Recommendations for Efficient Updates

When you have a heavily animated graphic that takes multiple seconds to render, consider pre-rendering values in advance. As soon as you know the value of the variable you will want to display, send a render action for that specific variable to the specific title and then wait before sending the actual update or animateIn action.

You can determine the current render status for any title by using the renderStatus command described under the scheduleCommand section.

Additionally, whenever your graphic is heavily dependent on numerical data, consider setting up those numbers as pattern variables in your graphic, in your controller's XML definition, or issuing a updateInputDefinition command to add a pattern to an existing variable. When you use a pattern for a text variable, all possible values of each digit are rendered separately in advance, so they can be used immediately when needed. As a side benefit, you also get your animation applied to each digit independently.

Summary:

• Set up your graphic to use pattern variables for every numeric value that needs to update efficiently.

• Whenever you know some variable data in advance of when it needs to be displayed and using a pattern doesn't make sense (e.g. names in a baseball line-up, or a team’s jersey numbers), send a render action for each possible value of that variable.

By sending render as soon as you can, you ensure your title will be completely ready for any data you send to it.