Installation
TweetDirector:
- Download TweetDirector from Apple App Store.
- Start TweetDirector.
- TweetDirector will use the Twitter account set up on your iPad. If you have not linked your iPad to your Twitter account go to Settings, Twitter and enter the details. Note that currently TweetDirector will only use the first Twitter account on your iPad.
- TweetDirector will display a Dropbox Link screen asking you to enter details of the Dropbox account to use.
On your Graphics Device (Chyron, Clarity etc):
- Install Dropbox from www.dropbox.com
- Configure Dropbox to use your Dropbox account.
- You will notice an Apps folder in your Dropbox. Inside the Apps Folder you will see a TweetDirector folder.
Testing
- Tap 'Setup' on TweetDirector
- Tap 'New Folder'. Enter a name for the new folder.
- You should now see the new folder inside the Apps/TweetDirector/Tweets folder in Dropbox.
- Repeat adding new Folders as required. For example you may want folders such as 'Good', 'Talent', 'TX' etc.
- Tap 'Setup'
- Tap 'Refresh Folder List'
- Tap the button to the left of Setup. This should be showing your Twitter account name. You will see your Twitter Account name, a list of your existing Twitter searches and a list of your Folders.
- Tap your account name.
- TweetDirector's screen will show Tweets from your Timeline.
- Tap a few Tweets, they will highlight in white. The Play button on the right of the status bar will now be enabled.
- Tap the Play icon button.
- On your Graphics Device, look in the Apps/TweetDirector folder. You should see a file called tweets.txt
- Open tweets.txt in Notepad. You will see that it contains some header text, then your selected Tweets, then some footer text.
- Tap 'None' on TweetDirector to clear your selection.
- Tap some Tweets.
- Tap the Send To icon button to the left of the Play button. This will display a list of your folders.
- Tap the Folder you want to copy the selected Tweets into.
- Tap the account button (4th from left).
- Tap the Folder name you chose in step 17. The screen will show the contents of the Folder.
Displaying the Tweets Crawl
Chyron Lyric
- Create a Crawl Message
- Add the following macro:
set sc = activecanvas.scene
set elem = sc.element("2D Crawl 1")
elem.update 0, 2, 1, "C:/Users/Myname/Dropbox/Apps/TweetDirector/tweets.txt"
- Edit "2D Crawl 1" to be your crawl node.
- Edit "C:/Users/Myname/Dropbox/Apps/TweetDirector/tweets.txt" to be the path to your Dropbox tweets.txt file.
- Load the new message and run the macro. You can also set the macro to be run automatically on message read.
Pixel Power Clarity
- Create a Text Crawl page
- Use Text, ASCII Import menu item to select the Dropbox/Apps/TweetDirector/tweets.txt file
- A script can be created to perform the ASCII import when you read the page.
Other Tweet playback options
We can supply a free PC application - TweetPlayer - to display Tweets in other ways:
- A continuous ticker (Chyron, Aston 7)
- Individual Tweets with Avatars and photos (Chyron, Aston 7, Clarity, Viz)
- Single crawl (Clarity Global Fields, Aston 7)
Configuring the Tweets crawl message
- Tap 'Setup'
- Tap 'Configure'
- The tweets.txt file generated by TweetDirector is formatted according to the contents of the Configure screen. TweetDirector will start the file with the contents of the Header Content, then add each selected Tweet formatted according to the Tweet format, then add the contents of the Footer Content.
Tweet Formatting
Placeholders are used to define the format of the Tweet.
To demonstrate - if a Tweet was from a user whose nickname is 'JimmyM', real name is 'Jimmy McDonald' and whose message is 'Great show' then a format of '<USER> says: <MESSAGE>' will display 'JimmyM says: Great show'
A format of <MESSAGE> - <USERNAME> will display 'Great show - Jimmy McDonald'.
Available placeholders are:
- <USER> = User nickname
- <USERNAME> = User full name as listed on their Twitter account
- <MESSAGE> = Content of Tweet
- <AVATAR> = User avatar
Add spaces after the end of the Tweet Format text to space out the Tweets in the crawl message.
Formatting Font/Colour/Style.
Chyron Lyric:
Use \cf1 , \cf2 etc to set the colour of the following text, for example
\cf1 <MESSAGE> \cf2 <USERNAME>
Pixel Power Clarity:
Use [SA], [SB] etc to set the Style of the following text, for example
[SA]<MESSAGE> [SB]<USERNAME>
Aston 7:
Aston 7 uses XML commands, so put the following in Header Content:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-16'?><text xmlns='http://www.aston.tv/schemas/AstonVivid'>
In the Tweet Format, for example:
<colour number='1'><MESSAGE></colour> <colour number='2'><USERNAME>
In Footer Content:
</text>
Adding icons between Tweets
Chyron Lyric:
Use \img to set the icon & \y to set a y offset, for example:
\cf1 <MESSAGE> \cf2 <USERNAME> \img I:/stationlogos/mystation.png;\y24
(note the semi-colon after the filename and the forward slashes for the file path)
Pixel Power Clarity:
Use [LOGO], for example:
[SA]<MESSAGE> [SB]<USERNAME> [LOGO:FILENAME=C:\stationlogos\mystation.png]
There are options for size and cutout -
- FIXEDSIZE=0 displays the icon at the size of the current style
- FIXEDSIZE=1 displays icon at original size
- FILLOPTION=0 fills the icon as a solid rectangle
- FILLOPTION=1 cuts out the icon
- FILLOPTION=2 fills the icon with matte
for example: [LOGO:FILENAME=C:\stationlogos\mystation.png,FILLOPTION=1,FIXEDSIZE=0]
Aston 7:
Aston 7 uses XML commands, so put the following in Header Content:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-16'?><text xmlns='http://www.aston.tv/schemas/AstonVivid'>
Aston 7 uses icons placed into a Fount, for example:
<colour number='1'><MESSAGE></colour> <colour number='2'><USERNAME> <fount number='6'>A</fount>
In Footer Content:
</text>
Displaying Users' Avatars with Tweets
Chyron Lyric:
Use \img to set the icon & \y to set a y offset, setting the path to the Dropbox/Apps/TweetDirector/avatars folder:
<MESSAGE> <USERNAME> \img C:/Users/Myname/Dropbox/Apps/TweetDirector/avatars/<AVATAR>;\y24
(note the semi-colon after the filename and the forward slashes for the file path)
Pixel Power Clarity:
Use [LOGO], for example
<MESSAGE> <USERNAME> [LOGO:FILENAME=C:\Users\MyName\Dropbox\Apps\TweetDirector\avatars\<AVATAR>]
There are options for size and cutout - see above)
If you do not wish to see and use Avatars, use 'Setup','Configure' to turn off Avatars.
Fetching new Tweets.
- The Refresh icon button (3rd button) will always load the latest 50 Tweets from your Timeline or from the selected Twitter Search.
- The 'New' button will fetch the next 50 Tweets since your last fetch.
- If there have been less than 50 Tweets since your last fetch, you will see all these Tweets.
- If there have been more that 50 Tweets since your last fetch, you will see the 50 that followed immediately after your last fetch.
- The 'Older' button will fetch the previous 50 Tweets before the oldest one you have fetched previously.
- By using the 'New' and 'Older' buttons you can step forward and backwards through your timeline or search.
Searching Twitter
- Tap the account button (4th button)
- In the search field at the top of the screen, enter a search term, using @ or # as required.
- The account button will show the new search, Tweets will be fetched and the search added to your Twitter Saved Searches.
Touch Gestures
- Single-Tap will toggle the selected status of a Tweet, adding it to the list of selected Tweets.
- Two-Finger Tap will single-select a Tweet, de-selecting any other Tweets.
- Swipe-Right will delete a Tweet from a Folder or mark a live Tweet as Hidden.
- Press & Hold (for longer than 1 second) will switch into Re-order mode. Using the re-order icon on the right of the Tweets you can now drag Tweets into a specific order. Press & Hold again to revert to standard mode.
Other Commands on main screen
- 'All' will select all the Tweets on the screen, including those not visible
- 'None' will deselect all Tweets
- Trash icon will delete selected Tweets from the current Folder (if viewing contents of a Folder) or mark the selected Tweets as Hidden (if viewing Timeline or Twitter Search)
- Tap 'Setup', 'Clear Hidden List' to clear the list of Hidden Tweets.
- Tap 'Setup', 'Refresh Searches' to update your current Twitter searches if another app has been used to create a search.
Editing Tweet Content
TweetDirector does some tidying of Tweet content automatically, such as removing web links and Reply-To addresses.
If necessary, you can manually edit the Tweet content.
- Tap a Tweet
- Tap the Write icon (to the right of Setup)
- The screen will show the complete content of the Tweet and the User Name.
- Dedicated buttons are available that will perform common tasks.
- 8 pairs of Remove & Replace buttons are available. Use these to perform replacements such as @johnsmith with John Smith and removal of hashtags.
- Once edited, tap the Send To icon and select the folder to place the edited Tweet into
- Tap the Write icon on the edit screen to create a completely new message.
- Tap 'Done' to close edit screen.
Handling photos included in Tweets
- Tap 'Setup'
- Tap 'Configure'
- Turn on 'Images'
- Edit the Landscape & Portrait aspect rations as required. TweetDirector will crop images (photos) attached to tweets to the configured aspect ratios. This will ensure all images displayed on-air will be the same shape and not a variety of shapes.
- If a Tweet has a photo attached, it will display to the right of the Tweet. Tap the photo to display it full screen.
Talent Mode
Talent Mode displays each Tweet full screen for use by on-air talent.
- Turn it on via 'Setup', 'Configure'.
- Tap a Tweet to open it up in a full screen display.
- Tap left/right and u/down around the edge of the Tweet to move forward/back.
- Tap the centre of the Tweet to return to main screen