Tutorial: How to Use URL Shortcut to display Web Content

Video Kiosk supports .url files (internet shortcuts). This feature is typically used to display live web content, like an Instagram feed, but you can reference any URL on the web as well as locally stored html content and images. To use URL Shortcuts, create a .url file and put the .url files in the media folder.

If your media folder (Content Loop) includes .url files, the content will be displayed for the duration of time specified in the .url file. (The default is to display the web content for 30 seconds.)
If Video Kiosk encounters an invalid URL, it will skip the file and will play the next media file. (A URL is considered invalid if the URL is incorrectly formed or if the page doesn’t exist.)

How to use URL Shortcuts

To use a URL shortcut to display content, follow these steps:

In a Text Editor, create a URL shortcut file, with the extension “.url”.
- To learn how to create a URL Shortcut file, refer to How to create a Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file.
- For file contents requirements, refer to the Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file Syntax Guide, below.
Place the .url files in your Video Kiosk media folder.

Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file Syntax Guide

Syntax	Explanation	Required / Optional
[InternetShortcut]	Section identifier	Required
URL	Identifies the url value Valid Values: Any valid url address Example: URL=https://www.burningthumb.com/	Required
TIMEOUT	Indicates how long, in seconds, Video Kiosk will display the web content. Valid Values: Any valid floating point number. Default is 30 seconds Example: TIMEOUT=45	Optional
CACHE-MODE	Indicates whether to cache the web content Valid Values: no-cache – web content is not cached default – web content is cached default is no-cache Example: CACHE-MODE=default	Optional
LAYER-TYPE	Indicates where to render the web content Valid Values: hardware – web content is rendered on the hardware accelerated layer software – web content is rendered on the software layer Default is hardware Example: LAYER-TYPE=software	Optional
USER-AGENT	Allows you to specify the user agent sent to the web server. Example: USER-AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_5) AppleWebKit/603.2.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.1.1 Safari/603.2.4	Optional
MUTE-ON-PRELOAD	If the web page contains audio content, the content volume can be muted during background pre-loading of the content Valid Values: true – the volume will be muted false – the volume will not be muted Default is false Example: MUTE-ON-PRELOAD=true	Optional
SHOW-AFTER-PRELOAD	Normally the web page will be displayed when the previous item finishes playing. You can specify that the web page should be shown as soon as the preloading is complete. Valid Values: true – the page will be displayed as soon as the preload completes false – the page will be displayed when the previous item is finished playing Default is false Example: SHOW-AFTER-PRELOAD=true	Optional
SCALE-IMAGE	If the URL is an image URL and you set this option to true, Video Kiosk will scale the image to full screen. Valid Values: true – scale the image to full screen false – position the image based on the default for the WebView. This varies based on the version of Android being used. Default is false Example: SCALE-IMAGE=true	Optional

Examples: URL Files

The following example shows the content of a .url file that instructs Video Kiosk to play the BurningThumb Studios home page for 30 seconds without caching the web page content:

[InternetShortcut] 
URL= https://www.burningthumb.com/ 
TIMEOUT=30 
LAYER-TYPE=software 
CACHE-MODE=no-cache

The following example shows the content of a .url file that instructs Video Kiosk to auto play a YouTube video for 138 seconds while caching the web page content. Notice that a desktop (Mac OS X) USER-AGENT is specified so that the video will auto play even though the real user agent is on a mobile device which would result in auto play not working:

[InternetShortcut] 
URL=https://www.youtube.com/embed/lYQWiQJJ4lE?rel=0&autoplay=1 
TIMEOUT=138 
LAYER-TYPE=hardware 
CACHE-MODE=default 
USER-AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_5) AppleWebKit/603.2.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.1.1 Safari/603.2.

Customizing URL Shortcut display

Using Split-screen playback mode

Using split-screen display mode.
To learn how to display web content in Panel A of Video Kiosk’s Split-screen Mode, refer to the Split Screen Display Mode Tutorial.

Controlling the Display

Background Images Tutorial – How to display an image behind your media as it is playing and behind the panels in split screen mode
Background Audio Tutorial – How to play streaming audio or a local audio file while your media is playing
Screen orientation. You can set the screen orientation for just the media playback screen. The other views, such as settings, are not affected. To change the screen orientation, go to Video Kiosk Settings > View Options. (To change all the view orientations, use the device System Settings) The supported orientations are:
- Default (set by the device manufacturer),
- Landscape,
- Portrait,
- Reverse Landscape,
- Reverse Portrait
Fade time between url files.
To change the fade time between urls, go to  Video Kiosk Settings > Timers > Web fade time  and change the display time