PWB 2.10.1 - Activity timer

[Joseph Stude]

I don't necessarily have an issue with the functionality of the activity timer as much as that I'm having difficulty devising a problem-free implementation for our email kiosks here at the library.

Here's the scenario: we have PWB 2.10.1 running in kiosk mode, dedicated to providing either email services to our patrons or access to our library catalog. To keep patrons moving and prevent abuse we have a ten-minute activity timer configured. Currently we have the browser reset to the kiosk homepage when the activity timer expires, but there are issues with that (namely that since patrons haven't always technically logged out of their email when this happens that the next patron in line can get right back into the original patron's email account by clicking on the correct link). So, our plan is to have the browser "restart" instead of "home and this seems to correct that particular problem.

The problem that DOESN'T correct and one for which we can't really devise a solution is when patrons only use a few minutes of their time, log out of their email, and walk away. Meanwhile, the activity timer continues to tick and when the next patron walks up and begins using the kiosk they get whatever is left on the activity timer, then get booted and complain (rightly so) about being shorted on time.

Do you have any suggestions for solving this issue using .ini settings that don't require patron action such as clicking buttons (since you can't really rely on the public to correctly do this)?

Joseph Stude
Support Tech
Plymouth District Library

[Scott]

You could use the inactivity timer set to a short period of time (20 seconds or so) that exits and restarts PWB. This way if a patron walks away the inactivity timer will restart PWB.

We use the PWB Close on the PWB Shellbar and encourage our patrons, with signage, to close PWB when they have finished, or close it if it is open, along with the inactivity timer. This seems to catch about 97% of the people.

--Scott

[Joseph Stude]

We actually had the inactivity timer enabled with a time of 20 seconds in the last incarnation of the kiosk setup we were using, but we found that this caused patrons to have to constantly maintain "artificial" activity (wiggling the mouse back and forth, scrolling the screen, whatever) just to keep from getting logged out accidentally. This happens particularly when someone reads slowly and/or has a long email to go through. I'm thinking, in lieu of something else, that we might end up having to re-enable the timer with a bit longer idle time (35 seconds, perhaps).

Have to look into the shellbar. Have never used that functinality before. Thanks for the quick response, Scott.