How to incorporate images and text into a Custom RSS Feed?

Another feature available to users is the ability to create Media RSS Feeds using the Custom RSS Feed editor. A lot of users opt for using the scrolling text RSS feed, but with a little practice and use of this particular guide you can begin to improve on your use of this feature and begin to create impressive Media RSS Feeds for your registered Signagelive players.

Within the following guide we will take a clearer look at how to create a Media RSS feed and the following steps about how to save, arrange in a playlist and the techniques required on how to show this within your content deployment.

Watch how to create a Media RSS Feed:

Where is the Custom RSS Feed feature?

When you are ready to create your own Custom RSS Feeds then you will need to carry out the following steps to find this feature:

Firstly login to your Signagelive network and then hover your mouse over the Content menu.
You will now be presented with a drop-down menu and will need to move your cursor to the Assets option.
Another drop-down will appear and you will now need to click on the Message Manager Template Editor option.

How do I begin to create a Feed?

Now that you have located the Custom RSS Feed feature on your network you are now ready to begin creating your first Media RSS feed. To begin creating your feed you will need to carry out the following steps:

Within the Feed Browser window, you will need to click on the blue New Feed button.
After clicking the New Feed button you will taken in to a Create New Feed window.
You will now need to give your custom feed a Title, which will act as the name you wish to give your overall feed.
When you have given your feed a name and possibly a description then you are ready to begin adding items to your feed.

What are Items?

In terms of your Custom RSS Feed, Items are the stories, news headlines, media images and essentially the text you wish to show upon the screens within a standard ticker or Media RSS. You can use as many items as you would like in a custom feed.

Beginning to add Items to your Custom RSS Feed?

So far you've just created your Custom RSS Feed and given this a naming reference which will be used to find this on your network in the future. That is the first step of creating your feed completed and you will now need to begin adding news stories and media to your feed as per below:

To begin adding items to your feed you will need to now click on the blue Add Items button.
When you have clicked this button, you will now be presented with the following screen:
You will need to now give your Item a name within the Title field. The text shown in the Title field will be shown upon your screens if you are going to use a standard scrolling ticker within your content; the text will now show if you are going to setup a Media RSS style feed.
As before you can also enter a Description if you wish, however, this text will not be shown on your screens.
You can now click on the blue Add Media button to begin adding images to your feed and will then be shown the Add Media to Item screen:
You will now be asked "Where would you like to get the asset from?"and basically asks where you would like to retrieve your desired media asset from; this can be either from your signagelive network library or from your computer.

Getting an asset from "My signagelive Library"

If at this stage you decide to click on the "My Signagelive library" then you will be going through the process of finding the desired media within your Signagelive network asset library and this will assume you have already uploaded the content.

When you see the asset preview screen you are now ready to select the image you would wish to use for the background of your item.
You can use either the search feature to locate your assets, or the page numbering at the bottom left to scroll for your assets.
When you have found your asset you will need to click your mouse button on the desired image preview with a single click.

When an image has been selected, you will be presented with the following screen:

It is at this stage that you can either add or edit your selected image. The editing process will allow you to add text fields which we will look at in depth later on within this guide. If you now select Add your media asset will now be added to your item and you'll be presented with a similar message.

Getting an asset from "My Computer"

If at this stage you decide to click on the "My Computer" then you will be selecting an asset from your computer and then uploading this as an media image at this stage of creating the Custom RSS Feed:

To begin you will need to click on the Choose File button and you will be presented with a prompt to search and locate your image.
When you have located your image, you can now click on the green Upload image.
You will now be presented with a "Please Wait one moment whilst signagelive processes your request".

Editing your Images to include Text Boxes?

Now you have added an image to your item you can now begin to add text boxes to your image, which will act as the messages you will be showing on your registered players with a Media RSS Feed. To begin adding text and editing your image with other techniques you will need to follow these steps:

Firstly you will need to click on the blue Edit Image which is to the right of each and every media image you have added.
You will now be presented with the Edit Media Asset image and can begin to add text to your background image.
To add text you will need to type your text in the top left area and then select the font style you'd like to choose. You can then click Add Text.
When you have added text, you will see that your text has been added to your image and you can now use the Text Properties box and mouse drag-and-drop system to begin positioning, resizing and editing your text.
As you will see when adding text to your image, you will find you have a Text Properties window which allows you to edit the text positioning, size, background colour, fade, font colour, text size and text alignment. You can drag and move this toolbox if required.
When you have added your first line of text, you can now begin to add more text in the same process as already mentioned. When you have finished process then it is quite possible you'll end up with an image item as follows below:

When you have finished editing your image for your item, you can now click on the green Save button at the top right of the screen and you will receive a confirmation you work has been saved. You will now be required to click on the green link saying "Return to ... Feed".

Finalising the Item you have added

Now you have saved your media item, you will now be returned to the Edit Item screen and this will include both the Title and Description of your item, plus the image you have just successfully added and saved within your Custom RSS Feed.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you now have several options you can make. You can either Save your item and return to your overall feed; you can click on the Save & Add New button to begin adding more items or you could simply either edit or delete the media you have just added.

The choice at this stage is up to you, but for the purposes of this guide we will be clicking the Save button.

Finishing with your Custom Feed.

You can now click on the green Save button and your Custom RSS Feed will now be saved and published to your network. The Custom RSS Feed upon being saved will become an asset on your signagelive network and you can begin to add this to a playlist as per normal.