ImageCaster | Creating an Offline Page

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Creating an Offline Page

What kind of image do your webcam visitors see when you're offline? Is it the last image you uploaded? Is it a dark hole (because the lights are out)? Or is it something else? Creating an ImageCaster document to display an "Offline" image is an informative and courteous way to let website visitors know your camera is off, and let them know when it will be back on! Use this tip to set up your "Offline" image.
Step #1 - Choose an Offline Image To get started, create a new ImageCaster document. On the Source Panel, set the "Import from:" popup menu to "Image File." This sets ImageCaster to use a file rather than capturing live images from a camera. We'll use a local file, so having the "Image File Source:" already set to "Local Path:" is fine. Use the "Browse..." button to select an image file. You can use any image you want, even create something special using your favorite graphic editor. For this example we'll use one of the standard desktop backgrounds. Browse to: "Macintosh HD:Library/Desktop Pictures" and select the "Aqua Blue.jpg" file. Next, you'll want to size the image to match your website. Set the "Image Attributes: Size:" to a size appropriate for your website. We'll use "DV Half Size" for our example.		Select a local file image as a background graphic for your "Offline" image.

Use a "Text Object" on the Overlay Panel to inform your visitors that the webcam is offline.

Step #2 - Add Your Message

Now we need to create a message that will be displayed with the image. Change to the Overlay Panel and drag a "Text Object" to the image. Double-click the text object and enter your message. Remember, you can use "Option-Return" to insert blank lines in the "Text Object."

Step #3 - Schedule the Image

The final step is to setup a schedule. Go to the Schedule Panel.

To schedule this image for offline periods, click and drag the mouse over the hours of the schedule that you want the image to be active. Here, we start by selecting all day Sunday and all day Saturday. Note: Use Command-Click to select more than one separate area on the schedule. Now, fill in Monday through Friday, 12 AM to 7 AM and 6 PM through 12 PM. You may also want to adjust when uploads are initiated. You can select either a time interval or "When entering an active period."

Schedule your "Offline" image for those times when you don't normally have the webcam on.

The FTP connection to access to your web server is configured in ImageCaster's Destination Panel.

The option "When entering an active period" will deliver the "Offline" image at the beginning of the scheduled period. Unfortunately, this will upload the image only once. Due to the variability of the internet, you may want to upload your file more than just once to guard against a delivery problem or failure.

One alternative is to alternate the scheduled active periods. This involves setting one hour active (gray) and setting the next hour inactive (white). This technique effectively creates an hourly upload, when combined with the "When entering an active period" delivery.

One thing to remember if you are scheduling an image for delivery during times when you are away from the computer, you must leave the computer on, and also set the "Energy Saver" settings in your System Preferences to "Never" sleep. Otherwise, when your computer goes to sleep, ImageCaster will stop delivering files. (It's OK to put the monitor and hard disks to sleep.)

If your schedule is erratic, and you have no idea when your webcam will be online or offline, you can keep this document around and simply hit "Upload Now" whenever you are taking your webcam offline. Of course, if this is your normal practice, you should change the offline message to reflect that "The WebCam is offline now but will be back soon..."

Now, make sure that the destination settings are appropriate for your web server and set the document online.

That's it!

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