Example - A basic Scheduling Group

[ChioCS]

In this example we are showing you the very basic of scheduling. Although you can create some windows and include it under a cluster, set's a time period, an interval and repeat it the number of times you like. It goes about performing the schedule as it is, base on it's own time period and interval.

However in a group the interval is not necessary. A group has it's own start and end time, so when a group time period elapse, it automatically re-schedule it's children according to their start time and time period on it's next repeating cycle. Note, a child start and end time must fall within the group time period, any child period extending beyond the group time will be clipped.

To start, launch Noticeboard, add a cluster and a group, don't worry about the time period and other parameters yet, we come to that later. Add some windows with different time period beginning from time 0.

 

[ChioCS]

So after we have the windows created, we have an un-orderly time period. If we save it and run, all 4 windows will display immediately with some ending earlier and then there will be an interval where nothing is displayed until the group time period has elapsed.

 

[ChioCS]

The very first thing after we created a group of windows is to align it's children time period accordingly. So click on the group, click on the alignment icon, check the "Align Group to fit" to align all items from bottom upwards and adjust the group own's ending time to fit the last item end time.

 

[ChioCS]

After aligning the timing, it looks perfect, if we now save and runs it. It will just play it's children once. In order to repeat, we need to check the interval and have a repeat value of zero to repeat continously.

 

[ChioCS]

If you notice, when you created a group, it has a rectangle area to fill in. In a basic scheduling group, this is not applicable. When we created the 4 windows, we had all of them pointed to the same rectangle region (same size and screen coordinates), therefore when it schedules to play, after one goes off the other take it's place.

However in a scheduling group, there is no requirment that you need to specify the same screen regions for it's children. It's the same for the children time period, there is no restriction, though in this example both are coordinated.

 

[ChioCS]

Here's the sample.

Fruits.rar