AutoUpdate Images!

tjachimiak

I was so happy to have this feature in the older versions of OpenLP as I download the current weather maps from our local TV channel's website to show on the green screen background on my son's elemenary school's morning news show. In version 1.9.6, this feature doesn't exist anymore. Once you bring in an image from a file, it get's permenently copied to the service. So, when I download a different image using the same file name, I don't see the new image.... I still see the original image. Obviously, deleting images...adding images... restarting the software isn't practical so I was hoping that the programmers could tell OpenLP to look for new versions (or latest versions) of image file names listed in the service. Doing this will allow my script to download all of the weather images from the website then overwrite/ replace the existing images with the same file name. It has been very difficult these past two weeks to do the morning show with the new version of OpenLP due to the image and video problems that I have encountered. I am thinking about uninstalling then going back to an older version until the bugs get fixed. Thanks for listening! Todd, Network Admin City of Havelock, NC and Bogue Sound Elementary Studio Manager

TRB143

Version 2 is a complete re-write of version 1 some of the implementations are different. Service files are completely self contained as once they have been saved then can be moved to different machines and opporating systems. This means the path mappings will be very different. All images saved in a service a part of the service and the original copy will not be referenced. Why do you need to use a service? Why not use the image from the Image Manager ?

tjachimiak

Sup TRB143! Thanks for your response. Being that the service files are self contained, I am gonna take a shot and say that the images are saved in the OSZ file? So, I would need to CLOSE our service, start a new service after I do the following? Here's what we do to prep for each morning show at the school.... Go out to the internet and save each weather graphic from our local news station. (have 4 of them) We save it as the same name each time so that OpenLP will just reference it therefore update the picture. We edit the power point presentation (which runs all day after the morning show) with the new weather graphics. We delete the PPT presentation in OpenLP then immediately import the SAME PPT so that all of the thumbs get updated properly. The Weather graphics downloaded earlier are seperate lines in the service so we just 'click' down the service list for our show. It is much easier than clicking all over the place. Our problem is that even if we click in the Images list with 'go live', the old image is STILL cached somewhere. I have deleted all instances of the image in (Application Data\openlp\data\images\thumbnails) as I can't see of any other place that the original image would be... unless it gets added to an archive or becomes part of the OSZ file?!? Anyway, we like OLP lots and wish that we could, if nothing else, somehow present the most current image of weather graphics from our local weather website even if it meant having OLP call the URL of the image or something. SQL could keep the URL and every time you called that image, it would check for an update from the website. It is certainly possible, but I am not a coder and don't know the work involved in a project like this. I do think that the feature would be widely used for things other than weather graphics. Let me know if there's some other way that we can have these weather graphics get from the website to our service without restarting OLP or deleting thumb files b/c that kinda scares me messing with that stuff. Thanks for a most awesomest application... OpenLP (not sure what LP stands for but Lord's Prayer comes to mind) Just sayin. Todd - Havelock, NC

tjachimiak

It's been a while since I updated this thread, but I finally found a little program that may help to keep our weather images current and auto updated from our local weather station. Here's how I am doing it and it works downloading the images every 15 minutes then overwriting the image file that I have in OpenLP, BUT OpenLP is presenting the original image rather than the current one.

I downloaded NirSoft's SeqDownload v1.26 ( Automatically downloads imaged from the web)

SeqDownload is configured to get the weather images every X minutes then save them into a folder called WeatherImages

I imported the three images from the WeatherImages folder into OpenLP as you would importing any other image to the Images Manager plugin.

I  add the images from the Image Manager plugin to the Service just as you would any other image.

On the first run after I save the service, every image that I imported works perfectly as expected.

The next day when the image changes, I have opened the WeatherImages folder and see the CORRECT images but when I go into OpenLP, I still see yesterday's image. I have to re-import each image again for it to work which defeats the whole purpose of having an autoupdater.

So, I change it up a bit and download the images to the C:\Documents and Settings\MyProfile\Application Data\openlp\data\servicemanager folder in hopes that I will see the old thumbnail of the image, but OpenLP will present the updated image. This did not work either.

This seems so easy to do but I keep running into brick walls at each attempt. Can someone please brainstorm with me to see how we can get OpenLP to grab images from a website then present the updated images rather than the static image. I would like to keep using SeqDownload because it is really awesome since you can batch download from many different sites. I just want to keep our weather images and radar GIF updated throughout the day. I know there is someone out there who is laughing right now and telling themselves "This is so easy... why can't this clown see that?" Well, to you sir or ma'am, thank you for your confidence and PLEASE help a clown out with some knowledge and sound advice.I think it would be great to have a dynamic image updater built in to OpenLP so that current images can be displayed live not only for weather images and radar gifs from the local weather channel, but for other images that change on a regular basis. C'mon DEV group.... talk to me! Help me Obie-Wan.... you are my only hope!Regards,Todd Jachimiak, Network Admin & WebmasterCity of Havelock, NCShow Producer, Broad Creek United Methodist Church, Newport, NC (OpenLP @ Church)Show Producer, Bogue Sound Elementary School, Newport, NC (See what OpenLP lets us do here) <h3 align="center">Thank you ALL who participate in making OpenLP the BEST free open-source option for churches and organizations who really need a simple, yet, functional presentation tool. God bless you all.</h3>Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  

raoul

Hey Todd, OpenLP isn't that simple, which is why you're running into "brick walls". Your use-case is way outside of how people normally use OpenLP :-) Some pointers:

OpenLP imports everything into its data folders. We received many bug reports of people overwriting what they wanted to present because OpenLP was drawing from the source folder.

The "servicemanager" folder is a temporary folder which is overwritten when ever a new service is loaded. Nothing changed in here will stay.

OpenLP stores all the items for a service inside the .OSZ file.

OpenLP has about 5 active developers who work on this software in their spare time between work, church, children, and other commitments.

By the sounds of things, you would either need to update the image in OpenLP's data folders, or directly in the service. Or add functionality to the Image plugin to do what you want.

dfear

There is a way to do accomplish this using formatting tags. You would create a formatting tag that would consist of a an <img> tag with some CSS styling. The img tag would link to an image with a generic name, such as "todaysweather.png". If you want to display multiple images you could use multiple image tags in your custom slide or if you want to cycle through a number of images, you could either have an image tag that links to a script file (such as a php script) or create an formatting tag that loads a file (html or script) into an iframe.

I use a formatting tag to display videos from youtube. 

tjachimiak

I didn't even think of that! So technically, I can add a tag using the static web address of the image that would automatically show the most current image of the weather taken from our local weather website.

Brilliant! I will try that! Thanks man.

I use OLP for church, school broadcasts and even for DJ at school dances! It is most awesome! Also, I found that if I run a video in VLC player that I can hit the D button or use a clear transparent theme background in my service.

Todd

tjachimiak

I know that I am pushing the boundaries of OLP and am using it out of its scope, but I think that this is the beauty of this project. It is not just a church solution! We have five brave souls who have created this amazing tool that can fill so many needs. Thats what I like about it.

Todd