April 30th, 2012 by Robb
We have had a few forum posts about installation issues as a result of the logged in user not being an Administrator on the computer that is giving them grief.
To make sure you have Administrator privileges on Windows, click the Start Button, then click the image or blank spot, that appears above your Username, and up pops the User Accounts window which let’s you know what user rights you have.
To do the same thing in Linux Ubuntu click on your Username in the top right, choose “User Accounts” and up pops a similar dialogue.
If you are not an Administrator, you’ll need an Administrator to log in and change your account type. Until then don’t try to install the Rise Vision digital signage solution as it for sure won’t work as you expect. Any questions or suggestions let us know in the forum. Thanks!
April 23rd, 2012 by Robb
Sometimes, when playing a Presentation using our digital signage system, the mouse cursor may show over select content, even though you’ve selected to hide the mouse pointer in the Presentation settings. There’s nothing more annoying than having an awesome looking Presentation, and then the mouse pointer shows up right smack dab in the middle of it. Thankfully, there is an easy way to hide the mouse cursor in both Windows and Linux.
For Linux, it’s called “Unclutter”, and we have a discussion about it in our forum. Simply install it from Terminal or the Ubuntu Software Center, reboot, and after 5 seconds of inactivity, the mouse will disappear. In most cases it should work when you reboot, but if it does not, one of our users has the instructions in that same forum discussion on how to auto start Unclutter when your Linux box starts. Thanks Brian!
For Windows, there is a program aptly titled “Auto Hide Mouse Cursor”, which you can download from here. It’s a very small install, and allows you to choose how long the mouse cursor will show before it disappears. Make sure to check that it auto starts with Windows, and that it starts hidden, as you don’t want it front and center when the digital signage display restarts 
.
I hope everyone finds this info useful, and if you have any questions, please let us know in the forum.
Thanks!
April 18th, 2012 by Donna
We’re very excited to announce that we’ve just launched a new Design & Development Documentation section of our web site! The documentation found there is a compilation of our best Developer-related blog posts, as well as all of the technical documentation that was previously found on our Google Code Wikis. Now, you’ll find this information all in one place, and structured in such a way that it should be a no-brainer to find what you’re looking for.
Here’s what’s covered:
We’ll be continually updating this documentation with new information, so be sure to check back often. Enjoy!
April 17th, 2012 by Donna
If you’ve ever used the Photo Album Gadget with the Cover Flow option, then perhaps you’ve wondered about those image reflections. ‘How are those created?’ you may have asked yourself. Well, lend me your ear and I’ll tell you.
They are created using a vendor-specific CSS property known as -webkit-box-reflect. This is a simple, yet powerful, Webkit-only property, meaning it will only work in Webkit-based browsers such as Chrome and Safari, and includes our digital signage player. In the Photo Album Gadget, the property looks like this:
-webkit-box-reflect: below 0px -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 100%);
Let’s step through the different parameters.
The first parameter is mandatory, and it specifies the direction in which the reflection is projected. Valid values are above, below, left, or right. In the Photo Album Gadget, we show the reflection below the actual image.
The second parameter is optional. It is used to indicate the amount of spacing to place between the original image and its reflection. If no value is provided, then there will be no spacing between the image and reflection. In our example, we’ve specified 0px, so the image and its reflection will butt right up against each other.
The third parameter is also optional. It specifies a mask to apply to the reflection. A mask renders part of the reflection transparent or translucent, and can be either an image URL or a gradient. Only the alpha value of the mask’s color values has any effect on the reflection. In the example above, we’ve used a linear gradient that goes from transparent at the top to semi-transparent at the bottom. This is the opposite of what the reflection actually looks like, which is semi-transparent at the top and fully transparent at the bottom. This is because the reflection always shows a mirror image of the masked element. You can read more about gradients here.
We hope to see you make use of this awesome CSS property in some of your own digital signage Presentations!
April 16th, 2012 by Robb
When you want to update images or videos that you have running in our digital signage software, an easy option is to upload a new file to your online repository and overwrite the existing one that is currently running in your Presentation. To get the change to show up on your digital signage displays immediately, simply save your Presentation and then mark it as Published, or restart the Display. Once you do that, the video or image item at that URL will be updated to show the new file. That’s it, super easy.
The reason your Display doesn’t update automatically once you make the file change is because there is no automatic refresh action associated with images or videos. Think of your web browser, when it shows outdated information on a webpage, you refresh and it gets the newest version of the content on that page. The Presentation running on the Display works the same way, once you save and publish your Presentation, the Player retrieves the newest version of the updated content.
I hope everyone finds this information useful, and if you have any questions, let us know in the forum.
Thanks!
