Smart Playlists and Tagging

In order to help automatic management of content, CODA has the ability to generate Smart Playlists based on a set of rules, such as matching content by name or by tags, filtering by when the content was added, and even more complex queries such as matching content that has the same tags as the screen on which the Smart Playlist is being displayed.

Using Smart Playlists will typically make use of tagging content. A tag is just a bit of text that means something to user, typically just one word. You can add multiple tags to a single piece of content or display, and then use the tags when searching or filtering. For example, you might tag content that is taller than it is wide with the word "portrait", so you can quickly find all your portrait content at a later date.

In the rest of document we take you through the two parts of the CODA user interface that help you take advantage of this advanced functionality: the tag editor, and the smart playlist editor.

Editing Tags

Whilst not essential in using Smart Playlists, tags are the way to get most out of them. Tagging, as described before, lets you associate one or more keywords with a Source or Display in CODA that can then be used when searching or filtering. Currently the only way to view and edit your tags is to use the Tag Editor, available under the Tools options from the CODA web pages. When you select the Tag Editor you will get a view like this:

To the left of the view you can select whether you want to tag Sources or Displays. In the main body of the page is a list of all your Sources or Displays, which you can filter to find the particular ones you want to tag. At the bottom of the page are the tagging controls: on the left is a list of most recently used tags, and the right is a field where you can enter arbitrary tags.

To tag an item, first select the item or items you're interested in; you can select multiple items by holding control (on Windows/Linux) or command (on Mac OS X) when clicking on an item. Once you've selected the items to which you wish to apply a particular tag, go the tagging controls. You can either click on one of the most recently used tags, which will apply that tag to all the currently selected items, or you can enter a comma separated list of tags in the text field and click "add tags" to apply them each to an item. The field will attempt to auto-complete the first tag you enter to help prevent errors due to spelling mistakes.

To remove a tag, simply select the items from which you wish to remove a particular tag, then on just one of them click the 'x' button next to the tag you wish to remove.

Editing Smart Playlists

A way to think of a Smart Playlist is to imagine it is a series of rules. When a CODApod or CODAlink displays the Smart Playlist then it will go through all your organisation's content and pick the ones that match the rules for that Smart Playlist. These rules are checked every time the Smart Playlist is displayed, so if you add or remove content that matches the rules, the output displayed by your CODA hardware will immediately reflect that change.

To create new Smart Playlists you go to Content Management pane in the main CODA site, selected the "ADD" button at the bottom of the pane, and then from the list of options select Smart Playlists from the list of Source options. To edit an existing Smart Playlist simply double click on it. Both ways will take you to the Smart Playlist editor, which looks like this:

The Smart Playlist editor consists of three main parts. On the left, the top section contains some basic settings for the Smart Playlist. This includes setting the name for the Smart Playlist, whether you want to apply the Smart Playlist rules to all sources or to just those in a particular playlist, how you want the output to be sorted, and whether you want the output to match all rules, or just any rule.

Below the main settings is where you create a list of rules for the Smart Playlist. You can add as many rules are you like. As you add rules, you'll be given appropriate space for the parameters required for each rule. For instance, as you add the "Tag is" rule, you will be asked to enter the tag you want to match against.

On the right hand side of the page is a list that shows the top level content that will be matched by the rules you have specified. This list is updated dynamically as you change the rules in the list. At the top of the example column you can specify for which Display in your organisation you'd like the example to be be tested for - this is because some of the rules match tags from the Display or the Display's Site name to Source tags, and you can only know what's going to be displayed in that list when you related it to a particular display.

Note that tags are case insensitive.

Smart Playlist Rules

Smart Playlists may consist of the following rules:

  • Tag is: This rule matches all Sources that are tagged with the specified tag.
  • Tag is not: This rule matches all Sources that are not tagged with the specified tag.
  • Source name contains: This rule matches all Sources that contain the specified text in their name.
  • Creation date between: This rule matches all Sources that were created between the specified start and end date.
  • Tag matches any display tag: When assigned to a Display, this rule will match all sources that have any of the tags that match the Display's tags.
  • Tag matches Site name: When assigned to a Display, this rule will match all sources that have a tag that matches the name of the Site the display is in.