Widgets

Widgets are a cornerstone of the TrouDigital Studio. Use this article to learn about the purpose of each widget.

Widgets can be found in the Widget Panel on the left-side of the Studio.

To input a widget into your creative, drag it into your canvas. You can use the handles surrounding the widget (i.e. the circles on each corner and squares on each side) to resize and reshape. You’ll also notice that when a widget is selected, a designated ‘settings’ tab will appear on the right.

Each widget will have unique settings, however there are some commonalities across them all:

Even though you can use your cursor to amend size and position, this can be used to enter measurements manually.

This section allows you to amend the colour of the widget, where the fill is the background and the frame is the outline.

If your screen is touch-enabled, utilise this function to create touch interactions with the widget and dictate the nature of this interaction (i.e. opens a different creative).

In this section, you can name a widget and exclude it from playback.

Naming a widget is useful when you need to distinguish between variations of the same widget (e.g. if you have three text boxes).

Checking the ‘Exclude from Playback’ box means the widget will not be shown on screen when you play the creative. This is necessary when you want to include notes to yourself and the team.

The rest of this article will give you a detailed breakdown on the purpose of each Widget.

Text Box

Craft your copy with the Text Box.

After dragging and dropping the Text Box into your creative, click the centre of the box to begin inputting text. Once you’ve clicked into the widget, you’ll see formatting options above the Text Box.

A unique setting for this widget is the ability to add Giphy text. Giphy text generates animated options for the text of your choosing (up to 60 characters). Give it a try!

Label

The Label widget is perfect for headings and sub-headings.

After you’ve dragged the Label into your creative, click the centre to begin inputting text. You’ll notice that a new section titled ‘Label’ will appear in the settings of your creative. This is where you can change the formatting of your text (i.e. the font, size and colour).

Image

Use this widget to import images straight from the Media Center.

Once you’ve placed the widget into the canvas, it will appear in the settings as ‘Image EMPTY’. Choose an image from ‘My Library’ in the settings tab, and it will immediately replace the empty image.

Video

Use this widget to import video content directly into the Studio.

The process is the same as the image widget (navigate to ‘My Library’ in the widget’s settings and select your content).

In the widget’s settings, you can change the volume of the video. Most video content has audio elements, therefore being able to amend the volume to your liking is essential.

GIF

Use this widget to import GIFs.

Drag the widget into your canvas, select your GIF from the ‘My Library’ section of the settings tab (on the right) and it will be good to go!

Slideshow

Want to include multiple widgets in one section of the creative? Look no further.

Place the Slideshow widget in your canvas, and proceed to drag and drop the combination of widgets you want to include.

Once you drop a widget in, it will be added to a table in the widget’s settings. In this table, you can dictate the order of the widgets, along with the duration of time that they stay on screen.

Underneath the table, you will see the Playback section. Here’s what the three functions do:

Checking the ‘Round video duration’ box will round the duration of any videos within the Slideshow to a whole number (e.g. if a video is 6.2s, ticking this box will make it only play for 6s).
Enabling ‘Shuffle Slides’ means that the slides will appear in a random order.
This allows you to choose the amount of slides that are played before your screen switches to the next creative in the playlist.

Web Image

Use this widget to import images directly from the internet.

After placing the widget into your canvas, you’ll see two options in the ‘Add Image From’ section of the widget’s settings.

The first option is to add an image through its URL (just make sure it ends with .jpg or .png).
Alternatively, you can import images directly from Unsplash.

Web Video

With this widget, you can embed video content directly from the internet.

In the widget’s settings, input the URL of the video you want to show on the screen. Underneath, you can decide whether a ‘Reload Interval’ is included and how long the interval is (the amount of time between each URL refresh).

Furthermore, in settings you can choose whether to ‘use video time as creative duration’. If this box is checked, your screen will play the Creative until the Web Video has finished.

Ticker

Use the Ticker to supercharge your screens with scrolling text.

In the widget’s settings, you can enter the text you’d like to appear on the Ticker and define the order in which you’d like it to appear.

Underneath, you’ll notice the ‘Display’ section. Here you can change the speed, direction and spacing of the Text. You can also choose whether you want the title of the entry to appear before or after.

The ‘Format’ section is where you can choose the formatting options for both the title and text (i.e. font options).

RSS

RSS Feeds allow you to display live information on your screens.

RSS Feeds supply information in a computer-readable format, allowing it to be interpreted and presented live on your screens. Simply input the RSS Feed URL and it will appear in a scroll format.

As these are live feeds, they must be continuously updated. Underneath the URL, there is a setting that allows you to choose how often and how many items are reloaded.

RSS Feeds will appear alongside the date and time the information was published, which can be formatted in the settings tab.

In the Ticker section of the widget’s settings, you can dictate the speed, direction, title position and spacing of the RSS Feed.

Finally, the Title and Text sections allow you to format these aspects of the widget separately.

Media RSS

All the benefits of a traditional RSS feed, with the addition of images.

On the widget’s settings, you can choose the duration of time a particular piece of information will stay on the screen, as well as how often the feed refreshes. (e.g. for a news feed, the duration of time each story stays on screen and how often the set of stories refresh).

YouTube

Display videos directly through YouTube with this widget.

Whether it’s your creation or someone else’s, use these videos to showcase content directly through YouTube. Simply drag in the widget, add the URL of the video you’d like to show and you’re good to go.

Weather

Display live weather information for any location across the globe.

In the widget’s settings, you can dictate the location and date of the information, as well as the units of measurement. Furthermore, this is where you can change the formatting of the title and content (e.g. font, size etc).

Clock

Keep everything on track with a live clock.

In settings, you can change aspects such as the date format, time zone and text properties.

Calendar

Stay organised with the Calendar widget.

We offer three templates: a grid view, a list view and one that incorporates elements of both. The template style can be amended in the widget’s settings, such as the alignments, fonts and theme.

Furthermore, you can limit the number of events shown at one time in the widget’s settings, which will likely be dictated by how large you’d like each event to be on-screen.

Calendars can be synced with live scheduling software (such as Outlook and Google Calendar), which will automate the process of updating the widget.

Top Tip: This feature is perfect for giving employees line-of-sight on company schedules or notifying customers of important events.

Timer

The ideal tool when time is of the essence.

Launch event coming up? Deadline looming? Use this widget to display the amount of time left.

Once you have placed the widget in your canvas, you can make dictate the length of the countdown in the widget’s settings.

Shape

Use this widget to add shape elements to your Creative.

Simply drag in the widget and choose the shape you’d like. The colour, size and position are up to you!

FTP

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows you to connect a server to your content.

Instead of uploading files directly to the studio, FTP will pull files straight from the connected server, where they will be shown in the area occupied by the widget.

Touch

To see and hear your content is one thing, but true interaction starts with touch.

If your screen enables touch interaction, this widget is of primary importance. We’ve mentioned that you can add touch elements to widgets in its settings, however this widget allows you to create touch events anywhere on the screen.

Simply drag it in, position it over the desired area and shape the nature of the interaction (choose from the ‘Action’ drop-down in the widget’s settings). Each action requires different information (e.g a URL is needed to launch a webpage). Make sure you’ve filled out the boxes underneath the action completely and accurately before sending the content to your screens.

Sub Creative

Use this widget to format multiple Creatives in the same canvas.

We often see our clients apply this widget in unique and innovative ways, so we encourage you to explore its uses and be imaginative.

Here are some examples of how this widget could be used:

If you have designated a portion of your screen to another party, instead of giving them access to the entire Creative, give them control of a blank Creative that’s linked to that particular section.

For those that have a multi-screen setup controlled by one Media Player, you can evenly segment your canvas so that a single Creative appears on each screen.

If there is a common widget appearing across your Playlist, this tool can be used to ensure it runs consistently as your screen transitions through the content. For example, if you don’t want a Ticker to reset when content changes, you could embed the Ticker to run continuously throughout the Playlist.

Embed HTML

Through this widget, you can embed code directly into your Creatives.

If you have a specific script of code that you would like to include in your Creative, use this widget to input the code and dictate its size/position.

Streaming

Need to project a stream from a platform other than UStream? This widget’s for you.

Even though we offer a standalone widget for UStream, there are often times when our clients need to show live content through a different platform.

This widget accommodates this. Simply drag it into your canvas, add the URL of the stream you want to show in settings and the Studio will do the rest.

Ad Serving

Use this widget to connect your screens directly to an advertising vendor.

This widget can be directly linked to Adomni and Vistar Media. Once it’s dragged into your canvas and positioned correctly, choose your ‘Vendor’ in settings.

Next, input the relevant information in the ‘Connection’ section, and the vendor’s advertising will begin to appear on your screens.

Dashboards

Power your screens with a data-driven dashboard.

In a data-driven world, we understand the value of being able to present key metrics on your screens. That’s why we’ve directly integrated Tableau and Power BI with the Studio.

Once you drag in the widget, a pop-up will appear showcasing the available options. You can either:

Link your PowerBI/Tableau account,
Design a dashboard with the gauges provided in the Studio.

Table

Display data in an easy-to-read table.

After dragging the widget into your canvas, you’ll see a multitude of options appear in settings.

The most important one is ‘Data Source’, as this dictates what information will be presented in the table. It will originally appear as ‘Demo’, which consists of test data provided by us. This will help you visualise what the table will look like, in terms of its Style, Font and Cell format.

To import your actual data, choose the data source type (either API or CSV), link the URL and establish a Fetch Interval (how often the table will pull data from the source). Once you’ve linked your data source, any inputs into the source data will be automatically reflected on your screens.

Smart Switch

This widget has been designed specifically to manage traffic.

Many of our clients need to control traffic (e.g. footfall) in their buildings. The Smart Entrance facilitates this, enabling you to link a controller that measures the traffic and changes the logo shown on the screen accordingly.