Displaydata 120-0084 Users Manual

Bounce Software

Quick Start Guide

Document Number: 550-0004-05

The information disclosed herein is the exclusive property of ZBD Displays Ltd. and is not to
be disclosed without the written consent of ZBD Displays Ltd. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic
storage, reproduction, execution or transmission without the prior written consent of ZBD
Displays Ltd.

This document is intended for limited circulation.

The information contained in this document is subject to change without written notice and
should not be construed as a commitment by ZBD Displays Ltd. unless such commitment is
expressly given in a covering document.

© Copyright ZBD Displays Ltd. (2009)

Document Number: 550-0004-05
Date: 7th October 2009

Minimum system requirements

Processor: 1.2Ghz
Memory: 512 RAM
Free Disk Space: 4GB
Microsoft Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2

Software Requirements

Windows Installer 3.1
Visual C++ runtime library
SQL Server Express
.NET Framework 2.0

Please note if you do not have these installed, Bounce Architect setup will install them for
you.

Introduction

The bounce software suite is designed to provide a number of software modules and
tools for defining the integration points between the your data and the EPOP. The
software enables the development of image templates for simplifying the design of
ticketing information and provides tools for defining rules that must be applied to the
data feeds in order to ensure that the correct information is displayed on the EPOPs at
the right time. The software also provides a network management layer for controlling
the update of the EPOPs and recording auditing information that can be retrieved
using the reporting module.

The software consists of four core elements:

Product Description

Architect This product consists of a Microsoft .Net application that

provides the means to define the data sources for product
information, set up what to do with the data and create a
schedule of when the data should be examined for changes.

Architect also provides tools for defining EPOP product image
templates and for creating Collections of templates that will be
used with the defined data set.

The Policies and Collections that are created within Architect
will then be used by Processor to generate images for the EPOP
displays.

Processor This product consists of a Microsoft .Net application that runs

continuously on a server and uses the Policies and Collections
defined within Architect to acquire the data when scheduled,
perform the required transformations, determine what data has
changed and render product images for those products whose
data has changed.

Communicate The product consists of a Microsoft .Net application that runs

continuously on a server and is responsible for transmitting the
appropriate product images to any EPOPs that have been
assigned to the defined products.

Communicate is responsible for providing the underlying
communications structure for deploying a large number of
EPOP display devices.

Previous releases of Bounce Software consisted of only the
Bounce Communicate element.

Manager This product consists of a set of web pages, written for the

Microsoft ASP.Net web application framework, residing on an
ASP.Net compatible web server. It provides the tools required
to manage a Bounce software installation via a Web interface.

It provides a configuration manager, a report manager and an
EPOP assignment manager.

Overview Diagram

Retail Databases

Architect

Create policies &

templates

Bounce Architect

Component Description

Policy Architect The Policy component consists of a Microsoft.Net application

Template Architect The Template component consists of a Microsoft.Net

Policy

Config

Template

Collection

Manager

Configure,

Assign,

Report

Processor

Acquire,

Transform,

Render

Communicate

Transmit,

Log

API

for defining the sources of data that will be used in acquiring
the product information for the image generation process.

Data transformations are also created and edited within Policy
Architect. Transformations can be used when the format of
the data in the acquired data sources needs to be changed or
reformatted to represent what will be rendered in the product
image.

Schedules can also be defined within Policy Architect. A
schedule defines when data should be acquired to determine if
any changes have occurred in the data set. Any data changes
result in new images being generated. A schedule can be as
simple as a trigger based on when a data file changes, or a
more complex predefined set of times when the data should
be acquired from a remote database.

Policy Architect provides a means to preview both the
acquired data and the EPOP images that will be created from
the data.

Any policies that are defined within the Policy Architect
application can be saved and imported into Bounce Processor
as a configuration file.

application for defining EPOP image templates. A template
defines the information that should be displayed on an EPOP.
It consists of a set of instructions detailing where and how
data fields are rendered within the EPOP image.

Processor

Component Description

Processor
Acquire/Transform/Render

Template Architect provides a template Design view alongside
a Preview view. This allows the User to be able to see exactly
how a product image (or set of product images) will be
rendered from the product data set.

Template Architect also allows the user to create a Collection
of templates. This feature ensures that different templates
can be used when rendering the data to handle products that
may be on offer, or in a different product category that
requires its own style. A Template Collection also includes
templates for each of the different EPOP types e.g. EPOP 500
and EPOP 300.

Once a User has completed the design of their Template
Collection it can then be saved and imported into Bounce
Processor as a configuration file.

Saved files can also be used by Policy Architect to preview the
acquired data.

This component runs as a Service on any Windows XP
machine and performs the function of acquiring the data
against a schedule of operation as defined in Architect. It
then performs any required transformations and uses
the acquired and transformed data to render a product
image.

For each product in the acquired data set a unique image
will be generated using the specific template style
defined within the data. Product images are created for
each EPOP type included in the Template Collection e.g.
EPOP 500, EPOP 300.

Once an image has been rendered it is then passed to
the Communicate component for transmission to the
EPOPs.

An audit trail is kept of when the data is acquired and
when any product images are created and sent to the
Communicate component.

Communicate

Component Description

Processor
Communicate

This component also runs as a service on any Windows XP
machine and is responsible for managing the transmission of
any product images delivered via Acquire/Transform/Render
to the appropriate EPOP units assigned to the product.

When Communicate receives a product image update it will
check to see if any EPOPs have been assigned to the product
and then select the appropriate image for the specific EPOP
type and queue it for transmission e.g. if a product has both
an EPOP 500 and an EPOP 300 assigned, then Communicate

Manager

Component Description

Configuration
Manager

Assignment Manager The Assignment component consists of a Windows .Net

Report Manager The Report component provides a web based application that

selects the EPOP 500 image for transmission to the EPOP 500
and the EPOP 300 image for transmission to the EPOP 300.

Communicate manages the RF communications layer and will
ensure transmissions are re-tried if failures occur due to RF
noise etc.

An audit trail is kept of all EPOP communications, retries and
failures.

The Configuration component consists of a web application
that enables Users to remotely configure and control the
Bounce Processor product.

Users are able to update the Policy rules and Template
Collections.

application for assigning EPOP units to products defined within
Bounce.

This application supports the use of barcode readers to
simplify the EPOP assignment process. A User can simply scan
the barcode of a product and the EPOP serial number label
and then Assignment Manager will send a request to Bounce
Communicate to set up an assignment between the product
and the EPOP. This will result in the EPOP being updated with
the latest product image for the selected product.

Other variants of this component can be created for Windows
Mobile PC or other handheld applications.

enables the User to generate reports detailing when products,
EPOPs etc. have been updated.

Reports can also be generated of failed transmissions.

Workflow

The following diagram shows an overview of the workflow required to integrate a
bounce system into a retail environment.

There are 7 steps to complete a full integration. These are:

1. Use Policy Architect to set the data sources and define the Template Fields that
will be used in creating the product images. Template Fields are derived either
directly from the Product Data Fields in the imported data sources or from
transformations on the Product Data Fields.

2. Use Template Architect to create a Collection of image templates for each EPOP
type and for each offer type using the Template Fields defined in step 1
Steps 1 & 2 often become an iterative process as the templates are developed.

3. Use Policy Architect to define the scheduling policies that determine when the
data will be acquired from the defined data sources and when the images will
be transmitted to the EPOP devices.

4. Acquire the Data Values according to the transformation and policy rules
defined in steps 1 & 3.

5. Render the product images using the Data Values acquired in step 4 and the
Template Collection defined in step 2.

6. Update the EPOP devices according to the scheduling rules defined in step 3.

7. Use Reporter to view the update statistics.

The following guide details how to install the Bounce Architect, Processor and Manager
elements of the Bounce software suite (see Bounce Communicate Installation Guide for how
to install and use Bounce Communicate element).
It also details how to create an Architect Policy and Template configuration files and how to
load these onto a PC running Processor, Communicate and Manager

Bounce Architect Installation Guide

Insert the Bounce Architect software CD into your CD-ROM drive. The install setup.exe
should auto start. If it doesn’t, Click on Start> Run and type D:SETUP.EXE. Replace the D:
with the appropriate drive letter for your CD-ROM if it is not D.

Once the installer starts you will get the following screen. Click Yes to accept

Click Accept to install .NET Framework 2.0, you will only receive this message if .NET
Framework 2.0 has not been previously installed on your machine.

Click Accept to install Windows Installer 3.1, if not already installed. You will also be
prompted for a system reboot. After the reboot the installation will continue.

Click Install, this will install Visual C++ Runtime Libraries and SQLProcessor Instance

The following Bounce Architect Setup Wizard will start. Click Next

It is recommended you use the default location, leave as is and click Next

Click Next to confirm your installation

To complete the installation click Close

This now successfully completes the installation of Bounce Architect. The following section
demonstrates, how to create a policy and a template collection for use with Communicate
and Processor.

Validate Configuration

Import Configuration

Transformations

Template Collection

Scheduling

Policy Architect

Template fields are created using Policy Architect. Definition of the template fields
begins by determining all the different data sources that will be used to create them
and registering these with the Policy Architect application. A data source can take any
form of data, it may consist of a simple comma separated value file, an Excel
spreadsheet, an Access database or more complex transactional databases such as
Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server.

To start the application Policy Architect, double click the icon on your desktop or
go to Start > All Programs > ZBD Displays > Bounce Architect > Policy Architect and
the following Main Screen is displayed as below.

Clear Policy
Configuration

Open
Template

Add
DataSource

Policy
Configuration

Export Configuration

Page 1 Image Preview

Template Architect

Data

Page 2 Image Preview

The first step in creating a policy is to create a connection to your data source, in the
example below you will use the sample .csv data file which is provided on the CD –
D:\Sample Data

Adding a Data Source

Right click DataSources and select Add DataSource

In the following screen below, you will add the name of your Data Source and select
the connection method to your data.

In our example we have used a .csv file, select file and click Next.

The .csv file is available on the CD-ROM – D:\Sample Data You may also have
downloaded it from the FTP site, the example data can be found in the folder
Sampledata.zip

To test the data source connection, click the Test and the following connected
successfully screen below appears, click OK, this validates the file location is valid and
readable.

Click OK again, and now you have successfully added your data source connection.

Once the data sources have been registered you will need to define the data tables
and the Product data fields that contain the relevant product information to be used in
creating the product image.

In a situation where there are multiple sources, each of the data tables registered to
Policy Architect need to be linked to at least one other table to enable Policy Architect
to determine how to retrieve the correct data values to make a consistent data set.
Normally each of the data source tables would be linked via the product ID as this is a
unique identifier that would be consistent across multiple data sets. In our example,
for illustration purposes, we have used a .csv file, so there is only one table.

Adding a Table

The next step in the process is to link the table within your data source by right
clicking on the Data source name and select add table, as below

Now, you will select the Name and Keyfield, as show below, the Keyfield is the unique
identifier, and the Name is the table name. In our example it’s the file name, because
you are importing from a .csv file.