With the priint:comet Illustrator® plugins by Werk II you can publish database-supported and automatically fill documents with content. With the help of the plugins you can add placeholders to texts and images of documents. These placeholders can be used to load the linked document parts from the database.
The actions to load the placeholders are defined in the data pool and are not part of priint:comet.
The document and all linked pages describe the basic functions of the priint:comet Illustrator® plugins and technical details for configuring the plugins. The documents are no user manual.
In addition to the screen scaling of your operating system the user interface (UI) of Illustrator® can be adapted with its own scaling. The number of scaling levels depends on the size of the display used. The product of both settings rounded to a value supported by the hardware is used as final scaling. The required value is calculated when Illustrator® is launched. If panels are no longer displayed correctly after a scaling change, Illustrator® must be restarted once with the new settings.
CoreService is the central plugin of the priint:comet Illustrator® Plugins. The plugin establishes the connection to the data pool and provides core functionality.
With the menu Edit->priint:comet->Write logfile... you can (de)activate the writing of logfiles.
If writing the log file is disabled, you will be prompted to select a folder for the log file. If you hold down the Shift key while selecting the menu, your current documents folder will be used automatically. The name of the log file is always illulog_X.log used with X as Illustrator® version (CC 2018 has version 22, CC 2019 has version 23, etc...). If you select the menu with pressed Alt key (On Windows you have to hold down the Alt key before opening the menu, else it will immediately close), a message with the used logfile path will be displayed.
Information about the workflow of the priint:comet plugins and all queries are written to the data pool in the logfile. Logfiles are required for the support of WERK II and are simple text files.
In scripts you can create log messages with the commands wlog and wtlog.
Three different connection types are offered as data sources
In this variant connections to XML data pools can be established. Use the menu Edit->priint:comet->Data folder.... The set connection will be restored automatically after restarting Illustrator®.
XML data folders must have a structure defined by Werk II and contain XML data describing the configuration and content data used. Basic versions of priint:comet XML folders are available from Werk II and its partners.
Database connections are established via ODBC. The start of the plugin requires the installation of ODBC on your computer. For information on installing and configuring ODBC for use in the plugins, see the priint:comet Installation Guide.
databases to be used by priint:comet must have a structure defined by Werk II. Basic versions of priint:comet databases are available from Werk II and its partners.
The connection to the database is established via the menu Edit->priint:comet->Database-Login.... Enter your login data in the dialog that appears. After successful login, the name of the menu changes to Database-Logout and you can terminate the connection here again. If an XML folder is set, the connection to this folder will be restored automatically.
SOAP services to be used by priint:comet must have a structure defined by Werk II. Basic versions are available from Werk II and its partners.
The connection to the SOAP service is established via the menu Edit->priint:comet->Connect to publication server.... Enter your login data in the dialog that appears. After successful login, the name of the menu changes to Disconnect from Publication Server and you can terminate the connection here. If an XML folder is set, the connection to this folder is automatically re-established after the connection is disconnected.
More information about SOAP configuration can be found here.
All following plugins are part of the priint:comet Illustrator® plugins. The installation is optional as these plugins usually only provide the user interface.
The plugin provides the tools for setting nails and magnets.
Currently in an experimental state and not documented!
The plugin provides the panel "Batch" which can be used to sequentially execute a script to several input documents. This can be used e.g. to create language adaptions for any number of input documents automatically.
You can find a detailed description here
The plugin provides the panel "Behavior" which can be used to configure behavior of frames inside of comet groups.
You can find a detailed description here
The plugin provides the panel "Document Attributes" that can be used to store metadata in the Illustrator® document.
Similar to the document structure known from InDesign®, you can store key/value pairs in the document that can be evaluated in placeholder scripts, for example.
You can find a detailed description here
The plugin provides the panel "Frame tags" which can be used to append metadata to frames inside a document.
You can find a detailed description here
This plugin provides the user interface of the "Front Row" panel.
In the panel Front row frequently used scripts can be stored as buttons.
You can find a detailed description here.
This plugin provides the user interface of the "layout rules" panel.
Layout rules are scripts that are associated with frames and can be executed in the following situations :
Frames can have any number of layout rules. Each rule can be provided with additional parameters.
You can find a detailed description here.
This plugin provides the user interface of the placeholder panel.
Placeholders are the central base objects of the priint:comet plugins. They represent a bidirectional connection between document and database.
The panel placeholders can be used to link texts and images of documents to placeholders, which connect these document parts with database-provided actions. In particular, the placeholders contain the following information
Placeholder actions are implemented as simple statements. For more complex actions the integrated script language cScript can be used.
With a Partner License, placeholder actions and other scripts can also be changed directly from Illustrator®. Use the Placeholder Options panel to do this.
For technical reasons, it is unfortunately not possible (as in InDesign®) to define parts of a text as text placeholders. Texts can only be loaded as a whole for the entire frame. We are in discussion with Adobe about a solution to this limitation, but cannot do anything without corresponding extensions to the Illustrator® Plug-In interface (API).
Image placeholders are also subject to a certain limitation. It is not possible in Illustrator® (as in InDesign®) to create empty image frames - or in other words : There is no frame at all around images that could be reloaded. There is only the lone image. Nevertheless, to have something like image placeholders, we embed a default image when creating such frames:
Diese Bild muß im gleichen Ordner wie Ihre priint:comet AI Plug-Ins liegen und den Namen priint.png haben. Sie können dieses Bild aber durch ein eigenes Bild gleichen Namens ersetzen. Aber bitte denken Sie daran : Die Bilder werden eingebettet! Verwenden Sie also Bilder einer akteptablen (kleinen) Größe.
This image must be in the same folder as your priint:comet AI plug-ins and named priint.png. You can replace this image with your own image with the same name. But please keep in mind : The images will be embedded! So use images of acceptable (small) sizes.
The plugin provides the panel "Placeholder Options" that can be used to make placeholder settings in the document.
Placeholder Options is designed for developer use. Here you can change placeholder options and scripts.
You need a partner license to edit scripts. Scripts cannot be edited in PubServer connections.
You can find a detailed description here.
The plugin provides the panel "product pool" with which contents in the document can be linked with products of the database.
You can find a detailed description here.
The plugin provides several panels and tools for creating and modifying table like structures inside an Illustrator® document. It can be used in standalone mode or to extend priint:comet functionality
You can find a detailed description here.
The plugin provides the panel "To Do List" with which various checks of the document contents can be made.
You can find a detailed description here.
The plugin provides the panel "Web Images" which is used for linking images in the document to URL sources.
You can find a detailed description here.