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Web browser

MultiTaction Canvus has a built-in web browser based on Chromium (CEF). Each browser is an item on the canvas. Its address and scroll position are saved with the canvas, so other people working on the canvas see the same page.

Add a browser

Open the finger menu and tap Internet. A browser opens the start page where you opened the menu. The default start page is https://www.google.com; an administrator can change it with start-page. See Browser settings.

To use the page (click links, scroll, type), pin the browser first. While it is unpinned, a drag moves the browser item. See Pinning content.

Address bar

The title bar holds the address bar and the back, forward and reload buttons. While a page loads, the reload button stops loading.

Type an address or search words in the address bar. Canvus treats your text as an address when:

  • it starts with http:// or https:// and has no spaces after that; or
  • it is a valid address whose host contains a dot, such as example.com; or
  • it starts with chrome: or about:.

Anything else is searched for with the search engine set by search-url. To search for text that looks like an address, put it in double quotes.

Tap more in the browser's sidebar to see these buttons:

Button What it does
Bookmarks Opens the bookmark list for this canvas
Mouse emulation Switches how touches reach the page, see below
Downloads Opens the Downloads folder, where files downloaded from web pages are saved
Email Sends the page address by email

Bookmarks

Bookmarks belong to the canvas, so everyone working on the canvas shares the same list.

  • Tap Add to bookmarks to save the current page.
  • Tap a bookmark to open it in this browser.
  • Use Edit and Delete on a bookmark to change or remove it.

Touch or mouse emulation

Some web apps work better when a touch is passed to them as a touch, others when the first touch acts as a mouse click or drag. Use the mouse emulation button to switch for this browser. The mouse-emulation setting sets the default for new browsers.

Popups

When a page opens a popup window in response to a tap or click, Canvus opens it as a new browser next to the original. Popups that a page tries to open by itself are blocked.

Settings > Workspace > General > Always allow web browser popups is meant to let pages open every popup, including ones they open by themselves, each as a new browser on the canvas. In Canvus 26.11, popups that a page opens by itself are still blocked when this setting is on.

Transparent mode

Tap the chessboard button in the browser's sidebar to turn transparent mode on or off. The browser frame's background is removed, so a web page made with a transparent background shows the canvas behind it. Pages with their own background look the same. Integrations can set the same option with the transparent_mode field of the REST API.

Stream a browser to other sites

Tap Start streaming in the browser's sidebar to send what this browser shows as live video to everyone who has the canvas open. Other clients show the video instead of loading the page themselves. While streaming, the page address and scroll position cannot be changed. Tap Stop streaming to end it. Streaming needs a shared canvas on Canvus Server; it is not available on local canvases.

Upload content to a web page

Drag an image, PDF, video or note onto a browser to drop it into the web page, for example into a web mail or file-sharing site. A note is dropped as its text. Administrators can limit which sites accept drops with upload-sites.

Sign-in and sessions

  • Sign-in prompts. From Canvus 26.09.9, when a site asks for a user name and password at the browser level (HTTP authentication), the prompt appears inside the browser on the canvas.
  • Single sign-on. Browsers support single sign-on flows that depend on third-party cookies. See Widget behavior notes.
  • Remembered sign-ins. Browsers share one browser session per Canvus Server and user account. When you are signed in to Canvus Server with your own account, sign-ins to web sites are kept when Canvus restarts. Guest users and local canvases do not keep session cookies.
  • No saved sessions. Set persistent-sessions=false to keep browser data only until Canvus restarts or the user signs out.

Canvus and MultiTaction Showcase keep separate browser caches, so both can run on the same computer. (From Canvus 26.07.0.)

Open local files

From Canvus 26.10.4, the browser can open files on the computer it runs on. This is off by default. To turn it on:

[browser]
; Allow file:// addresses in the web browser. When true, the address bar
; also turns a typed path such as C:\Docs\report.pdf, /home/user/report.pdf
; or \\server\share\report.pdf into a file:// address.
; DEFAULT: false
; allow-file-urls=false

When it is off, typed paths are searched for, and a file:// address that arrives from the canvas, for example from another site or the REST API, is not opened.

The address is saved on the canvas, and each computer opens the path on its own disk. For shared canvases, keep the files on a drive that has the same path on every computer.

Advanced browser engine settings

  • cef-disable-features turns off individual Chromium features. See Browser settings.
  • cef-extra-switches passes extra command-line switches to the browser engine. On Linux the default is --no-sandbox --no-zygote --disable-dev-shm-usage, a workaround for a browser engine crash on newer Linux kernels. With this default the Chromium sandbox is off on Linux. On Windows and macOS the default is empty and the sandbox stays on. (From Canvus 26.09.0.) An explicit value replaces the default on every platform.
[browser]
; Extra command-line switches for the embedded browser engine.
; DEFAULT on Linux: --no-sandbox --no-zygote --disable-dev-shm-usage
; DEFAULT on Windows and macOS: empty
; cef-extra-switches=