Billboard Screensaver Setup

Billboard is run primarily on Apple computers running the webXsaver screen saver. Below are instructions on how to get the screen saver running properly and getting the screen saver to run over the OSX login screen, so that you do not need to be logged in for the screen saver to start.

First, download the webXsaver binary and install it onto the Mac. Once you have installed the screen saver, set it as the active screensaver (System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver > Screen Saver tab -- and then select webXsaver on the list on the left). You may want to turn on Hot Corners so that

Now that webXsaver is installed, we need to edit the URL that the bulletin board looks at. In order to do that, open up a terminal and navigate to the folder

/Library/Screen Savers/webXsaver.saver/Contents/Resources/

and open the "webloc.plist" file using the command:

pico -w webloc.plist

From there, the file should contain text like this ('Note:' the URL in the <string></string> parameters may be different)

<dict>
	<key>webLocation</key>
	<string>http://originalurl</string>
</dict>

And replace the value of <string> with http://www.wolftech.ncsu.edu/billboard/ -- so that the full file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>webLocation</key>
	<string>http://www.wolftech.ncsu.edu/billboard/</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Getting The Screen Saver To Work Over The Login Window

The hardest part of setting up webXsaver is setting it up so that it will load up when the computer is idle at the login screen. Note: Most of the code below is slightly modified from its original source at http://prowiki.isc-csg.upenn.edu:16080/index.php/Using_a_ScreenSaver_over_the_LoginWindow