Captive landing page

[coley]

While thinking about how best to automate, or at least minimise the number of steps, to install the orbiter on my N900 I thought about widening the net and setting up a captive landing page or portal or whatever they are called for new machines on a network where lmce has been installed. I know all the info will be there on the core.
The incoming browser can be detected and the user then directed to a page where they can install the software appropriate for their device, for example with the N900 if they accept it can redirect them to the .install file on the diapub site and the app manager opens and install the orbiter, for a WinCE device point them to the cab file etc.
Possibly if they have accepted the install of the orbiter the database can be updated to this end on the core.
I know this can easily be done from the web-admin and/or following the prompts on an orbiter or the hybrid core, but this assumes you are at the core or have an orbiter set up.

Is it a case of adding some php to the default page of the apache webserver to query the database and see if we have seen the device before? has it been configured? ignored etc? and acting on this?

I had a brief look this morning at some apps/services that provide this functionality but these mess with iptables or bind or separate databases and I don't know enough about the lmce wiring to go hacking at something else which will update info under the hood.
Actually thinking about that we would need to poke somewhat under the hood as we would want all http requests to route to our page - would need to know what lmce scripts would be upset by this.

I'm just floating this idea at the moment to see if its feasible or if there is something out there that others have heard of which I should look at, or if I'm missing something obvious!!

Opinions good or bad are welcome.

-Coley.

[bongowongo]

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9313.0

[wierdbeard65]

I think he is talking about a different thing!

The thread you refer to is about creating a homepage with widgets on it (like iGoogle or msn) whereas Coley is suggesting one that allows you to download orbiter software to new devices.

Of course, Coley's idea could end up being a gadget (/widget) on a combined page like the one discussed in that thread 

[bongowongo]

Oh sorry, I just saw landing page, and wanted to give him further reading.

[tschak909]

Just work on it, and ask us questions in IRC. If you need to make changes to the db, let us know, and we'll work with you there.

-Thom

[coley]

Yep, I am talking about a different thing, a captive landing page or splash page is often shown when you pick up free wifi via a hotspot in a cafe or hotel, they often ask a user to acknowledge a UAP and let them continue to browse or register etc. And combining that with device detection to get what I wanted or thought would be useful.
Have to be fast around here  new posts appearing as I type!

I can start having a look, I mainly wanted to see if others knew of traps or pitfalls messing with DNS I should be aware of. Or if there were similar ideas floating around.

thx
-Coley.