Kiosk mode with Barcode and RFID support
Offered by
Kevin Papst
Kimai maintainer since 2007
Try it
You can test this plugin at https://demo-plugins.kimai.org:
Username: susan_super
Password: kitten
A Kimai plugin, which allows using barcodes for punch-in and punch-out time tracking with Kimai.
You can use it with an attached barcode scanner, or you run Kimai on a device (eg. tablet) with a built-in camera.
It also supports a “freestyle” mode, which allows to enter any free configurable code (up to 120 characters), so you can also use other devices for starting/stopping:
- an electronic USB numpad (like door-locks)
- an RFID scanner that acts as keyboard
If you want to use Kimai in a kiosk mode, where your users should only register their attendance time through
punch-in and punch-out mode when entering/leaving the building, then this bundle is the solution for you.
It could be as simple as:
- Print the barcodes on your employee cards
- Mount a tablet to the wall in your entrance room
- Let your users check-in & check-out when entering the building by scanning the barcode of their employee card
You can test it in the “Plugins” demo.
Features
- Start/Stop work with barcode scanner (eg. via USB), RFIS scanner (via USB) or a device camera (to scan barcode)
- Upon starting/stopping a record via this plugin, the user will see a short overview screen with the entries of the current week (including some statistics)
- New user profile screen for the “codes”
- Display all codes for user
- Generate a random code (automatically done if none is existing yet for the active code-type)
- Re-use existing code for user by entering (or scanning) it manually
- User specific settings to configured allowed start and end working time (user can only clock in between these times)
- Supports the following 1D barcodes:
Code 128Code 39-
UPC-A(scanner needs to transmit check digit) Code 2 of 5Code 2 of 5 interleaved-
Codabar(scanner needs to transmit start & stop digits)
- Optional: show active / inactive users in login screen
- Many CSS classes to customize the look with Custom CSS Bundle
You need to configure a non-global activity for starting the record via this plugin. This will be used for every recorded timesheet that is created using the kiosk mode.
Hardware
This is NOT a hardware recommendation, but more an idea for possible use-cases.
I tried the linked products and even though all scanner are rather cheap, they work without problems.
- Raspberry PI setup with touch screen (eg. for wall mount)
- RFID scanner by Neuftech (desktop version)
- RFID scanner by KKMoon (desktop version)
- Barcode scanner which can also scan codes from mobile phones (desktop version)
- Barcode scanner classic hand-held version
The above are affiliate links for Amazon (germany) where I bought them myself.
Configuration
You have to configure the bundle before you can use it - you reach the configuration via
- the
Pluginscreen (Preferencesin action dropdown behind the plugin) - the Kiosk administration (cogs icon in the upper right)
- the System configuration (
Kiosk & Barcodesection)
The following configurations are available:
| Configuration | Description |
|---|---|
Login mode |
whether to use camera or usb mode |
Code format |
you have to decide which code format you want to use |
Barcode includes readable code |
whether the barcode in the user profile will include the human readable code |
Duration to display confirmation dialog (in seconds) |
how long the start/stop screens will be shown after a successful scan |
Activity |
the non-global activity that will be used to track the times |
Permissions
This bundle introduces new permissions, which limit access to certain functions:
| Permission Name | Description |
|---|---|
barcode_own_profile |
allows to see and administrate barcode for the own user profile |
barcode_other_profile |
allows to see and administrate barcode for all user profiles |
kiosk_own_profile |
allows to configure user specific kiosk settings (eg. start and end time) for the own user profile |
kiosk_other_profile |
allows to configure user specific kiosk settings (eg. start and end time) for all user profiles |
By default, these are granted to each user with the role ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN.
Purchase
- Read more about the license for this item here.
- You can buy the plugin from the developer with a regular EU-invoice and bank-transfer or via Gumroad .
- In case you use Gumroad (a platform for selling digital goods), please create an account during your purchase to receive future software updates.
- There is a Github repository existing for support-questions, bug-reports and feature-requests.
Screenshots
User listing
Displays the list of all users with their configured login-code types (fullscreen)
Configuration
Configure your Kiosk plugin to your needs, login mode and code format depend on each other (fullscreen)
User codes
This new barcode can now be printed and handed out to the user (fullscreen)
USB scanner
The 'Barcode with USB scanner' login mode show a screen like this, the input field is pre-selected and the scanner will submit it after finding a code (fullscreen)
Login screen
The login screen with the optional user-list being activated (fullscreen)
Webcam scanner
The 'Barcode with device cam' login mode will show the camera video and scan constantly for barcodes (fullscreen)
Login
Scanning an existing code for a user starts a new timesheet (fullscreen)
Logout Screen
Or when a timesheet is already running it will be stopped (fullscreen)
Compatibility
The following table contains a comparison between plugin and required minimum Kimai version.
| Bundle version | Minimum Kimai version |
|---|---|
| 1.8 - 1.9 | 1.15 |
| 1.7 | 1.14 |
| 1.5 - 1.6 | 1.11 |
| 1.4 | 1.10 |
| 1.0 - 1.3 | 1.8 |
Installation
Copy files
Extract the ZIP file and upload the included directory and all files to your Kimai installation to the new directory:
var/plugins/KioskBundle/The file structure needs to look like this afterwards:
var/plugins/
├── KioskBundle
│ ├── KioskBundle.php
| └ ... more files and directories follow here ...Clear cache
After uploading the files, Kimai needs to know about the new plugin. It will be found once the cache was re-built. Call these commands from the Kimai directory:
How to reload Kimai cache
bin/console kimai:reload --env=prodIt is not advised, but in case the above command fails you could try:
rm -r var/cache/prod/*You might have to set file permissions afterwards:
Adjust file permission
You have to allow PHP (your webserver process) to write to
var/ and it subdirectories.
Here is an example for Debian/Ubuntu (to be executed inside the Kimai directory):
chown -R :www-data .
chmod -R g+r .
chmod -R g+rw var/
Test Kimai before executing these commands (they are likely not required in a shared-hosting environment).
You probably need to prefix them with sudo and
the group might be called different than www-data.
Create database
Run the following command:
bin/console kimai:bundle:kiosk:installThis will create the required database tables and update them to the latest version.
There are no commands defined in the "kimai:bundle:XYZ" namespace.,
then either the directory has a wrong name (must be var/plugins/KioskBundle/) or you forgot to clear the cache (look above).
Install assets
The following command will install the required assets (images, javascripts, styles):
bin/console assets:installUpdates
Updating the plugin works exactly like the installation:
- Delete the directory
var/plugins/KioskBundle/ -
Execute all installation steps again:
- Copy files
- Clear cache
- Update database with
bin/console kimai:bundle:kiosk:install - Update assets with
bin/console assets:install