Rangecast FAQ
[FAQ-1102] What is a Rangecast World?


Page Type: REFERENCE


OVERVIEW

A "World" in Rangecast is a package defining a set of channels about which the Rangecast player receives notifications of new transmissions (note: whether these transmissions are reported to the user depends on player settings), and a set of "Views" arranging all or some of these Channels in different ways.


REFERENCE

1 -- A RANGECAST "WORLD" IN ACTION

When the Rangecast Player is running, it is always:

a) Receiving notifications about new transmissions on some specific set of channels

b) Providing the user with several choices ("View" drop-down options) for how these channels are arranged on the player. Each "view" is a configuration in which all or some of these channels may be selected for reception (possibly with some channels grouped into bundles controlled through a shared on/off button).

The package of these two elements together is called a "World" in Rangecast.

When the Rangecast Player is running, it will always be presenting a single Rangecast World.


2 -- ENTERING AN EXISTING RANGECAST WORLD


[FAQ-1104] How to select/enter/load a Rangecast World

Each Rangecast World has a unique name, and a Rangecast user may request any World by name on the Options screen. Worlds that the Rangecast user has previously accessed will be listed in a drop-down menu, for ease in switching between Worlds while the player is in use. To access a World for the first time, choose the option to request a world by name; this opens a text box (where the name should be entered) below the drop-down menu.





3 -- A LIST OF CHANNELS AVAILABLE IN A WORLD


[FAQ-1103] The "All Channels" View

In the player, the "All Channels" View always presents all of the channels available in this world, each channel on a separate button. The player software will be notified whenever there is a transmission on any of these channels.






4 -- VIEWS: WINDOWS INTO THE WORLD

Views are easily selected from the player interface [img-player_viewlist]

Some Views are automatic (the names of these Views are shown in square brackets). Every automatic View will play all channels available in the World, but may group these channels into a smaller number of buttons (so, for example, all Fire Dispatch channels may be placed into a single shared on/off button.) No work is needed to prepare these automatic Views, they are always available in every World.

Some Views may be custom creations, to suit the needs of particular users. For example, a View may be created for each community or news bureau, where every relevant channel in the region is on its own on/off button, and all other channels in the World are hidden (for ease of use.)

[FAQ-1096] Add a view to a HTML5 world

Views provide a fast way for users to select a predefined set of channels in the Rangecast player, to narrow the (possibly large) list of all available channels to a smaller group that is relevant to a particular community or bureau. Views can be added to worlds through the Editor interface in the Rangecast player.




Note: Some Views within a World may not show all channels contained in that World (that is, some channels may be hidden, which is commonly done to make the player easier to use when configured for a specific community.) Therefore, it is important to distinguish between:

(a) the set of channels *about which the player receives notifications*

(b) the channels *included in on/off buttons within the current View* (this excludes channels in (a) that are hidden in the presently selected View)

(c) the channels *played for the user* (this excludes channels in (b) that are turned off through an on/off button)


5 -- TYPES OF WORLD

Worlds come in two flavors -- Automatic and Custom.

"Automatic" worlds are built by the system from one or more predefined baskets of channels. No work is needed to use automatic Worlds (beyond connecting the radio receivers that deliver the content into Rangecast, and setting access permissions so specific users are allowed to access that content.)

[FAQ-1120] Name syntax of automatically generated Worlds (how to request content by a World name)





"Custom" worlds are created by Rangecast users. Every custom World is owned by a single Rangecast user, who has exclusive authority to save changes to that World (although anyone may load the world into their player.)

Custom worlds always have names in the format "username/worldname" (separated by a forwards slash). In essence, every Rangecast user has a folder into which the Worlds they create can be saved. (This format ensures that Worlds saved by one user cannot conflict with Worlds saved by other Rangecast users.)

Automatic worlds never have a forwards slash in the World name.


6 -- CREATING WORLDS


[FAQ-1105] Creating a Rangecast World (or saving changes to an existing World)

Rangecast Worlds can be created by any Rangecast user, and saved to a folder within their user account. The process is that a user loads an existing Rangecast world, makes changes in the player, and saves to their own user account. Once a World is created, any Rangecast user can access it (by name), but only the author can overwrite the existing World with changes. (Other users can save to a new World name.)



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