Controls

The main functionality of the editor window consists of the playout, script, save and transition effect buttons. In addition, a range of editors can be used to edit the different properties of a template or page.

This section covers the following topics:

• Callup Code

• Field Linking

• Playout Buttons

• Save Buttons

• Script Buttons

• Transition Effects

• Refresh Button

• Variants

• Creating a Page

• Adding Transition Effects Using the Page Editor

• Applying a Transition Effect

• Selecting a Variant from the Page Editor

Callup Code

The callup code field is used to save callup codes for pages. The callup code can be set when saving a template as a page for the first time, or when saving a page as a new page.

Field Linking

When working with templates (not pages), the field linking button is shown in the properties area of the page editor. The button opens a panel, where it is possible to define a feed URI and to define how tab field properties in the template are linked to properties in the external feed.

Feed URIs can link to Twitter, Flickr, and so on. After the feed has been defined, a new property icon (the select values button) appears in the page editor:

Clicking the select values button displays a panel where you can browse for items from the specified feed, which can be used as tab field values. The list of feed items can be displayed and sorted in various ways, and a filter can be added to narrow down the search.

Options in the Field-Linking Panel

• Check the Use structured content checkbox to automatically map tab field values to values in the VDF payload in the selected atom entry. VDF is the Viz Data Format, an ATOM-feed specification. Only check this option if the feed URI is known to be a valid VDF-formatted feed.

• Check the Auto refresh on read checkbox to automatically refresh all tab field values when the template is read.

Playout Buttons

Control buttons for page playout are located above the page editor.

The Take button takes the page that is currently displayed in the local preview On Air, if the client is set in on-air mode.

The Continue button continues the animation in the page currently loaded if it contains any stop points.

The Take Out button takes out the page that is in the preview window. If Take Out is clicked when a page that is not on-air is in the preview window, any element that is in the same layer as the page currently displayed in the preview will be taken out.

The Take + Read Next button takes the page currently read, and reads the next one in the page list.

The Cue button cues the page specified as parameter or the selected page if the parameter is empty.

The Cue append button cues the video after the currently playing video. This button is only enabled for video elements.

The Pause button pauses the video. This button is only enabled for video elements.

Save Buttons

When working with a template in the page editor, the Save template and Save as buttons are available. Clicking Save template saves all modifications to the template: feed linking information, feed browser layout, and default tab-field values. Clicking the Save as button creates a new page based on the template. The page’s callup code is by default set to be the highest callup code (number) in the page list + one (1). The page’s callup code is shown in the Callup Code field. Press ENTER to save the new page.

When working with a page in the page editor, the Save page and Save as buttons are available. Clicking the Save page button saves all modifications to the page without any changes to the callup code. Clicking the Save as button creates a new page. The page’s callup code is by default set as the highest callup code (number) in the page list + one (1). The page’s callup code is shown in the callup code field. Press ENTER to save the new page.

Script Buttons

The Execute script button executes a template’s script (see Script macro) and perform a syntax check. The show script is not executed unless the template script calls procedures or functions within the show script. For the button to work, the script that is to be executed must have an OnUserClick function wrapped around it.

The Edit script button opens the Script Directory. The editor by default opens the assigned script.

Transition Effects

Creating Transition Effects is done using Viz Artist and can be applied to pages or playlist elements to create custom transition effects from one scene to the other. If an effect is applied, the effect will be shown when the scene is taken on-air. Effects are typically wipes, dissolves, alpha fades and so on.

The Transition Path to the transition effect scenes is set in the Show Properties window.

Refresh Button

For pages with linked tab-fields (Field Linking), the user may want to press this button to refresh the data of all tab-fields in the page. A typical use case is for weather or financial data.

The button is only enabled when at least one tab-field is linked to a feed which provides self links. While refreshing, the icon on the button changes to a cross. Press the button again to cancel the refresh operation.

On a template level, data is automatically refreshed upon read.

The following script commands are related to the refresh procedure:

• page:refresh_linked_data: Refreshes the linked data in a blocking way (useful for scripts that manipulate the refreshed data afterwards).

• page:refresh_linked_data_async: Refreshes the linked data in a non-blocking way so that the GUI stays responsive.

• page:cancel_refresh_linked_data: Cancels a refresh started with page:refresh_linked_data_async.

Variants

Template variants can be switched directly from the Template List or from the page editor. As with concepts, variants can also be switched using a macro command in a user-defined macro or a script.

Creating a Page

1. Double-click a template from the Template List to open the template in the page editor.

2. Edit and save it as a page with a new Callup Code.

Adding Transition Effects Using the Page Editor

1. Open a page in the page editor.

2. Click and select a transition effect.

Applying a Transition Effect

1. Right-click the column headers and select Effect and Effect Icon (icon is only for visual reference) from the menu

2. Click the ellipse button in the Effect column and select a transition effect from the dialog box.

Selecting a Variant From the Page Editor

1. Open the template or page in the Page Editor.

2. Click on the thumbnail image to select a variant.

Text Editor Context Menu

The text editor is the main editor for most users. Here, it's possible to do a number of operations if the scene’s text editing properties are exposed, such as setting text color or adjusting the position and scale of the text. In order to enable character formatting, the scene’s Control Text plug-in's Use formatted text property must be enabled (on). This is done by the Viz Artist designer. The following can be formatted if enabled:

The desired text manipulation mode can be assigned to a shortcut key or used in scripts. See the User Interface section for how to assign shortcut keys. The active mode is indicated in the lower right corner of the Page Editor’s window. The default mode is Color editing. For more information on text commands, see Macro Commands and Events.

In some situations, if text effects are used in graphics there might be conflicts with editing of parameters such as scaling, alpha and position. For example: if the text effect controls the scaling of text, it's not possible to change the scaling of the fonts from the text editor. The text effect’s control over that parameter will override any changes made in Viz Trio. Text effects are Viz Artist plug-ins such as TFX Color, Scale and Rotation that are used by scene designers.

Word Replacement

The Word Replacement function allows the user to substitute a typed character with a word from a list of predefined substitution options.

This list becomes available in the text editor when you press an assigned shortcut key for the text:show_replace_list command, see the Keyboard Shortcuts and Macros section. The editor matches a typed character with the list of key characters that are configured.

This section covers the following topics:

• Editing a Text Item

• Editing Text Color

• Editing Text Kerning

• Editing Text Position

• Editing Text Rotation

• Editing Text Scaling

• Editing Text Transparency (Alpha)

• Replacing a Word

Editing a Text Item

1. Open the appropriate template or page, and select a text element in the Tab Fields or Preview window.

2. To edit the next item, press the Tab key or select the item from the Tab Fields list or right-click the graphical elements in the Preview window.

3. To perform character-specific changes, right-click to open the text editor’s context menu, and select one of the options.

Editing Text Color

1. Open the appropriate template or page, and select a text element in the Tab Fields or Preview window.

2. Right-click the text editor, and from the Text editor context menu select Character Color.

3. To change the color of a character or selected characters, click a color in the color palette, or hold the ALT key down while using the right and left arrow keys to switch between the available colors.

See Show Properties on how to customize the color palette.

Editing Text Kerning

1. Right-click the text editor and select Character Kerning from the Text editor context menu.

2. Select one or more characters, and hold down the ALT key while using the right and left arrow keys to change the kerning, or

3. Click the Kerning for whole text button.

4. Click the Text editing mode button to switch back to the text editor.

Editing Text Position

1. Right-click the text editor, and from the Text editor context menu select Character Position.

2. Select characters.

3. Hold the ALT key down while using the arrow keys.

Editing Text Rotation

1. Right-click the text editor, and from the Text editor context menu select Character Rotation XY *or Character Rotation Y*.

2. Select a character or multiple characters.

3. Hold the ALT key down while using the arrow keys.

Editing Text Scaling

1. Right-click the text editor, and from the Text editor context menu select Character Scaling.

2. Select a character or multiple characters.

3. Hold the ALT key down while using the arrow keys.

Editing Text Transparency (Alpha)

1. Right-click the text editor and select Character Transparency from the Text editor context menu.

2. Select characters.

3. Hold the ALT key down while using the arrow keys.

Replacing a Word

1. Type a character in the text editor. Make sure the cursor is placed after the character that will be replaced.

2. Click the word replacement button or right-click the text editor and select Word Replacer Window.

3. Select a replacement word from the list and click OK, or press the Enter key to return to the text editor.

4. To close the word replacement window without changes click Cancel, or press the ESC key to quit the operation and return to the text editor.

Database Link Editor Common Properties

The Data Link editors common properties are:

• Link to database: Enables the database link.

• Database connection: Sets the connection to a selected database link defined in the Show Properties Databases settings.

• Table: Sets the database table for the lookup.

  

• Refresh: Refreshes the dataset.

• Custom SQL: Displays by default the resulting SQL query to get the value (scalar or table) from the database. The query can be overridden to perform enhanced queries. This is mostly useful for table properties, for example to restrict the number of rows or apply a different sorting for the rows.

• Apply: Applies the Custom SQL query.

Database Link Editor for Scalar Linking

The database link editor used for text properties (scalar linking) has the following properties:

• Select column: Sets the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet column, from which the text value is selected.

• Key column has value: Specifies the key value to match with the lookup column, which is specified in the Databases settings (see Show Properties). This mechanism selects the row of the value to use.
  To restrict which rows from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet will be inserted, a custom SQL query can be specified in the text box at the bottom of the database link editor (below is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet example).

Database Link Editor for Table Linking

The database link editor used for table linking has the following properties:

• Property: The scenes table property that is linked with the column of the data source.

• Column: The data source column that is linked with the property of the scene.

  Note: Mapping a tab-field property with a data source immediately updates the graphics.

Microsoft Excel and Unicode Support

Viz Trio supports the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to provide templates with data.

Setting Transformation Properties

1. Enter the new values with the keyboard, or

2. Left-click the value field and drag in horizontal directions. Move between the fields using the CTRL + TAB keys.

3. To return to the previous selection mode, click the top button.

   Note: The selection mode icon varies according to the type of object exposed, such as image, text and so on. The screenshot above shows a Geom.

Populating Tables Using Macro Commands

You can use Viz Trio’s macro language to populate a table with data through a script, or through an external application that connects via a socket connection. To populate a table, the macro table:set_cell_value is used. The macro takes 4 arguments:

• The field identifiers for the table (string) and the column (string), the table’s row number (integer: starts at 0), and the data to be inserted.

• The example shown below will insert the text string test, in row 4, in the column with id 1, in the table with id 1.

  table:set_cell_value 1 1 3 test

Maps Classic Client

Maps Second Edition Client

Maps Lite Edition (inline)

Control World Plugin Interface

In addition to the Viz World Client editor, Viz World also provides an easy to use control interface when using the Control World plugin. The control is a replacement for the Control Map plugin with much more options and on-the-fly feedback from Viz.

The control can expose different fields based on the container it resides on. When tabbing to the control (in a navigator scene) the camera will jump to the map location and all feedback (exact camera position) will be immediate.

• Longitude Offset: Sets the longitude offset.

• Latitude Offset: Sets the latitude offset.

• Distance: Sets the distance.

• Distance Offset (%): Sets the distance offset in percentage.

• Pan: Sets the pan.

• Tilt: Sets the tilt.

• Hop Duration: Sets the hop duration.

• Terrain Height Scale Mode: Sets the scale mode of the terrain height.

• Terrain Height Scale: Sets the scale of the terrain height.

• Select Map (button): Opens the Viz World Editor. If the control is configured to use the simple Viz World Editor, Viz Trio must be configured to do the same.

See Also

• General settings for switching to simple Viz World Editor

• Viz Artist User Guide for information on Control World

• Viz World Client and Server User Guide

• Field Linking and Feed Browsing in Viz Trio

• Creating a New Database Connection

• The dblink macro commands for use with scripting.

• Scripting

• Setting the Transition Effects Path

• Adding Transition Effects Using the Page Editor

• Creating Transition Effects in Viz Artist