Lock Ipad on a Safari Screen

[SchoolinLM]

We use an IPad in a Kiosk to allow the public to monitor our Solar Panels. Problem is that students/visitors tend to try to surf the web from the screen. Is there a way to lock the screen on a particular webpage? We already have it tied down so that this particular IPad can not access anything but the Solar site, but doesn't stop people from trying and leaving the screen everywhere except on the Solar monitor.

Thanks for any help!

 

[skimonkey]

I have not done this, but you might want to explore this option. Go to iPad settings/General/Restrictions/Enable restrictions.

There is an option to enable Safari to have restrictions. So that may be a place that you might want to start. Just a warning, it may ask for you to set up a 4 digit passcode. Do not forget that, otherwise, the only way to get your ipad working again is to do a restore.

See if that helps you. If not, post back and let us know.

 

[twerppoet]

Put the iPad in a case that covers the Home and Power buttons, then go into Settings > General and disable multitask gestures. You'll also want to change the auto-lock to never (so you don't' have to keep taking it out of the case to get the screen back).

There are several kiosk style cases on the market that will do this, or you could roll your own.

 

[skimonkey]

Put the iPad in a case that covers the Home and Power buttons, then go into Settings > General and disable multitask gestures. You'll also want to change the auto-lock to never (so you don't' have to keep taking it out of the case to get the screen back).

There are several kiosk style cases on the market that will do this, or you could roll your own.

Aha! Very good advice, Twerppoet. I always learn from you, IPF expert!

That makes sense to disable the multitask gestures as well. Didn't think of that.

 

[twerppoet]

It's been asked before. I just remembered (not always a given).

 

[MikesTooLz]

AndraCavanagh why did you just copy/past the same response as someone else?

 

[twerppoet]

AndraCavanagh why did you just copy/past the same response as someone else?

Nightly quote-bot attack. Ignore.

 

[SchoolinLM]

Thanks for the suggestions. We have it in a nice Kiosk Case that hides all but the screen. I already have it set to never timeout, and have enabled restrictions. There is no multitask gesture (I believe it is an IPad1). I have the IP of the unit locked down, so it can only go to our solar monitoring site, but people still like to see what else they can get it to do. It often ends up on a settings screen, or on an error screen, or..???? Becasue the home button is hidden, the only way I can figure to reset it is to slide a paper clip in the tiny access hole to turn it off and back on. It gets old, especially when it happens numerous times a day. We have considered covering the whole screen with plexiglass so no one can touch it, but then if it gets turned off, we will have to open it up to get Safari back running and on the proper screen. We would also loose all the different screens on the solar monitoring site, but we are willing to sacrifice that if needed.

I was hoping there was a way to lock the IPad on just one site...

 

[MikesTooLz]

I think Kiosk Pro is what you want. It will display the web page full screen so that they have no access to anything else (like the address bar, notification bar...)

You can lock it down to only domains that you list are allowed.

and it has an idle timer so that if no one has used it for X amount of time, it goes back to your main page.


try out the free lite version. Also they list everything that needs to be locked down in the ipad settings over here
Kiosk Pro | Support | The best Kiosk Mode app for the iPad.

 

[twerppoet]

I suppose you could try blocking the paperclip hole.

I seem to remember hearing about a jailbreak tweak where you can set up a kiosk style app that requires a special code sequence to exit from; but I'm not sure. You would have to ask that community.

No other ideas, sorry.



One other thought. If Safari were crashing it would go back to the Home Screen. You might want to do a lot of playing around with your site and see if you can make it crash. Also, do a restart and clear all cookies and data in Safari's settings at the beginning of each day. That might help.

MikesTooLz's suggestion might prevent this possibility as well.

 

[skimonkey]

Thanks twerppoet and miketoolz for your very good advice.