Sources

A Source is a file location or network location that is used to retrieve pieces of text. The text may be a single item, or may be arranged in a grid.

Each source is monitored for changes at a specified interval.

The source also contains information about how it should be processed – including file format information, file format translations, and data picking.

The source is processed into an internal XML representation, which can be viewed for debug purposes. Sources include no information about where – and how – the text is to be delivered. That is contained in the Units and Destinations.

Sources are shown with a red status LED if they are unavailable for any reason. Sources which are currently in use and being accessed successfully are shown with a green LED. Inactive sources are shown with greyed out.

Sources Menu

Right-clicking in the Sources pane will call up the Sources menu, allowing you to Add, Edit, Duplicate and Delete sources.

You can use View Processed Text to see the text from the source (in an XML form).

Force Update will force the source content to be reprocessed, and thus update any datasources or text boxes derived from it.

Open Source File… will open the file (or URL) associated with the source in the appropriate tool: for example, Notepad, Excel or your web browser.

Units

Every Imagestore or IconStation must be added as a Unit. Units can have a simple descriptive name, and either an IP address or serial port information. Each unit can be made active or inactive to control text delivery to it. Inactive units are shown dimmed.  Units are shown with a yellow warning triangle if communications with them cannot be established. Unit which have not been communicated with (and whose status is therefore unknown)

Destinations

Each destination is a location within a Unit that defines where and how text is to be delivered. For Imagestores, text is typically sent into “Datasource” containers, but on occasion it can be sent directly into a Text Box on the current template.

When you add or edit a destination, you must specify the source that is providing text for this destination. To do this, choose the required source from the pull-down list of sources.

Units and Destinations Menu

Right-clicking in the Units and Destinations pane will display a menu allowing you to manage your units and destinations. The exact set of options enabled will depend what is selected when you right-click.

You can Add, Edit, and Delete both Units and Destinations.

Show Destination… allows you to see exactly what text is being sent to what destination – presenting a grid with text and column headings.

Pausing the mouse over any piece of text will display the datasource name to which the text is being sent. In the example above, NEWSTitle_6  is being sent the text “Jaguar announces 300 job losses”.

Log Messages

The bottom pane of the main window is used to display status and warning messages. Additional logging can be enabled in the “Options” dialog, but this should not be enabled unless specifically requested by Rascular.

Right-clicking in the log pane calls up a context menu, with options for saving the log to a file, and for clearing the log window.

You can make the log window visible or invisible by choosing ”View Log” from the Actions menu.

Drag and Drop

ET-Updater works with the Windows desktop to allow sources to be quickly configured using a simple drag-and-drop approach.

Files can be dragged onto the sources pane, causing them to be added as sources.

Website links and URLs can be dragged on to the “sources” pane. In most cases, RSS feeds will be correctly detected and a default RSS XSLT translator assigned.

Any source on the “sources” pane can also be dragged and dropped onto an Imagestore unit to create a destination. Destinations can be dragged from one unit to another – holding the CTRL key pressed while doing this will create duplicates of the destinations.