Device manager

The device manager website is relatively simple. It has only a few pages. The "view devices" page displays a list of all of the devices that have been added to this server's device database. The lists can be sorted alphabetically by clicking on the column name. Each device can be edited by clicking on its row. Devices can be added and removed. You can also access the optional Battery History site from this page.

Device manager page

The device manager shows all of the devices that are in the device database. It shows the device's MAC address, which plugin it is using, the battery level, when it last checked in, and other useful information. Devices may be sorted by clicking on the column header. Devices highlighted in blue are not in production. Devices in a black font are "in production". Production devices will show up as orange if they are not checking in on time, or if their batteries are below a threshold. Production devices may also be monitored by the various Nagios scripts included with the project.

Edit device page

The edit device page allows an administrator to configure the device as seen in the screen below. As options for the device are changed, an image of what will display on the device's screen is built on the right side of the screen.

Note that the 7" static image allows an administrator to upload any static .pbm file to the screen.

Adding a new device to the database

Adding new devices to the database can be done either manually through the device manager, or by temporarily enabling autoRegister.

Auto Registration

The easiest way to add a new device, especially large number of devices, is to turn on the "autoRegister" feature in the settings.cfg file. This option should be left "false" unless being actively used due to security concerns.

Use the device manager to manually "Add New Device"

Obtain the MAC address of the device as described below, then use the "Add New Device" link in the Device Manager. Edit the MAC address in this new record to match the new device that is being registered.

Obtain the MAC address of the new device in one of several ways:

• Place the device in Admin mode. The MAC address of the device will be in the name of the WiFi access point created by the device as viewed a phone or other WiFi client. --or--
• Boot the wall-ink device and have it check in to the desired server. The server will use the simple text plugin to display the MAC address on the screen. --or--
• Place the device in Admin mode. Connect to the access point, and access the Admin webpage. Use the "Copy MAC address" button to put the MAC address into the clipboard. (Thank you koos for this feature!)

Important Files

The files for the configuration website can be found at wall-ink-server/web/device_manager

view_devices.php

This is the homepage; it shows a list of devices

edit_device

This file displays an HTML form to the user to allow them to edit the database entry for the device

handle_edit_device

A handler for the HTML form generated by edit_device.php

handle_delete_device

A handler for the "Delete" button on edit_device.php

handle_upload

A handler for the "Upload" button on edit_device.php

.htaccess

Makes sure only those with proper credentials can access the site; needs to be edited to include accurate information about your organization