Need to rotate through websites - Keynote? Flash? Something else?

[emdubb]

Hey all -

I need to create a kiosk-like presentation that can rotate through several websites in real time. Basically I want to be able to monitor several different reporting sites (sales, server uptime, phone queues, etc) but have them refresh every x seconds, probably 30 or so. I tried Keynote and its Web Clips feature but they only update when I open the file, I can't figure out how to refresh the sites every 30s. Flash is a bit above me as I never got into ActionScript but according to a coder friend of mine, Flash can't do it either. Any ideas? I just want to load whatever it is onto a Mac Mini, attach it to a flatscreen TV and mount it for my employees to see. I'd rather find a solution I can do myself, rather than hire someone from rentacoder/scriptlance. I'm not not-technical, so I can deal with some lite PHP if need be. Also, the reason I chose Keynote or Flash is because I'd like it to be slightly aesthetically pleasing. Just making a frameset set to auto refresh is my last ditch option. Thanks in advance!

- Emdubb

 

[xUKHCx]

A really quick (and dirty) way is to use applescript and safari. Then just make the safari window fullscreen. If you want full kiosk mode then perhaps give Opera a try and see what its scripting capabilities are.

tell application "Safari"
activate
repeat
open location "https://www.macrumors.com"
delay 30
open location "http://www.apple.com/uk"
delay 30
open location "http://www.google.co.uk"
delay 30
open location "http://www.liverpoolfc.tv"
delay 30
end repeat
end tell

 

[tersono]

A really quick (and dirty) way is to use applescript and safari. Then just make the safari window fullscreen. If you want full kiosk mode then perhaps give Opera a try and see what its scripting capabilities are.

Nice one - I do love simple solutions =]

One thing, though - rather than Opera for kiosk mode, try using the Saft plugin, which gives Safari a kiosk feature.

 

[emdubb]

A really quick (and dirty) way is to use applescript and safari. Then just make the safari window fullscreen. If you want full kiosk mode then perhaps give Opera a try and see what its scripting capabilities are.

I appreciate the suggestion, thanks a lot. A problem I'm encountering is that Safari wants to open the new pages in separate tabs. I'd like to disable tabs entirely so that it will open the links in the same window, but I'm not seeing an option for that. I'll keep tinkering and hopefully I'll find a more robust solution down the road. Thanks!

 

[xUKHCx]

I appreciate the suggestion, thanks a lot. A problem I'm encountering is that Safari wants to open the new pages in separate tabs. I'd like to disable tabs entirely so that it will open the links in the same window, but I'm not seeing an option for that. I'll keep tinkering and hopefully I'll find a more robust solution down the road. Thanks!

The script can be changed to give this behaviour all you need to do is change

open location

to

set URL of front document to