TABLE OF CONTENTS


NOTE: Videos stored in your Photo sharing source cannot play in the Photo block. To view Videos, you will need to use our Video blocks and one of the supported Video streaming services to play Videos


This article will describe how to add a Photo block to your custom screen and configure photos on your predefined screen.




Add Photos To Your Custom Screen:


Add a Photo block to your custom screen by selecting Add a Block while editing your screen and under the Photos & Backgrounds section, select your photo source.  After you select your photo source, configure the block by linking your account or providing the URL depending on the source.


When you complete adding the source account information, click the Settings tab and make your selection. To learn more check out the Settings Options section below:



Additionally, you can use the Schedule tab to have the block appear when you want. See our article Content Scheduling to learn more about this: 



Once your selections are made, click Save Changes and preview your screen.



Add Photos To Your Predefined Screen:


Add photos to your predefined screen by selecting the Background tab and then selecting your photo source:



Once the photo source is selected, input the necessary account information or links. An example below is boxed in Orange. When the account information is added, select any options you would like under the Photo/Background Setting section.



After selecting your options, click Save Changes and view your screen.


Setting Options:


With both the Predefined and Custom Screens we have some settings options you can use on your Photo block. Below is a list of these settings and what they can do:


Predefined Screen Settings:

  • Change Photo: This option allows you to change the frequency at which the Photos will try and change. This will be affected by the size of the Photo and the network speed.
  • Brightness: This slider will allow you to brighten or dim the image as much as you like.
  • Show photo meta info: This will show any metadata on the file, including the Title, the User, the Date Taken, and so on.
  • Crop to fill the entire screen: This option will Crop your photo around its focal point to make it fill the background of your Predefined screen.
  • Fade photos in and out gradually: This option will perform a transition between Photos. 


Custom Screen Settings:

  • Change Photo: This option allows you to change the frequency at which the Photos will try and change. This will be affected by the size of the Photo and the network speed.
  • Brightness: This slider will allow you to brighten or dim the image as much as you like.
  • Style: These selections will change how your Photo will appear in the block, they are listed below:
    • Fit: This will make the image fit in the block no matter what size it is. If it is too small for the block it will leave blank bars on either side of the image.
    • Fit & Blur: This works the same as the fit option, but when the image is too small to fit the block, it fills the blank space with a blurred version of the same image as a background.
    • Crop: This option will Crop your photo around its focal point to make it fill the Photo Block. 
    • Circle: This option will Crop your photo around its focal point and fit the focal point in a circle.
  • Show Meta: This will show any metadata on the file, including the Title, the User, the Date Taken, and so on. 
  • Transitions: This option will perform a transition between Photos. 
  • Vignette: This option darkens the edge of the photo to make it blend in better with the background.
  • Hi-Res: This option will show images in 4K when this resolution is available
  • Click/Touch to Rotate: With our new Touchscreen technology, we have added this ability as an option. When selected you can either use a Mouse Click or Touch the Photo block on a Touchscreen to advance the photo to the next one using the method of Change for the Photo source. This usually means randomizing the photos but with the Media Library (Available in Plus and Pro subscriptions) you can set the order they run. See our article Media Library Photo Block (Plus and Pro Subscriptions) to learn more.


Make sure you save your changes.


Photo Limits and Randomization:

Below are the limits to the number of photos per album DAKboard has access to currently:


Dropbox: 5,000

Google Photos: 20,000

Apple Photos: 500

Flickr: 4,000

Microsoft OneDrive: 200

Instagram:  (UPDATE: Integration removed on 11/24)

Reddit: 25 most recent


All external photo sources are limited by the APIs we connect to. When the photo changes on your DAKboard, we grab a new photo out of the album at random between 1 and X, where X is the number of photos in the album (that the DAKboard has visibility of). 


DAkboard cannot order your photos or turn off the randomization from external sources like OneDrive, Google Photos, iCloud Photos, and so on. However, with our Plus and Pro subscription levels, you can use the DAKboard Media Library to show your Photos in the order you choose, by name, by date, or even just a set order you design using our tags. See our article Media Library Photo Block (Plus and Pro Subscriptions) for more details on this.


Troubleshooting:


New Images not Showing in Rotation:

DAKboard shares your images by caching the URLs and using this list to create the Rotation for you. This caching process happens once every 8 hours and could lead to delays in the new images showing on your Display for some Photo Sharing services (Apple Photos, DropBox, OneDrive, and Google Drive/Photos). Other services alert us Via their API and may update this Cache quicker in most cases.


If you need these images to show faster than these services will allow, you can try regenerating their Shared URLs using the steps in their related Support Articles or create new Albums to share and use those URLs. For Services like DropBox or OneDrive, you can use our article Remove or Reauthorizing External Apps to recreate the link and cache.


Supported Photo Formats:

Currently, DAKboard officially supports JPG, JPEG, PNG, and GIF files with our Photo blocks. Some other image formats may work as well depending on which browser, or Photo service (Dropbox, Google, etc.) you are using when you view them. If you stick to the officially supported image types you should have no issue when displaying photos.