[winswitch] Xpra session cloning

[Antoine Martin]

On 01/03/2020 04:18, Mark Knittel via shifter-users wrote:
> Antoine: thanks for your response below. I'll answer the question in-line.
Your MUA (office365?) is making it really hard to see who said what in
this thread.

> Mark Knittel
> 360-441-2126
> 
> 
> On 15/02/2020 08:35, Mark Knittel via shifter-users wrote:
>> Greetings. I am trying to use Xpra on a (local) Apache server to access single desktop applications via browser links on a webpage.
>> I need to have multiple users use the same web page link to open a new
> version of the application, and then close the session when the window
> is closed by the user.
> Start your servers with: --exit-with-client=yes
> 
>> That means that I need to prevent one user from taking over the
> session from an existing user, and I need to make sure I don't end up
> with an excess of open/unused sessions that will consume RAM.
>> Is there a realistic way to accomplish this with either:
>>
>> -          Connection strings in the xpra start commands?
>>
>> -          A script that is launched when the URL is clicked?
> I don't think there are enough details to give you a clear answer.
> How are your users identified? Is this done by apache authentication?
> Do you have a straightforward mapping between apache users and unix users?
> etc..
> 
> **** Let me add a little more background. We're attempting to user XPRA on an Apache/Linux system that is being used to serve educational content to schools in remote villages in eastern Africa. The server preloaded with content and is entirely offline - no internet connection, and all users/students connect via wireless devices (notebooks, tablets, phones) using a browser interface. We do not require/need user login, as there is no built in tracking, etc. So we don't have an easy way to identify individual users. We now need to connect users to individual desktop applications, but would like to keep things as simple as possible by continueing to use a browser interface, avoiding an user side XPRA, VNC, etc. client. Hence the reason for XPRA and HTML access. We are testing with the proxy server as well. The challenge we're having is knowing how to format a generic URL/link that will:
> 
> -   Start a server to access a specific application when clicked from a browser, and then
You could just tweak the standard "connect.html" page and remove all the
options you don't need, then instead of a free text input field for the
"start command" you could replace it with a drop down menu with your
custom list of applications.

If you don't care about authentication, you could run all your sessions
as a single unprivileged user.
Just start the proxy and let each new connection start a new instance as
needed.
> 
> -   Stop the server when the user closes the application tab in the browser.
That's the exit-with-client option.
You probably want exit-with-children too.

> Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
Sorry for the slow reply.

Cheers,
Antoine

> 
> Mark K