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Elementi project

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Note  
This page was updated for Elementi 2025; the information below might not apply for older versions.

Introduction

An Elementi project is a collection of multimedia resources that are connected and presented together to create a digital signage presentation. Images, videos, texts, web pages, and other visual elements, can be organized within layouts, playlists, and widgets, can be linked to the real-time thorough schedules, and can be stored within the project and/or remotely referenced via HTTP(s). All must be referenced from the main index file of the project, either explicitly or implicitly through the inner imbrication of layers.

Projects are used as containers for authoring and previewing the content, before publishing it on SpinetiX players. Elementi lets you create high impact projects, including video walls, interactive kiosks and live-streaming video, and deliver a visually rich experience to virtually any combination of screens across all your networks.

Several sample projects are included within Elementi to help you get started with content creation. You can also find more demo projects on the SpinetiX main website and the “Downloads” category on this Wiki.

Benefits of working with projects

Even though it's possible to modify the content of player directly from Elementi M/X, working with a local project have several advantages, the most important being:

  • Sandbox / Off-line mode: Create projects off-line, preview them and keep modifying them without affecting the actual presentation being displayed live. When the content is finalized, it can easily be published on the target player(s).
  • Multi-target publishing: It's way faster to modify a project locally and then publish it onto multiple devices, than doing the same modifications on each individual player. This is especially useful in case of multiscreen projects.
  • Archive: Use the Elementi's archive feature to pack an entire project into a 7z file, which can then be sent to other users or uploaded to SpinetiX ARYA™ or the content creation tool (HMP350, HMP300).
  • Backup: Apply conventional backup methods on the "Projects" folder to reduce the risk of losing your work in case of computer failures.

Projects tab (Elementi GUI)

Project icon

The list of available projects is displayed within the Browse panel under the "Projects" tab. There are two listing views to choose from:

  • Icon View (the default view)
    This view shows projects and and collections with large icons with names underneath them. After creation, each project has an icon similar with the one on the right, with the project type marked on it. After saving the project, a snapshot of the content is added within the standard icon.
  • List View
    This view shows two columns: one with the name of the project or collection, with a small icon in front of the name, and the second with the type of the project/collection. Different sorting orders can be set by clicking on the list headers.

Common actions

  • To open an existing project, double-click on its icon.
  • To publish a project, select it and click on the "Publish" button.
  • To archive a project, right-click on it and select "Archive...".
  • To import an archived project into Elementi, simply drag & drop the 7z file into the Browse panel under the "Projects" view.
  • To change the type of a project, right-click on it, go over "Set Type" option and select the desired project type.

Projects location

When installing Elementi, a folder named "Projects" is automatically created under "My Documents\SpinetiX" and by default, Elementi will look inside this location for projects. This folder can be easily opened by right-clicking on an empty area within the Browse panel and selecting "Open folder in explorer" option. Alternatively, run the following command: shell:Personal\SpinetiX\Projects.

The location where Elementi looks for your projects can be changed using "Menu ▶ Settings ▶ Projects/Assets location..." option. Note that the projects are not automatically copied when doing so.

How to create a project

To create a new project in Elementi, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the "Projects" tab within the Browse panel.
  2. Navigate to the collection where you want to create the new project, if needed.
  3. Click the "New Project/Document" icon from the toolbar and select the "New Project..." option.
    Elementi's toolbar menu option to create a new project
    Elementi's toolbar menu option to create a new project
    You can also click the "Menu ▶ Projects ▶ New Project..." option on the toolbar, or right-click inside the Browse panel on an empty area and select the "New Project..." option.
  4. New Project dialog
    New Project dialog
    Within the "New Project" dialog, set your project's properties:
    • Name: Enter a name for your project.
    • Model: Chose the target player model between "HMP300", "HMP350", "HMP400 / iBX410 / 4K Partner Player", or "iBX440 / 8K Partner Player".
    • Feature Set: Chose the minimum Feature Set required on the target player, between "WIDGETS", "KIOSK", "SYSTEMS".
    • Color Gamut: Defaults to SDR. If the model is "iBX440 / 8K Partner Player", you can select HDR if you have such content.
    • Cloud Account: If needed, pick out the SpinetiX cloud account associated with this project, for instance, if you are planning to use the “Connectors” service for secure data access in data-driven widgets. You might first need to log in with your SpinetiX cloud user.
    • Format: Select the content format according to the target screen(s). Some of the options below are enabled only for certain player models and/or Feature Sets.
      • Standard single-screen formats: "16:9", "4:3", "16:10", "9:16", "3:4", "10:16", 4K UHD, 4K UHD Vertical, 8K UHD, 8K UHD Vertical.
      • Non-standard single-screen formats: "Square" or "Custom" (in this case, enter the width and height).
      • For multiscreen content: “Multiscreen Array” or “Multiscreen Custom”.
    • Multiscreen: Defaults to "Single screen" for most formats. If a multiscreen format is selected, then you get "One screen per player" by default. For multi-output players like iBX440, you can also set "One player with multiple outputs" or "Many players with multiple outputs". For more details, see how to create a multiscreen project.
    • Width, Height: Enter the width and height, in pixels. Enabled only when selecting the “Custom” format.
    • Duration: Choose between "Indefinite" (the project is not time-limited), "Automatic" (the project's duration is determined automatically during playback, based on the inner content), some common durations (“0:00:30” to “0:05:00”), or enter the project's duration as hh:mm:ss.
  5. Click the 🆗 button to create the project.
    New project folder gets created
    New project folder gets created
  6. Double-click on the project icon in Browse panel to open it.
    The newly created project contains a single file, index.svg, which is automatically opened for editing and preview.
Note Notes:
  • The project name can be changed at any point from the Browse panel.
  • The model can be changed later by right-clicking on the project icon, selecting the "Project Properties..." option, and selecting the desired project type. This is however not recommended if you've already imported media files, as Elementi won't recheck for compatibility.
  • The selected format is used by default for any new Elementi layout created within the project.
  • The project duration can be changed from index.svg document properties.
  • For more details about how to add more elements to your project, see “My first Elementi project” tutorial.

Main index file

The index.svg file created automatically in the root of any new project serves as the entry point or the fondation of the project. It's the file that the player or application uses to start, organize, and render other related files. The name is case-sensitive and must be kept in lowercase. Without this file, the project cannot be published, nor rendered by the player.

When opening a project in Elementi, the index.svg file gets opened automatically. It is a a multi-layer SVG document, like a master layout, that inherits automatically the project's properties. These properties can be modified at any time from the "Document Properties" dialog by clicking on the Document Properties icon from the toolbar. The following properties can be configured:

Document Properties
Document Properties
  • Format
    Select the format of the document view box (which should match the format of the target screen).
    Choose between some standard formats (16:9, 4:3, 16:10 etc.) or custom (in this case, enter the width and height).
  • Duration (see above)
  • Background
    Enable this to add a background color to the document.

Resolution and aspect ratio

When creating a new project in Elementi, you need to select the project format; you can choose either a predefined aspect ratio format (e.g., 16:9, 16:10, 4:3, 9:16, etc.) or a custom format (and manually specify width and height values). This is applied as default format on the index.svg file and, subsequently, on all the new SVG files created inside the project. Of course, this can be changed at any time for any of the files within the project.

This format defines the vectorial dimensions (remember that SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics) for the rectangular region (i.e., viewport) onto which graphics elements are to be rendered. Note that this "resolution" of the document is not the actual video output resolution (which is set from Display settings) of the player (the content will simply be scaled to the size of the output frame) and is only used for positioning elements inside the svg container.

  • You can use whatever "resolution" you want, yet as long as the aspect ratio is kept, the result will be the same on the screen - for example 128x72, 1280x720, 1600x900 or 12800x7200 will look exactly the same on 16:9 screen.

Copy a project from a player

To copy and modify the project present saved on a player, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the "Devices" tab in Browse panel, find the player, and double-click to access the content stored on it.
  2. Select all the files from that player and copy them (CTRL+C).
  3. Click on the "Projects" tab.
  4. Create a new project and double-click to open it in Elementi.
  5. Click the X button within Preview panel to stop the project's playback.
  6. Delete the index.svg file present within.
  7. Paste the files copied before inside this newly created project.

You can now modify the content as you wish, then publish it onto that or another player.

Restricting access to parts of the project

Applies for Elementi M and Elementi X.

Within a multi-site deployment, the content management might raise some challenges - for instance, a content manager from a company headquarters would create and schedule the global communication, yet most often, the local branches would need to have their own local content included as well. This kind of situation is usually addressed through content delegation, however, in some cases, the HQ content manager might want to restrict the access to some parts of the project so that other users cannot overwrite it.

Depending on the level of restrictions to impose, there are three solutions:

  1. Low level
    User roles feature of Elementi M / X can be used to limit other users from editing / publishing the content. A user having editing role set to "Edit mode" is only able to change the content (e.g., images, videos, texts etc.) specifically marked as editable (within Elementi X), while a user with "Read only" cannot modify anything.
    The downside of this is that the user can open the project location in Windows Explorer and delete or change the project files.
  2. Medium level
    The project is divided into two collections (folders), for instance "public" and "private", and you want other users to be able to modify only the public" part.
    To achieve this, follow these steps:
    1. Set a content password on the player(s) to avoid overwriting the entire content on the player.
    2. Archive of the "public" collection and import it on the user machine.
    3. Create a "Publish Location" for address http://HMP_address:81/public/. Enter the username "content" and the password you set at first step.
    4. The user will then publish his changes onto this location.
    The downside of this is that the user can find that password under the Network Credentials and use it to overwrite the entire content.
  3. High level
    This is similar to the previous scenario, but scales better when having multiple players and also allows you to control when the content is published on the players. This requires a web server with WebDAV enabled. The players will retrieve the content using Scheduled Download / Pull mode.
    To achieve this, follow these steps:
    1. Create a skeleton project containing two folders, for instance "public" and "private", and publish it on your web server (e.g., http://Server_address/path_to_project/) using Publish Location feature. This will create the initial structure of your main project.
    2. Configure the player to automatically pull the entire project from the web server location (http://Server_address/path_to_project/) using Scheduled Download / Pull mode. You can also use RPC if you want to trigger the publish action on demand.
    3. Create a second project that will be used to publish changes onto the "private" part of the main project. Use a second "Publish Location" pointing to the "private" folder (http://Server_address/path_to_project/private/).
    4. On the user side, create a project that will be used to publish changes onto the "public" part of the main project. Use a "Publish Location" pointing to the "public" folder (http://Server_address/path_to_project/public/).

Troubleshooting

  • Project does not open in the last tab and / or nothing happens when you try to publish it.
    That's because it is not recognized as a project by Elementi. Right click on its icon and set its type to "HMP*** Project".
  • Warning: using link 'project://...' will only work on this computer.
    This warning message appears because a file was drag & dropped from another project directly into the current opened document, without copying the file into the current project. Since the URI to that file is relative, the file can be displayed only on that computer. If the project is published, the HMP won't be able to retrieve the file. The solution is to first copy the file into the current project folder and then drag & drop it into the current opened document.

See also