In the Digital Sign Creator, a text field can be linked to an RSS feed that is published online. For example, the World News Headlines from the New York Times is published in an RSS feed at the following URL:


http://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml


The RSS feed is provided in XML format, typically in a set of <ITEM> tags containing <TITLE> and <DESCRIPTION>, for example:


<NEWS>

<ITEM>

<TITLE>Cutbacks in U.N. Food Assistance Set Off Outcry in Gaza</TITLE>

<DESCRIPTION>The United Nations Relief and Works Agency pointed to a $55 million budget shortfall and said the cuts were based on a re-evaluation of Gaza’s needs.</DESCRIPTION>

</ITEM>
<ITEM>
<TITLE>Europe Pledges Aid to Italy for Refugees</TITLE>
<DESCRIPTION>The European Union’s top official visited an Italian island where a boat capsized last week and announced that Italy would receive $40.5 million, to deal with refugees.</DESCRIPTION>
....
</NEWS>



To display the content of an RSS feed inside a digital sign:


  1. Insert a new text object
  2. Double click on the text object and delete the default text.
  3. Click Insert Macro ...
  4. Select XML data ...
  5. In the XML file/URL field, paste the URL of the RSS feed that you are using (or use http://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml)
  6. In Reload after enter a value of 600 or higher (600 seconds equals an update every 10 minutes)
  7. In Tag path enter: item
  8. In Field enter title
  9. Leave Default value empty
  10. If you would like to see the headlines cycle, enable Display next item after and then select either Viewer Read Time or enter the number of seconds to wait before showing the next value. If you select Viewer Read Time, the software will calculate how long it takes to read the current text.



You can download a demo Digital Sign file to see how it is constructed: