Validity and Display Period: control when content is shown

What is the difference between Validity and Display Period?

Validity and Display period let you control when content appears on your screens and when it disappears again. The difference is the level they apply to:

• Validity is set on a file (in Files). It applies everywhere you use that file. Outside the period you set, your screens will never show the file.
• Display period is set on a single item within a playlist. It applies only to that item in that one playlist.

Setting the validity of a file

1. Go to Files in the sidebar.
2. Right-click a file and choose Set validity.
3. Set Valid from to Immediately or From a specific time.
4. Set Valid until to Never expires or Until a specific time.
5. Click Save.

Outside this period, your screens automatically skip the file. The times apply in the time zone of the screen.

Note: Validity is the outer limit. Once a file has expired, it no longer appears anywhere, not even when it is part of a playlist.

Setting the display period of a playlist item

Want to show the same file differently at different times? Use Display period on individual playlist items.

1. Open a playlist.
2. Right-click an item and choose Display period.
3. Set Valid from and Valid until.
4. Click Save.

You can add the same file to a playlist more than once, each with its own display period. For example, this lets you show a different image on a specific day and then switch back to the original, without duplicating the file.

Tip: Want a new item to become visible only later? Set its display period while you add it, so it does not appear on your screens right away.

How Validity and Display Period work together

What if a file has both a validity (at the file level) and a display period (within the playlist)? Then the overlap applies: the item is shown only when both periods are active. The file's validity is always the outer limit. A display period can only narrow the window, never widen it.

Cleaning up content automatically

With both windows, you can have content cleaned up automatically as soon as the period has expired:

• For a file: select Automatically delete this file after it expires. The file then moves to the Trash.
• For a playlist item: select Automatically remove from this playlist after it expires. The item is removed from the playlist. The file itself remains.

Cleanup happens shortly after the period expires. Both options are available only when you have set an end date.