Media crawler widgets

This page is related to Data-driven widgets and was updated for Elementi 2018 - the information below might not apply for older versions.

Description

This type of data-driven widget displays media content (images, videos) retrieved from a data source (such as RSS feed, folder containing media files, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Flickr, Instagram etc.), using a continuous scrolling effect.

The media crawler widget type can be found in several folders accessible from "Widgets" / "Library" tab within the Browse panel.

• RSS, Media and Data Feeds starting with Elementi 2015
• Flickr starting with Elementi 2016
• Instagram, starting with Elementi 2017
• Feed widgets in Elementi 3.x

Configuration

Media Crawler properties

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

• Data source

  Click the button to open the Data Feed Properties dialog and edit the properties related to the data source from where the files for the media crawler are retrieved.

• Media template

  Click the button to edit the properties (e.g., URI, media fit, media align, box formating, effects etc) of the media layer used to display each media file retrieved from the data source. To create a dynamic address to the media file, the URI of the layer must contain a data placeholder (e.g., [[enclosure]], [[href]], [[link]] etc.; it is also possible to use something like http://my_server/images/[[name]].png if the entire URL is not provided).

• Looping

  Select whether the widget ends after the last media item or loops to the first one.

• Direction

  Select the direction of the scroll between "Right to left", "Left to right", "Bottom to top", and "Top to bottom".

• Speed

  Enter the scrolling speed as percentage of the layer height size, meaning that 100 (i.e. 100%) represents roughly one layer height (and 1/2 in case of vertical crawlers) per second. Note that the actual speed is rounded up to the closest value guaranteed to produce a smooth scroll.

• Spacing

  Enter the spacing between two items as percentage of the layer height size.

Troubleshooting

The following message is displayed:

• The media crawler is set to loop and using it within a schedule or a multiscreen project might cause problems.

  The alert message is usually displayed when the widget is included into a multiscreen project or a schedule file and it is set to loop - in which case, it may cause synchronization problems. The solution is to disable the widget's looping property.

  This message can also be received within regular projects, when dragging the project timeline or when any manipulation is done on the feed widget after 12 hours of playing time - in this case the alert message can safely be ignored.

• Data source uri cannot be reached, no content will be displayed

  This is displayed for a media files widget using a media folder as data source from a server which doesn't have the WebDAV extension enabled. You must enable WebDAV on that server for the widget to work.

See also

• Media playlist widgets for displaying the media items one after another as a playlist.
• Animated playlist widgets to display a media playlist using the Ken Burns effect animation.
• Slideshow widgets displaying slides composed of text & media layers, one after another as a playlist.
• Table widgets for displaying multiple items on the same slide.
• Data-driven widgets