Putting a timer on each variable and schedule

Hi i was wondering if there is a way that i can put a timer on each variable and also if i can put a schedule for them, for example if i want to display a Variable from 8am-10am and then another one from 10am-4pm? i think that its posible on the device configuration but im not sure how it works

Hi @dbedards could you explain a bit more what you want to achieve?

Currently when you set an environment variable, it will be set on the container indefinitely - there’s no timer functionality baked in. You could write your own code that uses our API to change that environment variable at specific times, and then your devices would pick up the change as soon as they get to check in with the API for an update (which will be immediate if they’re online). But maybe if we understand more what you ultimately want to do with those variables we might be able to give you better advice.

Hi @pcarranzav thanks for the quick response, i’m kind of new in all of this.

Ok so what i am trying to achieve is for example Device A (Has a google slide(10seg),youtube video (when finished go to the dashboard)and a Dashboard(30seg)(shows from 8am-10am) after that another slide with different images(15seg),different youtube video and differnet dashboard (From 10am-12pm)).

Did i explain myself correctly?
Thanks for helping me really appreciate it

Thanks for clarifying @dbedards - I think this will depend on what you’re actually using to display those things, but in general you’ll probably need some additional system to manage the scheduling, for instance you can try Screenly, which works nicely on balena and I think it allows you to do precisely that: https://www.balena.io/blog/deploy-a-digital-signage-application-with-screenly-and-resin/

Thanks for the info @pcarranzav! but i see that you need to pay to use this software, is there another one where i can do my test? or another way with the environment variable?

Also how can i display first a youtube video and then a google slide? because right now i added 2 Device Environment Variables one called WPE_URL and it displays the slides and the other one Display and it displays a youtube video but right now its just displaying the slides any idea?

Thanks!

@dbedards Screenly OSE is an open source edition, and afaict if you follow the instructions in the blog post I linked, you don’t need to pay anything.
Otherwise, from what you say, it sounds like you’re using the balena-wpe repo? If that’s the case, you could modify the wpe-init script to start WPELauncher with a specific URL, then kill it after a while and start it with a different URL, etc.

Thanks a lot @pcarranzav for the help!
Really appreciate, Screenly does exactly what i need it, you guys rock!!! :metal:

Hi @dbedards,
I just wanted to check back with you on this and confirm whether you faced any issue or everything worked fine.

Kind regards,
Thodoris