Hey everyone, I work at a Clerk of Court office and I'm working on a project to help visitors easily find their way when they enter the courthouse. Currently, there's just a messy printed docket posted on a wall that's hard to read, with small print full of legal jargon that most people don't understand.
We're planning to set up a TV in the lobby to display a cleaner version of the docket with just the essentials: defendant name, time, courtroom, and judge—nothing too detailed like charges or case numbers.
Here's what I have figured out so far: the DA's vendor will provide us a daily CSV file, which they name like 20250707.csv, containing all the public-facing details we need. This file will be stored on a shared drive that we can access over VPN, and we plan to pull it daily.
What I need help with is automating the process of grabbing the day's CSV file based on the current date and converting it into a simple, styled HTML page (including our logo and a purple header) to be displayed full-screen on a TV using a Windows PC in kiosk mode.
Ideally, I'd love for this to update automatically each day without needing human intervention. Has anyone tackled something like this before? Are there any tools or platforms for signage that you would recommend? Should I just whip up a Python or PowerShell script for it, or would it be better to pass it off to our website vendor to handle? I'm just trying to keep this project low-maintenance and visually appealing.
6 Answers
I suggest keeping it simple. A Raspberry Pi might be a great choice instead of using a full PC. You could use a tool like wget to download the CSV and then write a script to convert it into HTML format.
Don’t forget to check out Yodeck for an easy signage solution. They have some solid features!
If you're looking for hardware, maybe check out something like the Amazon Signage Stick. It's pretty compact and user-friendly! Just keep in mind that it may need to be wired to Ethernet for best performance.
You might be overcomplicating it. You can manipulate CSV data directly using JavaScript on your webpage. The browser can handle network calls to fetch the CSV, so you might just need to create a simple HTML page to display everything dynamically. This way, you don’t have to create new HTML files every day—just update the data in your static page.
Consider using Xibo—it's a free digital signage solution that runs in Docker, and the Windows client is also free. It can handle CSV files easily! You can check it out at their website.
If you want to avoid the hassle of building everything yourself, look into digital signage platforms like MVIX.
That does look good! I’ll make sure it’s on Ethernet if I go that route.