Command Line Options

Maavis is usually run from a shortcut icon, often on the desktop. This shortcut specifies the maavis program including the full path to its location on the disk and optionally options that effect how Maavis operates. In fact Maavis is an extension to the Mozilla Firefox web browser and so the shortcut actually runs Firefox and specifies a profile, or unique user configuration, called 'Maavis' that has the Maavis extension set to run on startup. The default shortcut created by the Maavis installer will look similar to the following (right click on it, select properties and look in the target box)

"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -noremote -P Maavis

This already includes 2 options, -noremote and -P Maavis, which must be left intact when adding additional command line options. For example to use the Maavis login feature

"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -noremote -P Maavis -login

Options that facilitators may find useful are

• -config display config settings
• -login display login pages
• -mediafolder <folder> the folder where media is located
• -nokiosk don't use kiosk mode
• -quickstart don't display the splash screen or play the start sound.

-config shows the Maavis configuration and a shortcut is provided for that by default when the Maavis installer is run.

-mediafolder specifies where the Maavis media folder is on the disk and so where the user data and configuration live. By default this is the the user 'Documents' folder on Vista and "My Documents" on Windows XP. The exact path follows this option after a space and will be in double quotes if it contains any spaces. This option may be useful if la size imit has been placed on the user's Document folder in networked systems.

"%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -noremote -P Maavis -mediafolder "C:\Maavis Media"

-login specifies the Maavis login system will be used as described below.

-nokiosk will not usually be used but runs Maavis in a window rather than full screen and also displays Firefox Menues and Toolbars. It is useful if any Firefox settings need to be configured such as proxy server.

-quickstart skips the splash screen (startup screen) and does not play the start sound. It is intended to speed up testing for developers.

Maavis user login options.

Maavis may be used in a number of computer and user configurations;

• computer with a single user or all users have their own log in;
• computer shared between users who do not login;

The computer may be networked or standalone but that does not effect this discussion.

When a users has their own login they also have their own Mavis media folder in Documents (unless the command line option is used to put it elsewhere). Thus when Maavis runs it will select that users configuration, which can be found in the Default folder in the Maavis media set.

If a computer is shared between several users who do not log in, as for example in care home environment, then the users may wish to identify their own configuration. To support this Maavis includes a simple 'log in' system which is enabled by using the -login command line option.. This consists of 2 screens; user selection and user authentication. The selection screen displays an item for each user know to Maavis and the authentication screen shows a number of items, one of which is the correct one that allows access to Maavis. Selection of an incorrect item caused the selection screen to be shown again. This is not designed to be secure but is simple to configure and operate.

The user items are generated automatically from each folder at the top of the Maavis media set. The name is the name of the folder and the image is any image file found in that folder named Thumbnail. The authentication items are the generated from the files in the users Password folder. The correct item for log in is identified by having the first character of the filename as a !

Managing groups of users

Sometimes it is useful to have different groups of users, each selectable by running an appropriate desktop item. This can be achieved by using the -login and -mediafolder command line options and creating a mediafolder for each group of users.

User Configuration options

A number of configuration file options are provided to control the user experience and can be specified for each user. These can be set by editing the userconfig file in the user's folder (e.g Default\userconfig). The format of the file is rather critical and it is best to just change the option at the end of each line. leaving the surrounding quotes. e.g for the line "userType" = "Touch", just change the word Touch.

The options are (default values are show):

"userType":"touch" user type

• touch
• scan

"theme":"<colour>" theme to use

• colour
• bandw

"speakTitles":"yes" speak the screen title when screen is shown

• yes
• no

"speakLabels":"yes" speak item labels as they are selected

• yes
• no

"showLabels":"yes" show item lables

• yes
• no

"showImages":"yes" show item images

• yes
• no

"useSkype":"no" enable skype intgration

• yes
• no

"scanRate":"2500" speed of scan step in milliseconds (1 Sec = 1000)

"scanMode":"AUTO1SWITCH", scanning mode for switch users

• AUTO1SWITCH - Scan progresses at rate set in user settings, press to start, press to stop
• AUTO1SWITCHAUTOSTART - as AUTO1SWITCH but scan starts immediately
• AUTO2SWITCH - switch 1 to start, switch 2 to select
• USER1SWITCH - scan progresses at rate set in user settings, whilst switch is pressed down
• USER2SWITCH - switch 1 to move whilst pressed, switch 2 to select

"selectionsSetSize":"3x3" columns and rows in selection items 'grid'

"passwordItems": "images" show password labels only, images only or complete (both)

• images
• labels
• complete

"passwordSetSize":"4x3" columns and rows in selection items 'grid'

Switch user support

Maavis provides various scanning options and supports USB connected switches which appear as games controllers to Windows (e.g joycable). The scanning options are

• AUTO1SWITCH
• AUTO1SWITCHAUTOSTART - as AUTO1SWITCH but starts scanning auomatically
• AUTO2SWITCH
• USER1SWITCH
• USER2SWITCH

The speed may be set by a user configuration option.

How to alter or create screens

Mavis uses familiar web technology to define the screens.

Screen files

Each Mavis screen is defined by 3 files. For example, the home screen uses

• home.xul - XUL (html like) declaration of page layout and content
• home.js - Javascript defines advanced behaviour
• maavis.css - CSS defines appearance (global for all screens)

The screen files can be found in C:\Program Files\Maavis\extension\chrome\content\maavis and maavis.css in C:\Program Files\Maavis\extension\chrome\skin. We will move these to a better location outside the core code in the next version.

[TODO add detail of the files]

Elements

• touchpad rows='n' cols='n'
• touchkey row='n' col='n' rows='n' cols='n' label='text to show' image='image to show' action='what to do'
• chatterkey row='n' col='n' rows='n' cols='n' label 'text to show' spokenLabel='text to say if not label' speakOnLoad='true|false'
• togglekey row='n' col='n' rows='n' cols='n' label='' image='' labelB='text for state 2' imageB='image for state2' autoToggle='true|false'
• mediaplayer row='n' col='n' rows='n' cols='n' (has id="player")

Grid size is defined by touchpad rows & cols and scaled to screen size. other elements are contained in the touchpad and are positioned at row & col and size rows & cols.

[TODO improve this - see Maavis files for now]

Button actions

Each button may have an 'action' attribute which defines what it does when 'clicked'.

action="action|[argument1][, argument2....]"

for example

action="showpage|home.xul" action="progExec|notepad.exe" action="voipCall|joebloggs"

The following actions are available

• goHome

• showPage

• mediaPause

• mediaRestart
• mediaToggleMute
• mediaSetVolume
• mediaLouder
• mediaQuieter
• mediaPrev

• mediaNext

• masterVolumeLouder

• masterVolumeQuieter

• browseTo

• browseBack
• browseForward
• browseReload
• browseZoomIn
• browseZoomOut
• browseScrollUp
• browseScrollDown
• browseScrollLeft

• browseScrollRight

• voipCall

• voipAnswerCall

• voipEndCall

• progExec

• progKill

• configToggleColour

• configToggleSpeech

[TODO: add arguments - for now see the Maavis files]