Script Editor

The Script summary is displayed on the right inside the Automation Steps group box. Set Script values using the Script Editor controls as follows:.

General section

• Name  - The Script name. A short, descriptive name is best.
• Description  - A verbose description of what the script does and any special instructions for the sound person. Click the Edit Description button for a multi-line editor.

Add or Edit Automation Steps

• Edit Steps  button - Allows you to edit existing Steps. Reorder step positions, remove or set Step time controls.
• Add Selected Step  button - First click on the type of step you want to add in the list below the button. Then click the Add button. The steps are added to the end of the script. You can move them to reorder the steps with the Edit Steps button. For Play and Run Script steps, you will be prompted for the target sound items or scripts. Multiple Play and Run Script steps can be added at one time.

Special Processing

• Repeat  - Specifies how many times a Script should run when it is started (1 = run one time, 2 = run twice, etc.). After the last step finishes, the Script restarts at the first step.
• Repeat after Offset Time  - When checked, the Script runs will repeat after the Offset Time has expired. For example, if Offset Time is 5 minutes, the Script will run every 5 minutes for the specified number of Repeats. The first run occurs immediately when the Script run is started. Useful when you want to time the repeat of a Script.
• Shuffle steps when run  - When checked, the script steps are randomly shuffled when the script is run. Useful for music play.


Announcements are treated with special processing .


• Standard Announcements  - When checked, all Play steps in the containing script are treated as Standard Announcements. In general, use this setting when you want to time the announcements with custom Offset Times or Schedule Times.
• Insert Announcements  - When checked, all Play steps in the containing script are treated as Insert Announcements. These announcements are not played immediately but are placed on a stack. These announcements are inserted after each sequential Play step finishes. This provides a mechanism to play announcements automatically in between tracks of music programming.
• Interval Announcements  - When checked, all Play steps in the containing script are treated as Interval Announcements. These announcements are not played immediately but are placed on a stack. They are played after the Interval expires (ex. every 3 minutes). This provides a mechanism to play announcements automatically at regular intervals.

Date/Time Scheduling a Script

• Schedule Enable  - Enables the scheduling of a Script to Run at the specified Time of Day. This must be checked for the Script to be added to the Schedule Plan.
• Schedule Time  picker sets the Time of Day to run the Script. This sets a point in time. If you want to set a time range, use the schedule Schedule Edit button.
• Set to Now  button - Set the Schedule Time to current time (a point in time).
• Schedule Edit  button - Allows for setting the Schedule time range and/or date criteria using the Schedule Editor .

Cautions

1) If you delete a Sound Item from the Sound List and an automation step is pointing to that Sound Item, the automation step will not execute. It will also be flagged as an error when you Refresh the script.

2) A Run Script Step cannot run the Script it is contained in. This will be flagged as a 'self reference' error. For example, Script A cannot contain a Step to Run Script A. This would create an infinite loop condition.

3) It is possible to create an infinite loop if you are not careful with Run Script Steps. For example, if Script A contains a Step to Run Script B; and Script B contains a Step to Run Script A. In this case, A and B will run each other infinitely and if not stopped with the Stop button will eventually cause the program to run out of memory.