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Updating presentations with simple file networking

Reid Bingham

July 12, 2011 00:17

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Hello I am having some difficulty updating presentations with simple file networking. So the situation is that simple file networking with my 2 HD210s works great, I can play videos from a play list, even sync two monitors. But if I wanted to adjust scheduling or the video playlist order, I have reupload all those video files. If I try to just republish the project and then upload everything but the pool folder, it does not work. Is there a way around this? In the tutorial on the site, it says this is possible and shows how, but it seems a bit out of date, as there is no pool folder in that example, and though I am doing the very same easy steps, its still not working. Thank you so much for your help! -Reid

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13 comments

• 0
  
  Reid Bingham July 13, 2011 03:18

  
  
  Another question about Simple File Networking we are wondering about is how do the units manage data on their SD cards?  If it has downloaded a project with videos A, B, and C, and I throw up a new project with video A, B, C, D, and E, does it re-download the first three videos onto its memory card?  If so, does the original three videos stay there and take up space or are they deleted/written over?  What happens if the memory card fills up?
  
  Thanks!
  -Reid
  
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  RokuLyndon July 15, 2011 23:05

  
  
  With 2.2, almost everything is in the pool folder. So, you have to upload the contents of the pool folder minus the content. So, the autoplay file is in the pool folder, and the schedule file is in the pool folder. But, since these are tiny files, you should be able to grab just the really small files.
  
  You can also look at the current-sync.xml that's generated. It has the pool names for the all of the affected files. Normally, when you make a change that doesn't affect content, you need to transfer the autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml.
  
  The brightsign keeps all downloaded content until it starts to fill up. Any presentation that's not in the active schedule is fair game to be deleted and will be deleted automatically. If your project A and B were scheduled, and you tried to add a project C and all three couldn't fit on the card, then the unit wouldn't finish downloading C because it would be out of space. You'd have to remove A or B from the schedule for C to download.
  
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  Reid Bingham July 19, 2011 23:51

  
  
  Thank you Lyndon!
  
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  Reid Bingham July 20, 2011 21:49

  
  
  So I am still having trouble making simple presentation updates.  I am looking at the logs and from what I can deduce the boxes are not downloaded my updated presentations content.  The first part of the log where it says:
  
  L=d T=2011/07/19 16:49:52.069 I=1000 D=3.5.68 3.4.0.5
  L=d T=2011/07/19 16:50:00.430 I=1015 D=http://www.yorgoalexopoulos.com/bs-sfn7/current-sync.xml
  L=d T=2011/07/19 16:50:00.673 I=1001 D=YES
  
  I assume means that it is downloading content for the first time.  But every 5 minutes after that is this message:
  
  L=d T=2011/07/19 16:58:21.082 I=1015 D=http://www.yorgoalexopoulos.com/bs-sfn7/current-sync.xml
  L=d T=2011/07/19 16:58:21.703 I=1001 D=NO
  
  Which I can only assume means its not downloading the changed pool files Ive been uploading.
  
  Is there a way to force it to redownload the non content pool files?  Or am I doing something wrong in my process that is making it not redownload?
  
  Here is a quick run down of what I am doing when I try to update these presentations:
  1-Create + save presentation "ExampleA." Publish, uploaded to net, BS box downloads, and plays
  2-Tweak presentation (changing order of images in a simple playlist, removing an image from a simple play list, scheduling a presentation to to turn off at a certain time), resave, republish, overwrite old files.
  3-Check current-sync.xml file to find the autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml files in the pool folder and copy them over to the net, overwrite the old files.
  4-Wait about 10 minutes for the BS box to connect to the server.  Wait 10 more.  Nothing happens.
  
  Ive done variations on this as well.  Instead of resaving and republishing the presentation Ive saved as and published versions, like "ExampleA.1."  I then delete the old autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml on the net and upload the new ones from "ExampleA.1" but still no changes.  Ive also just copied over the actual autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml files that are not in the pool folder but still nothing.  I am sorry for all the trouble but I know I am super close to getting this, I think its just something small that I am doing wrong somewhere.
  
  And as always, thank you so much for your help!
  
• 0
  
  Reid Bingham July 20, 2011 23:54

  
  
  Ok so I think I got it.  Not sure what I was doing wrong before but it works!  For anyone else who is having trouble with basic presentation updates:
  
  Resave, republish, and overwrite your old files.  Throw the actual autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml files onto the net and overwrite the old ones.  Open up current-sync and in the pool find the autorun.brs, resources.txt, autoschedule.xml, the autoplay-xxx.xml files and copy those to the net + overwrite the old files.  And thats it.
  
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  Dphillips April 19, 2013 18:28

  Hi,  Is there a recent fix for this?  I'm going to be asking non-technical users to publish content, and I can't ask them to update the autorun files manually if they only want to make a minor change.  I want them to just be able to publish and go.  I've been experimenting making minor changes and I can't get the devices to update on their own when they call in to the web server to check for new content.

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  Alex April 21, 2013 16:32

  You don't need to edit any files. If you modify a project, you have to publish it again, so the new presentation configuration files are generated. Then, you transfer those files to a web folder, replacing the duplicate files.

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  Dphillips April 22, 2013 11:28

  Ok, my boxes just updated, but they're taking a couple of hours to do so.  They're set to check for new content every five minutes, so something else seems to be broken.

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  Alex April 22, 2013 14:06

  There are 2 places where you set the connection frequency for the brightsign:

  1) When creating setup files for the unit (Tools - Setup BrightSign unit)

  2) Before you publish a presentation, press "Set Parameters" button and set the "Content Check Frequency Value"

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  Dphillips April 22, 2013 14:19

  These are both set to 5 minutes.

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  Dphillips April 22, 2013 14:22

  Additionally, the BrightSign logs indicate they're checking for new content every five minutes, and while the web server time stamp indicates the files were published, the BrightSigns aren't grabbing the new content.

• 0
  
  Lyndon April 22, 2013 22:18

   

  DOes the webserver log show that the brightsign is downloading the current-sync.xml file?If you log into your dignostic web server, and click on the log tab, what error output is there when the brightsign tries to do a download
  ? 

• 0
  
  Dphillips April 23, 2013 12:53

  We found the problem.  I have the boxes set to use our proxy, and they were only updating when the proxy updated its cache.  I added the web server to the exception list on the proxy, problem resolved.