Xibo and how we do signage.

[pslater]

Purpose

 

My aims for the signage system here was for it to be as simple, accessible and as easy to use as possible. I also wanted to be able to leave it in the hands of other people who are ordinarily responsible for the types of content too. It’s very easy to create something like this, try to explain it to someone and for them to say that it would be easier for IT to maintain it all!

Whilst the Xibo interface is easy to use and highly customisable through the permissions, I wanted to create a system where users wouldn’t need to login with another username and password. People (quite rightly I guess) don’t enjoy having to remember additional passwords.

I should also give a shout out to a former colleague [qwerty94] who gave lots of help – in particular by finding a way to do our photo slideshow.

 

The End Product

 

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8taN26CBcZ-eTM0ZWhyWHpmX0U

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8taN26CBcZ-amZydkVtMWlRa0k

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8taN26CBcZ-NTBhYmMxbE5Xc0U

 

 

The layout

 

I use Photoshop to create the background images which act as boarders for the regions within the layout. Here are some examples of the backgrounds I use:

 

 

 

 

Photos

 

Any photo slideshows on our signage is handled by HowTo . This allows us to simply have a webpage region in Xibo and then we copy the photos into the relevant folder by allowing specific users (via AD security groups) access as a shared folder on the photos folder only. We also use this little application: Batch Picture Resize to ensure that the signage clients aren’t being asked to cache and display huge image files.

 

 

 

Parcel List and Menus

 

These regions are also webpages. The parcel list is simply a table in an html file, however, to make things simple and to look the same as other documents our reception edit, I have made their default html editor Word. This means that they can also ensure that the document they are editing remains within an A4 template as the region on Xibo is A4 dimensions.

 

 

The menus use the same method of editing by our catering manager but with a lot of scheduling going on in the background. We display 2 different menus at lunchtime and 1 menu in the evening. By having different webpages for each menu, for each day of the week, the catering manager is able to work up to a week in advance. Being able to preload the menus for the weekend is especially useful as it means she doesn’t have to teach someone else how to ‘upload’ the menus. I have created repeat scheduled events for each screen, several times each day in order for the menus to appear at the correct time and then revert back to the default layout when no menus are required. Access to the menu html files is again managed by AD security groups and shortcuts to shared folders. I am hoping that the images may explain this more:

 

 

 

 

Twitter

 

Please don’t judge any coding (!)

 

 

 

Calendar feeds

 

Ticker feeds with variations of settings depending on the layout and location.

 

 

 

Dining Room Times

 

This is another webpage region setup in the same way as the menus so that the catering manager can adjust it in Word if needed, however it stays the same most of the time.

Edited October 12, 2016 by pslater

[pslater]

BBC Ticker

 

 

 

 

Youtube/Sky News

 

We also use the Sky New Live feed on YouTube at our Prep school. These are the settings we use in an embedded HTML region:

 

 

 

 

The Hardware

 

We are using Intel Compute Sticks, 32bit Windows 10 LTSB 2015, domain attached, automatically logging in to the local administrator profile (using some registry edits). They also all have a scheduled restart every day at 6am. All PCs have Office installed plus the usual plugins etc. They also all have a USB to gigabit Ethernet adapter so we are not relying on the inbuilt Wi-Fi adapter to stream anything. VNC server is installed for remote viewing and management without the need to take it down and connect a keyboard and mouse.

The TVs are also from the same series, though vary in size (32” through to 49”). This way the look of each signage screen is the same, plus we only need one remote for each screen. We also liked the slim bezel on these screens.

 

 

 

 

I’m sure there are things that I have forgotten, so please ask any questions that you have about the setup and I’ll do my best to answer them. I would also appreciate any ideas that you have had and I am always looking for ways to enhance and improve our signage.

 

Tl;dr Xibo is great…and free!

[TechMonkey]

Can I ask how staff are getting the files in the correct place? Is it just a drive mapping or are they using Xibo to upload and manage them?

[pslater]

Can I ask how staff are getting the files in the correct place? Is it just a drive mapping or are they using Xibo to upload and manage them?

 

It's just a windows shortcut to a shared folder on the xibo server. Staff don't log in to the xibo CMS at all. The only person that logs in to the Xibo CMS is me.

[kjadams]

Looks good. Are you using a Linux xibo server or .net?

[ITGuyNW]

We have just got some Intel sticks for signage but the Wifi on them is woeful. If we had the capacity, I would have it plugged into ethernet but having to rely on patchy coverage at the moment..

[pslater]

Looks good. Are you using a Linux xibo server or .net?

 

we're using .net. It's currently on a physical Windows 7 box but hope to ship it off to its own VM at somepoint

[pslater]

We have just got some Intel sticks for signage but the Wifi on them is woeful. If we had the capacity, I would have it plugged into ethernet but having to rely on patchy coverage at the moment..

 

Yes I was worried about this and seeing as our locations either already had Ethernet or were being refurbished this Summer, I thought it was a good idea to have a wired connection everywhere.

[BKGarry]

Just a word of warning from experience with the Intel ComputeSticks.

 

Make sure you disable the windows updates service. I have had a few cases (we had early 8.1 ones originally) where windows updates would just brick them

[pslater]

Just a word of warning from experience with the Intel ComputeSticks.

 

Make sure you disable the windows updates service. I have had a few cases (we had early 8.1 ones originally) where windows updates would just brick them

 

 

 

Yes I've read that a few times. I'm hoping that being attached to the domain and us using WSUS will stop any unwanted updates.

[ITGuyNW]

Yes I was worried about this and seeing as our locations either already had Ethernet or were being refurbished this Summer, I thought it was a good idea to have a wired connection everywhere.

 

We only yesterday put a wifi dongle into the usb socket on the intel stick and wireless works as it should now. The built in wifi is definitely not to be trusted.

[APMerry]

Just getting into Xibo, have you managed to get iSAMS daily bulletin RSS feeds to work? Struggling to get Xibo to display them.

[pslater]

Just getting into Xibo, have you managed to get iSAMS daily bulletin RSS feeds to work? Struggling to get Xibo to display them.

 

We don't use the daily bulletin RSS at our school at the moment. Do you have a link to yours that I can play with and see if I can get working? How do you want it to display?

 

Does this help?:

iSAMS Feeds

 

For Calendar Feeds:

 

You should be able to pass the following parameters into the querystring of the feed...

 

Address would be: http://training.isams.co.uk/system/api/feeds/calendar.ashx

 

http://training.isams.co.uk /system/api/feeds/calendar.ashx?date=24/11/2010

 

 

 

id= Pass an EventID to return an individual event

date= Pass a date (dd/mm/yyyy) to return events for a particular date

date= &endDate= Pass dates (dd/mm/yyyy) to return events within a date range

categories= Pass a csv list of category Id’s to filter by categories

subcategories= Pass a csv list of subcategory Id’s to filter by subcategories

calendars= Pass a list of calendar ID’s you want in

view= The only view currently available is view=week

 

Example: http://training.isams.co.uk/system/api/feeds/calendar.ashx?date=24/11/2010

 

If you want an RSS feed specifically, please use the following link. http://training.isams.co.uk/system/api/feeds/calendar_rss.ashx?calendars=9,10

 

Calendar events need to be published (in iSAMS) to the Intranet to show up in this feed.

 

 

For News feed:

 

http://training.isams.co.uk/modules/newsmanager/feeds/xml/

 

The URL can be passed a host of query strings to pull back the news you need.

 

http://training.isams.co.uk/modules/newsmanager/feeds/xml/?view=School%20News

 

view=newstype (This is the News Category in iSAMS)

 

http://training.isams.co.uk /modules/newsmanager/feeds/xml/?id=212

 

id=newsid 212

 

Adding bxw=true filters to only show articles published for the website.

 

http://training.isams.co.uk /modules/newsmanager/feeds/xml/?bxw=true

 

Putting in urlfeed=website address makes sure the images and other content in the news can be reached:

 

http://training.isams.co.uk/modules/newsmanager/feeds/xml/?urlfeed=http://training.isams.co.uk

 

 

 

[APMerry]

Thanks, I cant actually get anything to display, just a blank screen. Should I be able to put those iSAMS training xmls into a feed and get something out? they come out blank too. I've seen a few xibo forum articles about trouble using xml feeds over https,

[TechMonkey]

I have found Xibo RSS to be very picky about using proper XML/RSS. IF you want to check go to https://validator.w3.org/feed/ and either put the RSS URL in or copy and paste the source code into the second tab. Any thing advisory can be ignored but if it isn't happy about anything it will cause issues.

 

In fact just having run it myself it says not a valid RSS feed so I would imagine Xibo is rejecting it.

[pslater]

Thanks, I cant actually get anything to display, just a blank screen. Should I be able to put those iSAMS training xmls into a feed and get something out? they come out blank too. I've seen a few xibo forum articles about trouble using xml feeds over https,

 

It's been a little while since I gathered my original calendar feed and on closer inspection it looks like I am using an RSS variant. Here is an example of how to change the URL using the isams demo calendar:

 

https://training.isams.co.uk/system/api/feeds/calendar_RSS.ashx

https://training.isams.co.uk/system/api/feeds/calendar.ashx

 

With either variants of the calendar, or daily bulletin in your case, you should be able to view the data in a web browser.

 

After looking through my emails with iSAMs when setting it up originally they helped me by saying:

Hi Pete,

 

I have had a further look into this and the reason the calendar isn't showing fully in the XML feed is because the calendar isn't published as being viewable to staff, pupils and parents on the Intranet. You can set this by going to Calendar Manager->Configuration->Edit the relevant calendar and then select the 3rd option down and save the settings. The next time you refresh the URL it will pull through all the correct events.

 

Kind Regards

Steve

 

Let me know if that's any help.

 

Pete

[MarcLister]

Hi pslater. This is impressive stuff. I've been aware of Xibo for a while but never found the time to get around to developing something for my school. We have two plasma screens, one at reception and another in the staff room. The reception plasma screen runs off an Atomwide Android box but is quite basic for what we want to show visitors when they arrive. The staff room plasma screen runs off a small Lenovo W7 box but is just used for showing a PowerPoint of the day's cover/on call information etc. We've thought about swapping them around so that the Android box is in the staff room where we could use the 3 column layout and my colleague could easily input the day's information and have this info displayed automatically. Currently I have to wait until she's finished then get a wireless mouse and close the previous day's PowerPoint and open today's! The Windows box in the staff room could then go to the reception and I could set up a Xibo system. I'll have to give this a go early next year.

[fiza]

Hi pslater. This is impressive stuff. I've been aware of Xibo for a while but never found the time to get around to developing something for my school. We have two plasma screens, one at reception and another in the staff room. The reception plasma screen runs off an Atomwide Android box but is quite basic for what we want to show visitors when they arrive. The staff room plasma screen runs off a small Lenovo W7 box but is just used for showing a PowerPoint of the day's cover/on call information etc. We've thought about swapping them around so that the Android box is in the staff room where we could use the 3 column layout and my colleague could easily input the day's information and have this info displayed automatically. Currently I have to wait until she's finished then get a wireless mouse and close the previous day's PowerPoint and open today's! The Windows box in the staff room could then go to the reception and I could set up a Xibo system. I'll have to give this a go early next year.

If it's just PowerPoint you want to display have you looked at showpoint?https://www.presentationpoint.com/software/showpoint/

[MarcLister]

If it's just PowerPoint you want to display have you looked at showpoint?https://www.presentationpoint.com/software/showpoint/

Brilliant. Thanks.

[AJWhite1970]

Autoadminlogon and the following login script will also launch a ppt show as well

 

Option Explicit

Dim objNetwork, objDrives, i,WshShell

Set objNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("Wscript.Network")

Set objDrives = objNetwork.EnumNetworkDrives

set WshShell = createobject("WScript.Shell")

 

on error resume next

For i = 0 to objDrives.Count -1 Step 2

objNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive objDrives.Item(i), true, true

Next

on error goto 0

 

set objDrives = Nothing

 

objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "P:", "\\nebula\apps"

 

CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run ("""P:\Ready to copy\Noticeboard\noticeboard.ppsx"""), 0, True

 

set objNetwork = Nothing