Events and Actions

The custom Events and Actions component allows you to define hardware specific events such as serial and parallel port inputs or keyboards and mouse click. Based on the action defined, you can create triggers that play specific Playlists. This allows you define context sensitive media playback. A typical application of this functionality would be a Player that is located in a department store attached to a bar code reader. User’s can swipe products across the bar code reader and see playback of product specific material. Typically this Player would also be connected to a motion detector which would detect a user in front of it and this event can also be used to trigger instructional type material.

 

To set up an Event and Action you first have to create an Event Group. To do this, click ‘Add-Ins’ on the menu bar and move to ‘Events and Actions’ and select ‘Event Groups’.

 

 

This opens the Event Group list form.

To add an Event Group, click the ‘New’ button.

 

 

Enter a description for your Event Group and click ‘Save’. You can now associate events and actions with your Event Group. To do this, click ‘Add-Ins’ on the menu bar and move to ‘Events and Actions’ and select ‘Event and Actions’.

 

Choose a Channel you want associated with the Event and Action and then click ‘New’. This opens the Event and Action dialog.

Enter a description for this Event and Action and choose an Event Group you have previously defined.

Choose the kind of hardware input will trigger the event.

Enter the input data expected.

This can either be text input (Alphanumeric) or more typically a Hexadecimal data string.

Enter the command in hexadecimal. Each text box represents one byte (00 – FF). At the byte where the checksum should be calculated, enter ‘##’. The checksum is calculated as the XOR of each byte preceding it. To help you define your control commands you can click on the ‘ASCII Table’ button. This will bring up a conversion table:

 

Now you will define which Playlists are triggered by which Events.

 

In this form:

1.  You now have various options that define the behaviour when the  Playlist is triggered:

a.  ‘Event occurs during scheduled media playback’

i.   Choose ‘Interrupt scheduled media playback’ if you would like the Event Playlist to play as soon as the Player receives the Event trigger

ii.   Choose ‘Complete scheduled media playback’ if you would like the Event Playlist to only play when the scheduled Playlist has stopped playing.

b.  ‘Event occurs while interruption of scheduled media playback is active’

i.   Choose ‘Interrupt current media playback’  if you would like the Event Playlist to play irrespective of what Event Playlist is currently playing.

ii.   Choose ‘Complete scheduled media playback’  if you would like the Event Playlist to finish before being interrupted.

c.  ‘Ignore this event for … seconds’ - enter a predefined time to elapse before any Playlist is interrupted.

d.  ‘Do not exit Flash until FSCommand received’ – this option controls the behaviour of a Flash module during playback.

 

Choose the Playlist you would like associated with the Event and click ‘Save’.