Xibo User Guide - baixardoc.com
Transcript of Xibo User Guide - baixardoc.com
Xibo User Guide
What is Xibo Xibo (pronounced eX-E-bO) is an open source, multi-display, multi-zone, fully scheduled digital
signage solution controlled from a centrally managed web interface.
“Digital signage is a form of electronic display that shows information, advertising and other
messages. Digital signs (such as LCD, LED, plasma displays, or projected images) can be
found in public and private environments, such as retail stores and corporate buildings”
Wikipedia.org
The main advantage of a digital sign is that it is very easy to update content regularly to keep it fresh
and interesting.
Xibo Concepts
Xibo operates using several concepts to display its information.
Stock images, video, PowerPoint slides, etc can be stored in the Xibo Library. The library in addition
to text, web pages, RSS feeds and more are used to design layouts, which can be a single screen or
multiple screens with various display areas. The layouts are then scheduled using the Xibo scheduler
to appear on displays (which are individual display PC’s). Xibo can support up to 200 displays and
Layout (Media,
Text, Web
Pages, Feeds,
etc)
ScheduleMedia (Images,
Video,
PowerPoint,
etc)
Display
each display can be running different layouts on different schedules. These concepts will be covered
in more detail later in this document.
Login into Xibo
The University Xibo server is accessed via your web browser using the URL:
http://xibo.nottingham.ac.uk/xibo/
Which will present you with a login page like that seen in
Figure 1..
To login enter your user name and password, as
provided by your I.T. Support Representative, and click
Log In.
Please note that the username and password is case
sensitive.
Once you are logged into Xibo, you will be presented
with the Dashboard screen.
The Dashboard The Dashboard is the first page you will see when you log into Xibo. The number of options on this
screen will vary depending on the user rights you have been assigned. For example an administrative
user will see a screen like Figure 2.
Figure 2 - Dashboard
However, a general user is much more likely to have a subset of these options, such as those shown
in Figure 3.
Figure 1 - Login Screen
Figure 3 – Limited Dashboard
The Icons on these screens are as follows:
• Schedule - Access the schedule for each display, and schedule new or existing layouts to
displays.
• Layouts - Create, edit or delete layouts
• Library - Create, replace or delete media items
• Templates - View the templates that are offered to users when they create new layouts.
• Users - Allows administration of users on the system (Admins Only)
• Settings - Xibo configuration settings (Admins Only)
• License - Information about the licenses Xibo is released under.
• Manual - Access the online manual
Users and Groups and Permissions Users in Xibo are also assigned to groups. Groups are collections of like individuals that need
permission to access the same items such as different members of the same department or school.
All items in Xibo, including media and layouts have permissions on who can view and change them;
these permissions are set by either user or group, or can be set to public for all users. Therefore,
when you log in to Xibo you will only see those items to which you have permission, and you can feel
safe knowing that only people in your group and administrators will be able to access your content.
Note: Currently all displays on the system are visible to all users (although not editable). In the next
version of Xibo server displays will be groupable, ensuring that users will only see the displays they
are entitled to see.
The Library The library in Xibo is where all the media you upload to Xibo is stored. Note: There is a limit on the
size of media that can be uploaded, and this is currently 128Mb per media item. Larger files such as
videos can always be accessed via the Internet. Figure 4 below shows a sample of the Library screen
with a couple of media items in it.
Figure 4 – Library Screen
The screen shows the name of the item, the type of item (e.g. image, flash, etc...), the default
duration, the permissions on the item, the owner and what actions can be carried out on the item
(e.g. Edit, Delete).
Please note that we are trying to operate a naming convention in the Universities implementation of
Xibo. For media this convention is:
School/Department – Media Type – Description
Where School/Department should be the name of the school or department which owns the content
(e.g. Geography or Finance), for the general Labstats user this should simply be Labstats.
Media type is as follows:
Background – This is an image which is used for a layout background.
Image – All other images (Image formats supported are jpg, jpeg, png and gif).
Video – Video files (supported format are wmv, mpeg and mpg).
Flash – Flash animations, applets and videos (swf files).
PowerPoint – PowerPoint presentations (These are in PowerPoint 2003 format and not
2007, e.g. ppt, pps) and there are a number of steps needed to make a PowerPoint
presentation compatible with Xibo (more about this below).
Description is free text to describe the content.
Adding Media into the Library
From the Library screen you can add media to Xibo, this is not strictly necessary as it is possible to
add media when designing layouts, which will be added to the library as part of the process, but if
you have media you wish to add and use regularly you may wish to upload this before layout design.
Clicking the Add Media option at the top of the
Library screen will open a popup box which
offers you the choice of uploading Images,
Video, Flash or PowerPoint (Figure 5).
Clicking any of these options will open a window asking for the image file, a name (see naming
Figure 5 – Add Media options
convention above), duration (in seconds) and
what Sharing permissions you want to up on
the item (Figure 6).
There will also be some notes on the file
types and size limits in place for each media
type.
To add the item click the Browse button, and
navigate to where the file you wish to upload
is stored. Clicking this will add it to the Image
File field. Enter the name of the item, and the
default duration (in seconds) you want for this item. Clicking the Sharing drop down menu will
present you with three options Private, Group and Public. Select the appropriate option and then
click Save.
All popup windows in Xibo have and X in the upper right hand corner of the window which allows
you close the popup, much like that used in Microsoft Windows.
Viewing the Library
When you want to check the contents of the library, it may hold many pages of media which will
make finding the items you require harder. On the top of the Library screen you will notice a Filter
option. Clicking this opens
up a filter form which will
allow you to limit the
items on the Library
screen (Figure 7).
There are several ways to use this filter to maximum effect.
The Type dropdown menu allows you to select the type of media (such as Image, Video, etc). Use of
the Owner dropdown allows selection of the user who owns the media, and the Shared dropdown
limits the selection to either Private, Group, Public or All permissions.
It is worth noting the Retired option, when removing content from Xibo, if it is in use anywhere in
the system it is not possible to delete the item, and it must then be retired. Retiring an item in the
Library will remove it from the view, but not from the system.
Finally, the Name option on the filter is very powerful and it will become apparent why we are using
the naming convention we have chosen. The system will only return matches for the text entered
into the Name field, so for example if we only wanted to see Background items we could enter
Background into this box and the list would change to only show background items. This is a
Figure 6 – Add New Image Screen
Figure 7 – Filter Options
powerful tool when you have a lot of content in the system, and you should experiment with how it
is used.
Updating Media
From the Library screen you can also update media; you may wish to change the duration, replace
the media with a new version or delete/retire the media.
To change a media item
click the Edit button next
the item. A screen which is
similar to the add media
option will then appear
(Figure 8).
In this screen you can
change the default duration
of the item, the name or
the permissions.
To replace the version of the media with a new version, use the Browse button, select the media and
upload. See the “Note:” at the bottom though. As this media could have been used in several
existing layouts, replacing it with a new version will not automatically cause all the layouts that use it
to start using the new version. You must manually remove/add the media from those layouts to get
the newest version.
Deleting media is more complex. Because media can be reused multiple times, and sometimes by
many different users on different displays, the system won't let you delete media unless it has never
been used in a layout (or it has been removed from all layouts in which it has been used). Xibo
instead offers to retire media. That means that it will continue to be available in layouts that are pre-
existing, but will not be offered for use in any new layout.
Clicking the Delete button next to a media item will show you what is possible. If you're happy to
proceed, you can click OK to take that action.
PowerPoint Media Items
PowerPoint and Xibo have a special relationship and there are a number of requirements and
options you need to be aware of before using PowerPoint slides.
• Most importantly, Xibo is not currently compatible with PowerPoint 2007 or 2010, slides
must be saved in PowerPoint 2003 format (e.g. ppt & pps).
• Make sure your presentation is the right shape. PowerPoint slides are 4:3 ratio by default.
Use “Design Ribbon � Page Layout” to change the width to 31.8cm for a 16:9 ratio slide.
Figure 8 - Edit Image
• Make sure your presentation has slide timings. If you run the slide show on your PC and the
slides and animations advance without your interaction, then you've done it right. To setup
automatic advance on the slides, go to “Slideshow Ribbon � Rehearse Timings”.
• Turn off scrollbars. Go to “Slideshow Ribbon � Setup Show” and choose “Browsed by an
individual (windowed)” and ensure
“Show scrollbar” is NOT ticked.
Once you have these settings, you can save
your presentation ready to upload to Xibo.
Note: It is worth considering splitting you slideshow up if there are regular changes and additions to
the content, as each smaller slide can be separate layouts letting Xibo manage the display of each
one.
Layouts A layout is made up of a background picture or colour. On top of that, one or more transparent
boxes are drawn - “regions” - which can contain one or more media items (pictures, videos etc). Let’s
look at a finished layout as shown on the digital sign, and then work out how it was constructed
(Figure 10).
Figure 10 - Example Layout
Figure 9 - Slide Show Settings
Here you can see a screen that you might find in a hotel conference centre. It's showing the itinerary
for two conference suites and a news feed from the BBC. Let's take a look at how it has been
constructed (figure 11):
Figure 11 - Example Layout Construction
This is the designer view for Xibo. You can see the background image, and on top of it are drawn six
regions (each identified by the dashed lines). The regions contain images, text and an RSS Ticker.
Note for Opera Users: The Opera browser does not allow Xibo to substitute its own context menu
when right-clicking in the layout designer. It is therefore not possible to perform certain operations
in the Opera Browser. Users are advised to use Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari or Internet
Explorer instead as these browsers do not have such a limitation.
The Layout Screen
Clicking the Layout option opens the Layout screen (Figure 12). On this screen you can see all the
layouts your user has rights to see.
Figure 12 - Layout Screen
The layout screen lists the Name of the Layout, a Description, Permissions, Owner, Group and a
series of actions that can be performed on the layout (Design, Edit and Delete).
As with the Library we have designed a naming convention to try and make the display of the layouts
more manageable. This naming convention is as follows:
School/Department – Layout
or for Labstats displays
Labstats – Building - Room
Where School/Department should be the name of the school or department which owns the content
(e.g. Geography or Finance.
Layout is free text intended to describe the content.
For Labstats displays the entries are self explanatory. Example of layout names include:
Geography – News
Law – Events
Labstats – Trent – LG25
As with media, this screen
has a Filter option (Figure
13), which includes the
ability to filter by Name,
Owner, Share Permissions,
Retired and a new field
Tags.
This screen functions the
same way as the library.
The Actions listed next to each item on the list have various functions which will be covered in
greater detail later in this document.
Creating a New Layout
To create a new layout select the Layouts screen from the Dashboard and then click Add Layout.
You will be presented with a popup entitled
“Add/Edit a Layout” (Figure 14).
The Add Layout screen asks for various information,
some of which is Mandatory the rest is Optional.
The fields on the Add Layout form are described as
follows:
Figure 13 - Layout Filter
Figure 14 - Add Layout
Name (Mandatory)
A name for this layout. This is how you will refer to it later on when scheduling or editing the
layout.
Description (Optional)
An optional description for the layout.
Tags (Optional)
A space-separated list of keywords to apply to the layout. These could be used to identify
groups of layouts or sometimes have special meaning if you have specialised versions of the
Xibo client.
Shared (Mandatory)
Choose who can see this layout in Xibo. Private means only you (and Admins) can see the
layout. "Group" means people in your group can see the layout and "Public" means
everyone can see it.
Template (Mandatory)
Optionally you can choose a template to base your new layout on.
Choosing the right template
Xibo comes with a selection of default templates which we think will cater for most digital signage
applications (e.g. LCD TVs, projectors, portrait screens).
The Xibo client will make its best effort to fit whatever shape layout you choose on to the screen,
however sending a client a layout in a 4:3 aspect ratio when it's connected to a 16:9 TV wastes two
bars on either side of your content.
Try to choose an template with the closest aspect ratio to the screen you'll be showing the layout
on. Here's a list of typical displays and the template to choose:
LCD/Plasma Widescreen TV
LCD TVs tend to be either 16:9 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 16:9" first. If you find there are
slim black bars to the top and bottom of your full screen content, try switching to "Full
Screen 16:10".
Widescreen Projectors
Widescreen projectors can be 16:9 or 16:10 so you'll need to try both and see which fits
best.
Widescreen Computer Monitors
Widescreen Computer Monitors are usually 16:10 but there are a few 16:9 ones out there.
Try "Full Screen 16:10" first.
Computer Monitors
Non-widescreen computer monitors are usually 4:3 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 4:3".
CRT Televisions
Old TVs tend to be either 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 4:3" or "Full Screen 3:2"
and see which fits best.
There are also specialist versions of all the above displays that are turned on their side. Called
"Portrait" displays, they are taller than they are wide. Xibo supports all the above aspect ratios for