Dynamic Content with DataSets
Keep prices, lists, news and weather up to date on your easyCMS screens without redesigning. The Studio way first, then DataSets, RSS tickers and live widgets in the advanced editor.
Dynamic content keeps the design and changes only what is inside it: a price, a timetable line, a headline. Every screen showing it follows.
In Studio
Menu & prices
Dishes, prices and sold out. A price changed once updates every menu screen. See menu boards.
Your info
Business name, logo, guest Wi-Fi, opening hours, team and contact details, typed once.
Exchange rates
Buy and sell rates for currency boards.
Rooms & bookings
Meeting rooms and what is booked in them, for door signs and event boards.
Lists and numbers
Timetable, Directory, Progress to a goal, Days since: type your lines or numbers into the design itself.
News and weather
Video with news runs headlines from a feed you choose. Weather shows the forecast where the screen is.
Menu & prices, Exchange rates and Rooms & bookings are tabs of Your info, shown when they fit your business.
To change a list or number typed into a design:
- Open Designs in Studio and open the design.
- Tap Edit this template and change the lines.
- Tap Done, then Save. Its screen updates within a minute.
In the advanced editor: DataSets
For your own tables, such as a KPI dashboard or a staff rota, use a DataSet: a small table of columns and rows, kept apart from any layout. DataSets come with every plan, the 49€ account included.
- Open DataSets and add one with a clear name.
- Set its columns: Value for data you type, Formula for values worked out from other columns, Remote for fields filled from a feed. Every new DataSet starts with a column called Col1: edit or delete it from its row menu.
- Add rows in the grid, or import a CSV file.
- On a layout, add a data widget and point it at the DataSet. Table-style widgets show rows and columns; ticker-style widgets show one row at a time.
A remote DataSet fills itself from a JSON or CSV address, hourly by default. Its columns must match the feed.
Watch out A remote DataSet suits data that changes a few times a day. Do not build a departures board expecting minute-by-minute accuracy.
Layouts can also take widgets that fetch content themselves: RSS tickers, Weather, clocks and calendars, and web pages.
How fresh is the data on screen?
- Data is cached on the player, so a short connection drop keeps the last data on screen. Past a freshness limit, the widget shows its “no data” message. Web pages are not cached.
- A change waits for the player’s next check-in, and a long video already playing finishes first.
Related articles: Creating Layouts, Playlists and the Media Library, Users and Permissions