Viz Pilot Edge 3.2.0

Release Date: 2025-03-27

These are the release notes for Viz Pilot Edge and Template Builder versions 3.2.0. This document describes the user-visible changes that have been made to the software since release 3.1.0.

Note: Documentation for Template Builder is now distributed under Viz Pilot Edge on the documentation site. Older versions of the Template Builder manual are still available under Template Builder.

Release Highlights

This release introduces key functionalities required for a seamless migration from Viz Pilot to Viz Pilot Edge.

Notable enhancements include:

  • Channels and Categories

  • Update Service

  • Adding and removing concepts

  • Import/Export

  • External ID for Templates

  • Custom Thumbnails for Templates

  • Execution Logic (was introduced in 3.1.0)

Additionally, Pilot Collections has been introduced to help journalists manage their workflows in Viz Pilot Edge. When enabled, this feature customizes the user interface to display only the templates the user has access to, reducing the risk of using incorrect content on air.

Other improvements include:

  • Search with multiple tags for media assets and templates.

  • New scripting events and functions:

    • Method jumpToPreviewPoint (string name) is available in both payloadhosting.js and internal scripting, allowing navigation to preview points during script execution.

    • Client-Specific Data Storage: payloadhosting.js now supports access to data storage outside the payload. This feature can be utilized for storing UI states and other client-specific data that should not be persisted to the payload.

    • Internal Scripting now provides access to a temporary $data object, making it particularly useful as a source for dynamic drop-downs. This object is not stored.

    • The onLoaded and onCreated events in internal scripting are now accessible as states in the callback given to the vizrt.payloadhosting.initialize method. This enables custom HTML templates to identify whether the currently opened payload is a newly created or a reopened data element.

  • Linking feeds to list fields.

  • Log window for internal scripting.

New Features

Viz Pilot Edge

  • Introduced Pilot Collections (VPE-5628).

  • List mode without thumbnails has been introduced for templates (VPE-5459).

  • Newsroom systems can now open Viz Pilot Edge with preconfigured concepts and tags (VPE-5413).

  • When searching for Viz One assets, it is now possible to search with Any or All tags as search criteria (VPE-5270).

  • When searching for templates, it is now possible to search with Any or All tags as search criteria (VPE-5631).

  • A button was added to refresh feed-linked fields in the fill in form (VPE-5432).

Template Builder

  • Create Pilot Collections to limit the concepts and tags a user has access to in Viz Pilot Edge (VPE-5594).

  • Support for assigning External ID on template variants (VPE-5408).

  • Set a custom thumbnail per template, per concept (VPE-5466).

  • Pilot Update Service has been introduced, supporting Viz Pilot Edge based scripting (VPE-4115).

  • Concept Manager supports adding and deleting concepts (VPE-4552).

  • It is now possible to export templates and data elements, and import from a file (VPE-5279).

Improvements

Viz Pilot Edge

  • When searching for templates, multiple tags can now be used in the search criteria (VPE-5528).

  • Startup of the Viz Pilot Edge client has been further optimized (VPE-5502).

  • The Crop Service and Preview Server status is now gray, if it is not configured (VPE-5496).

  • A spinner is shown if loading data elements is slow (VPE-5405).

  • Template sort order is now retained after refreshing or reopening the application (VPE-5367).

  • Removed usage of the matchmode parameter in search queries. Clients now rely on the backend behavior (VPE-5597).

  • When atom entry in a feed contains a self-link, updated information from that link is fetched when filling in feed-bound fields (VPE-5446).

  • Viz Pilot Edge no longer limits the <objslug> MOS tag to 128 characters (VPE-5676).

Template Builder

  • Feed linking to list fields is now possible (VPE-5428).

  • A new log window displays anything that is logged from the internal scripting (VPE-5431).

  • The tags drop-down in Template Properties is now searchable (VPE-5492).

  • Default search parameters can now be locked to be static for the Viz Pilot Edge user (VPE-5529).

  • Default search parameters now support multiple tags (VPE-5439).

  • The two-way binding of payloads in the payloadhosting interface, validates the field types of the payload being sent (VPE-5298).

  • Feed Browser is enabled for numeric fields (VPE-5649).

  • The slider can now be hidden for numeric fields (VPE-5462).

  • Accepted tags and attribute names in HTML fragments, are now case-insensitive (VPE-5404).

  • Removed the feature flag for the Execution Logic editor (VPE-5667).

Fixed Issues

Viz Pilot Edge

  • Updated text direction handling to let the web browser automatically determine the correct direction, including support for Right-To-Left languages like Arabic and Hebrew (VPE-5472).

  • Fixed an issue where the custom HTML panels would show cached values (VPE-5464).

  • Fixed an issue where the preview timeline was not visible for certain templates created in Viz Pilot Edge 2.x (VPE-5412).

  • When previewing videos, links that required basic authentication were occasionally causing popups for the user (VPE-5271).

  • Fixed an issue where the selected concept was not always applied when adding an overlay to the video timeline (VPE-5235).

  • Sub-title in feed entry thumbnails now show the updated date, and not “undefined” (VPE-5662).

  • Slow loading field linked feeds would lead to delays and glitches in the template or data element (VPE-5682).

Template Builder

  • Fixed that making changes to a script and saving immediately, reverts the script changes (WUI-1661).

  • Ensured that adding a new row under Alternatives for a concept and renaming an existing one, is no longer possible (WUI-1647).

  • Fixed an issue where saving a template failed after setting a feed browser custom link relation, and switching the data entry to a double drop-down (VPE-5560).

  • Fixed an issue where Template Builder did not set focus on the newly created Tab (WUI-1696).

  • Fixed an UI issue when a field entry had its Data Entry set to Drop-down, and the label for the field was blanked by using a space character (VPE-5411).

  • The Alternatives editor for images, contains a scrollbar (VPE-5523).

  • Fixed and issue where aspect ratio 1:1 could not be set as image constraint (VPE-5752).

ShowEdge

No changes.

Minimum System Requirements

Hardware

There are no known hardware limitations for Viz Pilot Edge and Template Builder, other than requirements stipulated by newsroom systems hosting the client. Though the web browser and its version can affect look and functionality inside the applications.

Software

Vizrt components:

  • Pilot Data Server 9.2.0

  • Graphic Hub 3.9.2 (with Graphic Hub REST 2.9.2)

  • Preview Server 4.7.1

  • Media Sequencer 5.7.0

  • Viz Artist 5.3.1

  • Viz Engine 5.3.1

Note: In general, Viz Engine 4.3 or above is required when importing scenes with Template Builder. Viz Engine 4.3 and above supports Transition Logic with sub scenes. We recommend using Viz Engine 5.1 and Template Builder 3.0 when using Transition Logic and especially with combo templates, as both versions contain substantial improvements. If for some reason the old workflow is needed (creating GEOM objects), please enable these settings in the Viz Engine configuration file:

#Enable automatic creation of merged geometries when saving a transition logic scene
AutoExportTransitionLogicGeometries = 1
 
#Use old style merged-geometries instead of subscene rendering when loading a scene for transition logic
TransitionLogicUseMergedGeometries = 1

Note: TGA image support requires a codec program like https://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/, to be installed on the same machine as crop service.

Browser

  • Tested with Chrome version 132.0.6834.160 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Newsroom Systems Used for Testing

  • iNEWS 2022.12 (8.2.0.42) (Tested with Show Edge and default newsroom plugin, browser type Chrome 81)

  • ENPS 9.3.4 (Browser type Chrome 75)

Upgrading

When upgrading from a previous version of Pilot Edge, the previous version may still be presented by the host browser for a short time due to client side caching. To prevent this, clear the host browser cache. If you are using the default Internet Explorer host, open Internet Explorer, press CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE, select Temporary Internet files and website files and click DELETE.

Previous Versions

In accordance with the Vizrt Global Support Handbook section Software Lifecycle, support for older versions ends 24 months after a subsequent minor or major version is released.

With this release, earlier versions of Viz Pilot Edge and Template Builder, will no longer be supported after 2026-06-26.

At the date of this release, Viz Pilot Edge 2.3, Template Builder 2.3, and Pilot Data Server 8.8.x are no longer supported. Support for Viz Pilot Edge 2.4, Template Builder 2.4 and Pilot Data Server 8.9.x ends on 2025-10-03.

Documentation

Documentation for Viz Pilot Edge, Template Builder and related software is available at the Vizrt Documentation Center:

Support

Support is available at the Vizrt Support Portal.