How to use Crawls in Cablecast CG
Overview
A crawl is a line of scrolling text that runs along the top or bottom of your Cablecast CG channel — useful for announcements, news headlines, or weather. A crawl's content can be static text or dynamic information pulled from an RSS feed or a weather service.
Setting up a crawl has two parts: creating the crawl content in the Crawls zone, and configuring the crawl's appearance on the channel. This article covers both.
Note
This article covers crawls on a Cablecast CG channel. Crawls that run over scheduled video programming are a separate feature — they're managed from the Cablecast Schedule, and their look and placement are configured in Channel Branding. See What Is Channel Branding?
Navigating to Crawls
Open the zone navigation dropdown by selecting the zone title at the top center of the interface. Under Zone Type, select Crawls, then choose the crawl zone you want to work in. (For more on the dropdown, see Navigating Between Zones in Cablecast CG.)
Once you're in the Crawls zone, select New Crawl. There are three types of crawl: Text, RSS, and Weather.
Creating a Crawl
Text Crawl
A text crawl displays a static message you type in. On the Content tab, enter your message in the Crawl Text field, then schedule and publish.
RSS Crawl
An RSS crawl scrolls content pulled from an RSS feed, and it's set up much like an RSS dynamic bulletin. On the Dynamic tab, enter the Feed URL, then choose how items are ordered: Sort By the feed's default order, publication date, title, author, or category, and set the Sort Direction to ascending or descending.
Under Item Limit Options, Limit By either Unlimited (every item in the feed) or Total Items (a set number). Item Display Options let you set a character limit, list Excluded Words to keep specific terms off the crawl, and shorten long URLs.
On the Content tab, fine-tune how items display with the Header Format, Item Format, and Footer Format fields, or keep the defaults. Select Dynamic Fields List to see every available field — both feed-level and item-level — with a live example of its current value, so you can choose which to include.
Weather Crawl
A weather crawl scrolls current weather, sourced from WeatherBug. On the Dynamic tab, set the Location by Zip Code or by Latitude and Longitude, optionally turn on Use Metric Units, and set the Outlook Length in days.
On the Content tab, the Weather Format field controls how the weather reads — for example, Today's weather: Currently: #currently#, #temperaturefullstring#. #outlook#. Select Dynamic Fields List to browse the available fields, which cover current conditions, temperature (highs, lows, and Celsius or Fahrenheit), wind, dew point, visibility, and more — each with a live example value. There are far more fields than most crawls need, so the default format is a good starting point.
Note
Like other bulletins, crawls have Schedule and Extras tabs, and RSS and Weather crawls add a Dynamic tab for their source settings. Leave a crawl set to Always Active or give it a specific schedule; the Extras tab includes display options such as dwell time and saving for later (see The Extras Section in Cablecast CG).
Styling Your Crawl
A crawl's appearance is set on the channel, not on the individual crawl — so the styling applies to the crawl across that channel. Go to Settings → Cablecast CG Settings → Channels, then select the pencil (Edit) icon for the channel you want to configure. (For more on reaching these settings, see Cablecast CG Configuration Settings.)
Open the Crawl tab to find Crawl Settings:
Placement — display the crawl along the Bottom or Top of the channel.
Offset — the distance, in pixels, from the edge of the screen.
Speed — how fast the text scrolls.
Font, Font Size, Font Color, and Background Color — the crawl's typography and colors.
Summary
A crawl is scrolling text along the top or bottom of your channel. Create the content in the Crawls zone with New Crawl, choosing a Text, RSS, or Weather crawl, then schedule and publish it. Set how the crawl looks — placement, speed, font, and colors — on the channel's Crawl tab under Settings → Cablecast CG Settings → Channels.
To see this in action, watch the Crawls section of the Cablecast CG Training Video.
