Developer’s Guide

2-4 Developer’s Guide
To decide how users will navigate your Kiosk database solution, start
by planning your navigation design on paper. Decide what will
happen when each button is clicked, and give users a way to get back
to the beginning of your system from each layout. To further control
what users see, create startup scripts that display a specific layout
when a file is opened.
1 If your Kiosk solution will be run with a touch screen, use large
buttons and allow space between buttons.
1 Try to limit the number of options available on one screen.
1 Because Preview mode disables buttons, make sure that any script
step to enter Preview mode is followed by a Pause/Resume script
step and specify an amount of time the script should remain in
Preview mode; then make the script return to Browse mode.
Note When a Kiosk database solution is open, access to the
operating system is limited. On Windows machines, you can press
Alt+Tab to go to another application from your Kiosk database
solution; on Mac OS machines, you can press 3+Tab.
Closing a Kiosk mode solution
If there is no Quit or Exit button available in your Kiosk solution, users
must force-quit the application by pressing Alt+F4 (Windows) or by
pressing Option + 3 + Esc (Mac OS). Force quitting is not
recommended because it can cause data corruption or damage open files.
To ensure that users can always access the primary file and quit the
application, you can:
1 provide a startup script in each auxiliary file that opens the primary file
1 place a “Main Menu” button in each auxiliary file that returns to
the primary file
1 include a Quit button in the primary file
See “Emulating menu commands and window controls” on page 2-6
for information about creating buttons and scripts that emulate
missing menu options and window controls.
Example Kiosk solution
FileMaker Developer 5.5 provides a Kiosk Solution Example on the
FileMaker Developer 5.5 CD:
\Developer Extras\FileMaker, Inc\Examples\Kiosk Solution\
The Kiosk example solution has a blank, limited password assigned. The
master password is kiosk. To run the example solution in Kiosk mode,
leave the password blank. To open the example database in
FileMaker Pro with full menu bar access, type kiosk in the password box.
The World Class Burger Company’s
database solution in Kiosk mode