Gears for Web

Owned by Frank Chan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 23, 2020 by Georg Hentsch
5 min read

Gears for Web has been deprecated. This functionality has been moved to the Designer.

Gears for Web is an agent for Chameleon that manages the Chameleon Designer graphics package projects and populates the Chameleon database with information that is used by the Ticker Player, the Branding Player and the Elections Player for Web.

When a new Chameleon Designer graphics project is ready or an existing Chameleon Designer project has been modified, run Gears for Web to update the available scenes in the Chameleon database. Those scenes will then be available in Flow to create Branding assets or Elections Player rundowns for broadcast. You can also delete old projects that are no longer needed.

Gears for Web can be installed system as long as the system can connect to your Chameleon Database.  

Access Gears for Web

To access the Gears for Web agent, run it from its desktop icon on the installation system.

Database Connection

On launching Gears for Web, you will be shown the Preferences dialog first. This dialog will allow you to set or confirm the settings that are needed to connect to your Chameleon database. Connection and user authentication values would have been correctly configured during the initial installation. Use caution when modifying these values. Contact Bannister Lake Support for assistance.

  1. Modify the Flow credential values and/or the MySQL database connection values and settings as needed.

  2. Click OK to save your changes.

Gears for Web UI

Gears for Web is a 2-in-1 tool that allows managing of Chameleon Designer Projects for Branding, or Elections purposes. As such, there are 2 nearly identical tabs that you can work with depending on which Chameleon product that you are dealing with.

Content Group

You may need to change the Content Group that you will be working with in Gears. By default, the Global Content Group is selected. Click on the drop-down and choose the Content Group that you want to work with.

Branding Tab

This tab is used for managing the Branding templates and logos that will be used in Chameleon Branding. In this tab, there are 3 vertical sub-tabs. These are the ‘Update Templates', the ‘Delete Templates’ and the ‘Logos’ sub-tabs.

Branding ‘Update Templates’ sub-tab

Used for adding or updating Chameleon Designer scenes for Branding in the Chameleon Database.

  1. Make sure that the correct Content Group is selected so that the scene information is added or updated to the appropriate Content Group.

  2. Select the Templates directory on the system that contains the Designer Projects for Branding using the browse button (…).

  3. The grid control in the top left part of the ‘Update Templates’ sub-tab will show the projects that are in the Templates folder.

  4. Select one or more projects in the grid that you wish to update by clicking in the checkbox beside the project’s name.

  5. Click on the ‘Update' button to process the selected projects.

  6. When completed, a list of scenes will populate the ‘Templates Added/Updated’ grid at the bottom of the tab.

Branding ‘Delete Templates’ sub-tab

Used for cleaning up old Chameleon Designer Projects for Branding in the Chameleon Database.

  1. Press the ‘Refresh’ button to ensure that the latest list of all Branding Projects are shown in the grid. Note that this list contains all projects belonging to all Content Groups that the Flow User entered in the Preferences can access.

  2. Select the projects that you no longer need by clicking in the checkboxes.

  3. Click on the ‘Delete Templates’ button.

Branding ‘Logos’ sub-tab

Used for updating Branding logos that are available in the Logos directory.

Elections Tab

This tab is used for managing the Elections scenes that will be used by the Election Rundown Builder module in Flow and the Elections Player for Web application. In this tab, there are 2 vertical sub-tabs. These are the ‘Update Scenes’ and ‘Delete Projects’ sub-tabs.

Elections ‘Update Scenes’ sub-tab

Used for adding or updating Elections Chameleon Designer for scenes in the Chameleon Database.

  1. Make sure that the correct Content Group is selected so that the scene information is added or updated to the appropriate Content Group.

  2. Select the Projects directory on the system that contains the Designer Projects for Elections using the browse button (…).

  3. The grid control in the top left part of the ‘Update Scenes’ sub-tab will show the projects that are in the Projects folder.

  4. Select one or more projects in the grid that you wish to update by clicking in the checkbox beside the project’s name.

  5. Click on the ‘Update' button to process the selected projects.

  6. When completed, a list of scenes will populate the ‘Scenes Added/Updated’ grid at the bottom of the tab.

Elections ‘Delete Projects’ sub-tab

Used for cleaning up old Elections Chameleon Designer Projects in the Chameleon Database.

  1. Press the ‘Refresh’ button to ensure that the latest list of all Elections Project Files are shown in the grid. Note that this list contains all projects belonging to all Content Groups that the Flow User entered in the Preferences can access.

  2. Select the project files that you no longer need by clicking in the checkboxes.

  3. Click on the ‘Delete Projects’ button.