DMS Message Composer Redesign

Old Composer UI (before v5.37)

The operator would select a message line-by-line of text on the left. Alternatively, a Quick Message could be selected. There were optional Font and Page on-time widgets. In addition, there were other fields which determine how a message was composed: exclude_font, override_font, overrode_foreground and override_background.

New Composer UI (v5.37+)

With v5.37+, the operator selects a message pattern first, or accepts the default. Then, depending on the pattern, may optionally select text line-by-line. The pattern determines which font, foreground and background colors, page times, graphics, color rectangles, justifaction, character spacing, etc. If a pattern contains fillable text rectangles, then message text can be placed there using the line-by-line method. Otherwise, it acts like a quick message.

The following features were removed, since message patterns make them redundant:

• DMS override_font
• DMS override_foreground
• DMS override_background
• Sign Config exclude_font
• Several system attributes: dms_default_justification_line, dms_default_justification_page, dms_duration_enable, dms_font_selection_enable, dms_manufacturer_enable, dms_max_lines, dms_message_min_pages, dms_page_on_selection_enable, dms_quickmsg_store_enable

Also, message combining was reworked to be more automatic. There is no msg_combining field for patterns as there was for quick messages.

Update Preparation

Some message patterns will need to be adjusted:

1. For two-page messages, a pattern with MULTI string such as [np] will need to be created and associated with appropriate sign groups / configs.
2. For shared messages, a pattern with a fillable [tr…] tag should be added for operators to use.
3. For signs which used override_font, override_foreground or override_background, a pattern with a MULTI string such as [fo…][tr…] must be added.