What is a URL shortcut file?

A URL file is a standard file type used by web browsers to reference a web location and ending with the extension “.url”. It contains the text “[InternetShortcut]” as well as a url to a file location, such as “URL= https://www.burningthumb.com/”.
Video Kiosk and URL shortcut files
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.
Creating a URL shortcut file
A URL Shortcut file must be created in Plain Text. To create and edit one, follow these instructions. The file syntax is documented in the Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file (.url file) Syntax Guide. Please note that this syntax is specific to Video Kiosk.
Mac – How to create a URL Shortcut file using TextEdit on a Mac
- Open TextEdit
- Create your .url file
- Enter the commands as documented in the Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file (.url file) Syntax Guide
- Format it as plain text (TextEdit > Format > Make Plain Text)
- Save your file and change the extension to “.url” (TextEdit > Save)
- When it prompts you about the file extension, confirm “Use .url”
- If you need to edit the file, open it in TextEdit or another text editor
Windows – How to create a URL Shortcut file using Notepad on Windows
- Open Microsoft Notepad
- Create your .url file
- Enter the commands as documented in the Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file (.url file) Syntax Guide
- Save your file and change the extension to “.url” (Notepad > Save)
- If you need to edit the file, open it in Notepad or another text editor.
How to create a URL Shortcut file in Word
- Open Microsoft Word
- Create your .url file
- Enter the commands as documented in the Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file (.url file) Syntax Guide
- Save your file in plain text format (Word > Save As > Plain Text (.txt) )
- Change the extension from “.txt” to “.url”
- If you need to edit the file, open it in Word, edit, Save As a Plain Text file and then change the extension back to “.url”.
Examples: URL Shortcut 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.
Resources
- Video Kiosk URL Shortcut file (.url file) Syntax Guide
- Click here to Download the .url file Sample Kit
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- Read the FAQ
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