Installation

The server is a Node.js application providing a rendez-vous point for all displays to subscribe using a Websocket protocol as well as an administration page to manage all displays, group them and tell them which URL to display.

Server and receiver

To install it, you need to execute the following step:

  1. Grab the latest tarball for Dashkiosk from GitHub.

  2. Install Node.js and optionally npm. Currently, Dashkiosk only works with Node.js 0.10.x which is the current stable version. If the version available in your distribution is not up-to-date, have a look at how to install Node.js via the package manager before trying to build from the sources.

  3. Install bower and grunt, two package managers for Javascript with the following command:

    $ npm install -g bower grunt-cli

  4. Unpack Dashkiosk in the directory of your choice and go into that directory.

  5. Install the appropriate dependencies with the following commands:

    $ npm install
$ bower install

  6. Build the final version of Dashkiosk with the following command:

    $ grunt

  7. Upon success, you will get a dist directory that you can put on some server. It includes both the receiver and the server part. If you want to use the Android application, you still need to build it and install it. See Android application.

Branding

As is, Dashkiosk is branded for Deezer. If you do not like that, there are two images that you should modify before building the final version with grunt.

  • The spinning vinyl is located in app/images/loading.svg. You should be able to replace it by anything that will give a cool effect while spinning. In this case, please submit it back.
  • The Deezer logo appearing both in the administration interface and in the default dashboard is located in app/images/stamp.svg. Put your favorite logo instead.

Database

Dashkiosk stores its data inside some database. By default, it uses SQLite. If you prefer to use another database, this is quite easy. We will use PostgreSQL but this should be easy to transpose to another database supported by Sequelize.js, the ORM used in Dashkiosk. The databases currently supported are:

  • MySQL,
  • MariaDB,
  • SQLite, and
  • PostgreSQL.

Here are the steps:

  1. Create a dedicated user inside your RDBMS. For PostgreSQL, this is done as the postgres user with the following command:

    $ createuser -P dashkiosk
Enter password for new role:
Enter it again:
Shall the new role be a superuser? (y/n) n
Shall the new role be allowed to create databases? (y/n) n
Shall the new role be allowed to create more new roles? (y/n) n

  2. Create an empty database. For PostgreSQL, this is also done as the postgres user:

    $ createuser -O dashkiosk dashkiosk

The database will be populated automatically when running Dashkiosk for the first time.