Request for additional iOS App that acts as an enhanced browser for wall-mounted iPads

Development
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Hi!
I would like to ask for comments and opinions regarding an additional iOS app that could be hosted by the OpenHAB foundation.

This app shall just be a simple fullscreen browser (using WKWebView) which shall be enhanced with native iOS functionality (similar to FullyKioskBrowser on Android).

These enhancements could/should be:

  1. Dim screen brightness after timeout (mandatory)
  2. motion detection using the front-camera
  3. Control the browser via MQTT/HTTP and/or provide webhooks for certain events

Now that we have OH3 Main UI in place which is to be used in the browser, such an enhanced browser could provide a much better user experience on wall-mounted iPads. HABpanel would benefit from this as well.

Of course it would be possible to just use the normal Safari browser (in guided access mode) and then just let the iPad go to sleep. However, the wake-up times are not really acceptable until you have a working web-page again. That’s why quite a few people just use special Kiosk apps (like KIOSK+ iOS app) which offers screen dimming to lower the screen brightness to the lowest possible setting allowed by iOS.

There is already a prototype version of such an app available here:

It goes a step further and besides dimming the screen brightness it also puts a black full-screen page on top of the webview so that the screen seems to be switch off.

I have already compiled the app and have been using it for quite a long time now.
It seems that the app needs some more polishing with respect to user onboarding, etc. to get it through the approval process.

Do you think that the openhab foundation could manage this?

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If by that you really mean to ask “is anyone willing to build that for me?” then I wouldn’t think so.
The effort-to-usefulness ratio is very low and we have more than enough interfaces already as well as open things to work on.
Of course I don’t want to discourage anybody and I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.
Then again this is Open Source, anyone’s free to do what they feel is worth it.
So why don’t you join development yourself ?

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Understood.

I have already started to work with that prototype project and started to implement some of the ideas.
However, I do not want to become a “vendor” in the Apple store.
So I thought it might be a good idea if such an open-source app could be hosted by an organisation like the openHAB Foundation e.V. so that the app probably has a much longer life in the future.

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