Weather Widget

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Weather Widget

What We Will Achieve in this Tutorial

In this tutorial we will setup a weather widget to display weather data from an online XML feed. This weather widget tutorial makes use of the Isenzo Weather Widget. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information on how you can integrate this widget in your digital signage network. In this tutorial you will learn how to:

Create a Client
Setup a Player
Setup a Channel for the player
Setup the weather widget design in the Overlay Designer which includes the following elements:
- Use of a professionally designed reference image
- Slideshow images
- Flash .swf file that dynamically fetches XML weather data from the internet and displays weather information in an attractive format
Schedule the weather widget to display at certain times
Upload all media to a Player and display the weather widget

Files Neccessary for this Tutorial

All the necessary files are found in 'C:\Program Files\Isenzo Mediacaster\Samples\Overlays - Weather'

Create Weather Widget Client

The first step will be to create our weather widget client. Right click the Clients or Groups menu item on the tree menu and select 'New'.

This will open the appropriate form which enables you to create a new client.

Enter 'Weather' into the description field. As this tutorial is being done on a local machine assuming that you have already setup a Player and FTP server, we put merely enter these details in the IP Address, Username and Password.

The Weather client is created with the full tree structure in place.

Creating the Weather Widget Overlay

The first step will be to create our weather widget Overlay. Right click the Overlays menu item on the tree menu and select 'New'.

This will open the Overlay Designer. To make the task of constructing the overlay easier we use a template file that has ideally been professionally designed. Right click the overlay work area.

Select 'Select File' from the popup menu. Browse to the tutorial files (C:\Program Files\Isenzo Mediacaster\Samples\Overlays - Weather) and select 'Weather Template background.jpg'.

This image will load into the background and enable you to layout all the other elements.

Give your overlay a name by entering 'Weather Overlay' into the description field. It would now be a good idea to save your overlay. Click 'Apply' button at the bottom. This will apply your changes. The 'Save' button will save and close the Overlay Designer. The 'Apply' button therefore enables you to save your work without closing the designer.

Inserting the Images

Create a picture object by clicking the icon on the overlay toolbar. Clicking on the object will select it. You can also select the object by clicking on the background and holding the mouse left button down and dragging a selection window around the object.

Use the mouse cursor to place and resize all the image placeholder on top of the demarcated area on the Weather Overlay background image.

Right click on the placeholder object and choose 'Select File'.

Select all the files labelled 'Weather' by clicking on 'Weather1.jpg' and Shift Clicking 'Weather6.jpg'.

Click 'Open'. You will notice that Mediacaster Overlay designer will automatically create a slide show of the images chosen. With the Picture object selected, go to the property grid and change the 'Duration' to 5 seconds.

This will increase the time each image is shown in the slideshow to 5 seconds.

Inserting the Weather Widget

Create a Plugin object by clicking the icon on the overlay toolbar. Click and drag the edges of the Plugin object to line up with the left edge of the lines in the weather background design. Drag the top edge of the object to the top of the screen. Drag the right edge of the object to the right of the screen. Drag the bottom edge of the object to the bottom of the screen.

Right click the Plugin object and select 'Select File'. Select Zip Files in the dropdown box and select 'isenzo_weather sample version.swf'.

Right click on the Plugin object and select 'Use Transparent Background'.

This property makes the Flash background transparent and will allow the background design image to show through. Save the Weather Overlay.

Configure a Player to Display the Weather Overlay

You can configure a local player to run the Weather overlay. To see an explanation of how to do this click here. Once you have a local player configured you must point the setup a player in the Mediacaster Manager to point to the local Player. In the Weather client right click 'Players' in the tree menu and select 'New'. This adds a configured Player to the Weather client.

Name the Player configuration and enter the IP address of the Player you configured.

Click 'Save'.

Assign the Player to a Channel and Allocate the Overlay to a Schedule

Any Players that have been added to a client in Mediacaster must be assigned to a channel. To create a channel right click 'Channels' in the Weather client in the tree menu an select 'New'.

In the form that appears enter a name for the channel and select the player you have just configured. Click the '>>' button to move the Player into the 'Selected Players' column.

Click 'Save'.

We will create a very simple schedule to play the overlay. Right click on 'Schedules' on the tree menu under the Weather client and select 'New'.

In the schedules form that appears enter a name for your schedule in the 'Description' field and choose the channel you have just assigned the Player to by clicking the drop down list next to 'Channel'. You will be presented with a calendar view of the present time.

To add your overlay to the schedule click the 'New' button at the bottom of the form.

Click the 'Overlay' drop down list in the form that appears. Select the Weather overlay that you designed, alter the time range of when you would like the overlay to play and click 'Save'. It should now appear in the overlay list in the schedule view. Click 'Save'.

Upload the Overlay to the Player

All that needs to be done now before we can see our overlay in action is to upload to the Player. To do this click the 'Upload Media and Playlists' icon on the toolbar.

This will open the server manager form.

Make sure the correct client is selected in the 'Client or Group' dropdown and then select the correct channel in the 'Channel' dropdown. Click the 'Add' button. A dialogue appears asking whether you want to upload.

Click 'Yes'.

A notification will popup informing you of progress. Open the player in a window to download the media and playlists and check that everything is playing correctly.