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iNEWS

This area is a collection of tips and hints to Avid's newsroom system iNEWS.

There is no dedicated order of topics. Nevertheless new chapters should be added on bottom. Use the search function to find some useful elements.

Maximize Search Pane

Question

Is it possible to maximize the search window?

Answer

The search panel is not a full window. It is a toolbar. Therefore it doesn't contain the functionality to maximize or minimize itself. Inside the iNEWS window you can resize it only by dragging the edges.

But it is possible to undock and resize the search window like a Adobe Photoshop™ palette. To do this:

  1. Double click on the heading area (beside the Refine field) inside the search toolbar.
  2. The search panel then is a separate free window.
  3. Drag the edges to resize the window as you like.

Finally a double click beside the refine field toggles between the maximized and docked view of your search window. Of course Ctrl+R will open/close the search view.

Unfortunately you have to reset the undocked size of your search window (step 3.) each time you start an iNEWS session.

Further hints

Only an undocked search panel can be dragged and dropped to another edge of the iNEWS window.

More Mailboxed Servers On A Single Queue

Question

Is it possible to activate more than one actionserver by the same queue?

Answer

Of course. You are limited to one mailbox per queue but you can assign more than one server to a mailbox. In example to monitor a rundown and forward the rundown to another place via actionserver/txnet.

Edit the /site/config file. Each “mailbox-able” server contains two numbers in its declaration. The first one is the device number and the second one is the mailbox number. Simply use the same mailbox for two (or more) servers.

...
server       350          monitor        350  -       ; monitor
...
special      480        0          txnet   350     -      ;
...

As you see the monitor server 350 and the txnetserver 480 have the same mailbox. On a rundown queue the mailbox 350 is assigned and so you can monitor this queue for CA or MOS as well as mirror the stories on a external system, e.g. a web server.

Further hints

Never edit your config with a windows based editor. Only use vi or ed!

Video IDs

Question

Can we create video-ids automatically?

Answer

Yes, but not with built-in components of iNEWS. You need a combination of a Linux shell script and a macro inside iNEWS.

  1. The shell script is started via crontab once a day very early morning. It generates a list of new video-ids (for that day) in a hidden place of the iNEWS database.
  2. The macro moves the next entry out of this list and paste it into the video-id field of the current story. An already assigned video id will not be overwritten by the macro.

So this solution take care about:

  1. The video id is unique. Whenever a user picks up a video id out of the list this id is immediately removed from the list. No chance to take the same id twice.
  2. The video id for a given story is fix. The macro keeps an already assigned id in the target story. It's not possible to change the id after working with (at least not with our macro)
Setup
  1. Video-id queue - inside iNEWS Client
    • Create a new folder hidden in iNEWS database.
    • Inside create a new queue video-ids.
    • Set readgroup for the folder to nobody.
    • Set readgroup and writegroup for the queue to !none or the group which is allowed to assign video-ids.
  2. Script - Linux shell as user root (su) on both machines - inews-a and inews-b, respectively.
    • Create a directory /site/scripts/video-ids
    • Create a directory /site/scripts/video-ids/data
    • Inside /site/scripts create a file yes2 with following content:
      y
      y
    • Inside /site/scripts/video-ids create a file video-ids.sh with following content:
      #! /bin/bash
      #
      # creates video-ids
      # runs every morning at (via crontab)
      #
       
      LOGDIR=/var/log/iNEWS
      DATE=$(date +%c)
      ID=1
      DIGIT=00
       
      /exc/dbpurge hidden.video-ids 0 < /site/scripts/yes2 > /dev/null
      rm /site/scripts/video-ids/data/ids
       
      while test $ID -le 300
      do
          if test $ID -ge 10
          then
              DIGIT="0"
          fi
          if test $ID -ge 100
          then
              DIGIT=""
          fi
          echo "$(date +%d%m)-$DIGIT$ID" >> /site/scripts/video-ids/data/ids
          ID=$(expr $ID + 1)
      done
       
      /exc/doc -pu hidden.video-ids /site/scripts/video-ids/data/ids
      echo "creating video IDs for" $DATE >> $LOGDIR/video-ids
    • Set permissions for video-ids.sh with
      chmod 744 /site/scripts/video-ids/video-ids.sh
    • Test the script. If you get no error messages at the terminal but a story with video-ids inside the hidden.video-ids queue, your script works properly. To run the script type:
      /site/scripts/video-ids/video-ids.sh
  3. Type forms story - inside iNEWS Client as superuser1)
    • Create a queue system.forms.t.type-q
    • Insert a new story and change the fields for that story. For our macro it is necessary to have the video-id field at second position. Other fields don't matter for our macro - maybe for others…
  4. Macro - inside iNEWS Client as superuser
    • In a keyboard story of your choice (normally the producer keyboard) assign the following macro to a key.
      English version:
      {alt wo}hidden.video-ids{enter} {alt {right}{right}} {ctrl {home}} {shift {end}{left}} {ctrl x} {delete} {ctrl se} {alt wc} {alt {right}{right}{left}} {alt vuf}type-q{enter} {home} {tab} {f2} {space}{backspace} {ctrl v} {shift {end}} {ctrl x} {shift {home}} {ctrl v} {ctrl se} {alt vun} {home} {tab}{tab}


      German version:

      {alt fa}hidden.video-ids{enter} {alt {right}{right}} {ctrl {home}} {shift {end}{left}} {ctrl x} {delete} {ctrl se} {alt fs} {alt {right}{right}{left}} {alt abf}type-q{enter} {home} {tab} {f2} {space}{backspace} {ctrl v} {shift {end}} {ctrl x} {shift {home}} {ctrl v} {ctrl se} {alt abn} {home} {tab}{tab}


      French version:

      {alt no}hidden.video-ids{enter} {alt {right}{right}} {ctrl {home}} {shift {end}{left}} {ctrl x} {delete} {ctrl se} {alt nf} {alt {right}{right}{left}} {alt hum}type-q{enter} {home} {tab} {f2} {space}{backspace} {ctrl v} {shift {end}} {ctrl x} {shift {home}} {ctrl v} {ctrl se} {alt hun} {home} {tab}{tab}
    • Test the macro. Save the keyboard story. Choose this keyboard in your preferences. Then go to a rundown story and press the related shortcut. If the story have had no video-id, now it should have the next one out of your list (and this number should be removed from the list). If the story have had a video-id before, this video-id should be there even if you run the macro. In that case nevertheless a number is removed from the list.
Comments
  • The script above creates video-ids in the format ddmm-xxxwhereas xxx is a sequential number. This format can be easily changed or extended.
  • Actually the script produces 300 ids. Of course you can increase this value by adjusting the loop border.
1) The macro can address the video-id-field just with tabs. To avoid a disruption of its functionality by changing the rundown queue forms the macro works with its own queue view with a defined layout
forum/inews.1174901996.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/11/19 22:45 (external edit)