Getting Started with easyCMS | easyCMS Digital Signage

Your account is live as soon as your order completes. There is nothing to install on your computer. Sign in at https://app.myeasycms.com with the details in your welcome email. What you build there reaches your screens on its own. That email is also where your CMS address and CMS key live, the two values a player asks for when you connect a screen. Keep it, and ask us to re-send it if it goes missing. This article is the first of four short guides that take you from a fresh account to content playing.

What your account includes

The four sections you will use. Everything in this guide lives behind one of them.

The standard account is a one-time purchase of 49€ with no monthly fee. It gives you:

The cloud CMS at https://app.myeasycms.com, hosted, maintained and updated by us.
One display licence, enough for your first screen.
1GB of cloud storage for your images and videos.
Free software updates for as long as you use the product.

Extra screens are 99€ each, bought once and yours for life. If you know you need several, the PRO account at 299€ covers up to 25 displays and 5GB of storage in one purchase. Everything is on the pricing page. One licence covers one screen, and we check accounts against what has been paid for, so buy the licence when you add the screen.

Getting a file onto a screen: the four steps

There is a lot in the menus, but putting something on a screen only ever takes four steps, always in this order. Learn these and the rest is detail you can pick up as you need it.

Upload the file. Your images, videos and audio live in Library > Media.
Put it on a design. A design is called a layout, and you build it in Design > Layouts. A layout is a blank canvas: you drag items onto it and position them wherever you want. To make one area cycle through several items instead of showing one, drop a playlist into that area and fill it.
Say when it plays. The Schedule is a calendar. An entry on it says “this layout, on these screens, at these times”.
Point it at a screen. Your screens are Displays. Each one runs the easyCMS player and uses one display licence.

So: upload, design, schedule, and the screen picks it up at its next check-in.

Watch out If nothing appears, it is almost always step 2: a layout that was built but never published.

Two things to try right now

Both work before any screen is connected, so you can do them while you wait for hardware.

Upload a file. In Library > Media, click Add Media. Drag files in, click Select Files to browse, or point it at a remote URL. Give each one a name you will recognise in six months, then click Done. Uploading continues in the background, so a large video does not need watching.

Library > Media with the Add Media button Library > Media. Add Media takes a drag-and-drop, a file picker or a link to a file hosted elsewhere.

Open a layout. In Design > Layouts, click Add Layout. The editor opens straight away on an untitled layout, with no resolution question first. Click Untitled at the top to name it, then drag your image onto the canvas. Nothing reaches a screen until you publish and schedule it, so there is nothing to break.

Which guide to read next

Three follow this one, in order:

Connecting your first display — install the player, then claim the screen at Add a display.
Your first layout — build a design and publish it.
Scheduling your first content — get it on screen at the right time.

Start with the first. A connected screen makes everything after it easier to check. Claiming one also needs you on the same internet connection as the screen, so do it while you are standing next to it.

How long the first change takes to appear

Players do not stream. Each one checks in with the CMS on its collection interval, downloads anything new into its own storage, and plays from there. After you schedule something, allow one collection interval plus the download time, for a large video on a slow line that is minutes rather than seconds. The delay is deliberate, it is the same design that keeps your screens playing when the internet drops.

The Displays page shows where each screen has got to. A cloud icon means changes are queued for the next check-in, a cross means a download is in progress, and a tick means the player is up to date. Wait for the tick before deciding something is broken.

Adding more screens later

Adding a second or a tenth screen is a self-service job, no ticket and no waiting for us. Buy a licence if you have none spare, install the player, and claim the screen as you claimed the first. The full process, including what to do when a new screen does not appear in the list, is in adding a new display.

Watch it done

If anything behaves differently from what is described here, send us a support request and we will look at your account.