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List of signs

Awesign has a variety of sign templates that can quickly be configured to meet your needs. This page documents the available signs with their general information, required input data (parameters), and technical names (for URLs and type configuration). This information is useful when configuring both simple signs (using paths in the signs section of the configuration), as well as more advanced signs (using type and data in the dynamic_signs section).

Each sign will list its path, which is the relative front-end path after /sign/ in the URL, as described in Configuring signs. Therefore, the path listed here can be entered as the path in the signs section of the configuration file. Variables within the path will be denoted in <brackets> and described in the parameters list. When configuring the path in the signs section, you'll need to replace these placeholders with their actual values.

The Dynamic sign type is the string that should be used when configuring dynamic signs in the configuration file. When configuring a dynamic sign, each entry in the "parameters" list must be provided as data within the dynamic_signs section. Some parameters are only available for dynamic signs.

Standard signs

Department directory

The department directory sign shows a list of faculty and staff within a department. A user can choose to sort the list by first or last name. They can tap a person to view their title, email address, and office location. If a floor map is available for their office location, it will be displayed. If the sign's location is on the same floor, it will be indicated on the map as "you are here." If a path exists from the sign's location to the person's office, the shortest path will be drawn on the map. A list of "highlight people" retrieved from the department directory will be displayed at the top in the order provided by the API. All of this data comes from the specified external directory API, which must be configured to use this sign. The status bar will only display the department banner image.

  • Path: department-directory/<department>
  • Dynamic sign type: department_directory
  • Parameters:

Room directory

The room directory sign is similar to the department directory sign, but it includes students and only lists the people located in the specified room. Each person's desk number is displayed, and the list can be sorted by desk number. The status bar displays the department banner, building display name, room display name, and room's description.

Floor map

The floor map sign displays a full-screen interactive floor map for a specified building floor. Of course, a floor map needs to be created first. The sign's current location will be indicated on the map if configured. Points with names mapping to a configured room will include the room's display_name and description. If the room isn't configured, Awesign will next check the department directory to determine whose office the room is. If multiple people are in the same room, they will properly be listed out. If neither the building configuration nor the department directory contain the room, it will simply use the label from the map builder. The status bar displays the department banner, building formal name, and floor name.

Room reservations

The room reservations sign shows a calendar of the current week containing the reservation timeslots for a particular room, the room's current status, and information about reserving the room (if configured). You can configure the EMS API integration to pull live reservation data from EMS, or use an iCal calendar feed as the source of your reservations. The status bar displays the department banner, building display name, room display name, and room's description. You can navigate between different weeks (from the previous week up through 3 weeks into the future).

  • Path: department-room-reservations/<department>/<building>/<room_number>
  • Dynamic sign type: room_reservations
  • Parameters:

Slide show

The slide show sign provides a full-screen view of rotating slides from a slide view. Of course, a slide view, slide cycler, and gallery need to be configured first. There is no status bar for this sign.

  • Path: slideshow/<slide_view>
  • Dynamic sign type: slide_show
  • Parameters:
    • slide_view: The name field of the slide view as configured in slide_views

Slide show (with status bar)

The slide show status sign is like the slide show sign, but it includes a status bar. The status bar displays the department banner, weather information, and the date/time. The bar under the time represents the current second within the minute.

  • Path: slideshow/<department>/<slide_view>
  • Dynamic sign type: slide_show_status
  • Parameters:
    • department: The name field of the department as configured in data_sources.departments
    • slide_view: The name field of the slide view as configured in slide_views
    • bottom_status: An optional boolean; if true, displays the status bar at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.

Web page

The web page sign shows a full-screen browser opened to the specified URL.

  • Path: None
  • Dynamic sign type: web_page
  • Parameters:
    • url: The full URL for the web page to display, such as https://www.buffalo.edu
    • refresh_seconds: (Optional) The number of seconds (as a float or integer) between refreshing the web page. 0 or a negative number disables automatic refreshing. Defaults to 0.
    • trusted: (Optional) true to allow the page's JavaScript to run, among other security relaxations. false greatly restricts the features available to the web page for maximum security. Defaults to false.
      • You shouldn't set this to true unless the web page is created by a known trusted source, such as yourself.

Full screen video

The full screen video sign plays a video without any additional content, such as a status bar. Audio is not supported.

  • Path: None
  • Dynamic sign type: full_screen_video
  • Parameters:
    • url: The full URL for the video to play, such as https://example.com/my_video.mp4.
      • This file can be hosted by Awesign or an external server. If hosted by Awesign, it's recommended to use the data/tenant/videos directory. You'll need to create this directory yourself if you haven't already. The entire data/tenant directory is hosted as a static files directory at /tenant. For example, the file at data/tenant/videos/my_video.mp4 should be referenced by https://awesign.cse.buffalo.edu/tenant/videos/my_video.mp4 See the internal administrator's full installation guide for more information.
      • The file format should be an MP4, but some browsers may support additional formats.
    • loop: (Optional) true to loop the video back to the beginning after it finishes; false to freeze on the last frame. Defaults to false.

Daily Overview

The daily overview sign displays the current date, time, and weather details for the next several hours.

  • Path: daily-overview
  • Dynamic sign type: daily_overview
  • Parameters: None

Welcome

The welcome sign serves as a versatile dashboard to help visitors quickly find what they're looking for. It features a floor map and a highly-configurable list of buttons. Buttons can display dynamic information, draw paths on the map, and navigate between tabs. All text is highly-configurable as well.

  • Path: welcome/<welcome_sign_name>
  • Dynamic sign type: welcome
  • Parameters:
    • welcome_sign_name: The name field of the welcome sign as configured in welcome_signs

Special signs

Auto sign

The "auto sign" is a special sign that doesn't display much on its own. When a sign user loads this sign, it will be redirected to the default sign configured for that user after a short countdown. It's useful when you need to configure a "player" (signage computer) to load a specific URL when starting, but you don't want to hard-code a particular sign.

  • Path: auto
  • Dynamic sign type: None
  • Parameters: None

Dynamic sign

The "dynamic sign" sign displays one dynamic sign directly via its name—although this isn't particularly useful, as you could specify the sign's "simple" URL instead. You can probably pretend this doesn't exist, but for the sake of completeness, I'm including it here. (Usually, dynamic signs are used as children of other signs, such as a tab group or sign cycler, instead.)

  • Path: dynamic/<dynamic_sign_name>
  • Dynamic sign type: None (We're not going to do infinite recursion!)
  • Parameters:
    • dynamic_sign_name: The name field of the dynamic sign as configured in Dynamic signs

Tab group

The "tab group" sign allows the user to switch between multiple dynamic signs on one physical sign. A tab bar is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and it can be used for navigation. It resets to the first tab after a configurable period of inactivity. See Configuring tab groups for more information.

  • Path: tab-group/<tab_group_name>
  • Dynamic sign type: None (You cannot nest tab groups in any other sign)
  • Parameters: tab_group_name: The name field of the tab group as configured in tab_groups

Sign cycler

The "sign cycler" sign cycles through a configured set of dynamic signs at a specified interval. It can be nested within a tab group, but you need to be mindful to avoid recursion. See Configuring sign cyclers for more information.

  • Path: sign-cycler/<sign_cycler_name>
  • Dynamic sign type: sign_cycler
  • Parameters: sign_cycler: The name field of the sign cycler as configured in sign_cyclers