Set up a station

Who can do this

Stations are Admin only. Creating a station, changing it, regenerating its link and disconnecting it all need Admin (or Super Admin). Nobody signs in at the station itself.

A station is a screen or a shared computer that shows one or more Apps with nobody signed in — a wall screen by a production line, or a PC on the shop floor that anyone on shift uses. It never logs out, it refreshes itself, and what it does is recorded as the station (for example “Line 3 station”), not as a person.

A station reaches nothing but the Apps you give it. It has no sidebar, no Ronja pages and no way to open another App.

Stations live on the Stations page, in the admin sidebar under People & Access.

Choose the right Apps

A station can do everything its Apps can do, for anyone standing in front of it. That covers showing the App’s data, saving what the App saves, running what the App runs, the member list if the App shows it, and the App’s chat panel. There is no separate “view only” setting: what the station can do is decided by which Apps you give it.

A station shows everything its Apps show and read, including data from tables that the people in the room could not open themselves. Put only Apps whose data is fine for the room.

• A wall screen should show an App built for looking at, one with no buttons that change anything.
• A shared computer can run an App built for entering data, such as a stop reason, a quality check or a scanned delivery. Anyone who uses the computer can do what that App allows.

The chat panel works on a station the way it does anywhere else. A conversation ends when the screen refreshes, and the Saved Agent cannot stop to ask for approval, just as in any App.

Who is at the station is the App’s question. Ronja records which station did something, not which person. If an App needs to know who is using it, ask Ronja to build that into the App, for example a name picker or a badge-number field. The answer is kept in the App’s own data. It does not sign anyone in to Ronja.

An App that shows the signed-in person’s details has to be asked to handle a station. A greeting with your name, a list of “my” items or a form filled in with your email needs a signed-in person, and on a station there is none: such an App shows an error on the screen instead. Ask Ronja “Make it work on a station” before you put it on one. You find out from the screen itself, so test the link first.

Only an App that is published and lives in a shared feature can go on a station. An App in a private feature, or one that is still a draft, can’t be chosen.

Create a station

1. Open Stations and click New station.
2. Under Name, type where the screen is, for example Line 3 station. The screen shows this name at the top.
3. Under Apps, pick one or more Apps. With more than one, the screen rotates through them in the order shown.
4. Optionally set Rotate every (in seconds, 60 by default) and Nightly reload (03:00 by default). The nightly reload uses your organization’s timezone, which an Admin sets on the Approvals page (see the reporting timezone). If none is set, it uses UTC.
5. Click Create station.

The Station link dialog opens with the station’s link. Click Copy link and put the link somewhere safe now: Ronja shows it only once. If you lose it, use Regenerate link to get a new one.

The link is a password

Anyone who has the link can use the station’s Apps, from any computer, until you regenerate the link or disconnect the station. That includes everything the Apps show and do, and the member list if an App shows it. Treat the link like a password. Keep it out of chats, tickets and shared documents, and put it only into the screen’s configuration.

Put the link on the screen

The link looks like https://…/station#…. Everything after the # stays in the browser and is never part of a web address the browser requests, which keeps the link out of network and proxy logs.

Test it first. Open the link in any browser, even your own. The station appears exactly as it will on the screen. Your own Ronja sign-in is not used and not affected.

For a Windows PC in Microsoft Edge kiosk mode (Assigned Access):

• Wall screen: use Digital/Interactive signage and set the idle reset to 0, so the screen never restarts by itself.
• Shared computer: use Public browsing, with an idle reset if you want the screen to clear after a while unused.
• Use the station link as the kiosk’s URL.
• Prefer the link as shown, with #. If the kiosk loses the part after # when it restarts and the screen shows “This screen isn’t set up.”, replace # with ?k= in the configured URL. The station accepts both, but with ?k= the link is part of the web address the browser requests, so it can appear in network and proxy logs on its way to Ronja. Use it only when # does not survive a restart.

On any other computer, open the link in a browser and leave it full screen. A bookmark works too.

What the screen shows

The top of the screen shows the station’s name, the current App’s name when there are several, and Data as of the time the App’s data was last rebuilt. An App with no Ronja tables shows Updated and the time it last loaded instead.

The screen keeps itself current. It reloads the App when the data behind it is rebuilt or the App is published again, when you change the station, and once a night at the Nightly reload time. It does not reload while someone is using it: a refresh or a rotation waits about two minutes after the last touch or keystroke. At least once an hour the screen has to reload even if someone is using it, and a half-typed entry is lost.

A full-width amber banner appears when something is wrong:

Banner	Meaning
Data not updating since time	A table the App reads has stopped rebuilding. The numbers on the screen are from before that time. Fix the table’s build; see Fix data issues.
Offline since time — showing data from time	The screen can’t reach Ronja. It keeps showing what it has and recovers by itself when the network comes back.
Not refreshing since time	The App failed to reload several times. The screen keeps showing the last version that loaded.

Other things the screen can say instead of showing an App:

• “This screen isn’t set up.” The browser opened the station page without a link. Put the station link on it again.
• “This screen’s link isn’t valid.” The link was mistyped, or it was replaced before this screen ever worked.
• “This station has been disconnected by an administrator.” The station was disconnected, or its link was regenerated and this screen still has the old one.
• “Nothing to show on this station yet.” The station has no Apps that can currently be shown, for example because its only App was archived. Add one under Edit apps.
• “This organization isn’t available right now.” The screen retries by itself.

When an App can’t be loaded on the screen at all, its place says why. While other Apps are showing, the screen skips it in the rotation.

• “This app isn’t ready yet.” The App has no finished version to show, for example because Ronja is still building it or its last change didn’t build. The screen tries again by itself; finish or fix the App and it appears.
• “This app isn’t available on this station.” The App was removed from the station, archived, deleted, or moved into a private feature. The screen drops it at its next check. Put it back under Edit apps, or restore it and move it back into a shared feature.
• “This app can’t be shown right now.” Loading it failed for another reason, such as a network problem, or the screen reloading so often that it has used up its loads for the hour. The screen keeps trying by itself, waiting up to a few minutes between tries. If it doesn’t recover within the hour, open the App in Ronja to check that it works.

Keep an eye on your stations

The Stations page lists every station with its Name, Apps, Status and Last seen. Last seen shows the time and the network address the screen last checked in from.

Status	Meaning
Online	The screen checked in within the last 2 minutes.
Stale	The last check-in was 2 to 10 minutes ago.
Offline	No check-in for more than 10 minutes, or never.
Disconnected	An Admin disconnected the station.

A screen checks in about once a minute. If a station shows Last seen from a network address you don’t recognise, someone else may have the link. Regenerate it.

Each row’s menu has Rename, Edit apps and Settings (Rotate every and Nightly reload). A running screen picks up changes within about a minute. When you remove an App from a station, the screen can no longer use it within 30 seconds.

Regenerate the link

Use Regenerate link when:

• you lost the link. Ronja keeps only a fingerprint of it, so nobody can look it up;
• you are moving the station to a new screen or computer;
• you think someone else has the link.

1. In the station’s menu, click Regenerate link.
2. Confirm with Regenerate link.
3. Copy the new link from the Station link dialog and put it on the screen.

The old link stops working at once, everywhere. Until it gets the new link, the screen shows “This station has been disconnected by an administrator.” The station keeps its name, its Apps and its history.

Disconnect a station

In the station’s menu, click Disconnect, then confirm with Disconnect. The link stops working at once, and within about a minute the screen removes the App and shows “This station has been disconnected by an administrator.”

Caution

Disconnecting is permanent. A disconnected station stays on the list for its history but can’t be reconnected; to use the screen again, create a new station. To move a station or replace its link, use Regenerate link instead.

Disconnecting can also be done from a script or the Ronja CLI, with an Admin’s token that has the Admin scope, so you can cut a station off quickly if something goes wrong. Creating a station and regenerating its link need a person signed in to Ronja; see Actions the API can’t take.

What a station can never do

• Open an App it wasn’t given, or a draft or earlier version of one it was.
• Show any Ronja page, the sidebar or the sign-in page.
• Follow a link into Ronja. On a station, an App’s links to pages in Ronja and its links to a file don’t work, because nobody at the screen is signed in. Files the App shows itself still display and download.

Who did what

Everything a station does through its Apps, such as saving a row, uploading a file or running a workflow, is recorded as that station and the App it used. It is never recorded as a person, and never as the Admin who created the station. Creating, changing, regenerating and disconnecting a station are recorded as the Admin who did it.

Where you can see it:

• An App’s Activity tab. What a station saved through the App shows the station, with a screen icon, where a person’s name would be. Admins see the station’s name, for example Line 3 station; anyone else sees A station.
• The Audit log. A workflow run one of the station’s Apps started, and a query or chart the Saved Agent ran in a chat on the station, show the station with a screen icon where the user would be, for example Line 3 station. A chat on a station adds no row of its own. See Activity log.
• A workflow run’s page. The TRIGGERED BY tile shows the station and the App the run came from, for example Line 3 station · via Line 3 dashboard. Admins see the station’s name; anyone else sees A station.

Limits

• 100 stations per organization that are not disconnected. Disconnect one to add another.
• 20 Apps per station.
• Rotate every can be between 10 seconds and 24 hours.

These and the station’s other limits are also on Limits and retention.

See the Roles capability matrix for who can manage stations.