Digital Signage Theme with U.Va. Alerts

WordPress + Digital Signage Theme The DML is using a Sony wireless Internet-ready TV connected to a mobile cart as a digital sign. Content for the sign is managed using WordPress.

The theme rotates through any number of events/posts that are published on the WordPress site. Settings allow you to choose how long an event displays.

In an emergency messages will display full screen. This digital signage theme also supports the UVA Alerts system and will allow the emergency information to display on the digital sign’s entire display area. In an emergency messages will display full screen.

How It Works

What You Need To Do Create a WordPress site in UVaCollab. Activate the digital signage theme. Enable and configure the required plugins. Adjust the digital signage theme settings. Create content for your signage. Set up your hardware’s browser to point to your WordPress digital signage site. We will cover each of these tasks.

https://wiki. shanti. virginia https://wiki.shanti.virginia.edu/display/KB/Getting+Started+with+WordPress Anyone that can create a Collab site can create a WordPress site within it. SHANTI provides details on how you create the WP site in their wiki. Ask if anyone not familiar with Collab and maybe go to link to show more details. Can always go to link at end of presentation during Q&A.

Activate The Theme To activate the theme from the SHANTI WordPress site: Select appearance from the Dashboard navigation. Search for digital in the list of themes. Activate the Digital Signage and UVa Alerts 1.0 theme.

Enable Needed WordPress Plugins The digital signage theme requires four plugins. Select Plugins from the Dashboard navigation. Scroll through the list and check the boxes next to these plugins: More Fields Post Expirator QR Code Tag WordPress Mobile Edition Then select Activate from the bulk actions and click the Apply button.

More Fields Plugin Configuration Create a Digital Signage box. Add a Background selection list field. Add a Subhead text field. Add a Web Address text field Add an Image text field Add an Image Alignment selection list field. More Fields is the only plugin that requires any configuration after activating it. A box is create which will appear as a panel within your post editing window. Fields are added to the box so that they can be populated on the post create/edit page. The background colors available in the theme to use for the selection list are brown, darkblue, green, lightblue, orang, purple, and red. The image alignment select list values are left and right.

Theme Options You Can Adjust Theme options are settings you can use to adjust how things display on your sign. You can modify the theme options by going Appearance navigation option from the Dashboard and choosing the theme’s options: Default background color: choose a color to use if none is selected in a new post. You can choose 15 minute increments for how often the digital sign refreshes its content from the server. This will determine how often new posts can appear and old posts can disappear. Indicate how long a post displays on the sign before cycling to the next published post. Choose whether to include the seconds in the clock display, which shows up in the lower left corner of the sign.

New Post Page with Plugins Enabled See that when we create a new post we have the ability to include an expiration date for the post (in the Post Expirator box). We can also specify digital sign values for the box we created to allow for a background color, subhead, etc. (in the Digital Signage box).

Digital Sign Inputs Choose a background color for the post. Provide a subheading if desired. Optionally include a URL where more details are available. Add an image to the post if you want, and indicate which half of the display it should appear on. Point out that if a Web Address is included then a QR code is generated and displayed on the digital sign when the post appears which someone can use on their mobile device to go to a web page with more details about the event.

Posts Stop Showing Automatically Use the Post Expirator box to specify the date the post stops displaying on the sign: Check the enable box Specify the expiration date.

Documentation on this using and Configuring this WordPress theme can be found here: https://wiki.shanti.virginia.edu/display/KB/Using+the+Digital+Signage+and+UVa+Alerts+Theme Make sure people know there is documentation on the SHANTI wiki site. Questions & Answers

WordPress – Digital Signage Theme Objective: Using a laptop with projector, spend 30 minutes demonstrating the WordPress digital signage theme and how to configure it for use. LSPs are able to confirm the 4 required plugins are active, configure 1 plugin, and active/configure the theme on their own SHANTI WordPress site instance. Context: Information sharing sessions at a day long university conference for Local Support Partners.