Autologin to dashboard - video wall

jwoodok
Here to help

Autologin to dashboard - video wall

I saw another post related to this but it was several months old, so I didn't want to tack onto it since things may have changed. 

 

We are on our first location using Meraki cameras.  With our Cisco cameras we used the SASD wall launcher for pulling up streams that are on a monitor by the backdoor at locations.  Our understanding was that there was a way to do this with the dashboard, but I'm not quite understanding how it would be done.  I have a pc available to run the stream, but the end goal to me would be if the PC reboots, it autologs into WIndows (easy enough), launches the browser of choice, and autologs into the dashboard with the appropriate video wall launched.  Is this possible?

13 Replies 13
MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

There have not been any changes since the previous thread you saw. This is still not possible through a native solution. You could potentially have something like Chrome launch on login and have the homepage set to a specific video wall, but there is a also a global Dashboard forced logout setting which may eventually kick this out. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
jwoodok
Here to help

 


@MRCUR wrote:

There have not been any changes since the previous thread you saw. This is still not possible through a native solution. You could potentially have something like Chrome launch on login and have the homepage set to a specific video wall, but there is a also a global Dashboard forced logout setting which may eventually kick this out. 

 

 


If you had an extension or plugin that reloaded the page on a schedule, would that logout be avoided?

jdsilva
Kind of a big deal

Just a thought, not sure how practical it is, but if you were able to leverage SAML then you can pseudo-auto-login to the dashboard. We have SAML and for me to log in all I have to do is point my browser at our SAML login URL and I'm redirected to the Dashboard, all logged in. No entering credentials required. It'd be easy enough to have your machine open the SAML URL first, and then switch pages to the camera wall (using the deep link).

jwoodok
Here to help


@jdsilva wrote:

Just a thought, not sure how practical it is, but if you were able to leverage SAML then you can pseudo-auto-login to the dashboard. We have SAML and for me to log in all I have to do is point my browser at our SAML login URL and I'm redirected to the Dashboard, all logged in. No entering credentials required. It'd be easy enough to have your machine open the SAML URL first, and then switch pages to the camera wall (using the deep link).


Well I'm seeing another issue in that even if I auto logged in, in order for this to work how I want, it would need to log into a video wall at full screen, which doesn't seem possible.

 

jdsilva
Kind of a big deal

Run Chrome in Kiosk Mode.

 

http://www.coolheadtech.com/blog/chrome-kiosk-mode-introduction

 

 **Edit** Oh wait... That's not going to help. You'll need to hit the full screen button in the Dashboard. Sorry, I'm not thinking right.  You could use a web driver to do that though... Something like Selenium

 

https://www.seleniumhq.org/projects/webdriver/

 

 

 

jwoodok
Here to help


@jdsilva wrote:

Run Chrome in Kiosk Mode.

 

http://www.coolheadtech.com/blog/chrome-kiosk-mode-introduction

 

 **Edit** Oh wait... That's not going to help. You'll need to hit the full screen button in the Dashboard. Sorry, I'm not thinking right.  You could use a web driver to do that though... Something like Selenium

 

https://www.seleniumhq.org/projects/webdriver/

 

 

 


Ug I don't understand why there isn't the ability to log a user straight into a specified video wall at full screen.  I guess that my issue is in relation to what we would be referred to as the permanent video monitor (PVM) - We have these near most of our back doors as there is no line of sight at most of them and people want to check the surroundings before they go outside at night.

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@jwoodok I agree there needs to be a better PVM solution. I know @GeorgeB has mentioned they are looking at better solutions. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
jwoodok
Here to help


@MRCUR wrote:

@jwoodok I agree there needs to be a better PVM solution. I know @GeorgeB has mentioned they are looking at better solutions. 


We were told before purchase that there was a PVM solution, now we've installed cameras and found out there isn't ...

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

It's not a good solution - but one thing I have done in the past is using a key/mouse recorder, and then to play that script back.

 

Just record everything you need to do to start it up, and then play it play it back on every boot.

jwoodok
Here to help


@PhilipDAth wrote:

It's not a good solution - but one thing I have done in the past is using a key/mouse recorder, and then to play that script back.

 

Just record everything you need to do to start it up, and then play it play it back on every boot.


So this wouldn't be a solution in a multi camera situation, but in one location, we need only one camera on the monitor.  It appears that if you inspect the page, you can get the direct stream, which you can open with VLC - problem solved....unless the stream location gets changed.  Would be awesome if there were a way to get a direct link to a wall and not just a single stream.

 

Adam
Kind of a big deal

I suspect you may have to use a browser plugin or intermediary page to auto POST the login data to get it to login.  Otherwise, it'll timeout and need to be relogged in after reboot. 

Adam R MS | CISSP, CISM, VCP, MCITP, CCNP, ITILv3, CMNO
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Spamhater007
Conversationalist

I have the same issue:

1) Want to be able to autologin

2) Start directly on Fullscreen Video wall

 

Also, user is restricted to only a few cameras, doesn't make any sense to display all cameras on system with "insufficient privileges"

 

Thanks, Tony

jwoodok
Here to help

What I ended up doing was just using an auto-launching instance of VLC and grabbing the direct link of the camera.  That works pretty well, but it's aggravating that there isn't a way to do this using the dashboard or some application provided by Cisco.

 

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