TweetOut with XPression

Integrating TweetOut with XPression Studio involves four (4) configuration steps:

1. In TweetOut, use BLADE to generate an RSS Query String URL for a Twitter or Facebook playlist or topic.  
2. In the DataLinq Server, configure a DataLinq source for that RSS feed from TweetOut.
3. Using XPression DataLinq Manager, connect XPression to the XPression DataLinq Server to pull data from the established source(s).
4. In XPression, tag text or graphic objects to display content updates automatically.

Configure a DataLinq Source for TweetOut RSS Feed

DataLinq is an XPression Studio connector component that enables live templates to be filled automatically with external data, such as an RSS feed from TweetOut. 

 The XPression DataLinq Server is software that runs locally on the XPression system, or runs remotely to gather data from external sources and make that data available to XPression systems.

 In XPression, the XPression DataLinq Manager connects to one or more established DataLinq Server(s).

1. In the XPression DataLinq Server application, click Add New.
2. Select the type of external data source to access. In this case, select RSS Feed DataLinq Source and click OK.
    
   
3. In the URL field, copy and paste the RSS Query String URL from the TweetOut > BLADE > URL Generator.  
4. Specify the number of milliseconds to wait between RSS feed update checks using the Update Interval option.
5. Select the Wrap Indices option when using looping queries to ensure that content loops through to the beginning instead of stopping altogether. This option is selected by default.
6. You do not need to adjust default RSS Encoding or specify Basic Authentication user credentials.
7. Click OK.
    
   
8. When prompted, enter a Name for the DataLinq Source and press the ENTER key. You need this name to tie TweetOut content to text or graphic objects in XPression.    
   

Connect XPression to DataLinq Source

1. In the XPression Editor window, select Project > DataLinq Manager or press  the CTRL+ALT+M keys.
2. Click Add to add the DataLinq Server.
3. Specify your DataLinq Server and click OK:
1. Name - Enter an identifying name for the new DataLinq Server connection.
2. Host Address - Enter the IP address of the computer running the DataLinq Server. Enter localhost when the DataLinq Server is running locally on the same computer as XPression Studio.
3. Port - Specify the port number used to communicate with the computer running the DataLinq Server, if different from the default port 8888.
    
   
4. The XPression DataLinq Manager automatically creates an Available DataLinq Source based on the DataLinq Server you identify. You can close this dialog to continue. 

Tag Text or Graphics to Display Content

Once you have a DataLinq source set up for the TweetOut RSS feed, and you have connected XPression Studio to the XPression DataLinq Server to pull data, you can now tie it to text or graphic objects to display content updates automatically. 

1. In the XPression Editor, select the text object through which you want to display TweetOut content.
2. Select the Data Source tab.
3. Select the DataLinq option and click Set.
    
   
4. Select the DataLinq Source for TweetOut you set up via the XPression DataLinq Server.  
5. For the first scene, set the Column to “Tweet<n>\Text” and set any subsequent scenes as “Tweet<n+1>\Text”. You can click Browse to use the Select DataLinq Field dialog to set the column data, or you can enter the text manually.
6. When configuration is complete, click OK.

You can also configure the following options as needed:

• DataLinq configurations are enabled by default. You can suspend this configuration by clearing the Enabled option if needed.
• The <n> Increment option allows you to specify a value other than zero (0) when the <n> increment differs from the number of templates.
• The Live Update option immediately updates an online text object with changes from the associated DataLinq source when the scene is on-air.
• The Entity Decoding option translates HTML character entity reference codes into the correct corresponding characters. For example, the HTML character entity reference code &copy is translated into the © character for a text object.
• The Return Empty on Failure option leaves the object empty if the DataLinq connection fails. You may want to re-run existing content instead of leaving the object empty.
• The Disable Font Tag Parser option disables the parsing of {font} tags from the DataLinq source.