BSN Tagging

13 min

This page / section pertains to BrightSign Network (often abbreviated BSN), our legacy cloud platform. Our latest cloud platform is BSN.Cloud. Development of BSN has largely ceased and the platform will eventually be deprecated and replaced with BSN.Cloud.

The BSN Tagging feature allows you to add customizable tags to media files and players. You can then use these tags to do any of the following:

Generate playlists automatically according to media tags.
Filter media playback automatically according to player tags.
Search players in the Current Usage tab according to their tags.

This page will guide you through the process of adding tags to media/players, creating Tagged Playlists, and adding Tagged Playlists to presentations.

To perform the steps below, you will need to use the BSN WebUIBSN WebUI with an Administrator or General Manager account (or a custom role with similar credentials).

Step 1 – Tag Your Media

Before creating a Tagged Playlist, you will need to add tags to media files in your BSN library:

Select the Library tab.
Click the properties link beneath the name of a media file.
Select the Tags tab.
Use the System and Users buttons to switch between system tags and user tags:
1. System tags have values that are defined by the BrightSign Network (such as the media file size and upload date); you cannot edit the title or value of these tags.
2. User tags have customizable titles and text values.
If creating user tags, enter the Tag Name and optional Tag Value for the tag(s) you wish to add to the media file.
When finished, click Save to apply the tags to the media file.

Note the following when adding media tags:

Omitting tag values: The Tag Value allows you to create flexible inclusion/exclusion conditions for Tagged Playlists, but it is not required for user tags.
Autocompleting names/values: If a similar Name or Value is already in use with another player tag, a type-ahead dialog will appear listing names/values that match what you've typed so far.
Tagging capitalization: You cannot use similar tag names with variant capitalization (for example, if "City" is already in use as a tag name, a new tag named "city" will default to "City" instead). On the other hand, tag values with variant capitalization are allowed.

Copy Media Tags

If you want to add the same tags to several media files, you can use the Copy Tags feature to speed up this process. Follow these steps to copy tags:

Select a media file that has tags you wish to copy (this process will copy all tags that are associated with the file).
Click the purple Copy Tags button.
Select one or more media files to copy tags to.
Click Save to complete the copy.

Important: Copying tags to a media file will overwrite any tags currently associated with that media file.

Step 2 – Create a Tagged Playlist

Once you've added tags to some of your media files, you can build a Tagged Playlist to include some or all of your tagged media files:

Click the Create tab.
Select Tagged Playlist in the secondary task bar.
Click the Add New Tagged Playlist button.
Enter a Name for the new Tagged Playlist and click Create.
Click the Edit Name button if you would like to rename the Tagged Playlist at any time.
Use the Source Folder tree on the left to define where tagged media can originate from: Only media located in the selected folder will be included in the tagged playlist.
Under Media Rules, select whether you want the playlist to match ALL tags or ANY tag:
1. ALL: For a media file to be included in this Tagged Playlist, it must match all conditions you define in the Media Rules section. The more conditions you add, the more exclusive the playlist will tend to be.
2. ANY: For a media file to be included in this Tagged Playlist, it only needs to match one of the conditions you define in the Media Rules section. The more conditions you add, the more inclusive the playlist will tend to be.
Add as many tagging conditions as desired:
1. Tag Name: Select a tag from the dropdown menu. The list includes all media tags you've defined in the Library tab, as well as a set of default media attribute tags (FileName, FileSize, UploadDate, etc.) that apply to all media files in your content library.
2. Condition: Select a rulerule to match media with the specified tag.
3. Value: Enter a value to match with the tag value using one of the above conditions. If you are not using values with tags, use the Is condition and leave this field blank to match all media files with a certain tag.
Configure the Settings of the Tagged Playlist:
1. Content Order Tag: Determine how media files should be automatically ordered in the playlist. Use the first dropdown menu to select a tag: The values of this tag will be used as the ordering crieteria. Use the second dropdown menu to determine if the order should be ascending (ASC) or descending (DESC) alphabetically/numerically.
2. TTL: Specify how often (in seconds) players will query BSN to determine if there is any new tagged media to include/exclude in the Tagged Playlist.
Reorder the playlist if needed by dragging and dropping media files. If newly tagged media is included in the playlist later on, it will be added to the end of the playlist using the Content Order Tag settings outlined above.
Click the Save button to save the Tagged Playlist, or click the Save Playlist As... button to create a duplicate copy of the Tagged Playlist.

Approve Changes to a Tagged Playlist

After you've created a Tagged Playlist, you can add or remove media by editing the tags of media files in the Library tab. However, by default, the changes are not made to the Tagged Playlist automatically. You will need to open the Tagged Playlist and click Approve for changes to be applied.

Tip: Administrators can alter this default behavior by going to the Account page and checking the Allow Automatic Changes To Tagged Playlists box.

Step 3 – Add Player Tags (Optional)

Player tags allow you to filter content in Tagged Playlists on a player-by-player basis. In the below diagram, for example, Tagged Playlist 1 first filters media files according to their "Use" and "Type" tags. The tagged media in the playlist is then matched against the "Use" and "Type" player tags: Media that doesn't have the same tag name/value as the player is excluded from playback on that player.

Follow these steps to add tags to a player:

Click the Groups tab.
Click the properties link beneath a player.
Select the Tags tab.
Use the System and Users buttons to switch between system tags and user tags:
1. System tags have values that are defined by the hardware and configuration data on the player (such as the device name and model number); you cannot edit title or value of these tags.
2. User tags have customizable titles and text values.
If creating user tags, enter the Tag Name and optional Tag Value for the tag(s) you wish to add to the player.
When finished, click Save to apply the tags to the player.

Copy Player Tags

You can use the Copy Tags feature to speed up the process of tagging players. Follow these steps to copy tags:

Select a player that has tags you wish to copy (this process will copy all tags that are associated with the player).
Click the Copy Tags button (shown at right).
Select one or more players to copy tags to. The players can be in the same or different groups.
Click Save to complete the copy.

Important: Copying tags to a player will overwrite any tags currently associated with that player.

Step 4 – Add your Tagged Playlist to a Presentation

Follow these steps to add your Tagged Playlist to a presentation:

Click the Edit tab.
Select a presentation to edit, or create a new presentationcreate a new presentation.
Select the Tagged tab under playlists.
Drag and drop the Tagged Playlist into the presentation playlist.
(Optional) If you plan to use player tags, use the dropdown list to specify the player-tag matching behavior for the Tagged Playlist:
1. Do Not Match Tags (Default): All media in the Tagged Playlist will be played, regardless of player tags assigned to a player.
2. Match ALL Player Tags to Media Tags: Media tags in the Tagged Playlist will be matched against all player tags assigned to a player: A media file must have all tag names and values that a player has; otherwise, that media file will not be played.
3. Match ALL Media Tags to Player Tags: Player tags assigned to a player will be matched against all media tags assigned to a media file. A player must have all tag names and values that a media file has; otherwise, that media file will not be played.
4. Match ANY Player & Media Tags: Media tags in the Tagged Playlist will be matched against any player tag: As long as a media file has one tag name and value in common with the player, it will be played. > [!TIP]

Your players have "Use:Kiosk" and "Type:Promotion" tags. If you select Match ALL Player Tags to Media Tags, the Tagged Playlist will only play back media files that have both "Use:Kiosk" and "Type:Promotion" tags. If you select Match ALL Media Tags to Player Tags, the Tagged Playlist will play back media files that have the "Use:Kiosk" tag or the "Type:Promotion" tag (or both)–media files with additional tags will be skipped. On the other hand, if you select Match ANY Player & Media Tags, the Tagged Playlist will play back media files that have either the "Use:Kiosk" tag or the "Type:Promotion" tag without considering additional player and media tags.

6. Click Save to save the presentation.

You can now schedule the presentationschedule the presentation like any BSN presentation.