[OPLINTECH] Utility for session logoffs

[Nathan Eady]

Jim Lack <J.Lack at rrpl.org> writes:

> is there a free utility out there that would limit a patron's session
> to a set time that anyone uses or knows about?  I would assume the
> countdown clock would start with a keyboard stroke or mouse movement.

We use a custom solution based on xscreensaver, with minor modifications
(e.g., so they can use their library card number to "log in", and it
gets logged), and a handful of Perl scripts (for things like killing off
and restarting the browser and relocking the screen when a user's
session ends).  We only have one such station, so all the records are
just kept in flat logfiles at present.  If we had enough demand to
warrant a second one, I'd probably whip up a way for them to talk to
each other about who has already used up their time.

I'd be willing to share what I've done, but to make it work you'd need
to be comfortable compiling software from source on a Linux platform.

Compiling xscreensaver is intermediate in difficulty: not as complicated
as something like OpenSRF or Mozilla Firefox, but more involved than the
really easy ./configure ; make; make install stuff.  (Among other
things, the configure script for xscreensaver is not always able to
detect all missing dependencies, so you may get compile errors and have
to do a web search to figure out what dev package to install.)

-- 
Nathan Eady
Galion Public Library