12.4. Managing Services

To manage services in RDAdmin, touch the Manage Services button to open the Rivendell Services dialog.

The Rivendell Services Dialog

To examine and modify an existing service, touch its entry in the Services list and then touch the Edit button to open the Edit Service Dialog.

The Edit Service Dialog

12.4.1. The General Section

The General Section

The Service Name field contains the name of the service (read-only). This value is available in filepath wildcards as %s.

The Service Description field is for a free-form string that describes the service.

The Bypass Grid Processing dropdown, if set to Yes, will completely disable RDLogManager's native grid/clock/event template system for this service; helpful for centralizing log template management in a third-party music scheduler system. (See Section 8.2.1, “Bypassing Grid Processing” for an overview). Logs generated in this mode will contain a single music import link covering the entire broadcast day (00:00:00 through 23:59:59). See Section 12.4.1.2, “Inline Event Scheduling Parameters” for information on encoding transition and time parameters when using this option.

The Program Code is a string that is sent to PyPAD scripts as part of every Now & Next update.

The Log Name Template field is a string that defines how logs will be named when generated by RDLogManager. This field can take filepath wildcards.

The Log Description Template field is a string that defines how the Description for each log will be formatted for logs generated by RDLogManager. This field can take filepath wildcards.

The Inline Event Start/Length dropdown selects how the Start Time and Length will be calculated when inserting Inline Events. See the section on Inline Event Scheduling Parameters for details.

The Voicetrack Group dropdown specifies the Rivendell group to be used for storing voicetracks for this service.

The AutoSpot Group dropdown specifies the Rivendell group to be used for storing carts used for the AutoSpot functionality.

The Insert CHAIN TO at log end, if ticked, will cause a CHAIN-TO event to the following day's log to be appended to the log when generated by RDLogManager.

The Enable AutoRefresh By Default box, if ticked, will cause the log's Enable AutoRefresh attribute to be set to Yes when generated by RDLogManager.

The Purge Logs after box, if ticked, will set the default deletion date for logs to be the specified number of days after being created by RDLogManager. See Section 12.4.1.1, “Purging Log and ELR Data Automatically” for more information.

The Purge ELR Data after box, if ticked, will cause Electronic Log Reconiliation (ELR) as-played data to be purged from the database the specified number of days after being generated. See Section 12.4.1.1, “Purging Log and ELR Data Automatically” for more information.

The Include Music Import Markers in Finished Logs and Include Traffic Import Markers in Finished Logs boxes, if ticked, will cause markers to indicate the base location of imported Music and Traffic events respectively to be retained even after such events have been imported. Some users find these markers distracting, so their retention can be disabled by clearing this check box.

Warning

If import markers are not included in finished logs, then it will not be possible re-import data of the respective type into those logs.

12.4.1.1. Purging Log and ELR Data Automatically

Certain types of Rivendell item (specifically, play-out logs and ELR data for generating "as-played" reports) tend to accumulate over time. If too many of these items exist it can impact the performance and responsiveness of the Rivendell system. Thus, it is highly recommended that auto-purging of past and no longer required play-out logs and ELR data be enabled. This can be done by ticking the Set Logs to auto-delete and Purge ELR Data boxes respectively and setting the numbers of days to keep the data before purging.

Warning

Once ELR data for a particular service and date are purged it will be impossible to generate reports for that service/date. Be sure that the purge interval is sufficiently large to allow all required reports to be generated before the data is purged.

12.4.1.2. Inline Event Scheduling Parameters

When inserting an Inline Event (such as a Marker, Voice Track or Traffic Break), the Start Time and Length used will be calculated on the basis of the Inline Event Start/Length setting, as follows:

From Scheduler File

When this mode is specified, all inline events must be formatted as if they were a regular element of the schedule, with Start Time and Length values explicitly given and the string specified by the Insert Marker String, Insert Voice Track String or Insert Traffic Break String field values aligned as if it was a cart number. Inline Traffic Breaks will generate Traffic Links with Start Time/Length values that correspond to those specified on the respective line of the imported file.

From Relative Position

When this mode is specified, the string specified by the Insert Marker String, Insert Voice Track String or Insert Traffic Break String must occur somewhere on the line in the schedule file. The correct placement, Start Time and Length of each inline event will be determined heuristically, with Inline Traffic Breaks generating Traffic Links with Start Time/Length values taken from that of the parent Music Event, meaning that only one Inline Event of each type may be placed within the same parent Music Event.

Note

The From Relative Position mode is deprecated, and support for it will be removed in a future version of Rivendell. It is currently supported only to avoid breaking existing Rivendell setups. All new installations should use From Scheduler File!
12.4.1.2.1. Examples

Example of an inline Track Marker with Inline Event Start/Length set to From Scheduler File, using the Rivendell Standard Import template:


  
01:18:04  250098         Southern Nights                    00:02:56
01:21:00  TRACK          Track Marker                       00:00:45
01:22:30  250101         Come A Little Bit Closer           00:02:44
  

  

Example of an inline Track Marker with Inline Event Start/Length set to From Relative Position, using the Rivendell Standard Import template:


  
01:18:04  250098         Southern Nights                    00:02:56
  TRACK          Track Marker
01:22:30  250101         Come A Little Bit Closer           00:02:44
  

  

12.4.1.3. Configuring Autofill Carts

The Configure Autofill Carts button will bring up the Autofill Carts dialog>

The Autofill Carts Dialog

Carts listed in this dialog will be considered for inclusion in an event by RDLogManager when the event's Use Autofill box is ticked. When filling a gap, RDLogManager will recursively scan the list of available carts, working from the longest to shortest, and insert the longest cart that will fit. The process will stop when either the available gap has been completely filled or no cart short enough to fit has been found.

12.4.1.4. Enabling Hosts for Service Playout

The Enable Hosts button will bring up the Hosts dialog, where the hosts for which this service is allowed to be played can be defined

The Hosts Dialog

12.4.2. Traffic/Music Data Importation Settings

With the exception of one field (Insert Traffic Break String), the Traffic Data Import and Music Data Import sections are identical. Thus, only the Music Data Import section will be described here.

The upper part of the section consists of string fields and a dropdown box.

Log Importation String Fields

The Import Path field takes the fully-qualified path to the file to be used for import events by RDLogManager. This field can take filepath wildcards.

The Preimport Command field takes the fully-qualified path to the command to be run before attempting to import the file specified in Import Path. This field can take filepath wildcards. This can be useful when a schedule file requires pre-processing of some sort before being imported by rdlogmanager(1).

The Insert Marker String field can be used to configure placement of a marker event in the generated log. When the string set here is found in the 'cart' field in a line of the specified import file, RDLogManager will insert a marker event, the text of which will be the 'title' field from that same line.

Note

See Section 12.4.1.2, “Inline Event Scheduling Parameters” for details on how the Start Time and Length parameters are calculated when inserting a Marker String.

The Insert Voice Track String field can be used to configure placement of a voice track marker in the generated log. When the string set here is found in the 'cart' field in a line of the specified import file, RDLogManager will insert a voice track event, the text of which will be the 'title' field from that same line.

Note

See Section 12.4.1.2, “Inline Event Scheduling Parameters” for details on how the Start Time and Length parameters are calculated when inserting a Voice Track String.

The Insert Traffic Break String field can be used to configuration placement of a traffic break from an entry in the music import log. When the string set here is found in the cart field. RDLogManager will insert a traffic import event, using the event specified in the Import inline traffic dropdown box in the relevant music event.

Note

This field is available only in the Music Data Import section!

Note

See Section 12.4.1.2, “Inline Event Scheduling Parameters” for details on how the Link Start Time and Link Length parameters are calculated when inserting a Traffic Break.

12.4.3. Traffic/Music Import Parser Settings

The Log Parser Settings

Rivendell includes the ability to import log schedule files from a variety of third-party scheduling utilities. To configure an import from one of these systems, all that is usually necessary is to select the appropriate system in the Import Template dropdown in the Traffic Data Import or Music Data Import sections. However, if the target scheduler system is not on this list, or if your system requires custom settings, a custom parser can be defined by selecting [custom] from the dropdown. The Copy To Custom button will copy the selected import template values to the custom parser.

Warning

Using the Copy To Custom action will cause the prior custom import template values to be overwritten!

Log schedule files for Rivendell are assumed to be in so-called "column-aligned" format --i.e. each record occupies a single line in a text file that is terminated by a single linefeed or a carriage return, with each field occupying a fixed column position on the line. Each field takes two values: Offset:, which is the starting position of the field (starting from 0) on the line and Length:, which is the number of characters reserved for the field. Setting the Length: value for field to 0 disables the use of that field.

Most of the fields should be self-explanatory, but a few call for some comment:

Globally Unique ID

Many schedulers provide an opaque string with each scheduling record which they expect to be returned as part of the corresponding Electronic Log Reconciliation (ELR) fed back to the system. This field indicates where this "GUID" string should be found.

Event ID: / Annc. Type

Additional fields for GUID data. As of this writing, only scheduler products from Marketron require the use of these fields.

Transition Type:

The transition type to be assigned to this event. The following strings are recognized:

PLAY
SEGUE
STOP

See Section 5.2, “Event Transitions” for discussion of the meaning of these types. If left blank, a PLAY transition will be applied.

Time Type:

The time type to be assigned to this event. The following strings are recognized:

HARD

Apply a hard start (Start Immediately) to this item, using the specified start time of the event.

SOFT

Apply a soft start (Make Next) to this item, using the specified start time of the event.

If left blank, no time start options will be applied.

Note

The Transition Type and Time Type fields are available only if the Bypass Grid Processing dropdown has been set to Yes.

12.4.4. Testing Data Importation

Once the parameters have been configured, they can be tested with a sample import file by touching the Test Music or Test Music buttons to bring up the Test Import dialog.

The Test Import Dialog

Select the date for the import to test, either by entering it in the Test Date: control or by touching the Select button. Then, touch the Import button. The import events for the day should appear in the Imported Events list.