Configuration¶

Before running the server, there are some options you may want to tune. Those options can be specified either on the command-line or in a configuration file (that should be specified on the command-line).

Available options¶

Here are the three more important options:

configuration
This option allows to specify a configuration file in JSON format.

environment
This option sets the environment to use. By default, the development environment is used. Unless you want to debug Dashkiosk, this is not what you want. You can use any other keyword. Use production if you don’t know.

port
The port to listen to. Quite important.

If you want to be able to use Chromecast devices, you also need to set:

chromecast.enabled
Enable Chromecast support. Disabled by default.

chromecast.receiver
The URL to the receiver. This is used to tell Chromecast devices where to find the receiver. This option is mandatory as there is no reliable way to guess it. You should put the URL to access Dashkiosk and ends it with /receiver. For example, put something like http://dashkiosk.example.com/receiver. This needs to be a fully qualified URL (including the protocol part http:// or https://).

If the reciever is on a server with only internal DNS records use the IP address of the server rather than URL. Chromecasts are hard coded to only use Google’s DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) for lookups, rather than those given by DHCP.

The Chromecast custom receiver is hosted on GitHub. If you want to modify it or to host it yourself, you need to register a new application in the Google Cast SDK Developer Console and report the provided application ID as chromecast.app.

You can protect Dashkiosk with a login and a password. For more advanced options, you should put it behind a reverse proxy.

auth.enabled
Require a login/password. This will enforce the use of HTTP basic authentication to access to Dashkiosk (both the receiver and the admin panel).

auth.realm
Realm to use for HTTP basic authentication.

auth.username
Valid username for authentication.

auth.password
Valid password for authentication.

The remaining options can usually be left untouched unless you decided to not use the integrated SQLite database.

path.static
Path where the static files to be served for the receiver and the integrated dashboards are located. Unless you moved them to some other location, there is no need to change this.

db.database
Database name. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.username
Username to access the database. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.password
Password to authenticate with the above username. This is not needed if you kept the default SQLite database.

db.options.dialect
Dialect to use for the database. This can be sqlite, mysql, mariadb or postgres.

db.options.storage
Location of the SQLite database. Not used for other databases.

db.options.host
Hostname (or IP) where the database is located. This is not needed for SQLite.

log.level
Log level to use for logging messages. Use either info or debug.

log.file
Location of a log file where to write logs in JSON format. By default, no such file is generated.

default_unassigned_url
Change the default url for the unassigned displays. Default is /unassigned

Branding¶

You can brand a bit Dashkiosk. For example, the deezer branding provides the following perks:

The spinning vinyl is located in app/images/loading-deezer.svg. You should be able to use anything that will give a cool effect while spinning.

The Deezer logo appearing both in the administration interface and in the default dashboard is located in app/images/stamp-deezer.svg.

You can create alternate version of those images and drop them at the same place with a different suffix. Currently, the available brandings are:

default

deezer

dailymotion

exoscale

vente-privee

If you do your own branding, they can be integrated into Dashkiosk if the used images can be freely distributed. Submit a pull request.

To select a branding, use the --branding option.

Command-line or configuration file¶

On the command-line, the options are specified using the classic GNU long option style by prepending them with --. For example:

--port 8087 --environment production

Environment variables¶

You can also specify options using environment variables. In this case, substitute . by __ to get valid values:

$ export port=8088
$ export db__database=dashkiosk4
$ export branding=exoscale

JSON configuration file¶

Alternatively, you can specify a JSON configuration file with --configuration. In this case, the options with a dot should be understood as being a sub-object. For example, to configure a PostgreSQL database:

{
    "environment": "production",
    "db": {
        "username": "dashkiosk",
        "password": "dashkiosk",
        "database": "dashkiosk",
        "options": {
            "host": "172.17.42.1",
            "dialect": "postgres"
        }
    },
    "log": {
        "file": "/var/log/dashkiosk.log"
    }
}

Reverse proxy¶

You may want to put a reverse proxy in front of Dashkiosk. You should know that it uses Socket.IO whose preferred backend is WebSocket. Some reverse proxy may not like it.

Here is a configuration for nginx:

upstream dashkiosk {
        server localhost:9450;
        server localhost:9451;
}

server {
   listen 80;
   listen [::]:80;
   server_name dashkiosk.example.com;

   location / {
     proxy_pass http://dashkiosk;
     proxy_http_version 1.1;
     proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
     proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
   }
}

Setting X-Forwarded-For header allows Dashkiosk to display the IP address of each display in case you want to log on it to debug it.