Billboard

Got screens in your home or office? Wish you could magically zap stuff onto them? Here's an API for that.

Simply open a unique URL in a fullscreen web browser on as many or as few screens as you'd like, and issue calls to the Billboard API. Your content will appear on the screens you've specified, through the magic of node.js and Socket.io.

Setup

1. Deploy a copy of Billboard to a location of your choice. (We like Heroku.)
2. On a computer connected to a screen, open the following URL: http://{host_location}/screens/{screen_name_of_your_choice}. (We suggest using Google Chrome in fullscreen mode.)
3. Repeat Step 2 for as many screens as you have.
4. Issue calls to the API (see below) and your content appears.

API Usage

Display content on a screen

You can several types of content.

• Images If you pass the url to an image (must end in .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png) it will be displayed full screen.
• Youtube If you pass a url that looks like it is to a youtube video, it will attempt to play it, a revert back to default content once the video is done.
• Iframe If you pass any other url, it will be displayed in an full screen iframe
• Text Any other text will be displayed as white text with a black background.

curl -X POST -d content="<Path to Image/Youtube/Iframe or Text>" http://{billboard_instance_url}/api/screens/home

You can force how to handle the content by adding the action param.

curl -X POST -d action=image -d content="<Path to Image" http://{billboard_instance_url}/api/screens/home

To make the content the default. It reverts to the default after showing other content. set default=true

curl -X POST -d defult=true -d content="<Path to Image" http://{billboard_instance_url}/api/screens/home

response:

{
  "status": "ok"
}

List Available Screens

List the names of screens that are currently available:

curl http://{billboard_instance_url}/api/screens

response:

    {   
      "screens": [
        "all", // all currently connected screens
        "right",
        "left"
        ]
    }

Reload a screen

Runs window.location.reload() to force get a screen to update:

curl http://{billboard_instance_url}/api/screens/:name:/reload

response:

{   
  "status": "ok"
}

Use the built in client to change the content.

If you browse to any screen http://{billboard_instance_url}/screens/{screen_name} you can edit the content directly from that screen. Simply click the gear to open the screen control. Then paste your image, youtube or other webpage link. Or just type some text to share with your coworkers.