View Assets In Category Edit

By clicking on the right bar on the Category Edit screen, you can edit your asset library. Your assets are globally available across all categories.

Assets that can be stored in LocalBeacon are currently limited to Audio files and Images. If you want to embed video, you should upload the item to YouTube, and use the link when editing the item.

When you click on the Add Asset button, a dialog will appear:

Add Asset Dialog

You can browse and add multiple files. Then click on the Upload Files link to send them to the server. Note that if you upload a file with the same name, it will overwrite the existing file.

You can edit Image files right from the application. By clicking on the Edit Button in the asset list, the Image Crop and Resize tool will open.

If you want to crop or resize an image, you can do that right from the editor. You can edit images that were uploaded as assets, or the icon and banner image in the Channel Settings.

When you open the crop/resize dialog, you will have to either Crop or Resize and save the image. If you need to do both, you’ll have to crop, then edit again to resize.

The two dialogs are shown below:

Crop Image Dialog

Resize Image Dialog

If you want to crop an image, use your mouse to create a box in the image. Put your mouse pointer over the image, hold down the mouse button and drag to create a crop window. If you’re happy with the cropped section, press the Crop Image button.

To resize an image, you can decide if you want to maintain proportions, which will prevent the distorted look of an image when it is resized. You can either enter in a height and width, or use your mouse to resize the image. On the bottom right of the image, you’ll see a small handle. Click on it with your mouse and resize the image accordingly. Click on Save Resized Image when you’re done.

Note that changes to assets will be reflected on the live site immediately, but changes to your icon or banner will only be reflected when you publish the channel.

The channels settings section of the Channel Page will allow you to configure some basic information about your channel. You can change up quite a bit in your channel. The best way to learn what looks good is to experiment. You can publish a preview version of your channel as often as you like before you actually publish the channel.

The first section, Basic Setup, let’s you configure the Title, Icon Title and Channel Description.

• The Title is used in the directory, if the channel is listed. It is also used on the application landing page (where a user can download your application), and also in the channel itself on the main page, if the layout is configured to show the title.
• The Icon Title is the title that appears beneath the icon in the Home Screen of the user’s device. If you do not specify an Icon Title, the Title will be used, but please note that the iPhone can only show about 12 characters.
• The Channel Description is used on the main page of the application. You can specify rich HTML and include images.

The next tab determines whether or not your channel appears in the public directory located at http://www.bigforge.com/channels/list/ . If a user starts the LocalBeacon client without any channel loaded, they will get the opportunity to browse the list of channels at this page.

The Layout tab gives you more control over what the initial page of your channel will look like. You can add the following items:

• Banner – This is the banner logo that is uploaded in the Images tab
• Channel Title – The title you entered in the first tab.
• Description – The description you entered in the first tab. Note that you can specify the height, in pixels, of this section. If the content is longer, it will be scrollable.
• Spacer – If you want to put in some blank space.
• Categories – An automatically generated stack of buttons that lets a user navigate to a category.
• Features – A table of items that you have marked as featured in the Item Editor.

The images tab allows you to upload a new Icon and Banner Image. You can also crop and resize those images using the tool. If you upload a new icon or banner, you MUST press the Save Changes button to make the changes. If you only want to edit the uploaded images, press the appropriate Crop/Resize button and edit the image. Any changes you make to the image in the Crop/Edit dialog will be saved automatically.

Publishing a channel will make your content available on your iPhone application. When you click on the publish button, you’ll see the following dialog:

Publish Channel Dialog

You have the option to Publish the Channel or Publish a Channel Preview.

Publish Channel: This will make your content live. Your content will be live immediately. You’ll be able to access your content from an iPhone by entering the Publish URL into your iPhone. If you have purchased a standalone application, this will ask the user to install your iPhone application. If you are using the standard application, the user will be asked to click on a button that will create a link to your application immediately. Our baseline application can be downloaded by the user, so your content can be published within minutes.

Note that publishing a channel will upload all icons and banner information to the publishing server. After you’ve published the content, you can not rollback.

Publish Channel Preview: This will allow you to preview your content on your iPhone without actually making the content public. After creating a preview channel, enter the URL into your iPhone, and you will be directed to viewing the content. Once you’re happy with the content, you can publish your content.

Create Channel Dialog

To create a channel, you just press the Create A Channel button and enter the name of the channel in the dialog.

After the channel is created, the screen will refresh and you’ll be able to edit the channel normally.