Automating project startup and updating remotely [⭐ Pro+]

⭐ This article revolves around a Pro+ feature.

It's sometimes easier to automate startup tasks instead of having to do them manually everytime, for instance in the case of permanent video installations, where you might not even have access to the computer once it is setup.

This article presents the options that can help you make HeavyM autonomous.

Automating startup actions

The 4 options presented in this section are independent, but combining them will allow you to automate a seamless project playback every time the computer is turned on.

Starting HeavyM automatically at computer startup

To make HeavyM start automatically when the computer turns on, head over to the Startup tab of the Preferences window (Edit → Preferences… or [Ctrl+,]) and check "Start HeavyM at computer startup".

Opening a project automatically when HeavyM starts

To open a specific project automatically every time HeavyM starts, head over to the Startup tab of the Preferences window (Edit → Preferences…) and check "Open a project at startup". Use the "Choose" button next to the option to specify the path of the project.

Note: if a projection is configured in the project (from the Output → Setup… module), it will also be launched once the project has finished loading.

Starting playback automatically

To start playback automatically once a project has finished loading, head over to the Startup tab of the Preferences window (Edit → Preferences…) and check "Auto-play sequencer after project load". You have the choice between two actions: playing the Timeline or turning on Autopilot.

Disabling unwanted user prompts

To avoid invasive prompts when HeavyM is unattended, you can also disable user warnings that could popup unexpectedly, like the update and crash notifications at startup or the confirmation warning when quitting. See the options in the General tab of the Preferences window (Edit → Preferences… or [Ctrl+,]), under “Misc”.

Managing content update remotely and recurrently using a cloud solution

As described in the previous paragraph, if you have set up an auto-launch automation, the same project will be launched every time you start HeavyM without needing intervention. But you might want to update its content once in a while and can’t/don’t want to access the software directly. Well, using a cloud service, this gets fairly simple:

1. Find and install the desktop tool of your cloud provider (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc).
   Usually, it will set up a synchronized folder on your computer.
2. Once you have configured this folder, put your base project and its resources into it and set it up as the default starting project file in HeavyM (Edit → Preferences… → Startup → Auto-launch).
3. Since your project is now synchronized with an online service, you can actually edit it from anywhere. Once the project is reloaded (for example the next time you restart HeavyM), it’ll use the updated content.
4. In the case that HeavyM is always running and never restarted, we’ve added an option to recurrently reload the project file so that it’s updated when you choose. Simply go to Edit → Preferences… → Startup → Auto-launch and configure the schedule with the “Reload project every…” option.

Here’s a practical example, using Dropbox:

1. We have set “startupProject.hm”, a project located in our Dropbox folder, as the default startup project in the Preferences. Here’s what our project folder looks like:
   
2. In this project, which is running on a computer in a museum, we’d like to change the audio track on the Timeline, but we don’t have direct access to the computer. There are two options here:
   • Either open the project from Dropbox on a computer, edit it to add the new track, save the project file and import the audio file in its “MediaFiles” subfolder.
     Note: you can use the desktop app to open the file directly in HeavyM, or use the online service to download it and re-import it with the same name afterwards so that it overwrites the original with a new version.
   • Or, without even opening the project, overwrite the Timeline audio file in the MediaFiles asset folder (because you're always using Collect & Save, right?)
     Just make sure to keep the same name so that HeavyM finds it at reload.
     

Since we’re really forward-thinking at Digital Essence, we knew we’d have to make some adjustments after the fact, so we configured an auto-reload of the project every weekday at 8:00. The modifications will then take effect at this time.

Note: you can do so for any type of content. Just know that if you try to replace a video while it is being read in HeavyM at the same time, it’ll only be overwritten once it’s not playing in the app anymore.