Would you like use an automated birthday list? Here are a few details that can help launch your search into the possibilities in this regard.
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Having an automated list of employee birthdays can be an advantage, especially in the event that you have a large number of employees at your ITESLIVE display's location. Automating this information can limit the number of manipulations required to keep the list up to date on your signage network. That being said, there are multiple things that you need to look into before this can be done.
Note: It is also possible to enter birthdays manually on the ITESLIVE Studio, there are free templates available for birthdays and the following will show you how to access the free templates.
https://support.itesmedia.tv/en/how-to-access-to-the-free-templates-bank
Required ITESLIVE licence type
As you can see in the table above, the external data type clips, meaning content that uses automated data in the ITESLIVE software requires the Premium licence type. If you are uncertain of which type of licence you are using or you wish to know how to proceed in chancing your licence type, we invite you to communicate with our sales team using the following email.
sales@itesmedia.tv
Note: Although there are details you can look into internally, if you are uncertain of where to start your research, you can simply communicate your interest in data automation to our team. We can help guide your inquiries and your internal research.
How should we produce the data
This may seem simple, but using more manual approaches to producing the data the more taxing updating it will be for your team. The ideal situation for the creation of an automated data template is to have an internal system that can export the data. This means that your first step should be to confirm if there is an internal system that contains the data you wish to broadcast, then you can confirm with your IT team if it is possible to have this system export the data.
What data format should we use
There are multiple possibilities in this regard, the data integration on the ITESMEDIA side can vary slightly according to the type of data you choose or how the data is shared with us. The data format you choose will often depend on the system that is exporting it, the software used to export the data may use one or more specific data formats and this will help guide your choice in the matter. It is also possible to inquire if your IT team are able to obtain the data from the system directly and create their own export in the desired format if you have a preference. The following are a few examples of data formats that can be used in a data automation project.
JSON
JSON is one of the currently most commonly used data formats. Here is an example of a JSON birthday list.
{
"birthdays": [
{
"first_name": "first_name 1",
"last_name": "last_name 1",
"date": "YYYY-MM-DD"
},
{
"first_name": "first_name 2",
"last_name": "last_name 2",
"date": "YYYY-MM-DD"
},
{
"first_name": "first_name 3",
"last_name": "last_name 3",
"date": "YYYY-MM-DD"
}
]
}
Important: Although the employee's birth date must be correct, it is important that the year included in the date is the current year and not the employee's birth year. This is important because the ITESLIVE software will compare the date in the data to the current date to know when this information needs to be displayed.
XML
The following is an example of an XML birthday list.
<birthdays>
<entry>
<first_name>first_name 1</first_name>
<last_name>last_name 1</last_name>
<date>YYYY-MM-DD</date>
</entry>
<entry>
<first_name>first_name 2</first_name>
<last_name>last_name 2</last_name>
<date>YYYY-MM-DD</date>
</entry>
<entry>
<first_name>first_name 3</first_name>
<last_name>last_name 3</last_name>
<date>YYYY-MM-DD</date>
</entry>
</anniversaires>
Important: Although the employee's birth date must be correct, it is important that the year included in the date is the current year and not the employee's birth year. This is important because the ITESLIVE software will compare the date in the data to the current date to know when this information needs to be displayed.
CSV
Date,first_name,last_name
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 1,last_name 1
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 2,last_name 2
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 3,last_name 3
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 4,last_name 4
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 5,last_name 5
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 6,last_name 6
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 7,last_name 7
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 8,last_name 8
YYYY-MM-DD,first_name 9,last_name 9
Important: Although the employee's birth date must be correct, it is important that the year included in the date is the current year and not the employee's birth year. This is important because the ITESLIVE software will compare the date in the data to the current date to know when this information needs to be displayed.
How are you going to send us the data
Once again there are several options in this regard, the data integration on the ITESMEDIA side can vary slightly according to the chosen method. It is also possible that the required manipulations to update the data to increase according to the selected solution.
Important: For instance, if you were to upload a XLSX (Excel) file that is written manually by an employee from your team to the ITESLIVE Studio. Every time an employee leaves or a new employee is hired, the ressource in charge of writing this document must update it and must replace the previous version in your files on the ITESLIVE Studio.
Ideally, the system that exports the data has an API that we can call and this API will return a JSON, XML or CSV file according to the selected data format. It is also valid to have your IT team create an API that recovers the file exported by your system and have this custom API provide us with the data. In either of these methods, the ITESLIVE software running on your displays and the ITESLIVE Studio can simply call the API's URL to recover the information you wish to broadcast. It is also possible to publish the file on a web server and providing us with its HTTPS URL, this would have the same result.
How to add the data in a template
To integrate the data you are now producing into your ITESLIVE displays, you must communicate with our team, at least for the very first template. It is possible to have our team integrate this and any future automated data for you, however, it is also possible to have an internal resource trained on the use of the ITESLIVE template editor. For more information contact our sales team using the following email address.
sales@itesmedia.tv
Note: It is possible that the resource you wish to train will need two training sessions on the ITESLIVE template editor. There is a general use aspect of the tool that one must learn in addition to the configurations that are specific to external data that must be covered in training. Seeing that there is a lot of information to absorb, it can be beneficial to separate it in two parts.