Getting Started Getting Started: Publishing
Wednesday, 26 June 2024
This is intended as a beginners guide to publishing data to the network within Master Patch.
Publishing
All data within the world of LUCA lives inside of the instance of Master Patch that the user is running. Users of remote viewer applications such as Stage Viewer are able to connect to Master Patch and retrieve that data on demand.
However, if the Master Patch operator is in the process of making changes and updates to data, but it is not yet complete then it would be undesirable for the remote viewer users to be able to retrieve that data, as it may lead to confusion or a misunderstanding.
To help with this situation, Master Patch has a system known as Publishing, which allows the Master Patch operator to push data to the network when they are ready.
Publishing can be done in two different ways, depending on what the user wants to publish to the network.
- Band scoped publish
- Event scoped publish
Each of these publishes can also be influenced by what is known as an Event Scope Change.
Band Scoped Publish
In the bottom right of the Band Page the 'Publish Band' button can be found. When the user uses this button to Publish, it performs what is known as a Band Scope Publish.
In a band scope publish only the changes for the band that is in view will be published to the network. That is to say if you navigated to the band page of an act called 'The Greatest Rockstars', made some changes and then published, only the data for The Greatest Rockers would be published to the network. All other bands that had also had their data updated since the last publish would not publish their data to the network.
In this way the Master Patch operator can have multiple bands being edited at once, but only push the updates for a specific band they desire.
Event Scoped Publish
When the user is on the Event Overview page the 'Publish All' button will become visible in the bottom right of the screen. This button will perform an Event Scoped Publish.
The Event Scoped Publish will publish all changes to the event since the last publish and will include all data for all bands that have been edited since the last publish.
This is useful for when the Master Patch operator has made multiple edits, potentially across multiple bands on multiple days, and they want to push all those changes at once to the network, for example at the start of a new day.
The Publish button in the Band Overview page within the Project section of Master Patch is also an Event Scoped Publish.
Event Scope Changes
Both a Band Scoped Publish and an Event Scoped Publish can be affected by what is known as an Event Scope Change.
An Event Scope change happens when some data relating to the core project has changed.
Some examples of an Event Scope Change include:
- Adding, removing or reordering days in the event.
- Adding, removing, or reordering of acts in the event.
- Renaming acts.
- Changing the line system.
When an Event Scope Change has happened, Master Patch will show this by showing '*Publish Band' or '*Publish All' on the publish buttons. When the Master Patch operator makes a publish to the network when there is an Event Scope Change present then remote viewer users will receive a different kind of alert known as an Event Scope Warning which will show up in Red, instead of the usual Orange.
This type of publish contains with it a notification to the remote viewer application that there is now a chance that the remote viewer could be looking at data which no longer exists. For example, if a band has been removed but the remote viewer user was looking at that exact band, then they are now looking at incorrect information as that band is no longer part of the event.
The remote viewer applications take care of this by requesting refreshed data to Master Patch. If the band or day still exists then the remote viewer application will continue unaffected.
If the remote viewer application is indeed now looking at incorrect information it will either force the user back to selecting another day/band (with the changes now affected) or if the band still exists but with different data (such as a different name) then the remote viewer will request updated data and re-render accordingly.
In short, if an Event Scope Change does happen, both the user of Master Patch and the remote Viewer Application will be made aware and the remote applications will do all the work to ensure that the user is still reading correct up to date information.
