Bounce Software Quick Start Guide Document Number: 550-0004-05
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Introduction The bounce software suite is designed to provide a number of software modules and tools for defining the integration points between the your data and the EPOP. The software enables the development of image templates for simplifying the design of ticketing information and provides tools for defining rules that must be applied to the data feeds in order to ensure that the correct information is displayed on the EPOPs at the right time.
Overview Diagram Retail Databases Policy Config Architect Manager Processor Create policies & templates Configure, Assign, Report Acquire, Transform, Render Template Collection Communicate Transmit, Log API Bounce Architect Component Description Policy Architect The Policy component consists of a Microsoft.Net application for defining the sources of data that will be used in acquiring the product information for the image generation process.
Template Architect provides a template Design view alongside a Preview view. This allows the User to be able to see exactly how a product image (or set of product images) will be rendered from the product data set. Template Architect also allows the user to create a Collection of templates. This feature ensures that different templates can be used when rendering the data to handle products that may be on offer, or in a different product category that requires its own style.
selects the EPOP 500 image for transmission to the EPOP 500 and the EPOP 300 image for transmission to the EPOP 300. Communicate manages the RF communications layer and will ensure transmissions are re-tried if failures occur due to RF noise etc. An audit trail is kept of all EPOP communications, retries and failures.
Workflow The following diagram shows an overview of the workflow required to integrate a bounce system into a retail environment. There are 7 steps to complete a full integration. These are: 1. Use Policy Architect to set the data sources and define the Template Fields that will be used in creating the product images. Template Fields are derived either directly from the Product Data Fields in the imported data sources or from transformations on the Product Data Fields. 2.
Bounce Architect Installation Guide Insert the Bounce Architect software CD into your CD-ROM drive. The install setup.exe should auto start. If it doesn’t, Click on Start> Run and type D:SETUP.EXE. Replace the D: with the appropriate drive letter for your CD-ROM if it is not D. Once the installer starts you will get the following screen. Click Yes to accept Click Accept to install .NET Framework 2.0, you will only receive this message if .NET Framework 2.0 has not been previously installed on your machine.
The following Bounce Architect Setup Wizard will start. Click Next It is recommended you use the default location, leave as is and click Next Click Next to confirm your installation To complete the installation click Close This now successfully completes the installation of Bounce Architect. The following section demonstrates, how to create a policy and a template collection for use with Communicate and Processor.
Policy Architect Template fields are created using Policy Architect. Definition of the template fields begins by determining all the different data sources that will be used to create them and registering these with the Policy Architect application. A data source can take any form of data, it may consist of a simple comma separated value file, an Excel spreadsheet, an Access database or more complex transactional databases such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server.
The first step in creating a policy is to create a connection to your data source, in the example below you will use the sample .csv data file which is provided on the CD – D:\Sample Data Adding a Data Source Right click DataSources and select Add DataSource In the following screen below, you will add the name of your Data Source and select the connection method to your data. In our example we have used a .csv file, select file and click Next. The .csv file is available on the CD-ROM – D:\Sample Data You
To test the data source connection, click the Test and the following connected successfully screen below appears, click OK, this validates the file location is valid and readable. Click OK again, and now you have successfully added your data source connection. Once the data sources have been registered you will need to define the data tables and the Product data fields that contain the relevant product information to be used in creating the product image.
You can preview your data source data by clicking Preview, the data will be previewed as shown below, then click OK. Once you have registered all the data sources and linked the tables you can concentrate on determining what fields should be retrieved from the tables in order to define the Template Collection fields. Template Collection fields are a selection of any fields you wish to make available from your data source for use in generating your images using Template Architect.
In our example we have chosen to add the following field names. EAN Code Long Description Manufacturer Model Price Product ProductID PromoPrice Short Description It is recommended you use the above field names. The added field names will also move to the Template Collection Field, as shown below. Now within the template collection fields you need to set the ProductID field, in our example we are using the ProductID. Right click, go to Assign To and select ProductID, as shown below.
A special Template Collection field called [Template] must be defined. This field contains the name of a Template Architect template that will be used when creating the product image. Using Policy Architect we are able to create new template fields by applying transformations to the Product data fields e.g. we can create a new template collection field called [UnitPrice] that is calculated from the data source by taking the [Price] and dividing it by the [UnitWeight].
You are going to create a constant, with the value of Standard. As shown below. Click the Preview button to see the results of your created transformation. Click Ok to finish creating the transformation. Now you are going to create a second template field for the promotional data. Repeat the above steps, creating a transformation using the transformation name as Promo, and creating a constant value of Promo, as shown below.
The created transformations will also be added to your template collection field set, as shown below You also need to assign the transformation template fields created. This is so that Policy Architect can determine which template name to use. Right click on field name Standard in the template collection fields and go to Assign To and select Page 1 Template, as below.
Repeat the above assign task for the second template field name Promo to Page 2 Template, as shown below. You have now successfully created two transformations, one allowing you to create a standard image template and the other a promotional template. Now you are ready to design your Template images using Template Architect.
Template Architect Template Architect provides a graphical user interface with a template design view alongside a preview view. This allows you to be able to see exactly how a product image (or a set of product images) will be rendered from the product data set. Using the GUI you can select a Template field and define the area on the EPOP display that the values contained in the template field should be rendered.
Template Architect main screen and icons Send Image to EPOP Change Background Image Design Window Icon Library Add Graphic New Template Delayed Rendering Add Text Box Add Price Object Add Barcode Imported Data Fields Object Properties Preview Window To create a new template, click the new template icon .
The screen below shows your data imported top left corner, from Policy Architect. Now you are ready to start to design your image template. Select the appropriate fields from the imported data, drag and drop onto the Design window, by holding down your mouse and moving the pointer to the design window and then releasing the mouse button. The data will be shown on the preview window, as shown below. It is recommended you add the objects in the design view as above.
To create our second template, for our promotional data, go to the following drop down as shown below and select New. Enter the details as below, making sure you select Clone Template Standard. This allows you to create a clone image of the first template created ‘Standard’. This simplifies the task of creating another template if only minimum set of modifications are required.
Edit an Object box Right click on selected object and go to properties Advance Object properties, are available on selected object Properties screen. Types of Objects Text Box Insert a text box 1. 2. 3. In the toolbar, click the text icon Create a text frame, drag the pointer diagonally to the size you want on the design window. The following text properties box will appear Static Text To create static text on your template, enter the text into the text box.
AutoSize When autosize is enabled the font size of the text will be adjusted to ensure all of the text can be displayed within the bounding rectangle of the text object. By default the Autosize function is enabled, note that the defaulted minimum font size is set to a value that ensures the text will be rendered legibly on an EPOP. Turn off Autosize 1.
List Object A List object consists of multiple Text objects and Price objects into one bounded rectangle group. This simplifies manipulating them. A list object can be selected, moved, resized and edited as one object or individually. List objects can be bounded horizontally or vertically. Below the properties box of list objects allows you to set various settings, by right clicking the list object and selecting properties. Once you have completed you template design, you need to save it.
Scheduling The final step is to define the schedule in which the data source should be read and processed. In our example, we are going to create a schedule that will run our standard template image with a our promotional Image displayed between the hours of 4pm and 6pm of each day. To set the schedule, click the schedule icon in Policy Architect screen below will appear. , and the following A new policy configuration is created with a default schedule.
Schedule > Select All This determines we wish the schedule to run daily, on all the selected days. Action> DownloadAndUpdate This downloads and updates the EPOP with new image, and also monitors for any change to the data source and will update the EPOP with the new image Page > 1 This will only update page 1 with the new image, any changes to the page 2 image will also be downloaded to the EPOP, but not displayed.
Schedule 3 Setting Schedule > Select All This determines we wish the schedule to run daily, on all the selected days. Action> DownloadAndUpdate This downloads and updates the EPOP with new image, and also monitors for any change to the data source and will update the EPOP with the new image Page > 2 This will only update page 2 with the new image, any changes to the page 1 image will also be downloaded to the EPOP, but not displayed.
Schedule Type > One Off> 18:00 This will run at 18:00 Schedule 5 Setting Schedule > Select All This determines we wish the schedule to run daily, on all the selected days.
Congratulations, you have completed the configuration phase of the Bounce Software. To use the configuration files with Bounce Processor and Bounce Communicate, you will need to export and save your Policy and Template Architect configuration files, which will be uploaded via Bounce Manager To export your configuration file, click on the export icon file.
The following sections detail how to install Bounce Processor and Bounce Manager on a PC running the Bounce Communicate software (see Bounce Communicate Installation Guide). In each location that has EPOPs deployed a PC must be set up to manage the network of EPOPs and perform the communication functions. This PC will also be required to run Bounce Processor to monitor the data fields specified in Policy Architect and render the images specified in Template Architect.
To complete the installation of Bounce Processor click Close Your installation of Bounce Processor is now completed. A new windows service has now been installed. Before Bounce Processor will process any of your data sources you will need to upload your Policy configuration and Template collection files. To do this, you will need to install Bounce Manager. Bounce Manager Installation Guide To start the installation of Bounce Manager, run BounceManagerSetup.
To complete the installation click Close Your installation of Bounce Manager is complete. The Bounce Manager web pages have now been installed and can be accessed via the following URL http://localhost To load the Policy and Template Architect configuration files, you will need to run Bounce Manager, and select configuration update, as shown below Click the browse button under Policy Config and locate your saved Policy Architect configuration file with extension .
Custom Images Custom images are a set of system images, which are updated to the EPOP when specific operations are performed. The following system images Configured - Image used to when the EPOP is initially added to the system No Image Available – Image used when the EPOP has no other image Unassigned – Image used when the EPOP is unassigned Bounce Manager allows you to change the system images, this is useful if you require to add you own personalised images.
Alerts The Alerts page shows you useful system information, such as database size, communicator attached, and any system errors. Alerts are classified as informational, warning and critical. Report manager Report manager gives you a system summary overview and also has a set for generated reports detailing when Products and EPOPs have been updated, it also includes failed transmission reports.
Product Information A report generated giving you details of products currently on your system Product History A detailed history report of products activity on your system EPOP History A detailed history report of EPOP activity on your system
Weekly Updates A weekly report generated for number of updates, sorted by product.
