Facebook widgets

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Facebook revoked all our rights to display Facebook content through our platform. As a consequence, the Facebook widgets are no longer supported and have been removed starting with Elementi 2021 Update 8.

This page is about Facebook widgets included into Elementi 2017, Elementi 2018, and Elementi 2020.

Introduction

These widgets – all included in our Elementi software right from the start – securely connect to Facebook and are purposely built for digital signage, bringing out the best of your social media content to any number and combination of screens. The result: connecting social media content that auto-updates and helps engage with your Facebook fans. Here are few applications of the Facebook widgets:

  • Promote your products on-site by using your Facebook page.
  • Inform and guide visitors with Facebook Events.
  • Showcase daily specials by posting on Facebook.
  • Source engaging media content directly from Facebook.
Note For more details
visit https://www.spinetix.com/products/apps-widgets/facebook-widgets.

Getting started

Getting started is easy - download Elementi software, launch it and create away! Just follow the 4 quick steps below:

  1. Open your Elementi project.
  2. Click on the "Widgets" tab within the browse panel.
  3. Open the Facebook folder and pick a widget.
  4. Include that widget into your project and configure it.

Facebook widgets

Elementi software comes with several Facebook widgets accessible from "Widgets" tab within the Browse panel of the Elementi GUI.

Facebook feed widgets
  • Single Post
    Displays a single post using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
    Note that only post with images are displayed with this widget.
  • Multi Post
    Displays a one or more post on the same page using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
    Note that all post with some text are displayed by this widget.
  • Text Bar
    Displays text content using a fixed number of lines and applying a bottom-to-top & line-by-line scrolling effect whenever the entire text doesn't fit into the widget area.
  • Text Ticker
    Displays text content using a continuous horizontal scrolling effect. The font size is adjusted automatically for the text to fit into the widget area.
  • Text Roll
    Displays text content using a continuous vertical scrolling effect. The font size is adjusted automatically for the selected number of lines to fit into the predefined area.
  • Slideshow
    Displays slides composed of text & media layers, which are automatically filled out with data retrieved from Facebook. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
  • Horizontal Table, Vertical Table, and Table
    Displays slides composed of multiple cells of text & media layers, which are automatically filled out with data retrieved from Facebook. The slides are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist.
Note Notes:
  • Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.
  • These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.
  • Any formatting present within the post is discarded and you can customize how the text appears on the screen within Elementi. If you want to keep the white spaces, simply use [[description]] data field instead of the default [[text]], which doesn't keep the white spaces.

Single Post

This widget displays a single post using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that only post with images are displayed with this widget.

Single Post properties

The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:

  • Data
    Click the Data Feed Properties button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source.
  • Slide duration
    Enter the number of seconds each slide is displayed on the screen.
  • Transition
    Click on the Transition Properties button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select a transition effect and its properties.
  • Looping
    Select whether the widget ends after the last slide or loops to the first one.
  • Call to Action
    • Show Call to Action
      Select whether the Facebook logo and the call to action text should be displayed or not.
    • Text
      Text to be displayed next to the Facebook logo.

Multi Post

This widget displays one or more posts on the same page using pre-formatted design. The posts are displayed one after another, with or without a transition effect in between, similarly to a playlist. Note that all post with some text are displayed by this widget.

Multi Post properties

The following properties, found under "Properties" tab, can be used to customize the widget:

  • Data
    Click the Data Feed Properties button to open the Data Properties dialog and set up the data source.
  • Locale
    Select the locale used for displaying dates and numbers.
  • Slide duration
    Enter the number of seconds each slide is displayed on the screen.
  • Transition
    Click on the Transition Properties button to open the "Transition Properties" dialog and select a transition effect and its properties.
  • Looping
    Select whether the widget ends after the last slide or loops to the first one.
  • Call to Action
    • Show Call to Action
      Select whether the Facebook logo and the call to action text should be displayed or not.
    • Text
      Text to be displayed next to the Facebook logo.
  • Number of rows
    Enter the number of rows to be displayed on a single slide.
  • Delay per cell
    Enter the number of seconds to wait before displaying the next cell of the table.

Configuration

Each of the widgets above can be customized using the options provided under "Properties" tab - for more details go to the dedicated page of each widget type, linked above.

Data source setup

Data Properties

To edit the properties related to the data source, click on the Data Feed Properties button. This opens the "Data Properties" dialog, which allows changing the following:

  • Account
    Select one of the connected Facebook accounts or click "Connect account..." if none was previously connected.
  • Profile
    Select the profile to be displayed.
    It is possible to select the user profile page, the pages associated with that account, or search for public pages on Facebook using the "Public Page..." button.
  • Timeline
    Select the data to be displayed between "All Post", "Own Post".
  • Max count
    Max number of posts to be retrieved.
  • Refresh
    Enter a number, optionally followed by s (implicit), m or h, to specify the period after which the widget should refresh the feed data (this is useful especially when the widget is running in a loop); the minimum accepted value is 60 seconds. Using "When document opens" will refresh the data only when the document is re-opened.
Note Notes:
  • Due to the latest changes on Facebook platform, the right to display information related to any Facebook page, proprietary or public, has been revoked.
  • At any point, the data source configuration can be tested by clicking on the "Test..." button.

Facebook as data source

Facebook data can also be can be used in other widgets:

Secure data access

Security is a fundamental element to consider when giving access to your personal data and we've created our data-driven widgets with that in mind. To ensure secure access and permission control, without exposing any user credentials, Cockpit must authorize any request for third-party data. For that, you need to do the following:
  1. Create a Cockpit account, if you don't have one.
  2. Register your Elementi license into your Cockpit account.
  3. Add your players into your Cockpit account.
  4. Connect your Facebook account to your Cockpit account.
See more about secure data access.

Facebook channel connection

When selecting this channel in the "Data Properties" dialog, your existing Facebook accounts are automatically retrieved from Cockpit and displayed in the "Account" drop-down box. If you need to connect a new account, follow these steps:

  1. Select "Connect account..." option .
  2. Click the link displayed within the "Connect account..." dialog to open it in a browser.
  3. If you are not signed into your Cockpit account, you are asked to do that.
  4. Cockpit then checks that your Elementi license is registered into your Cockpit account; if not, you are asked to do that.
  5. You are then redirected to the Facebook website. Log into your account there, if you are not already.
  6. Then, you need to authorize the SpinetiX app to access the specified information of your Facebook account.
  7. Once done, you are redirected back to Cockpit channels page and you can find your account listed under "Connected Accounts".
  8. Then, return to Elementi and click the "OK" button within the "Connect Account..." dialog.
  9. The list of accounts is refreshed and you can select the new one from the "Account" drop-down box.
Note Notes:

Troubleshooting

  • You get this message: Problem detected with target device. Widgets using channels will not work properly. Are you sure you want to continue?
    This happens when trying to publish a project containing Facebook widgets and one or more of the target HMPs have not been added to Cockpit.
    To solve the issue, open the HMP Control Center and add the player to Cockpit using the same account as the one used to registered the Elementi license into Cockpit
  • Multiscreen usage.
    These widgets can only be used on a single screen when creating a multiscreen project; for multiple screens, a data feed widget must be used instead.
  • No results returned when displaying a page.
    Due to the latest changes on Facebook platform, the right to display information related to any Facebook page, proprietary or public, has been revoked. As a result, this type of information can no longer be displayed with the Facebook widgets. We are working on getting this right re-approved for the SpinetiX app, however, this is lengthy process and there are no guarantees that Facebook will respond in a positive manner.
  • No results returned when searching for a page using keywords.
    Starting with April 4, 2018, Facebook decided to immediately disable some capabilities, which resulted in the lost of the capability to search for public pages by keywords. The workaround is to search for the page directly in Facebook and copy its URL from your browser into the search field - you can then select and use the public page.
  • Business manager accounts are not supported.

Facebook API deprecation

The Facebook APIs are being deprecated in different phases - see Graph API changelog for more details. On top of that, breaking changes, which are not tied to a specific release, can be introduced at any time - these are changes to existing functionality that will take effect immediately and impact all API versions.

We use the following API versions:

Note Notes:
  • Due to the latest changes on Facebook platform, the right to display information related to any Facebook page, proprietary or public, has been revoked. We are working on getting this right re-approved for the SpinetiX app, however, this is lengthy process and there are no guarantees that Facebook will respond in a positive manner.
  • Starting with April 4, 2018, Facebook decided to immediately disable some capabilities, which resulted in the lost of the capability to search for public pages by keywords. The workaround is to search for the page directly on Facebook and copy its URL from your browser into the search field - you can then select and use the public page.

See also

Retrieved from "https://support.spinetix.com/w/index.php?title=Facebook_widgets&oldid=17858"
This page was last modified on 19 August 2022, at 11:11.