Troubleshooting Java issues for Sentral Kiosk - For IT Admins

Recently Google made the business decision stop allowing NPAPI plugins for its Chrome browser. This is because the plugins were causing security risks on websites and the system (NPAPI) was considered "old". NPAPI is the acronym for Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface. As a result of this, plugins that used NPAPI (like Silverlight, Java and Unity) were no longer going to work, unless you used a different browser.

See https://java.com/en/download/faq/chrome.xml  for further information. An except is below:


You can find out what version of Java you are on, by clicking the following URL:
www.java.com/verify

However, if you are running Google Chrome, you will most likely you will get the following message on your screen.  


More recently, Mozilla has decided that is is going to follow in Google's footsteps, and also disable NPAPI plugins in Firefox. This is scheduled to take place at the end of 2016.

Sentral Education is aware of this and has has been working toward moving away from Java printing by creating our own printing application.

It will operate outside the browser and is basically an automated print sharing service.

As of June 2016, we are very close to commencing the testing phase and aim to have this application ready before the end of the year.

In the meantime, until the end of 2016, you can use FireFox as your browser, which still allows Java to function accordingly, especially for printing slips. When in Firefox and entering Kiosk (black screen) a two pop-ups open. The first one is called Java Console and its purpose is to activate the SlipPrinter.  


The second is for SlipPrinter and requires you to click the Run button.  


Sentral also suggests you check the "Do not show this again..." to stop this popping up every time the kiosk loads.