Locking iTunes Open

M

MikeMTL

Registered
Alright. Well here's the deal. We are using our old G4 Cube in the bookstore at church so people can hear some of the songs from CD's so they can sample them before they buy them. The G4 runs OS X 10.2 and iTunes 3.0. Now, the problem is, we want to lock iTunes open so people don't quit it and get into the system and such. Is there a way to do this and then be able to unlock it with a password? I've tried writing a script so if iTunes is not the frontmost application, then it prompts for a password but if someone just quits iTunes, the script ends and the entire system is free. If anyone can help that'd be great. Thanks in advance.

-Mike
 
Set up a limited access account that only has access to itunes, and also, try using a third party app to hide the quit item in the menu, and remap the Quit command to something other than Command Q.
 
i have had bit of a think about this and this is what i would do.
This would be really easy under panther:
Create a new user on the machine with no limitations on the apps they can use.
Bingo problem solved, not sure if this is a feature on 10.2 but you should check
This is just what i would do, dont blame me if it stuffs your cube up!

create a new user who is not an administrator
Make a copy of itunes and put it in the shared folder, edit the folder access permissions for the Applications directory to no access for any one not an administrator - this means they cant open anything in the applications folder including system prefs
make a applescript that says some thing like
tell application "Finder"
quit
end tell
set this script as a start up item along with itunes
hide the dock

now you only real problem is people relaunching the finder...


im going to have a play with panthers users limitations feature and see what can be done - just for interests sake. It good to know what your computer can do!
 
Wow, thanks you guys very much. Few questions though. 1) How do I remap the quit command in iTunes and what programme would I use to hide the quit command? 2) What is the console command for killing the dock? Thanks again guys.

-Mike
 
To answer your second question, open Terminal and type top + return. Look for the process ID (PID) of the Dock. Then type Ctrl-C. Now enter sudo kill # and replace # with the PID of the Dock. Enter your password and voila.
 
Panther will allow you to remap the command, but not hide the item completely. Cocktail (i think) allows you to turn ON the finder Quit menu item. I'll see if i can find the option in the finder .plist file, then adding it with the opposite value into the itunes plist.
 
Alright well I've decided just to make iTunes the only useable application. All someone can really do is look around. But one thing that I wanted to do was see if I could share the iTunes music library between the admin and the other user so both have the same songs with out having to have duplicates in each one's home folder. Is there a way to do this?

-Mike
 
Yeah, put the music files where you want them and then select that folder as your library when you're running each user.
 
Can youu just unplug the mouse and keyboard once you've got iTunes running? I've never tried this myself but don't see why it wouldn't work. When you want to change albums or whatever just plug the keyboard and mouse back in.
 
or:
1) kill the dock (and the menu if it can be done)
2) place an alias of iTunes in the center of the desktop (if they by accident close the window).
3) unplug the keyboard and just have the mouse.
 
dagaz said:
Can youu just unplug the mouse and keyboard once you've got iTunes running? I've never tried this myself but don't see why it wouldn't work. When you want to change albums or whatever just plug the keyboard and mouse back in.
Click to expand...
Because the idea is to let people listen to the songs on CD's they might want to buy, meaning giving them choice, rather than simply playing background music.
 
Arden said:
Because the idea is to let people listen to the songs on CD's they might want to buy, meaning giving them choice, rather than simply playing background music.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That is exactly what it is for. Now, I don't understand how you pick a library folder for each user. How? And I've pretty much made the computer worthless unless you are just listening to music or have the Admin password. And is there a way to script the kill of the dock and/or menu bar. The people there aren't really Mac intelligent but they still hate Windows. Ahhh...the irony. Anyway, how would I change the permissions so that the user (not admin) has no access to anything except iTunes. I put "No Access" before and when I tried to log in, it just sat there with the spinning beach ball thing and I eventually had to reinstall the part of the system. So if anyone can help, thanks in advance.

-Mike
 
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