The Facebook datasource allows you to display posts from your Facebook pages on your Smartsign screens.
This makes it easy to show social media updates, announcements, campaigns, or community engagement directly in your digital signage content.
How it works
Once connected, Smartsign securely integrates with your Facebook account and retrieves posts from the selected Facebook page.
The selected posts are then available inside the template and displayed according to your configuration, such as:
- How many posts to show
- How long each post is displayed
- Whether videos and emojis are enabled
The content is automatically updated at a defined interval. If an update fails, screens keep showing the posts they already have.
Requirements
To use the Facebook datasource, you need:
- A Facebook Business account
- A Facebook account that manages the Facebook page you want to display. You sign in with this account, and only the pages it can access are listed.
- Screens that can reach https://social.smartsigncloud.net
If video is enabled, the screen must support HTML video playback.
The Facebook datasource needs internet access to Smartsign's cloud social service. Both the browser you use to connect the Facebook account and the on premise server must be able to reach it.
Set up the datasource
The first step is to configure the Facebook datasource.
- Go to Templates -> Datasources, click Add datasource and select Create new.
- Select the Facebook datasource.
- Enter Name and Description.
- Click Connect next to Facebook Account and sign in to Facebook
in the popup window. Then choose the page in Facebook Page; the
first page is preselected.
- Click Create and verify that data can be fetched successfully.
Datasource is now ready to be used.
Reconnect your Facebook account
If your Facebook pages can't be loaded with the stored sign-in, for example because the access has expired, the datasource shows the message "You've previously linked Smartsign Integration to Facebook. If you would like to continue with the previous settings you need to reconnect to your Facebook account."
- Open the datasource and click the cross next to Facebook Account.
- Confirm that you want to remove the account.
- Click Connect and sign in to Facebook again.
Use Facebook templates
When the datasource is configured, you can use a Facebook template to display posts on your screens.
Smartsign offers a few default Facebook templates available in the Marketplace and you can also design your own using the Template Creator.
In your own template, you can bind text items to Facebook - Message, Facebook - Message Date, Facebook - Message Like Count, Facebook - Message Author and Last update time, and image items to Facebook - Message Image or Facebook - Embedded Url QR-code.
Download template from Marketplace
- Go to Templates
- Select Get more templates.
- Browse or search for Facebook templates.
- Select a template, click Get now! and then Next.
- In the Connect datasources step, choose your Facebook datasource,
or Connect later if you don't have one yet, and click Add. A
datasource can also be connected later in the template library.
- Click Go to publisher, where the new template is available.
The template can now be used to create Smart Media and publish to screens.
Configure datasource settings
Datasource settings can be adjusted in:
- The original template.
- A booking.
- The Media Library.
Edit original template
- Select Edit template in options menu.
- Open the datasource settings.
- Adjust settings as needed.
- Save the template.
Edit in booking or media library
You can also modify these settings directly from the booking where the media is published or in the Media Library if the Smart Media is saved to a dedicated folder.
In Edit media, click the datasource under Datasources to open Edit datasource settings. Only datasources marked Available for quick edit in the template are listed. To open the settings, users need View and Edit under Template datasource in their user profile, which the default Site owner and Group admin profiles have and the default Publisher profile does not.
| Setting | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Number of posts to show | The maximum number of posts to display | 4 |
| Time between posts | Time in seconds for each post | 10 |
| Enable emojis | Enable to show emojis | Enabled |
| Enable video | Enable to allow video (muted only) | Disabled |
| Show progress | Display a visual progress indicator for posts | Disabled |
Limitations and considerations
Video playback
If video is enabled:
- Posts containing video will automatically adjust their duration to match the video length.
- The screen must support HTML video streaming.
- Performance and stability depend on the screen manufacturer and hardware capabilities.
Videos are streamed directly to the screen. This may require significant network bandwidth and could incur additional costs on metered connections.
Hardware support
- Not supported on Legacy hardware