Scene Tag Naming Convention
For Super Ticker Elector Tags visit Elections Tags.
Specific naming convention preparations are required in XPression projects, scene names, scenes tag substitution, on/off scene animations, materials, and tags in order to use the Elector Player for output for an election broadcast.
Project File Path
For provincial elections, the XPression project file’s path is d:\elections\provincial\election.xpf.
Gears reads the XPression project file XPF to populate the scene information in the Elector database in order for scenes to be scheduled into playlists or played individually using the Elector Player.
Scene Names
Scene names determine what type of data needs to be included in the scheduler. For example, if it’s a Riding scene, scheduling it in a playlist requires that a riding is specified and that the corresponding riding identifier be stored in the database for scene tag substitutions.
Scene on-air and off-air handling
Any effects used to take a scene on-air or to take a scene off-air must be handled using XPression's Transition Logic. The Elector Player will only set a scene online or offline.
Scenes
The following scenes support scene tag substitution. The required names for scenes include:
| Scene | Details |
|---|---|
| Riding<name> | A scene that includes candidate information for candidates in a particular riding. Requires a riding ID to be scheduled. From the riding ID, the system can fill in the candidate scene tags by getting all the candidates ordered descending by vote total. For example, Candidate1 refers to the candidate that has the most votes in the riding. |
| Candidate<name> | A scene that includes candidates from any riding. For example, party leaders from different ridings. Requires a candidate ID to be scheduled. By using the Caption scene tags, a candidate can be given a hero annotation. |
| Party<name> | A party scene does not require anything attached to the schedule. The following subclasses are available and support regular Party tags as well as their own specific tags:
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| Background<name> | A background scene. This is an optional background scene that can be played behind other scenes. A background scene can be used to show a common background for all the scenes of a playlist or for an individual scene in the playlist. If both a playlist background and a playlist item background is defined, they should both play out with the playlist item’s background layer being in front of the playlist’s background. |
| Bug<name> | A bug scene. This scene is generally use to show a station logo but can also be used to show things like majority or minority government status. |
| Ticker<name> | A ticker (crawl or pages) scene which displays the headlines from the database. Ticker scenes are not supported in playlists. Ticker scenes can be used for either headlines or breaking news. Ticker scenes support only Caption1 scene tags. If a Ticker scene is defined as a group and it has an attached scene, then it will play out as a ticker. There is no naming convention for the attached scene. The system always uses the first attached scene. |
| <any other name> | Any scene that is not one of the above. These scenes support up to 5 captions. They are supported in playlists. They can be used to display on-air talent name keys, referendum questions, or whatever the broadcaster needs. The following aliases are available:
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Materials
Materials in XPression are global; all materials can be shared among all scenes in an XPression project file XPF. The following are the names of standard election materials:
| Materials | Details |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | The incumbent logo used in scenes. Not affected by the player directly, so designers can use any material name. The player shows or hides the XPression objects in a scene tagged with ^IncumbentLogo<#>. See Scene Tags below for details. |
| Elected | The elected logo used in scenes. Not affected by the player directly, so designers can use any material name. The player shows or hides the XPression objects in a scene tagged with ^ElectedLogo<#>. See Scene Tags below for details. |
| <PartyName> | The party logo using the short-form name of a party. For example, for the Liberal party, the material is called “LIB”. |
| <MaterialName>_<PartyName> | This is used to add special logos for parties using the tag ^PartyLogo<#>. <PartyName> uses the short-form name of a party. |
The Elector Player inspects the current material assigned to the ^PartyLogo<#> tag. If the name of the currently assigned material is in the form of <MaterialName>_<PartyName>, then the player will switch the material out with the correct party shortform name.
For example, if a tag ^PartyLogo1 is assigned a material named Chicklet_LIB, then when playing out, when the PC party is leading, the app looks for a material named Chicklet_PC and switches that in automatically.
Scene Tags
The naming convention for scene tags include the following.
Note: The system supports up to five (5) candidates in a candidate scene. While riding scenes always have candidates in one riding, a candidate scene can have 1 - 5 candidates from any riding. So when choosing the candidates for a candidate scene, the system needs to select the specific candidate and in the case of playlists, store the candidate ID in the playlist item.
| Scene Tag | Details |
|---|---|
| ^Caption<#><Label> | Up to 5 captions supported. The suffix to Caption<#> is the optional label which will be shown in Flow and the Elector Player for this caption. |
| ^Riding | Shows the name of the riding. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^RidingInfo | Shows information associated with the riding. In Flow, this is the information in the Notes section. Requires: BL Elector Player v5.1.x.88. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^RidingElectors | Shows the number of Electors for the riding. Requires: BL Elector Player v5.1.x.88. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^RidingMailBallots | Shows the number of Mail-In Ballots for the riding. Requires: BL Elector Player v5.1.x.88. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^ShowCandidateCount | Shows the total number of candidates in a riding for the current election. Used by riding scenes. |
| ^VoteLead<#> | Shows the number of votes that the candidate in the <#> position has over the candidate in the <#+1> position. Used by riding scenes. |
| ^PollsReported | Shows the number of polls that have reported their results for the riding in the case of a riding scene. In the case of a party scene, it shows the total number of polls that have reported their results for all ridings. Used by riding and party scenes. |
^PollsReported_CustomA ^PollsReported_CustomB ^PollsReported_CustomC | Custom Tags for Polls Reported.
Available custom tags: Polls, Polls% and TotalPolls. Used by riding and party scenes. |
| ^PollsReported% | When used in a riding scene, this tag shows the polls reported as a percentage of the total polls for the riding. In a party scene, it shows the total number of polls reported as a percentage of the total number of polls for all ridings. Used by riding and party scenes. |
| ^TotalPolls | In riding scenes, this tag shows the total number of polls available for the riding. In party scenes, this tag indicates the total number of polls available for all ridings. Used by riding and party scenes. |
| ^Candidate<#> | Candidate name in the format “Firstname Lastname”. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^CandidateFirstName<#> | Candidate first name. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
^Candidate#_CustomA ^Candidate#_CustomB ^Candidate#_CustomC ^Candidate#_CustomD ^Candidate#_CustomE | Custom Tags for Candidate names
Available custom tags: FirstInitial, LastName, Party, PartyLong, Incumbent, Elected, Votes and VotePct. For PartyLong this shows the full name of the party whereas Party shows the party code. |
| ^CandidateLastName<#> | Candidate last name. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^CandidateLastFirstName<#> | Candidate name in the format “Lastname, Firstname”. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^Vote<#> | Shows the votes for the candidate. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^Vote%<#> | Shows the percentage of votes that the candidate has relative to the total number of votes cast in the candidate's riding. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^Headshot<#> | Fills the candidate image for the candidate at the <#> position. Used by riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^IncumbentLogo<#> | Marks the candidate at the <#> position as the incumbent. Used by riding and candidate scenes. uses material Incumbent; see Materials above for details |
| ^ElectedLogo<#> | Used by riding and candidate scenes. uses material Elected; see Materials above for details |
| ^CandidateInfo<#> | Displays field infolong contents (Full Insight). Used by candidate scenes. |
| ^CandidateInfoShort<#> | Displays field infoshort contents (On Air Insight). Used by candidate scenes. |
| ^Party<#>, ^PartyCode<#> | Shows the code (short-form name) for the party, e.g., CON, NDP, LIB. Used by party, riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^PartyDatafeed<#> | Shows the Data Feed ID value for the party. This is usually assigned by the datafeed and most likely won't change over the course of the elections. Used by party, riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^PartyLong<#> | Shows the full name of the party. Used by party, riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^PartyLogo<#> | uses material <PartyName> Used by party, riding and candidate scenes. |
| ^PartyTotal<#>_<date> | Shows the number of ridings a party is leading or elected in from a previous election where date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyTotalDiff<#>_<date> | Shows the difference between this election and the election from <date> where date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyTotalDiffHasVotes<#> | Shows the vote differential between the current election and the previous election data (typically data from the dissolution date). The differences are only counted for ridings that have non-zero voting data for the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyTotalDiffHasVotes%<#> | Shows the vote differential between the current election and the previous election data as a percentage of the count of ridings. The differences and ridings are only counted for ridings that have non-zero voting data for the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyElected<#> | Shows the number of ridings where a party is elected (but not leading). Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyLeading<#> | Shows the number of ridings where a party is leading (but not elected). Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyVote<#>_<date> | Party vote from a previous election where date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyVote%<#>_<date> | Party vote percentage from a previous election where date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyVoteDiff%<#>_<date> | Party vote difference percentage from a previous election where date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyLogo<#>_<MaterialName> | Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyBar<#>_<MaterialName> | Bar grows based on the number of seats by which a party is leading. Used by party scenes. Note: In the scene, the bar should be at its maximum size so that it can shrink to the party leading percentage. |
| ^PartyGain<#>_<date> | Indicates the number of ridings won where the ridings did not belong to the party previously on the indicated previous election date. Previous election date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyGainHasVotes<#> | Indicates the number of ridings won where the ridings did not belong to the party on the previous election date (typically the dissolution date). The ridings are only counted for ridings that have non-zero voting data in the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyLoss<#>_<date> | Indicates the number of ridings lost where the ridings belonged to the party on the indicated previous election date but has now been or being lost to another party. Previous election date is in the format “yyyy-mm-dd”. If no “_<date>” suffix is used, it refers to the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^PartyLossHasVotes<#> | Indicates the number of ridings lost where the ridings belonged to the party on the previous election date (typically the dissolution date) but has now been or is being lost to another party. The ridings are only counted for ridings that have non-zero voting data in the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyWinner | Shows the party code of the party that is declared to form the government for the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyWinnerDatafeed | Shows the Data Feed ID of the party that is declared to form the government for the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^PartyWinnerType | Shows the text that is entered in the Flow Elector page where the declaration of the party that forms the government is done. Generally, the text indicates whether the government type is a Majority or Minority. See the section on Declare the Election Winner (Call the Election) in High Level Results. Used by party scenes. |
| ^TotalElected | Indicates the number of ridings that have an elected candidate in the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^TotalLeading | Indicates the number of ridings that have a leading candidate (but are not elected) in the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| ^EligibleSeats_<date> | Indicates the total number of ridings in the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^TotalSeats_<date> | Shows the number of total number of ridings that have a candidate that is elected or is leading in the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^TotalSeats%_<date> | Shows the number of total number of ridings that have a candidate that is elected or is leading as a percentage of the number of Eligible seats in the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^EligibleVotes_<date> | Shows the number of eligible voters for the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^TotalVotes_<date> | Shows the total votes registered for the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^TotalVotes%_<date> | Shows the total votes registered as a percentage of the eligible voters for the election specified by the _<date> suffix. If this suffix is absent, the data is from the current election. This is useful for showing the voter turnout. Used by party scenes. Note: The “_<date>” suffix is optional and can appear as “_Prev<#>”, e.g., “_Prev1” for the last election, “_Prev2” for the results 2 elections ago. The actual dates of the previous elections must be configured in the Elector Player. |
| ^ShowPartyCount | Shows the number of main parties + 1 (for "Others") in the current election. Used by party scenes. |
| <Riding Number> | Each riding's representative graphic element for use in a party map. Each riding is marked with the color of the party's candidate who is in the lead or who is elected. Otherwise, the riding is black. Riding number should be in a 3 digit format (e.g., 001). Used by party map scenes. |
PlaceA_1 to PlaceA_100 PlaceB_1 to PlaceB_100 ... PlaceF_1 to PlaceF_100 | Used specifically in party scenes for party pie charts to represent party percentage. The party with the highest vote percentage will use the "PlaceA_#" objects. The party with the next highest vote percentage will use the "PlaceB_#" objects. For example, when a party is leading the election with 30% of the votes, "PlaceA_1" through to "PlaceA_30" will be visible and bears the color of that leading party. If the next party in line has 20% of the vote, "PlaceB_31" to "PlaceB_50" will be visible and has the color of that party. Note that the max number of parties in the election should match (as indicated by the "^ShowPartyCount" value) should match the number of "Place" tag groups. Used by party pie chart scenes. |
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