Avid Technology, Inc. inews Newsroom Computer System

Transcription

1 Avid Technology, Inc. inews Newsroom Computer System Version 2.0 Release Notes This document includes hardware and software requirement changes, feature enhancements, a list of known problems and workarounds, references to other inews newsroom computer system documents, and changes and errata to inews printed documents. inews 2.0 Client The inews 2.0 client software is qualified and supported for use on the Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional operating systems. Limited support is offered for Windows 98 (SE) and Windows NT 4.0. Avid does not support the use of inews 2.0 on Windows 95 or Windows ME. Note: The 2.0 client installation will report an unsupported message when run on Windows 95 or ME and will not continue. inews 2.0 Server The inews 2.0 server is qualified and supported for use on Linux Red Hat Enterprise 3.0. The SCO or SGI/IRIX operating systems are not supported under inews 2.0. Fast Text Search The inews 2.0 software is not compatible with Fast Text Search versions earlier than When upgrading to inews 2.0, FTS must also be upgraded to at least version Note: When upgrading to FTS 1.5.1, the existing FTS indexes must be deleted and re-indexed. FTS is qualified and supported for use on Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional. ControlAir The inews 2.0 software is not backward compatible with ControlAir versions earlier than If you are currently running ControlAir or earlier and are upgrading to inews 2.0, you must also upgrade to ControlAir version or higher. inews 2.0 and NewsCutter The inews 2.0 software is not backward compatible with Avid NewsCutter NRCS tool versions earlier than 3.8. Note: Before you install inews for the first time, please ensure that you are familiar with the contents of the inews Release Notes and the inews Newsroom Computer System Preparation, Installation, and Upgrade Manual, provided by Avid Technology, Inc. 1

2 Table of Contents inews 2.0 Client... 1 inews 2.0 Server... 1 Fast Text Search ControlAir... 1 inews 2.0 and NewsCutter... 1 inews Newsroom Computer System Documentation... 3 Important inews Upgrade Information... 3 Upgrading an inews server to Fast Text Search... 4 Fixed Problems & Enhancements... 4 inews User Interface... 4 MOS and ControlAir Plug-in Events... 4 Production Cues... 4 Queue Panel... 5 Machine Control Event Status... 5 Show Timing... 6 Local Printing... 6 Title Entry... 6 Searching... 7 EditStar Integration... 7 Media Browse Integration... 7 Story Body... 7 Toolbars... 7 Misc... 7 inews Server Interface... 8 Data Receiver... 8 Action Servers/Txnet Links... 8 Story Timing... 9 Console Commands... 9 Misc... 9 Known Problems and Limitations...11 inews User Interface...11 GUI Database Traits (Queue Properties)... Error! Bookmark not defined. Miscellaneous...11 inews Server Interface...11 Server Commands...11 NewsCutter NRCS Tool

3 inews Newsroom Computer System Documentation The inews Newsroom Computer System Release Notes provide installation, administration, and user-level information that may not have been available at the time the other documentation was printed. The inews newsroom computer system's online help system gives you quick-reference information about user-level software functions. The inews Newsroom Computer System Preparation, Installation, and Upgrade describes site preparation and the installation process for new customers not now using Avid inews. It also provides information on the process for upgrading from an Avid NetStation system to the inews newsroom computer system. The Newsroom Computer System Operations Manual v2.0 describes the user workstation and server software functions and provides system configuration information for system administrators. The inews Newsroom Computer System Training Manual v1.3 is the tutorial manual that accompanies the inews user training. It provides exercises that detail the basic user workstation software functions. Important inews Upgrade Information Upgrading an inews Server to 2.0 Beginning with inews 1.9.1, the inews server now runs exclusively on RedHat Linux. Any inews server running on version or lower will be required to change operating systems. In addition, inews servers running on SGI hardware will require new hardware. When upgrading an inews server from version or earlier to version 2.0 the following actions may be required: o o The inews sitedump/siterestore programs will not function across operating systems. Therefore, the inews 2.0 siterestore cannot be used with inews and earlier sitedumps. Some settings in /site/system have been removed. If the /site/system file has been brought forward from the earlier inews version, the first time the connect command is run it may prompt the user with a message stating that a setting is not valid. That setting should be removed from the /site/system file. The options in /site/system that have been removed are airmargin, airshift, logintimeout, netlogintimeout, outtime, textmax and timing_template. When upgrading an inews server from version to version 2.0 the following actions must be taken: o o o Change the W_STARTMEDIA token in /site/dict/words from Start Video to Primary. If this is not done, workstations will get errors stating the W_STARTMEDIA cannot be longer than 8 characters. Run all dictionary updates and maketabs Run dbgen m to update the mailbox size 3

4 o Some settings in /site/system have been removed. The first time the connect command is run it may prompt the user with a message stating that a setting is not valid. That setting should be removed from the /site/system file. The options in /site/system that have been removed are airmargin, airshift, logintimeout, netlogintimeout, outtime, textmax and timing_template. Fast Text Search If you are upgrading to FTS 1.5.1, it is required that you delete your existing indexes from the FTS server and re-index. Fixed Problems & Enhancements inews User Interface MOS and ControlAir Plug-in Events Copying, Cutting and Pasting MOS and ControlAir Plug-in events MOS and ControlAir Plug-in events can now be copied/cut/pasted between the queue panel, story form and story body. When focus is in the production cue panel the Cut Production Cue and Copy Production Cue menu options will be available from either the context menu or the Story->Production Cue sub-menu. When the focus is in the story form, the Cut Machine Control and Copy Machine Control menu options will be available from either the context menu or the Story->Machine Control sub-menu. When the focus is in the queue panel the Cut Machine Control and Copy Machine Control menu options will be available only from the Story->Machine Control sub-menu. Items can be pasted into the queue panel, story form or story body using the standard Paste command from the con text menu or the Edit menu. Dropping MOS and ControlAir Plug-in Events to the Queue Panel MOS and ControlAir Plug-in events can now be dropped to the inews queue panel from an ActiveX Control. If an item is dropped to a story, which already has a primary machine control event, that machine control event will be overwritten without prompting the user for confirmation. Updating MOS items in an inews rundown from an ActiveX Plug-in inews 2.0 supports the mositemreplace ActiveX plug-in command. This allows a MOS item in an inews rundown to be automatically updated when that item is edited and saved in its ActiveX editor. MOS Items are Edited in a Modeless ActiveX Workspace MOS items from an inews rundown will be opened in a modeless ActiveX Editor workspace. A modeless workspace means that you will be able to continue to work in an inews workspace with the ActiveX workspace open. In previous versions of inews ActiveX Editors were opened in modal workspaces and work in the inews workspace could not continue until the ActiveX workspace was closed. Production Cues The Primary Machine Control Event Placeholder An option has been added to inews 2.0 to allow the primary machine control event from the 4

5 story form to be ordered in the event list according to the placement of the placeholder production cue in the story body. The placeholder production cue can be inserted in the story body by right clicking in the story body and choosing Insert Primary or choosing Insert Primary from the Story ->Production Cue sub-menu. Cursor Moves to Top Production Cue after Releasing Edit Lock In previous versions of inews, if a cursor was left in any production cue in a story it would jump to the first production cue in the story after the edit lock was released. This has problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Queue Panel Assigning ControlAir Channels from inews 2.0 inews will no longer assign channels to ControlAir using the *A or *B following the VideoID. In inews 2.0, the item-channel field will be used to assign channels to ControlAir. To do this, either the Assign Channel dialog can be used from the context menu or Story- >Production Cue sub-menu or the channel can be manually entered into the item-channel field. Channels entered into the VideoID field using the old *B method will be ignored. Reporting ControlAir Channels to inews 2.0 Beginning with ControlAir 1.1, channels will be reported back to inews to be displayed in the item-channel field of the inews rundown and event list. ControlAir events in the story body in the form of a production cue will not have their channel information updated in the rundown. Pressing F2 Send Cursor to Home Position Instead of End In inews 1.5.1, pressing F2 in a cell prior to the story being fully loaded will result in the cursor moving to the home position, rather than the end position inside the cell. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Production Cues Display Inaccurately when Auto Arrange is Off In previous versions of inews, when auto arrange is set to off and you are working in a maximized workspace with multiple workspaces open, stories that have production cues will not always display accurately. This problem does not occur in inews 2.0. Stories in the Queue Panel Disappear after Opening Queue Properties In specific situations, all stories in a queue would disappear when the queue properties for that queue were opened. The stories were still there, but the screen needed to be refreshed. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Sorting a Queue by Modified Time Doesn t Work Correctly In inews sorting a queue by the modified time did not work correctly. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. In addition, when upgrading from previous versions of inews any queues sorted by the modified time will need to be re-sorted using the dbsort command after the upgrade so the queue will be properly sorted when changes are made. Machine Control Event Status Displaying Event Status in Different Colors The inews 2.0 system can now display colored status messages in the event-status field. A set of urgency characters, specifically 1 through 9, can be prefixed to MCS dictionary entries in /site/dict/mcs to indicate the desired urgency level of the message. The default 5

6 urgency character is 1, and it has no color rule associated with it. The character 2 through 9 have color rules associated with them that can be changed from the Tools->Options->Colors menu in the inews client. The color rule label for these urgency attributes is Field Urgency 2, Field Urgency 3, etc. The default colors for 2 through 9 are as follows: Field Urgency 2 = black text, yellow background Field Urgency 3 = black text, green background Field Urgency 4 = black text, purple background Field Urgency 5 = black text, red background Field Urgency 6 through Field Urgency 9 = black text, white background Show Timing Timing a Show to Duration inews 2.0 has the option to time a show to its duration. The Tools->Set Clock menu option contains a Time to Duration checkbox used to specify that you would like to time the show to duration. When that box is checked, the clock in the inews toolbar will remain at 00:00 until the user starts sync time, at which time the clock will begin counting up. The Time to Duration option can be used with either the cumetime or backtime fields. If cumetime is used, a hard start time of 0 must be entered for the first item of the show. If backtime is used, a hard out time equal to the duration of the show must be entered in the last item in the show. One constraint of Time to Duration is that if a show begins before midnight and ends after midnight then all of the air times for that show will have the same air date, the date that the show was started. Text Timing Clocks The text timing bar can now display dashes when the TTC, BLK or EST times are not valid. Times will be blanked whenever a story is changed and will remain blanked until the time calculation has completed. Local Printing Printing a List of inews Users A Print User List button is available in the Manage User Accounts dialog. This will allow system managers to print a list of users from the inews system. Using the Print User List button will only print the list of users displayed in the search results window. This option is not available for system printing; the Print User List button will open the local printing dialog. Title Entry 16x9 Title Entry Templates Title entry templates can now be stored in the 16x9 ratio format. The CG Template Editor and Title Entry Tool will automatically recognize the difference between a 16x9 template and a 4x3 template. The bitmaps imported for the 16x9 format must be 560 pixels wide by 315 pixels high or the CG Template Editor will not accept it. A button has been added to the Title Entry Tool turn on/off lines that will demark the portion of the 16x9 template that would be visible on a 4x3 screen. Resizing the Title Entry Tool and CG Template Editor The Title Entry Tool and CG Template Editor can now be resized by grabbing a corner of the window and dragging the window to the desired size. The sizing and placement of the window will not be preserved after the window is closed. 6

7 Searching Pressing F3 Does Not Scroll the Story Body In previous versions of inews, when using the Find Next button on the Find toolbar or pressing F3 to search for text in the story body, inews did not scroll through the story body properly. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Inewscom.dll Reports the Wrong File Version to the inews Server for Remote Search In inews the inewscom.dll file would report the wrong file version to the inews server. This would only affect sites using remote search with inews version checking enabled. The inewscom.dll file now reports the correct version. FTS Search Results do not Honor Read Groups Appropriately In inews 1.5.1, changing read groups on an indexed queue would result in some stories being displayed in the search results for someone who is not a member of that read group. The user could not open the stories, but could see them in the search results. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. EditStar Integration AutoLoad EDL Remembers Last Setting In inews the AutoLoad EDL option on the EditStar toolbar was reset to off each time EditStar was closed. In inews 2.0, the last AutoLoad EDL setting will be remembered for each user. Media Browse Integration Forced Logout Causes Crash if Media Browse Sequence isn t Saved In inews a forced logout from the inews server would cause a crash if a user had an un-saved Media Browse Sequence. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Story Body Blank Lines at the Top of a Story are Removed After Saving In inews 1.5.1, a blank line put at the beginning of a story would removed after the story was saved. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Toolbars Users Can Create Custom Toolbars Without Permission In 1.5.1, a specific situation could occur that would allow users to alter custom toolbars without having permission to do so. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Creating an 11 th Custom Toolbar Crashes inews In inews trying to create an eleventh custom toolbar would crash inews. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Misc Opening a Web Browser ActiveX Control Workspace inews 2.0 allows Internet Explorer to be opened in an ActiveX Control workspace. Internet Explorer can be opened either from the Web Browser button on the Main toolbar or from the View->Web Browser menu option. 7

8 Monitor Quit Time Display in the Monitor Dialog The Monitor dialog was incorrectly displaying some duration and quit times in This problem has been fixed in 2.0. Connect to Service Connects to Wrong Port In inews 1.9.1, Connect to Service would try to connect to the wrong port on the inews server. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Arabic: Words Ending in é Print the é at the Beginning of the Next Word In previous versions of inews, words ending with é would display the é at the beginning of the next word when the text was printed or print previewed. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. inews Server Interface Data Receiver Data Receiver support in inews 2.0 inews 2.0 supports the new Avid Data Receiver. The Data Receiver is a Windows based application that will be used by inews to ingest news wires. The number of Data Receiver resources allowed on the inews Server will be limited by the Data Receiver Sessions parameter in the inews Server license string. The /site/config file on the server will need to be edited to add Data Receiver resources similar to the following example: wireserver <devid> <program name> <source name> < join or - > Action Servers/Txnet Links POLL and BPOLL Commands POLL and BPOLL joblist commands have been added to inews 2.0. These commands will allow inews to poll a local source queue for a specified duration of time at specified intervals. The source queue will be scanned at every interval and process stories with modified times greater than the time of the last scan. Polling will stop when the system time is greater than the time of the initial poll plus the polling duration. Poll will scan the queue in a forward direction, while bpoll will scan the queue in a reverse direction. The syntax for the poll and bpoll commands is as follows: poll/bpoll <queue name> [<polling interval> [<polling duration>]] If the polling interval and/or polling duration are omitted, a single scan of the queue will be done. The syntax for the polling interval and polling duration is hh:mm:ss, mm:ss, or ss. hh has a range of 0 to 23, mm and ss both have a range of 0 to 59. The poll and bpoll commands are restricted to a timed action set. They are not available as mailbox triggered actions. Format Substitutions for Path Strings inews 2.0 has implemented format substitution to construct queue and directory path strings. Format substitution will allow for automatic creation of destination directories and queues based on the date/time that an action/txnet program is run. The format substitution is based on the Linux strftime function (type man strftime on a Linux machine for a list of all substitutions). The following example uses format substitution for the destination queue path: 8

9 at 18:15 poll show.5p.rundown dup archive.%y.%b.%d.5p The above example would create a path of archive.2003.september.2.5p if it was run on September 2, Format substitution can be used in both the source and/or destination paths for an action/txnet program. Destination paths will be created on demand with the exception that the top level directory must already exist. Source paths will not be created if they do not exist. Spaces are not allowed in th e constructed path strings. If a % is required in the path string it must be entered in the string as %%. If a PUT destination begins with a forward slash or backward slash the txnet program will assume that the slash is a directory separator and the destination is not an inews database. Format substitution may still be used if the destination is a directory and not the inews database. Story Timing Timing a Story Using Character Count The option has been added to inews 2.0 to time stories by a character count. A parameter called wordlength has been added to the /site/system file on the inews server. The worldlength parameter will accept the range of values from 0 to 100. A wordlength of 0 represents the default counting strategy in which each word is counted. A wordlength between one and 100 represents the new character count strategy in which an algorithm will be used to compute an alternate word count based on the wordlength parameter. This allows languages with words that are, on average, longer then English words, such as German, to adjust the wordlength parameter to obtain a more accurate story time. The wordlength parameter will need to be custom tailored for each site when it is setup. See the inews 2.0 Operations Manual for more information on using this feature. Console Commands Broadcasting Pop-up Messages The broadcast command on the inews server console has been modified to provide the option to send pop-up messages to inews clients. Previously, the broadcast command could only send messages to be displayed on the client s status bar where they could easily be missed. The syntax for the new pop-up option is broadcast d <broadcast message>. This option will cause a pop-up dialog to be displayed as well as having the message added to the alerts history. Leaving the -d out will cause the broadcast to be displayed in the status bar, as in previous inews versions. Pop-up dialogs will not steal focus away from the user or interrupt their work. Running the Grpcheck Command as so inews did not allow the grpcheck command to be run as a non-superuser. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Grpcheck gets Permission Denied Errors When Run as So In inews 1.9.1, in certain circumstances grpcheck would get Permission Denied messages when being run as the so user. This problem has been fixed in inews 2.0. Misc Pop-up Server Messages Messages defined in dictionary entries on the server that would typically be displayed in the inews client status bar can now have a display method designator to determine if the message should be displayed in the status bar or as a pop-up message. This display method 9

10 designator is based on the first character of the message definition. A display designator of 1 denotes that the message will appear on the status bar. A display designator of 2 denotes that the message will displayed as a pop-up dialog in addition to being displayed in the status bar and alerts history. The default display method will be a 1 if no display designator is specified. Pop-up dialogs will not steal focus away from the user or interrupt their work. See the inews 2.0 Operations Manual for details on using this feature. 10

11 Known Problems and Limitations inews User Interface Miscellaneous When copying text into inews from a Web Browser it is possible to have characters copied that cannot be displayed properly in inews. This may cause strange characters to show up in the inews story. inews Server Interface Server Commands To use the sitedump and siterestore commands with a floppy disk, the floppy disk must be mounted on the filesystem. Using sitedump and siterestore without mounting the floppy disk will result in errors being displayed when a siterestore is attempted. Workaround: To mount a floppy disk use the command mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy. Then use sitedump/siterestore on the mounted filesystem. For example, sitedump f /mnt/floppy. Due to the use of the! in the Linux bash shell, the! character should not be used with the broadcast command. Workaround: Use the escape sequence for the! character, \! when sending a broadcast. NewsCutter NRCS Tool The following NewsCutter NRCS Tool issues are known problems in NewsCutter version 3.8. If a story contains multiple production cues that are next to each other in the story, all but the first one will be deleted after you edit the story in the NRCS tool. Workaround: Place a space between each of the production cue grommets and they will not be deleted. If a story contains a MOS production cue and you edit the story in the NRCS tool, the MOS production cue will get ruined in the inews client. It is still protected in the NRCS tool and it still looks okay in the NRCS tool, but in the inews client the protection is lost and hidden text gets displayed rendering the MOS production cue invalid. Primary placeholders are not protected when editing a story in the NRCS tool. If a placeholder production cue is edited in the NRCS tool it will not function properly in inews anymore. 11

12 Copyright and Disclaimer This manual is copyright 2004, Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. All Avid products are covered by U.S. and foreign patents, issued and pending. Information in this publication supersedes that in all previo1usly published material. Specifications and price change privileges reserved. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement and is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries. U.S. GOVERNMENT USERS RESTRICTED RIGHTS: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restriction as set forth in subparagraph (b)(2) of the Technical Data and Computer Software-Commercial items clause at DFARS , or in subparagraph (c)(2) of the Commercial Computer Software-Restricted Rights clause at FAR , as applicable. Avid is a registered trademark of Avid Technology, Inc. Media Browse, ControlAir, inews ControlAir and inews are trademarks of inews, LLC. Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, MS, MS-DOS, Win 32, Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows NT Server, and the Windows operating system logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States of America and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company, Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Avid 6400 Enterprise Lane Madison, Wisconsin USA Tel: Fax: Avid Intec 1 Wade Road Basingstoke Hants RG24 8NE UK Tel: Fax: Avid Unit 6 2 Eden Park Drive North Ryde NSW 2113 AUSTRALIA Tel: Fax: Avid Tegel Forum Breitenbachstraße 10 Berlin GERMANY Tel: Fax: inews Version 2.0 Release Notes Part # RevA October 26, 2004 Printed in the United States of America 12