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Summer Round-up

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:22 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

We’ve had a busy “summer” this year with lots going on at Xibo HQ.

1.8 “Tempel”

Our main focus has been 1.8 series and we are pleased to report that we are close to a viable 1.8.0-alpha release. If you’ve been following the development you’ll know that 1.8 contains a rewrite to the core application which brings Xibo up to date with the latest conventions, adds a framework and includes the Twig template engine for easy theme adjustments.

We’re wrapping up initial testing before we push forward with some extra features before release. Developers and early adopters are encouraged to try the development branch on GitHub and report any issues they counter on the Community. There are instructions in the README for installation from the repository. At present it is an install only release and will not upgrade older versions, so please don’t try!

API

We’ve also included our new API documentation which has all been written in Swagger (you can find the swagger.json file in the repository). The API is easier to use than ever before and to prove it we’ve designed the web portal to use it too! This means the routes you call as an API developer are the same tried and tested routes we use in the web portal.

Xibo for Android

There is a new Xibo for Android update available which builds on the stability enjoyed by users of 1.7 R55. R56 adds further stability improvements as some handy features – see the announcement.

1.7 “Tuttle”

We’ve had a lot of questions about 1.7 support after 1.8 is released and we would like to put people at ease! 1.7 will receive at least 1 more bug fix release (1.7.5). This will happen after 1.8.0-alpha.

That’s all for this round-up!

6 Ways to stay safe using digital signage | Xibo Signage

Nikki Blissett — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:21 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

Last week we started the first of our future ready series of blogs. Weekly tips on how you can use Xibo to plan for a “new-normal” future after Covid-19.

As we look toward a time when workplaces, hospitality, retail and education settings will fully open again, safeguarding must be a top priority. Employees, customers, students and colleagues need to feel secure during these uncertain times.

Tip Of The Week:

Make Safety Integration Planning A Priority

Digital Signage communications with Xibo can offer reassurance, guidance and emergency alerts quickly and across multiple locations at the same time. Over the last year we have seen guidance around the world change dramatically, sometimes within a matter of minutes. It is essential to have a system in place where messaging can be shared with a wide audience within minutes, without the need to manually print posters and change floor stickers.

Consider education. Schools across the world are currently closed due to the pandemic. When they re-open, children may need more guidance than usual. Reminders about keeping their distance from their peers, whom they’ll have missed and instinctively want to hug and fist bump!
- Digital signage in high traffic areas such as the school entrance, corridors and halls can help to remind children about the safety rules but also welcome them back. Bright and welcoming layouts with positive but essential messaging can be delivered to large groups of children. This allows for minimal direct contact saving time and money on printing posters which risk being touched or damaged.
- Digital Signage in Universities and higher education settings will also be highly effective in areas such as lecture halls, accommodation areas and libraries reminding students to stay safe in and outside of campus.
Emergency Alerts integration can also be highly effective for communicating across teams with limited email or internet access. To reduce sharing of devices and cross contamination, digital displays can show urgent, timely alerts to teams indicating team isolation requirements or government restriction changes.
- Xibo can automatically show specific Layouts in the event of an emergency Covid alert by leveraging the CMS’s API and our XMR technology.
Digital Signage in the Hospitality industry will be essential. This sector has been severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, so as pubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels prepare to welcome customers again, it will be essential to remind them to follow the rules such as wearing masks and washing their hands, but consider how to make their experience enjoyable and safe, while protecting staff too.
- Digital menus can be designed quickly and easily within the Xibo CMS layout designer and not only reduce contact for all, but reduce waste! This makes for a safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative. Check out our step by step guide on how to create a menu in the Xibo CMS.
Consider digital self service screens at tables. These can be easily cleaned after each customer and allow for less direct verbal contact with staff. Xibo already has excellent interactivity functionality, and the release of Xibo version 3 will significantly extend the ability to develop highly interactive experiences

Next week: Alternative display solutions

Over the last year, there have been great advances in display types which are Covid safe. Next week we’ll cover alternative display solutions which can be integrated with Xibo signage and deployed as part of your future ready digital signage projects.

Timezones

Alex — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:21 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

We’re hoping to have Xibo 1.0.0-rc3 ready for general release later today.

The latest release will address some issues that were found using Xibo outside it’s native UK timezone.

With Xibo in such early stages, we strongly recommend everybody to upgrade to 1.0.0-rc3 – but especially if you are using Xibo in a non-UK timezone.

We are aware that 1.0.0-rc3 will still show dates in EU format (ie dd/mm/yyyy), and that it is not currently possible to customise this. There is a blueprint in Launchpad to track this work in conjunction with some changes we already wanted to make to how the calendars are displayed. Please feel free to subscribe to the blueprint to keep track of how we are progressing on this.

Thanks to everyone who has reported these issues to us. Look out for the release soon!

Alex

Guidelines for Contributing

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:20 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

Thank you all for the interest expressed in contributing to the Xibo project. We really appreciate all the offers of help! We realise we have been a little slow to react to these offers of help – mainly because we did not expect such a fast response after releasing an Xibo release candidate!

We have now taken the time to put together some guidelines for the ways in which people can contribute and the procedure to follow. You can find these guidelines on the wiki here: http://wiki.xibo.org.uk/wiki/Notes_For_Contributing.

If you have any questions about these guidelines you can discuss them on the Wiki.

Xibo for Android 1.7 R52 Available

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:20 GMT

We would like to announce Xibo for Android v1.7 R52. This release works with Xibo CMS versions 1.4, 1.6 and 1.7.

Features and Issues resolved in this release:

Fixed “Unable to Register due to Error” intermittent message
Fixed error sending log messages containing special characters
Improved communication reliability to XMDS

Download Xibo for Android R52.

The player is still available on a free 14 day no obligation trial and available to purchase directly from our website. Instructions for upgrading from an earlier release can be found in the FAQ. It’s also well worth having a look at the Knowledge Base.

White Label Customers

Your personal build is available for you in your account.

Upcoming in v2 - Reusable Playlists

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:19 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

We're excited to bring you an early look at a new feature for v2 - reusable Playlists. This is an extension to the existing Xibo capability of adding Widgets in sequence to a Layout Region, allowing you to reuse these Playlists across multiple Layouts, administer them separately and combine them with other Playlists.

In this "Upcoming in v2" series we will giving you a sneak peak at the things we're working on for the next major Xibo release. In many cases you can still influence the direction we're taking and your feedback in the comments is welcome.

The idea

Playlists in v2 bring together 2 core concepts - the Reusable Playlist and the Sub-Playlist. Reusable Playlists are a simple concept, taking the existing Region Timeline and making it accessible from a new Playlists page.

Sub-Playlists then allow reassignment of reusable Playlists to new Layouts, with options for mixing two or more Playlists together.

The options allowed are:

Sequentially - put the playlists one after the other in order
Round Robin - take one from each list and then repeat
Evenly - automatically decide how often to take from each list so that there are no items left

If the Playlists assigned contain a different quantity of Widgets, the following can be done with the left over:

Append - add left over Widgets to the end of the list
Drop - use the smallest list as the total length and drop the rest
Repeat - use the largest list as the total length and repeat the rest

Of course, you can have a Sub-Playlist with only 1 Playlist assigned.

Playlists will also have their own permissions, so it will be possible to create users who only have access to modify a Playlist.

The pain points

Playlists in v2 have been designed to address the most common feedback we've received for the way Layouts and Regions work. This means we've included:

optional usage
reusability across multiple Layouts
multiple Playlists per Region
created/edited independently of the Layout Designer
from and to dates on Widget assignments

The technology

Playlists have been added to the core CMS, meaning they are fully integrated with the new work undertaken to improve the Layout designer and the robust XMDS and XMR communication with Players. A complete Layout file (XLF) will be generated containing the "realised list" of Widgets from the Playlists configured on that Layout.

The progress

Playlists and Sub-Playlists are being developed for release with the first 2.0.0-alpha release. So far we've laid the foundations for the functionality and will soon be moving on to improving the user interface.

Here is a snip of the Sub-Playlist edit form:

Watch out for the next post in this series which will look at another exciting upcoming improvement for v2.

Introducing DataSets

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:18 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

As most of our followers are aware the 1.3 series development preview release has been a long time in the making, in fact we have been working on it for well over a year. As it is getting close to completion and ready for a 1.4 stable release (a big milestone for us!) we thought it would be a good idea to pause and reflect on the new features we have managed to cram in.

The first one we are going to look at is the new DataSets feature.

Overview

DataSets are a new Xibo feature to design and display tabular data, formatted nicely, in a region on a layout.

Examples of where this could be used are:

A drinks menu at a bar
Tee times at a golf club
Meeting room bookings

DataSets have been designed to be versatile and reusable and therefore come in two parts:

The Data (DataSet)
The Display (DataSet View)

This means that you can define a data set as a number of columns, add rows and then create “views” of this data on your layouts.

Creating a DataSet

[![Add DataSet](/content/images/2012/02/add-dataset-300x241.png "Add DataSet")](/content/images/2012/02/add-dataset.png) Form to add a new DataSet DataSets are accessed using the “DataSets” link in the “Management” drop down menu, navigating here will bring you to a very familiar Xibo “table” view of all the data sets you have permission to access. You can add a new dataset by giving it a name and an optional description, you can also edit existing ones and add data.

DataSets also come under the standard permissions options that are available throughout Xibo. The creator of a dataset (or an admin) is able to set the permissions for the DataSet on a user group, or on a user by user basis. Only users with Edit permissions will be able to add/edit data and reorganise the data structure, only users with a view permission will be able to use the DataSet in their layouts.

[![DataSet Columns](/content/images/2012/02/view-dataset-columns-300x220.png "DataSet Columns")](/content/images/2012/02/view-dataset-columns.png) Set the columns you want The first thing to do is Add a new DataSet using the Add button (found near the filter form), after doing so the columns of the DataSet can be defined to describe the structure of the data.

Defining the structure of the data

Data Columns are used to define the structure of the data, each column can have a number of settings to achieve this, these are:

Heading (the column heading to appear when you enter data
List Content (enter a comma separated list of values in here to display in the drop down list)
Column Order (the order to place the column)

There isn’t a theoretical limit to the number of columns Xibo can support – although a smaller DataSet is often easier to enter and display than an overly large one. Columns may be extended in the future to have support for different data types – currently only strings are supported.

Note: Columns can be added and removed after data has been entered. The ordering and list content of columns can also be changed after data has been collected.

[![DataSet View Data](/content/images/2012/02/view-data-300x240.png "View Data")](/content/images/2012/02/view-data.png) View and edit the data saved in a DataSet #### Adding Data

Once all the required columns have been added, the DataSet is ready to have data recorded against it. This is done using the “View Data” task on the DataSet table view. This view will contain all of the columns that were added in the previous step and allow you to go through each one and enter data. In future we will look to extend this to support an import from CSV file and perhaps a link to 3rd party databases.

There is no “save” button on this interface, Xibo will automatically save your changes after each data entry.

Note: If all the rows are taken, more rows can be added to the data set by clicking the “Add Rows” button.

The DataSet is ready to be used on a layout!

Using the DataSet

[![](/content/images/2012/02/edit-dataset-view-300x267.png "DataSet View Configuration")](/content/images/2012/02/edit-dataset-view.png) Configuring the DataSet View on a Layout Once a DataSet has been defined anyone with “View” permissions can use the DataSet on layouts. They are added by selecting the “DataSet” button from a region Timeline, which presents a drop down list of all DataSets available to the user as well as the usual duration field for entering the duration in seconds that the DataSet should be shown.

Once added, the edit dialog will automatically appear allowing the user to pick their options for the DataSet View.

On this form the user can specify:

Duration: The duration in seconds
Update Interval: The duration in minutes the data should be cached on the client
Lower Row Limit: The row number to start displaying the data
Upper Row Limit: The row number to end displaying the data
Order: The Ordering of the data (column name ASC|DESC)
Filter: A filter option to filter the data with (Column Name=Value, Column Name=Value)
Show Table Headings: Whether to show the column headings in the table
Columns Selected: The columns to display (drag or double click to move between lists)
Columns Available: The columns available to select (drag or double click to move between lists)
Stylesheet: A CSS Stylesheet to render with the table

The resulting view will be showing the region preview window and displayed on the client.

Note: Once the DataSet view is configured it will automatically respond to edits made on the data – and it multiple views on the same DataSet can be created.

Summary

We hope this new feature will be useful for anyone wanting to display tabular data and will offer a vast improvement over manually creating a table view in the text editor. We also hope that in the future we can extend this feature to offer some simple chart generation on the client.

Comments and feedback are always welcome!

New Content in the Xibo Layout Exchange

Alex — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:18 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

We’ve added new layouts to the Xibo Layout Exchange today, contributed by various Xibo users world wide. They’re royalty free to use on your Xibo Digital Signage System, so have a look and see if they can help you make your layouts sing!

Head over to the Layout Exchange!

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_green_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/Events_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_blue_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/Xibo3ColourBG_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_broun_orange_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_region_16-9_red_orange_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/Signage_BG_800x600_tn-150x150.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/XIBO-Background-shared_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_light-blue_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_grey_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_brown_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_mint_tn-150x113.jpg)

![](/content/images/2013/11/4_regions_16-9_red_brown_tn-150x113.jpg)

Xibo for Android 1.7 R64 Available

Dan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:17 GMT

Spring Signage are pleased to announce Xibo for Android v1.7 R64. This release works with Xibo CMS versions 1.4, 1.6, 1.7 and has legacy mode for 1.8.

Features and Issues resolved in this release:

Fixed SD card detection in devices running 4.2 and lower

Download Xibo for Android R64.

Download Xibo for Android R64 for DSDevices.

Instructions for upgrading from an earlier release can be found in the FAQ. It’s also well worth having a look at the Knowledge Base.

If you have a white label build of the application it is available in your account.

Confusion about Development Preview releases

Alex — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:51:17 GMT

The information contained on this page is now archived. Please see our website and documentation for current information

There seems to be alot of confusion about what the state of the 1.1 series of releases are and what people should expect.

Xibo releases have the following pattern.

1.0.6
The 1 is the major revision number, 0 is the minor revision number and 6 is the version number.

All even numbered minor revision numbered releases (ie 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 2.0, 2.2 etc) are stable release series. That means that you can use those releases in a production environment and be confident that things will work as expected. If they don’t, we aim to fix bugs in stable series quickly.

All odd numbered minor revision numbered releases (ie 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.3 etc) are development previews. That means that we get the development code for Xibo in to a broadly working state and release a version so that people interested in new features that will be in the subsequent stable version of Xibo can get their hands on the code early and test those features in their environment. They will be released with known bugs and sometimes with big holes in functionallity. **They are not designed to be used in a production environment. **We fix bugs in preview series as is convenient given the development work that is being undertaken in the series. That means that a bug may go unfixed for several months.

So, to summarise:

If you’re running Xibo in a production environment (ie it matters if the system breaks) then you should be running a stable release – at time of writing that would be 1.0.6.
If you’re running a test system because there is functionallity in 1.1 series you want to test early, then by all means run 1.1.0 but please take a look at the bug tracker to see what the known issues in 1.1.0 are first: https://launchpad.net/xibo/+milestone/1.1.1