteKiosk Windows. For SiteKiosk Android it is slightly different. In order to start the application you need to know its guid name, e.g. com.android.calculator2. Either you know this information for the app you would like to start or you can use the SiteKiosk logs to find this information. To do so, just add the desired app in the SiteKiosk configuration under Application -> Android App or Application -> Multiple Applications. Next start SiteKiosk and make sure the app has started at least once. Now close SiteKiosk and open the SiteKiosk log file in the ..\SiteKiosk\Logs folder. Look for an entry with the text System app launched, e.g. System app launched: com.android.calculator2. In our example the guid name we are looking for is com.android.calculator2. This information is required to start that specific app from SiteCaster.
With this information gathered we can compose the line that needs to be added as the scriptSource in SiteCaster to look like this:
__siteKiosk.system.apps.getByGuid("com.android.calculator2").launch("", "systemApp");
Please note that you need to add the app in the SiteKiosk Android configuration under Security -> Allow assigned apps, if it is not addd there it will be blocked.