OmniTicker Ticker Properties
OmniTicker
has
been
used
by
leading
financial
institutions
to
support
the
iconic
financial
LED
tickers.
The
name
‘ticker’
derives
from
the
ticker
symbol;
its
historical
relevance
the
capability
to
display
real-
time information in a scrolling format using the ticker symbol as the identifier for a stock or index.
Scrolling
message
boards
are
everywhere
today
and
the
OmniTicker
software
has
evolved
to
meet
the
differing
requirements
for
the
display
of
real-time
information.
Its
overriding
design
principle:
easy
to setup, use and change with support for multiple types of information in a user’s chosen sequence.
Within
OmniTicker,
there
are
two
design
tabs,
Ticker
Properties;
this
defines
the
characteristics
of
the
ticker,
type,
size
and
scroll
direction
and
Items
to
Display
where
a
user
defines
data
types,
formats
and
content
to
be
displayed.
A
third
tab
provides
a
view
of
what
is
in
the
buffer
for
each
active
virtual ticker.
Within
Ticker
Properties
,
the
standard
ticker
type
is
a
Video
Ticker.
For
a
new
user
this
type
should
be selected and it defaults to full colour with the
LED Colours
(checked).
From
here,
a
user
defines
the
height
and
width
of
a
Virtual
Ticker
which
can
be
later
published
to
a
physical
target
ticker
or
display.
A
user
should
ensure
the
height
and
width
of
the
of
the
virtual
ticker
is set in accordance with size and position required on the target physical display.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Options:
the
default
is
horizontal
scrolling
where
the
ticker
moves
from right to left.
Where,
for
example,
a
language
is
naturally
read
from
right
to
left,
(e.g.
Arabic),
the
ticker
would
scroll
left
to
right,
using
the
reverse scroll direction option.
For
vertically
scrolling
tickers,
bottom
to
top
and
top
to
bottom.
Rotate
90
(left
and
right)
provides
this
function.
A
secondary
option
allows
characters
to
be
rotated
left
or
right
to
make
reading
information
easier.
Items to Display
Items
to
display
is
where
the
ticker
content
is
constructed.
It
has
four
panels;
the
first
shows
the
tickers
available
with
the
option
to
add
or
remove
them.
The
second
panel
is
a
preview
window
that
shows
the
selected
data
item
highlighted
in
panel
4,
and
the
third
panel
provides
the
source
data
and
edit functions.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Data Types and Services
Four data item types can be displayed:
Static
Text,
DDE
Excel items
RMP
External data items
Bitmap
JPEG/PNG image items
DDE and RMP items have additional settings of Service, Topic and Item.
Service includes: Local Clock, RSS (OmniRSS data feeds), Twitter (when enabled in OmniRSS).
Topic: lists the group of data items associated with the chosen Service and Item lists every data
item available within the Topic.
Item: each Item can have up to 4 Parts, each part having its own data type. Static text can be
entered as a precursor to any Part (data item). Topic is the location/name of the attaching
spreadsheet and Item, the cell location.
Static Data types only allow for text input only. A simple bulk load facility is also available from the
File tab menu using text file input. Each line in a bulk upload text file becomes a data item in the
ticker and can be amended as required.
Excel Data types require the spreadsheet to be open on the host desktop. Copy and Paste Link is
the standard way to add a cell from Excel; this will populate the Service, Topic and Item in the
dialogue box. Alternatively, these values can be entered manually.
RMP Data types can access four Services, Local Clock, RSS (OmniRSS data feeds) and Twitter.
Each data item is selected from the dropdown menu, Service, Topic and Item.
Bitmap/ JPEG/ PNG images are loaded from the Graphics button and should be the same size in
pixels as the height as the ticker.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Managing Parts
Each Part has one data item, the purpose of Parts 2, 3, and 4 is to provide the capability to group
related data items together, although there are logical constraints on what data is grouped.
In
the
example
here,
Part
1
is
static
text
‘FTSE
100’,
Part
2
is
the
Last
Trade
price
and
Part
3
is
the Change from the previous value.
Last
Trade
price.
Part
2
and
Part
3
have
been
grouped
together
and
formatted
such
that
Part
3
will appear under Part 2.
The colour of each data item and its background are user-defined from the colour palette.
Standard Formatting
Each
item
part
can
be
individually
formatted;
spaces
before
the
item
part,
display
up
to,
font
and
size
vertical
offset
and
for
numerical
values,
positive, negative, up and down arrows.
Each
item
part
can
be
set
individually
to
‘Bold’
or
to
appear
in
‘Uppercase’;
these
attributes
apply
to numeric or text based item parts.
‘Display
up
to’
is
used
to
discard
superfluous
characters
at
the
end
of
a
field.
For
example,
if
retrieving
a
field
from
Reuters
using
DDE,
the
stock
symbol
ANL.L,
but
could
be
displayed
as
ANL
by
placing
a
dot
in
the
‘Display
up
to’
dialogue
box.
The
same
can
be
used
to
remove
surplus
‘http’
links
in Twitter which cannot be displayed.
Conditional Formatting
Conditional
colour
formatting
can
be
based
on
whether
the
data
item
is
a
positive
or
negative
number,
whether
it
falls
within
a
user
defined
range
or
whether
it
is
higher
or
lower
than
its
previous
value;
colours
are
user
defined.
Conditional
colours
can
be
applied
to
both
the
data
item
and its background.
In
addition,
each
item
part
can
be
Conditional
displayed
dependent on user defined logic.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Managing Content
Adding and removing tickers is straight forward; remove does not delete the source file, but before
removing a ticker it should first be saved to ensure it can be retrieved if required at a later date (use
the File tab, Save or Save As).
‘Add new ticker’ opens a new editing dialogue box. From there a user can add a data line of their
choice. Starting with ‘New Item’, select ‘Data type’, add the Parts required and ‘Apply to selected’.
Where data lines have a similar structure, an existing data line can be selected, amended and
‘Applied as a new item’. ‘Apply to all’ will only apply at part level; where a user edits a data line part
(e.g. makes a formatting change), this can be applied to all parts at the same level (e.g. all Part 2’s).
Data lines can be moved up and down in sequence, sorted and deleted as required. Once a virtual
ticker has been created it should be saved, usually to the default folder:
Documents/OmniApps/OmniTicker.
Scheduled Files, Playlist and Static Items are covered later in this document.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Publishing a Ticker
From the Ticker Properties tab, the Publish function opens the above dialogue box. From here a user
will see all the virtual tickers open and available.
For ease of reference, the Display Name is user defined, whereas the Virtual Display is selected
from the dropdown menu, which lists displays that are open and available. These include standard
tickers, playlists and schedules with playlists and schedules identified by an adjacent symbol.
Speed:
The speed at which the ticker scrolls; default is 1 (slowest) with 5 (fastest).
Display No:
This is the display number identified from Windows Extended Desktop.
For example a second monitor would be 2 and a third and forth, 3 and 4.
X & Y:
For a standard video ticker these are usually be set to (0,0). Where the ticker is
required to appear on a display larger than the ticker’s size in pixels, the X and Y
coordinates would be specified by the user and set such the ticker
appears in the correct position on the the target display.
Lock XY:
Ensures each time OmniTicker restarts the virtual ticker will appear in the correct
place on the target display.
Visible:
A user can opt to the make a particular virtual display not visible on the target display.
This could be a user is editing the virtual display or has chosen to publish a different
virtual ticker to that physical ticker or display.
OmniTicker User Reference Guide
Schedules & Playlists
Schedules and Playlists provide the
capability to change the content that
appears by grouping tickers together that
are the same height and width in pixels.
Schedules and Playlists can be composed
from any of the available user files that are
placed into the directory:
Documents/Omni Apps/OmniTicker
Schedules are setup by selecting the
tickers, the date upon which they are to
start, time and frequency.
A schedule can also include a Playlist
Playlists are sequential or timed, can be
active (enabled) or non-active.
Timed playlists are intended to replay with
their refreshed data (where appropriate)
with each playlist set to go through a
number of loops (replays) before returning
to the beginning of the list.
Sequential playlists are set to play for
different time intervals.
Scheduled files have a file extension ‘sfl’
whereas Playlists have a file extension
‘oply’.