Launching Display Screens

Overview

One of the most useful ways of making use of the data that PTS collects is to output the progress of ongoing prescriptions to external display screens, also known as status screens. The types of display available are Outpatient, Dispensary and Delivery.

Setting up the appropriate user views is outside the scope of this guide but the user views are set up almost exactly like a normal home page user view, however the Type of View setting should simply be set to Outpatient Display, Dispensary Display, or Delivery Display instead of Standard View. Make sure the user view is the default, or ideally the only user view for the user account in question. It is strongly recommended that you set up dedicated user accounts specifically for this purpose as the username and password will need to be shared around and will be stored on the PC as plaintext. You should create a user account for each screen you want to set up. Consider locking down the user permissions so the accounts can do very little else.

Setting up a desktop shortcut

Next you will set up a desktop shortcut icon that directs to the newly created view.

The shortcut will be constructed like this:

"Path to web browser application" --kiosk --window-position=HorizontalOffset,VerticalOffset "PTS URL with login parameters"

Path to web browser application

e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe"

The physical path to the chosen web application executable. In the example Microsoft Edge is selected, but Chrome is also supported. Safari is untested but is likely to work. Internet Explorer probably won't.

If the PC hosting the screen will also be used as a normal PTS terminal it's a good idea to use two different web browser applications for this so the two sessions don't conflict with each other.

Kiosk and Window Position arguments

e.g. --kiosk --window-position=1921,0

Including --kiosk instructs the application to load the web page in full screen.

--window-position is the pixel offset from the top left corner of the primary display where the status screen will appear. The default is 0,0. For our purposes this can be used to open the page on a secondary monitor; this is done by specifying the horizontal offset to be one pixel greater than the horizontal resolution of the primary monitor. For example if the primary monitor is a 1920x1080 display, specify --window-position=1921,0 to open the page on the secondary monitor.

If you have a more elaborate monitor arrangement you should still be able to get the status screen to appear where you want it to by experimenting with both of the window-position values.

Either set the value to 0,0 or omit the parameter entirely to have the screen open on the main display.

PTS URL with autologin parameters

e.g. "http://YourPTSServer/PTSWeb/?User=OUTDISP&Password=pharmacy&IgnoreWindowsUsername=True"

Here you specify the URL to your PTS installation along with a username and password passed through as a query string along with a command to ignore the Windows username.

1. YourPTSServer
   The name of your PTS server. This is the same server name that you use to access PTS on all the PCs in the pharmacy.
2. PTSWeb
   The name given to your PTS application during initial installation. This is normally PTSWeb, but again it will be what all the pharmacy PCs are pointed to.
3. User
   The username of the display screen user.
4. Password
   The corresponding password.
5. IgnoreWindowsUsername
   Set this to True. This instructs PTS not to attempt to login based on the Windows user account, like it might do normally.

When first setting this up you may want to test your URL in a normal web browser session to make sure it loads the correct view, before worrying about everything else.

Completed shortcut example

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --kiosk --window-position=1921,0 "http://YourPTSServer/PTSWeb/?User=OUTDISP&Password=pharmacy&IgnoreWindowsUsername=True"

Now that you have constructed the path for your shortcut, simply right-click on the desktop, go to New > Shortcut and enter the path into the Location field and then give the shortcut a name and save it. The name of the shortcut isn't particularly important. Double click the file to verify that it opens up in the way you want it too.

From now on you can now either use this shortcut to manually open the status screen, or continue on to the next section for how to get it to load automatically.

If kiosk mode prevents you from closing the page back down, either Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Alt+Del to move away from it.

Getting Windows to load the shortcut automatically

Now that the shortcut is created you may want to configure Windows to load the shortcut automatically when the PC is turned on or logged in. This part of the process may require admin access to the PC. If IT need to get involved, explain the task first as they may have their own methods for getting things to load automatically.

That notwithstanding, the simplest normal way to get a file to boot automatically is to add it to the all users Startup folder in Windows. This directory is normally hidden but you can find it by running this command in an Explorer window:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

Simply drag and drop the shortcut file into the directory, then reboot the PC. Now when you or someone else logs in to Windows, the status screen should load on the correct monitor automatically.

Using a Smart TV

Most smart TVs now come with a built in web browser. If you can connect the TV to your internal network (either wireless or wired) then you can set the web browser's home page to the appropriate URL (see "PTS URL with autologin parameters" section above) and from then on simply load the web browser application on the TV to open the chosen display screen.

This can be a lot easier to manage than a PC, but unfortunately some IT departments do not allow such devices onto the network. Connecting the TV to a guest network will not work.

Unfortunately even some modern TVs utilise very old web browser technology that may not be capable of displaying all the display screen features correctly such as embedded videos and notifications. If you're not happy with the results you should use a PC or another way of utilising a modern web browser.