Need help creating a work-around for updates

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Offline n_rothstein

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Need help creating a work-around for updates
« on: February 23, 2011, 04:25:10 PM »
Greetings all!

I work in the AV/IT space on a small college campus.  We have about a dozen MagicInfo screens around our campus, each with a different "owner".  Our current support model has these different people sending their content to me once a week for posting on the screens.  Our wish is to have some sort of drop box where they can place their updated material and have it update the existing screen file automatically.  I am concerned about giving access to our server to departments where less technically proficient staff or highly tech savvy students will have access to this system.  If any of you have found a way to do this I would be most grateful if you are willing to share.  I am not a programmer, so this is way beyond my capabilities.

Thanks,

Ned Rothstein, CTS
Classroom Technology Support Specialist
Babson College

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Offline Ewanl30

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Re: Need help creating a work-around for updates
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2011, 04:34:14 PM »
I know what you mean i suffer from exactly the same thing the easiest way and something im working on currently is to have several webpages setup that can have content edited onto them as you say a drop in box they attach a document to a screen which then automatically shows on the screens.

All you need to do is have the screens setup with a specific number of webpages and then have a backend system setup to take the details just need to setup a refresh time of ensure the page doesnt cache.

I'm having the pages update with stats so not much interaction with people just now but personally I would not be keen to allow anyone to upload any content that has not been verified as for business reasons it has to look as professional as possible.

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Offline Ewanl30

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Re: Need help creating a work-around for updates
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2011, 04:37:18 PM »
the only other possible way that maybe of help is train each person on the software yourself.

for each owner install the server onto their own pc and have it connect only to their screen via direct ip connection

Sort of solves the problem and takes much of the responsibility away however as you can see from posts below
Magicinfo isnt the easiest of software at time and having some technical knowledge when using it can help if issues arise.

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Offline Bill Coral

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Re: Need help creating a work-around for updates
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2011, 10:46:50 PM »
Hmmm.... there are few things you can do. First of all get MagicInfo I Premium. This is an enterprise digital signage package and Samsung gives it for free for 5 clients for a single web server and unlimited authors. Awesome!

What you can do with MagicInfo pro is to set your server(s) in saving their schedules/templates on a shared drive....  Sign in, Tools, Options, Schedule tab and configure the LocalPublish path to a shared drive and path that will belong to each individual.

Then, you configure the client to point to each individual's network path and allocate the client software to always point to that shared path (it has to be a drive, because the client doesn't accept paths, but only drive letters.

And that is it! No user has to point to their screens, and connect to be honest.

The only problem is that they have to use LocalPublish as opposed to Network Publish and at some point to reboot the screen as they will never know that the schedule has changed. I know this is a bit confusing, but the server doesn't have to communicate with the screen for sending content in this way. It is only used as a content creation tool. But as it is not connecting to the screen, it cannot control it, so the schedule published on the shared drive (or path) cannot be executed until the screens is reset I am afraid.

I hope this gives you a pointer to work at it.

But seriously, MagicInfo I Premium is the way forward.

Bill