Overview
June 2005

SkyAlert and TrueView Alert customers may find a little known feature particularly useful for generating customized crawl messages (i.e. ones not automatically generated from NWS watch/warning/advisory bulletins). These systems have the ability to generate a crawl from a text message that you can create using a text editor on the SkyAlert or TrueView Alert machine. This feature allows you to construct a SkyAlert scene with a crawl message containing your own commentary about a significant weather event.

1. On the SkyAlert system, from the SGI desktop menu, choose Find, then Icon Catalog, then Applications.
2. Double-click on the “jot” application (jot is simple text editor for SGI). Note: If you are more comfortable using command lines, you can enter a Winterm, navigate to where you want your file to reside, and type “jot <file_name>”.
3. Once jot starts, type the text of your crawl message.
4. Choose File, Save, and navigate to the /wxdisk/SkyAlert/data/file_watcher directory
5. Give the file an appropriate name. Be sure to avoid spaces and other prohibited characters.

Editing the File on the Dell-based TrueView Alert System

1. On the TrueView Alert system, from the WSI menu in the upper left, choose Other Applications, then Text Editors, then Nedit. Note: If you are more comfortable using command lines, you can enter a terminal window, navigate to where you want your file to reside, and type “nedit <file_name>”.
2. Once Nedit starts, type the text of your crawl message.
3. Choose File, Save, and navigate to the /wxdisk/SkyAlert/data/file_watcher directory.
4. Give the file an appropriate name. Be sure to avoid spaces and other prohibited characters.

Using the Text File to Drive the Crawl Message on the SkyAlert or TrueView Alert System

1. Enter the application
2. Locate a scene that contains a crawl object and other scene objects that is similar to what you want for your customized Crawl From Text scene, and open that scene (or simply start a new scene).
3. Use the “File, Save Scene As…” menu pick to save the scene under a different name of your choosing.
4. Click on the crawl object within the scene to highlight it.
5. From the Tools menu, click Editors, then Crawl Text
6. When the Crawl Text interface opens, for the “Crawl Contents”, select the middle radio button for “Text from File”
7. In the “Text from File” area, click on the Select button, and choose the file you edited using the steps above. Click OK.
8. With the crawl text still highlighted, from the Tools menu, choose Editors, then Association
9. At the top of the Associations window is a pull-down menu button. Click this button, and choose “Always On Even Without” (this tells the system to use the manual text file even though there will not be an associated triggering bulletin for this file). Note: If you want the crawl text to be associated with some event, you can choose one of the other options as appropriate.
10. If necessary, repeat the above step for all other objects in the scene (you can choose additional objects from the list on the left while in the Associations interface)
11. Make any other desired adjustments to the scene as appropriate.
12. You can continue to use whatever method you wish to edit the text file and change its content. Each time the system is made to run the crawl, it will open the latest version of the file as indicated in step 7 above and use whatever text is found there (even if that text has changed). Note: You may wish to leave the text editor program open on the system and simply save the file each time you modify it.
13. After you are finished using the Crawl from Text feature, be sure to put your system back in “normal” mode by opening whatever scene you normally run.