Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

...

Often when an exhibit requires some form of presets, the developer will need a way to represent many instances of identically structured groups of settings. For example, imagine a simple exhibit that controls a lighting system where the goal is to change the state of the lights with different presets. Sounds simple enough; just use a Dropdown setting type where the user can select one of the many preconfigured presets:

Code Block
languagejs
export const MANIFEST = {
    "manifest": {
        "statuses": [ ... ],
        "controls": [ ... ],
        "settings": [
			{
                "id": "lighting-presets",
                "type": "Dropdown",
                "display": "Lighting Preset",
                "items": [
                    {
                      "id": "morning",
                      "display": "Morning",
                      "order": 0
                    },
                    {
                      "id": "afternoon",
                      "display": "afternoon"
                    },
                    {
                      "id": "evening",
                      "display": "Evening"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}  

But what if an additional preset is added to the lighting system after the exhibit is installed? Then the exhibit developer must manually add this preset to the manifest:

{
Code Block
languagejs
export const MANIFEST = {
  "manifest": {
 
      "statuses": [ ... ],
 
      "controls": [ ... ],

       "settings": [
			{    {
              "id": "lighting-presets",
 
              "type": "Dropdown",
                "display": "Lighting Preset",

               "items": [
                    [...]
                    {
                      "id": "after-hours",
 
                    "display": "After Hours"
 
                  }
 
              ]

           }
 
      ]
 
  }
}

So if more presets need to be added post-installation, this setup requires a considerable effort to update the exhibit over its lifecycle.

...

Settings Lists are defined in the Manifest file in a similar manner to top-level settings. The only difference is that they require an additional property to define the schema; an array of settings.

Code Block
languagejson
{export const MANIFEST = {
  "manifest": {
 
      "statuses": [ ... ],
 
      "controls": [ ... ],

       "settings": [
			{
				"id"
        {
          id: "screens",
				"type"
          type: "SettingsList",
				"display": "Screens",
				"order"         display: "Screens",
          order: 0, // optional
				"schema"
          schema: [ // any Gumband setting types can be included
					{            {
                "id": "bkg_img",
                type: "FileSelection",
         "type": "FileSelection",      display: "Background Image",
                "display"order: "Background0
Image",            },
            "order": 0
					},
					{
       
                "id": "header",
      
                 "type": "TextInput",
                display: "Header",
      "display": "Header",         order: 1
            },
 "order": 1 					}, 					{        {
                "id": "body",
 
                      "type": "TextInput",
                  display: "Body",
                "display": "Body",order: 2
            }
          ]
    "order": 2 					} 				] 			},
        ],
 
  }
}

Exhibit Manipulation

...

Once added to the manifest and with the exhibit running, the Settings List will appear as its own setting on the Settings Page. The (0) indicates that there are currently no instances of list items in the Screens SettingsList. Click it to view, create, and modify list items.

...

Create a new setting list Setting List item by clicking the Create New button, which will open a modal.

...

This callback is fired for each individual Setting modified, which means that if fields in more than one Setting List Instance item instance are updated, you’ll receive them all as individual setting callbacks, in potentially any order:

...

It is also possible to retrieve SettingsList instances manually.

With two setting list Setting List items in the Screens SettingsList, the following code will deliver JSON-formatted data of the SettingsList schema followed by the items themselves with all associated data.

...

Individual Settings within each setting list item can be retrieved and modified manually as well:

Expand
titleNot-Working due to a BugExample -- sdk ^1.0.45
Code Block
languagejs
const health_header = await gb.getSetting("screens/\"Health\"/header");
console.log(health_header);
// Prints out:
Code Block
languagejson
{
    "id": 1612,
    "manifestId": "screens/\"Health\"/header",
    "exhibitId": 146,
    "type": "TextInput",
    "display": "Header",
    "enabledOpMode": null,
    "value": "Health",
    "default": "",
    "order": 1,
    "touchless": null,
    "listId": 67,
    "items": [],
    "read": true,
    "write": true
}
Code Block
languagejs
// To update the setting's value property
await gb.setSetting("screens/\"Health\"/header", "Health: System Operational Stats");

The current method for

The following example assumes the exhibit has a single Setting List.

Expand
titleCurrent Workaround
Example -- sdk <= 1.0.44 Workaround

The sdk version 1.0.45 introduced features that allowed the above example to work as shown. However, previous versions of the sdk were unable to find settings contained within settings lists without the exhibit developer implementing a workaround. If you are using sdk version 1.0.44 or lower, you must implement something similar to following workaround to manually read and write settings contained within SettingLists.

The key logic for this method of retrieving and saving a SettingsList item setting is to first get its id value, as listed in the previous gb.getAllSettingLists() example, above. With this id, you can retrieve or save the Setting value through a modified command: gb.exhibit.getSetting(<setting-item-id><id>).

Code Block
language
Code Block
languagejs
const sl = await gb.getAllSettingLists();
const elems = sl[0].settinglistitems.find(setting => setting.listName.endsWith("Health")); // Pull out the SettingList item called "Health"
const elem_id = elems.items.find(s => s.manifestId.endsWith("screens/\"Health\"/header")).id; // Narrow down to the List elementsetting with the manifestId we're looking for, get it's (database) "id" value
retrieval = await gb.exhibit.getSetting(elem_id); // elem_id = 1612
console.log(retrieval);
// Prints out:
Code Block
languagejson
{
    "id": 1612,
    "manifestId": "screens/\"Health\"/header",
    "exhibitId": 146,
    "type": "TextInput",
    "display": "Header",
    "enabledOpMode": null,
    "value": "Health",
    "default": "",
    "order": 1,
    "touchless": null,
    "listId": 67,
    "items": [],
    "read": true,
    "write": true
}

You can also update the Setting value through a similar mechanism:

Code Block
languagejs
// (see above JS example, lines 1-3)
await gb.exhibit.setSetting(elem_id, "Health: System Operational Stats")

With these callbacks and access functions provided by the NodeJS SDK, it becomes a breeze to respond to setting changes in real time or retrieve and update the List elements as a single-point-of-truth. To provide a robust means of storing intricate data, it’s possible to nest a SettingsList inside the schema of another in the Manifest. Currently up to Two levels of SettingsList nesting are supported. For example, the following modification to our original Manifest would allow any number of Images to be added to any particular Screen SettingsList instance.

Code Block
languagejsonjs
export const MANIFEST = {
    "manifest": {
        "statuses": [ ... ],
        "controls": [ ... ],
        "settings": [
			{
				"id"
            {
                id: "screens",
				"type"                type: "SettingsList",
				"display"                display: "Screens",
				"order"
                order: 0, // optional
				"schema"
                schema: [ // any Gumband setting types can be included
					
                    {
                        "id": "screen_images",
						"type"                        type: "SettingsList",
						"display"
                        display: "Screen Images",
						"order": 0, // optional
						"schema": [
							{
                        order: 0, // optional
                        schema: [
                            {
                                id: "imgs",
                                type: "FileSelection",
                                display: "Images",
                                order: 0
                            }
                        ]
                    },
             "id": "imgs",      {
                        "type"id: "FileSelectionheader",
                        type: "TextInput",
    "display": "Images",                   display: "Header",
          "order": 0 							} 						] 					}, 					{         order: 1
              "id": "header",     },
                   "type": "TextInput", {
                        "display"id: "Headerbody",
                        type: "order": 1
					},
					{TextInput",
                        "id"display: "bodyBody",
                        "type"order: "TextInput",2
                    }
   "display": "Body",            ]
            "order": 2
					}
				]
			},
        ],
    }
}