Live Text State

Owned by BrightSign TechDocs
Last updated: Sept 20, 2024
9 min read

 

 

 

A Live Text state consists of images and text fields overlaid on top of each other. Images can be layered with both static text and updatable RSS and MRSS content, and the positions and sizes of all items can be customized.

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Make sure the toggle switch for an Interactive presentation is on and drag-and-drop a Live Text state onto the canvas. Double-click the Live Text widget icon on the canvas to edit the state.

Layers

Live Text items are organized by items with each item belonging to its own layer. Each layer can be clicked-and-dragged up or down.

Each layer has a number associated with them (see screenshot). Higher numbered layers are displayed on top of lower numbered layer. For example, in the screenshot above, the “OS Version” is layer 2 and will be displayed on top of the “Fixed Text Example” text which is layer 1.

Background

This is a permanent layer that is always displayed behind all other Live Text items. To set the background, click anywhere on the canvas outside of an existing item. The Background layer will be highlighted. Next, click Layer Properties to set the background to either a color or an image.

Delete Item

Click the trashcan icon to delete an item from the Live Text canvas.

Add Item

Click the  icon to add a new item to the Live Text canvas.

  • Position: Check this box to set an initial position for new items in relation to the most recently created item. Input the offset distance for the next text item (in pixels) in the Left (X) and Top (Y) fields.

Duplicate

This enables a duplication of the currently selected item.

  • Offset: Checking the offset option will offset the duplicated item relative to the item selected.

Update Live Data

Refresh items that are populated from a remote URL (i.e. Live Text Data, RSS Feed, Media RSS Feed).

Grid Lines

Check this box to include invisible gridlines on the Live Text canvas. When you manually move or resize elements by clicking and dragging them, they will snap to these lines. Enter the distance between gridlines (in pixels) in the Vertical and Horizontal fields.

To exit the Live Text canvas and go back to the Zone Content canvas, click either:

  • the < Back button in the top-right corner of the canvas, or

  • the Zone description located in the top left corner of the canvas.

Layer Properties

Select an item on the canvas or from the Layers list to edit its properties:

Size & Position

Adjust the width and the height of the item as well as the position of the item on the horizontal (X) and vertical axes (Y).

Type

Use the dropdown menu to select the item type.

  • Fixed Text: Displays simple, static text. Under Text, enter the text you want to display. 

  • System Variable: Displays the player serial number, OS version, script version, or other system value. Use the dropdown list under System Variable Options to determine which system value you would like to display.

  • Media Counter: Displays the number of times a media file has played in a presentation.  To use this feature, Media Counters must first be enabled in the Presentation Settings > Variables section. Use the dropdown list under Media Options to select a media file that is being used in your presentation.

 

  • User Variable: Displays the current value of a User Variable. You must create a User Variable before using this option. Use the dropdown list under User Variable Options to specify a User Variable in the text field.

  • Image: Displays an image. Depending on your Storage Selector setting, you will prompted to select an image file from either your BSN.cloud library or local machine.

  • Live Text Data: Displays content from a feed in the text field. The displayed feed item will remain fixed and will not cycle through feed items like an RSS ticker (use the "RSS Feed" type for this functionality). However, you can still update the text in real time by modifying the feed on the server and changing the description associated with the feed item.

    • Item title: Specify the feed item to display using the Title/Name of the item.

    • Item index: Specify the feed item to display using the index number of the item.

    • Validate Live Text Data: Refresh the contents of the item based on the selected item title/index.

    • RSS Feed: Displays content from an RSS Feed.

    • Display RSS title: Check this box to display the title of the RSS item.

    • Display RSS description: Check this box to display the description of the RSS item.

    • MRSS Feed: Displays content from an MRSS Feed.

    • Display Media RSS Title: Check this box to display the title of the MRSS item.

    • Display Media RSS Description: Check this box to display the description of the MRSS item.

    • Display Media RSS Media: Check this box to display the media item associated with the MRSS item.

BrightAuthor:connected presentations cache a single Media RSS (MRSS) feed and retain the content files until they are refreshed. When displaying the MRSS feed, the presentation will play files as they are downloaded. If an image file takes longer than five seconds to download, the unit skips to the next image in the feed. If a video file hasn't finished downloading, the unit skips to the next file until all items have been attempted.

 

Data Feeds

Use this section to add Data Feeds to your Live Text Data, RSS Feed, and MRSS Feed items. For RSS Feed and MRSS Feed items, you can add multiple feeds. The item will cycle through the feeds according to their order in the list.

Use the Validate button to check if the feed is accessible and if the format is correct. If your data feed is valid, a green message will appear to let you know that the data feed was accessed successfully. If there are problems with your data feed, you may get the following messages:

  • If no data feed URL is specified, you will get an error stating “Data Feed source not properly specified”. If you select Validate at this stage, you will get an error indicating that you must specify a data feed URL.

  • If an incorrect data feed URL has been input, you will get an error stating “Unable to access specified data feed. Check the URL or try a new one.”

Set Text Parameters

Use this section to edit the appearance of a text item. For example, you can adjust the font size of a text widget in a Live Text state by choosing an Automatic or Fixed point font size for the text.

  1. Time to Display Each Line (RSS Feed, MRSS Feed only): Specify how long (in seconds) to display each entry in the feed.

  2. Rotation: Specify a degree of rotation for the text. This option does not rotate the dimensions of the text box, so you'll likely need to resize it manually.

  3. Alignment: Specify whether the text is left-aligned, right-aligned, or centered.

  4. Foreground Text Color: Select a color for the text.

  5. Background text color: Check this box to include a background color for text fields.

  6. Font size:

    • Select Automatic to fit the text to the height of the text field so each text widget contains only one line of text. This is the default option.

    • Select Fixed point size to enter a value for the font size (1 - 500).

  7. Font: Select a font for the text. The System Font option uses the default Linux font. You can use any TrueType font. Click Reset to System Font to reset the font to the default. When selecting a font file, you cannot browse to the font files in the Windows fonts folder. You will need to copy the font file to your desktop or another location and then select it using the Local Font button in BrightAuthor:connected. If the presentation's Destination is set to BrightSign Network, fonts can be accessed through the BSN.cloud by navigating to Set Text Parameters > BSN Fonts. 

How to Add a Live Text State to a Presentation

  1. Make sure that your BrightAuthor:connected presentation contains a Video or Image zone, and that the toggle is set to Interactive.

  2. Drag and drop the Live Text icon into the canvas.

  3. In State Properties enter a Name for the Live Text state.

  4. Double-click the state to edit it, and select a Background Image. If you do not specify a background image, the text may display on top of a video, image, or the background color of the presentation (depending on the layering of other zones in the presentation). 

  5. Add one or more Live Text items (fields) and adjust the settings for those fields.

How to Update a Static Text Field

You can manually edit Live Text fields in BrightAuthor:connected and republish, or use an RSS feed or BSN.cloud Live Data feed to remotely update Live Text. To configure the Live Text state to receive updates:

  1. Go to Content > New Component > Live Data Feed to create a BSN.cloud Live Data Feed.

  2. In the Presentation tab, open a Live Text state.

  3. Select a text box or add one using the Add Item button.

  4. Use the Type drop down list, select Live Text Data, and go to Data Feed 

  5. Choose the data feed you created in Step 1 in Live Data Feed. If you're hosting your own RSS feed, enter the URL in the Data Feed field.

  6. Enter an Item title or Item index number for the Live Text item. The feed item (RSS or Live Data) that matches this value will be displayed in the text box.

  7. Once you have configured the Live Text state, publish the presentation to your player.

How to display a UDP message using a Live Text State

Follow these steps to display and update Live Text fields using UDP messages:

  1. Create the required number of User Variables by going to Presentation Settings > Variables and clicking the Add Variable button to create each user variable. Then click OK.

  1. Drag and drop a Live Text state onto an interactive playlist.

  1. Select User variable for the item Type, then select the corresponding User Variable under User Variable Options (“cell1” in this example).

  1. Click Add Item to add more text widgets to the Live Text canvas, and then assign the remaining User Variables to these widgets. Navigate back to the interactive zone where the Live Text state is located. 

  1. Drag and drop the UDP event onto the Live Text widget from Events.

  1. In Event Properties enter "<any>” (without the quotation marks) into the Specify UDP input field.

  1. Select Transition to new state under Target State.

  1. In Event Properties select the Assign input to variable option and make sure that the Input specifies variable option is selected. 

  1. Publish the presentation to the player.

Sending UDP Messages

You can use any application capable of sending UDP messages to display your UDP messages on the screen.

This example uses Hercules to send UDP messages to the networked player(s) playing the above presentation.

  1. Open Hercules and go to the UDP tab.

  2. Under Module IP, enter the BrightSign player IP address and port 5000 (this is the default UDP sender and receiver port on BrightAuthor:connected)

  3. Under the server settings make sure to deselect Server echo, Redirect to TCP Server, and Redirect to TCP client.

  4. At the bottom under the Send section enter “cell1:new message” and click Send to display “new message” on the BrightSign player. The string consists of "User Variable:the message".

  5. You can also use one UDP string to update multiple Live Text items at the same time. To do so, you need to separate each message with a “!!”. For example, you can enter “cell1:my message!!cell2:my other message!!cell3:yet another message” and click Send.

If you want to broadcast a UDP message to all the BrightSign players on the same subnet, you can replace the IP address of the player with a broadcast address such as “192.168.1.255”.