Named Overlay Graphics enables overlay graphics to be fired from within a template or from a control command (keyboard shortcut).

Named overlays are essentially static graphics, for example a clock or bug, that you want to be available across all rundowns, rather than needing to put them into the plan.

All named overlay graphics must be placed within the file NamedOverlayGraphics.xml.

This section contains:

Working with Named Overlay Graphics

When to use

Overlay graphics are fired from within a template or control command (as a keyboard shortcut).

• Named overlay graphics are treated as constants and not related to any specific rundown

• Named overlay graphics can be used to extract information from the current rundown.

Prerequisites

All named overlay graphics must be placed within a single XML file named NamedOverlayGraphics.xml. This file must be placed as part of the configuration files for the system, normally %programdata%\Mosart Medialab\ConfigurationFiles.

NamedOverlayGraphics.xml contains all overlay graphics to be accessible from templates.

The overlay graphics within this file have the following properties:

• The slug attribute is used as the ‘name’ of the overlay graphic (and used in a template to refer to the overlay graphic).

• The slug has to be unique within the NamedOverlayGraphics.xml file.

• The content of each overlay graphic shall be identical to the overlay graphic representation in Manus Administrator files. In most circumstances only a small set of the attributes and elements are necessary.

• The templatetype attribute is used to identify the behaviour of the overlay graphic and should be according to the lower third mapping found in newsroomsettings.xml.
  Default mapping is AUTOOUT.

• Setting templatetype to STORYSTART takes the corresponding overlay graphic on story transitions, when the first item or background of the story is taken.
  Only one overlay graphic can be used for this purpose.

Obtaining a valid overlay graphic as a Named Overlay candidate

To obtain candidates for named overlays

1. Forward the graphics you want to be part of named overlay as ordinary overlay graphics, by assigning them in the NRCS.
   Viz Mosart now reads these as part of overlays in a rundown.

2. Verify that the named overlay candidates appear in Overlay Graphics Interface left panel. This is where all active overlay graphics in the rundown are displayed.

3. Select a named overlay candidate in the Overlay Graphics Interface left panel and press the Info button beneath.

4. An XML representation of the selected candidate is displayed.

5. Copy this XML to the clipboard.

6. Paste the clipboard content into the named overlay XML file, NamedOverlayGraphics.xml.

7. (Optional) Remove not-required fields, as described in section Named Overlay Graphics.

NamedOverlayGraphics.xml Example

Below is an example, showing two named overlay graphics. One to be fired at every story transition (MosartStoryStart) and one that could be triggered from a template (StrapsOff).

This example is created for BIGVIZ which makes use only of the <objParams> field.

NRCS Placeholders

Named overlay graphics supports placeholders for NRCS information. The following example shows a modified MosartStoryStart named overlay graphic that makes use of placeholders:

Syntax: {[story|item]:[story_value|item_value|xpath]}

Where:

• story: Obtains information from the current story:

  • roid: MOS rundown identity.

  • id: MOS story identity.

  • slug: MOS story slug.

  • xpath: Arbitrary xpath from Manus Administrator story element.

• item: Obtains information from the current story item:

  • roid: MOS rundown identity.

  • id: MOS story identity.

  • slug: MOS story slug.

  • type: Viz Mosart type.

  • variant: Viz Mosart variant.

  • template: Viz Mosart type + Viz Mosart variant.

  • xpath: Arbitrary xpath from Manus Administrator story item element.

Examples of valid placeholders

• {story:roid}: The rundown identity.

• {story:id}: MOS story identity.

• {story:slug}: MOS story slug.

• {item:type}: MOS story item, Viz Mosart template type.

• {item:variant}: MOS story item, Viz Mosart template variant.

• {item:template}: MOS story item, Viz Mosart template type+variant.

• {item:@templatetype}: xpath, Viz Mosart template variant.

• {item:item[@type=100][1]/*/storyItem/objParams}: xpath, picks legend from first ([1]/*/) lower third ([@type=100]) object (objParams) within a story item (storyItem).

Available Actions

It is possible to trigger defined actions within the Overlay Graphics Interface when taking a named overlay graphic. The actions are specified within an action list for the overlay graphic. A typical use case is when the graphics system requires specific graphic properties to be supplied, for an item to be taken out.

A sample action list is defined in the XML as follows:

The following actions are available:

• takeout: Takes out any stored on-air graphic matching the criteria specified in the value field:

  • last: Takes the last taken graphic out.

  • lastLocator: Takes the last locator graphic out.

  • lastManual: Takes the last manual graphic out.

• clear: Takes out all on-air graphics.

XML Fields

Example of complete lower third graphics XML

An example graphics XML extracted from a rundown:

Required fields: slug, templatetype, in, dur, use_graphics_id, graphics_id, handler_name, graphics_out_on, description.

Extracted XML example

For the required fields extracted:

• The name used to recall the named overlay graphic is LIVE ON.

• Note that we have changed the slug and description.

To add a named overlay graphic to a template

• SLUG is where we name the overlay for our use – and we can now recall the overlay graphic from a template as shown below: