Graphics

I am trying to build a two line ticker. I have an RSS feed from my website. I have DataLinq'd the title and description fields. I want the title to display static on the topline and the description to display crawling on the bottom line. I can make the entire scene crawl...and I know I could separate the two lines and make two separate groups, but how would I sync the two groups so the title is up while the description is crawling? I've checked Live Update, but it never goes to the next story.

If I understand correctly what you are trying to achieve; I've seen it done before with scripting.. I think you add the title into the crawling scenes as a hidden object (datalinq'd using the modifier), and you use an event marker script on that scene to copy the value from the hidden text object into the title text object on the main scene group scene that isn't crawling. The text objects in the main scene don't need to be datalinq'd since they will be updated via scripting.

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I turned off the visibility of the Title in the crawling scene Description, included TitleGot as static text in scene Title...and played around with a script event on the scene director.

dim group as xpTakeItemGroup

engine.sequencer.GetGroupByName("RSSticker", group)

scene.GetTextObjectByName("RSStickerDescription", scene)

dim Title as xpTextObject

scene.GetTextObjectByName("RSStickerTitle", scene)

dim TitleGot as xpTextObject

TitleGot=Title

I tried it in both the Title version and the Description version and although the script would compile with no errors, I think I wasn't really telling it anything useful.

If only Visual Logic would cross scenes!

#XPression

Hi James,

There's a few issues in your script. I'll highlight a few just to help you for next time.. There is no function called GetTextObjectByName, always use GetObjectByName and it will return whatever object type your object is. You can't just assign one text object to another, you need to use `TitleGot.Text=Title.Text` to actually copy the text of one to another.

Try this sample I made. It includes a .DSC file to load into your datalinq server and an xpf.

https://ross.brickftp.com/f/83be63b45

Take a look at the scripts on my event marker. You'll see how I get the parent scene group using `scene.GetParent`. I also added a script onto the Title in the scene group so it can animate (dissolve) from one value to another (you can chaneg this animation controller to be any animation you like).

#XPression

Brian,

This helped a lot. I was able to build the parts to make the ticker, but I couldn't make the titles change like yours. Sometimes, when I first fire the group, I will see it change from one title to the next immediately, but it never happens again. Does TitleHidden reference a text object named TitleHidden or the fact that the title is either turned off or has an alpha value of zero?

I've uploaded the package and .dsc files to my CustomerLog folder, if you have a chance to look at them.

Is there a glossary of VBscript terms, commands and syntax available anywhere?

Thanks,

James.

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Hi James,

TitleHidden is simply the name of the variable in the VBScript. It was looking for a text object named Title, but your description 2/3 scenes did not have any text object named Title; Description1 did though.

There was also an issue with the `` increment, you should almost always leave this at zero unless you are doing something very special.

I also updated the datalinq paths for the items to include `, , ` etc so it would cycle through the values..

I'll send you a private message with a link to the project.

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The API scripting reference is in the XPression windows start menu .

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I'll get back to it as soon as I get to work this afternoon!

Thanks again for all the help,

James.

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Brian!

This works beautifully! I wanted to slow it down a little, but adjusting the speed either in Layout Scene Group tab or in the Sequence Scene Control tab only affects the crawl when I first put it online---then it speeds up to almost too fast for a quick reader.

Thanks,

James.

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Hello,

Can anyone shared the files or script to accomplish this? I am trying to add identifiers to the ticker so if it's baseball scores I would like it to say mlb scores and update if it turns into nfl scores or something. I would really appreciate the help!

Best,
Mildred
#XPression