Yes, there is a better way. You will likely have some standard content, put that in a playlist inside a presentation. When you want these custom messages to play add an item that points to a web service like- http://internal.mycompany.com/myserver/todaysmessage.php (or asp, cgi, etc..)
At that URL you have built a web service that accepts the incoming request, processes any data necessary to make a decision and returns the appropriate piece of content. You will also need a front end for someone to define the messages and the rules that define when and where they will play. That might be as simple as an XML file or a more complex database, its up to you.
There are some slight variations in the exact methods you will use based on which player you have. The 4400 is a little different from the 4310.
Greg, we talked about this over the phone. That's the solution I wanted to implement. But it isn't possible through the REST api because there is no way to pass a messageID to each DMP to know which message to load.
Say for example my xml service that has the custom text would be http://internal.mycompany.com/myserver/messageService?messageId=<##> where <##> is the message I am interested in loading.
I could load an html with javascript or flash application to the DMM that can make an ajax call back to http://internal.mycompany.com/myserver/messageService?messageId=<##>. I could then create a playlist (let's call it
EmergMsg) that contains this html page with the javascript.
Then say I have 2 DMP Groups (ex. BostonOffice and ChicagoOffice). Now I have two events that require me to push out emergency playlists at the same time (A hazmet situation in Chicago and a tornado warning in Boston). The message ID for the hazmet is 1234 and the message ID for the tornado warning is 55433.
There is no way, through the REST interface to tell the DMM the following: "For the Boston DMPGroup activate the
EmergMsg playlist and include a messageID=55433". Simultaneously I would have another playlist activation REST command say "For the Chicago DMPGroup load the
EmergMsg playlist and include the messageID=1234". Note, the only difference between the requests would be the messageID.
For this to work correctly I would have to have three things happen:
1) There would have to be a mechanism in the activation REST api that allows me to pass a specific messageID= value unique for each DMP or DMPGroup
2) That REST api would have to be able to pass that messageID= key/value pair to each DMP that is to load the playlist.
3) My html javascript or flash application would have to be able to read that messageID= value so it can construct the http://internal.mycompany.com/myserver/messageService?messageId= with the appropriate messageID value.
If that functionality were added to the DMM/DMP suite I would change my current implementation in a heartbeat.