<a id="What is an RSS panel?"></a> |
An RSS panel will allow you to send a live RSS feed to your display board. The example below shows an RSS panel displayed at the bottom of the board.
<a id="Adding an RSS panel"></a> |
To add an RSS panel, click on the toolbar button to expand the list of panel types and choose the
button, as shown below:
After selecting the RSS panel button, the mouse pointer changes into a white crosshair pointer, indicating that the designer is ready to draw your panel. Click and hold your left mouse button, starting at the point defining the upper-left corner of your new panel. Whilst still holding down the left mouse button, drag the marquee that will appear to the point that will define the lower-right corner of your panel, as shown below:
<a id="Customising an RSS panel"></a> |
To customize an RSS panel, click on the 
button on the top-left corner of the screen, then select the 
icon to customise the panel, as shown below:
The RSS panel properties window will open, containing the following tabs:
The tab allows you to add the URL for your RSS feed, e.g. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rss. Check if the feed is valid, by clicking on the button. If the entry is valid, the RSS title will appear in the RSS title field. Click on the button to add this feed to your RSS panel, as shown below:
By default, this will appear in your RSS panel as follows:
Following the same procedure, you can add multiple RSS feeds in your RSS panel.
If you RSS panel contains more than one RSS feed, you can change the order they will appear on your display board, by clicking on the icon alongside each feed, as shown below:
To delete an RSS feed from the RSS panel, click on the icon alongside the feed that you want to delete, as shown below:
The tab allows you change the look of your RSS feed, by a amending one or more of the following properties: the article title, the article description and the bullet point, as shown below:
Enter the name of your article and apply any styling properties as preferred, e.g font size, font style or text colour etc.
Enter a description for your article and apply any styling properties as preferred, e.g font size, font style or text colour etc.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Image source | To use an image rather than a plain colour as your bullet point, enter its source here (the path is relative to the folder on disk from which web content is served, and is different for each class of web user); the background colour should be set as Transparent, so it does not interfere with your image. |
| Width | Define the width of the image, in pixels. |
| Background colour | Alternatively, if you just want to change the colour of the bullet point, select the background colour by clicking on the drop-down arrow. |
The example below shows two different bullet point implementations of the same RSS feed. On the left, you can see an image as a bullet point, whereas on the right the bullet point is just a coloured rectangle of secific width.
The tab
By default the background of the RSS panel is black with a lighting effect. However you can add an image source as the background and either choose to have that image centered in the panel or repeated by typing in details. In that case, you may even want to set a transparent background for your image, as shown below. Alternatively, just pick a colour from the colour palette and leave the Image source field blank.
If you would like to apply lighting effects to the RSS panel, just tick the box . The two examples below show the difference between panels with and without lighting effects. The panel with the slight shine has a lighting effect applied, while the solid black panel has no lighting effects.
Please check with the RRS feed provider that they are happy for you to use their feed. Most RSS providers will state quite clearly whether they are happy for you to use the feed and how it should be used. |
The width and height of the panel containing the RSS feed will be picked up automatically. You can change this by using your mouse to drag this to a different size or by changing the number of pixels to define the panel size.
You can also choose the refresh rate for the panel, by filling in the box provided. At the end, click thebutton to save any changes made.
<a id="RSS panel - overview video"></a> |
For a live demonstration on how to design and customise an RSS panel, watch the video below: