The panel is used to show text and image alternatives for placeholders and products. The screenshot shows an image, a text and a snippet:

The buttons in the first column can be used to set new placeholder contents. The placeholders are not linked to a new object and then reloaded, as is usually the case, but the contents are written directly to the document. In addition, you can drag and drop items directly into frames and into the text. See the tooltips of the panel for more information.

If templates are inserted into texts, the frames are grouped beforehand and then inserted into the text as one inline. If the Alt key is held down when inserting templates into texts, the frames are inserted as individual inliness and the sequence defined in the Template Behavior panel is used.

For inserting images, the settings of the popup menus Image Position and Scale Method in the upper right corner of the paeln are used. If you hold down the Alt key while ,inserting the general import options of InDesign® (layers, clipping paths, color spaces, ...) are requested before inserting images.

Note that placeholders changed in this way are normally out of sync with the contents of the database and changes will be lost when the placeholders are updated.

Use button to toggle bettween large and small lines in the panel.

The search methods are defined in the previewstatements database table resp. in the previewstatements.xml file and appear in the order defined there in search popup at the top left of the panel . Search methods can be classified according to the following criteria:

• Independent (needsselection == 0)
• Placeholder-dependent: (needsselection == 1) Whenever the current document selection changes the placeholder, the panel is updated. The placeholder values can be accessed during the search. The first placeholder of the current document selection is always taken into account. The panel is not updated if the text cursor is moved within a placeholder text only.
• Product-dependent: (needsselection == 2) Each time the selection in the Product Pool is changed, the search is executed again. The product selection can be accessed during loading. The first selected product is always taken into account. When relinking placeholders with Shift-click of the buttons, placeholders can be changed. To prevent that then also the Previews panel is updated, you can hold the selection in the Product Pool with button .

The classification of the search method is defined in the needsselection attribute of the PreviewStatements (see following table). For placeholder- and product-dependent search statements, the condition attribute (see below) is used before the search to check whether the search can be executed at all. The necessary current placeholder and product values are defined in the corresponding search parameters.

The previewstatements table/file must have the following attributes:

Here is an example of a valid definition in XML. The entry inserts a line separator in the search popup. To do this, the name is set to "-". For the entry to be included in the popup at all, the objectstatementid must also be set. Since nothing is to be loaded, here a -1.

<previewstatements>
    <previewstatement>
        <id>50</id>
        <name>-</name>
        <classid>6</classid>
        <needsselection>0</needsselection>
        <condition></condition>
        <statement></statement>
        <objectstatementid>-1</objectstatementid>
        <sequencenr>50</sequencenr>
        <isdefault>0</isdefault>
        <hasButtonState>0</hasButtonState>
        <hasLinkScript>0</hasLinkScript>
    </previewstatement>
</previewstatements>

Searches for XML and database connections are executed in two steps :

1. Search the list IDs
2. The previewstatements entry for loading the the individual values for the entries is determined via the objectstatementid. Give this attribute the positive ID of an existing entry in previewstatements.

Search statements for PubServer and SOAP connections are executed in one step, which fetches IDs and values to be displayed at the same time.

Additional conditions can be used to restrict the list of results to the search field specifications.

This statement is executed only for XML and database connections. For SOAP and PubServer connections see here. The statement must return the following values :

Use Alt-click in the search popup to edit the search entries.

Here is a valid XML statement for loading the IDs. For better readability, the quotation marks, > and < are not XML-encoded here. So if you paste the statement text directly into an XML file, you must XML-encode these characters.

"$FLOWERS"
select
    id, 0, 0, "", <!-- ID             -->
    3,            <!-- class          -->
    0, 0, 0, 0,   <!-- <key1>, ...    -->
    ""            <!-- <stringkey>    -->
node flowers.flower where id &gt; 0

Here is a valid SQL statement for loading the IDs. All entries of a table named comet_snippets_2 should be shown in the list.

select
    id, 0, 0, '', 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, '', 1, 1
from comet_snippets_2 where id > 0

[XML and database connections] The list entries are loaded one by one using the results of the first search statement. The command must contain a ? value, which is replaced by the respective ID (i.e. the first column of the parent search statement). If more values of the list IDs are needed, this can be done using the usual tags <ID2>, ... , see here. Additionally, the values <key1>, .., <key4> and <stringkey> defined in the list search can be queried.

[PubServer- and SOAP connections] The list entries are loaded including their IDs in one call. The call therefore does not contain a '?' value with which the list ID must be referenced.

The value of the (yellow marked) result columns Path determines the type of the entry:

•     "" : Text
•     "snippet@:..." : Snippet
•     Otherwise : Image

Please note that the result columns must be complete except for the last two columns. Missing entries can be filled with 0 or "".

For images, information about positioning, clipping path, etc. can be given in the Content result column. The specifications correspond to the information also given in image placeholders with the only difference that clipping paths must always be identified by their index and not by their name. The information must be given in the following format (and separated without commas) :

If only default values are used, the information may also be missing. Valid positioning info would therefore be:

• "1" : Place the image on the top left. For all other settings the defaults are used.
• "5 0.0 0 4 1 0.0 0.0 10.0" Uses the Inset 10.0 For all other settings the defaults are used.

The snippets described here are different from the Comet 4 Snippets introduced with Comet 4.0.5. A description of the Comet snippets can be found here.

Here are some examples of Snippet definitions:

The last two columns SnippetTable and SnippetAttr of the instructions for loading the preview entries are optional and are only evaluated for Snippet entries. In this case they contain the description where to search for the snippets. If they are missing, "pageitems" and "data" are used automatically.

The columns indicate the subfolder in the XML data folder where the snippets are located. In this subfolder snippets are located as files under their ID. The following formats are supported : INDD, INDS, IDMS.The format can be specified in the second subfolder as a number and separated by commas (1 INDD, 2 INDS, 3 IDMS). If the format is missing, INDDs are expected.

"snippets", "data"  lädt für die Snippet-ID 4 die Datei:

xml-ordner/snippets/data/4.indd

Snippets in InDesign®-Snippet format IDMS : "snippets", "data, 3"  loads the following file:

xml-ordner/snippets/data/4.idms

The columns specify the table and attribute (in that order) where the snippets are stored. The table must also have the int attribute format. This attribute defines the format of the data in the BLOB (1 INDD, 2 INDS, 3 IDMS).

"snippets", "data" executes the following statement to load the snippet:

select data, format from snippets where id = 4;

The ID of the snippet plus a file extension are used as the SOAP ID. The two columns are prepended to this SOAP ID. Here too, as with XML, a comma-separated format specification may be made in the second parameter (1 INDD, 2 INDS, 3 IDMS). The format specification does not become part of the SOAP ID.

"snippets", "data"  loads the following file for the snippet ID 4

snippets/data/4.indd

"snippets", "data, 3"  loads the following file for the snippet ID 4

snippets/data/4.idms

Here is an XML statement for each preview type. In all three examples the columns ButtonState and LinkScript are not included, so in the definition of the statements in PreviewStatements the attributes hasButtonState and hasLinkScript must both be set to the value 0!

For better readability, the quotation marks here are not XML-encoded. So if you paste the statement text directly into an XML file, you still need to encode these characters in an XML-compliant way.

"pageitems.xml"
select
    "Image Name",
    "$DESKTOP/Bilder/orange.jpg",
    "Image Format",
    400, 300, 360, 8,
    <!-- Omit ButtonState and LinkScript -->
    "",
    "",
    "",
    ""
node pageitems.pageitem where id = ?

If you enter empty data in the columns Format and ImageInfo1-4, the corresponding image information will be calculated automatically internally:

"pageitems.xml"
select
    "Image Name",
    "$DESKTOP/Bilder/orange.jpg",
    "",
    0 0 0 0,
    <!-- Omit ButtonState and LinkScript -->
    "",
    "",
    "",
    ""
node pageitems.pageitem where id = ?

"pageitems.xml"
select
    "Image Name",
    "snippet@",
    "",
    0, 0, 0, 0,
    <!-- Omit ButtonState and LinkScript -->
    "",
    "Column 1",
    "Column 2",
    "Text Content"
node pageitems.pageitem where id = ?

"pageitems.xml"
select
    "Text Name",
    "",
    "",
    0, 0, 0, 0,
    <!-- Omit ButtonState and LinkScript -->
    "",
    "Column 1",
    "",
    "%!TT&lt;cSsize:24.0&gt;Text Content"
node pageitems.pageitem where id = ?

The status of the load button in the individual lines of the list can be defined when loading the list entries. If nothing else is specified, the buttons are visible and active. Here is how to restrict the availability of the buttons :

1. Extend the previewstatements table/file with the int attribute hasButtonState. Under SOAP and XML each node <previewstatement> must get the new attribute too! Set the value in all entries of the table/file to 0.
2. In the desired objectstatement, change the value of hasButtonState to 1.
3. Add one of the following values to the ButtonState column:
4. • 0 : Invisiable
   • 1 : Disabled
   • 2 : Visible and Enabled
5. The search methods are read when connecting to the data pool. Therefore, you must now log in once again.

[Since Version 3.1 R 1730, 5. Feb. 2010] List entries can also be loaded using a script. In this case, the statement attrubiute simply contains a script.

For script entries, no further preview statements are needed to fill the individual list entries. You fill the list entries directly in the script. For the entry to appear in the search popup, the objectstatementid must be set to a value not equal to 0 in addition.

The entries that should appear in the list are inserted into the global product list gProducts of the script. Be sure to create the individual entries with kGlobalStack. All specifications in the entries are treated like in the normal lists. So you create e.g. text entries by setting the path specification to empty (""). For a description of the defined values for previews, see product::set.

Here's an example:

#include "internal/types.h"
#include "internal/text.h"
#include "internal/products.h"

int create_preview (
	int			i1,
	int			i2,
	int			i3,
	char	*	s1,
	char	*	name,
	char	*	path,
	char	*	fmt,
	int			w, 
	int			h,
	int			res,
	int			depth,
	char	*	descr,
	char	*	info1,
	char	*	info2,
	char	*	info3,
	int			clid,
	int			del)
{
	Product		p		= 0;

	p = product::alloc (kGlobalStack);
	
	product::set (p, kID, 				i1);
	product::set (p, kID2, 				i2);
	product::set (p, kID3, 				i3);
	product::set (p, kStringID, 		s1);
	product::set (p, kPreviewName, 		name);
	product::set (p, kPreviewPath, 		path);
	product::set (p, kPreviewFormat,	fmt);
	product::set (p, kPreviewWidth, 	w);
	product::set (p, kPreviewHeight, 	h);
	product::set (p, kPreviewResolution, res);
	product::set (p, kPreviewBitDepth,	depth);
	product::set (p, kPreviewTextName, 	descr);
	product::set (p, kPreviewInfo1, 	info1);
	product::set (p, kPreviewInfo2, 	info2);
	product::set (p, kPreviewText, 		info3);
	product::set (p, kPreviewClassID,	clid);
	product::set (p, kPreviewToDelete, 	del);
	
	productlist::append (gProducts, p);
	
	return 0;
}

int main ()
{
	Product		p;
	
	create_preview (
				2, 0, 0, "", 
				"Qualitätsarbeit", "$DESKTOP/12.idml", "", // Format leer!
				0, 0, 0, 0, 	
				"Bild1", "info-1", "info-2", "info-3",
				0, 0);

	create_preview (
				3, 0, 0, "", 
				"Tantarantana", "$DESKTOP/Bilder/tantarantana.jpg", "JPG",
				100, 200, 72, 8, 	
				"Bild1", "info-1", "info-2", "info-3",
				0, 0);
		
	create_preview (
				14, 0, 0, "", 
				"Ein Text", "", "",	// Pfad leer!
				0, 0, 0, 0, 
				"Textname", "Info1", "info2", "Und das ist der Text : <0x00FC>äöü",
				0, 0);

		create_preview (
				17, 0, 0, "", 
				"Kho Payam", "snippet@", "JPG",
				700, 800, 75, 64, 
				"Bild4", "info-10", "info-11", "info-12",
				0, 0);
	
	return 0;
}

Placeholder and product-dependent searches ask whether the search should be carried out at all before the search is triggered. To do that, the condition specification is checked before. This string must contain a valid boolean condition and is checked locally, i.e. it must not contain any database instructions.

Here is a valid condition to test whether a placeholder is selected in the document and whether this placeholder is a product. You can find out more about the permitted tags here.

    <selection.placeholder> > 0
and <selection.class> = 3

The search methods can use all global standard tags. Local tags like <page> are undefined.

The following additional tags are defined for the placeholder-dependent searches (needsselection == 1). The tags each contain the values of the first placeholder found in the document. Unless otherwise specified, the tags can be used in all statements for loading the List IDs, the List Entries and testing the search conditions.

The following additional tags are defined for the product-dependent searches (needsselection == 2). The tags each contain the values of the first entry selected in the Product Pool panel. Unless otherwise specified, the tags can be used in all statements for loading the List IDs, the List Entries and testing the search conditions.

[Since v4.3 R35700] All tags defined for the search conditions can also be used directly in scripts. To do this, write the tags directly (including the brackets) in your script. The tags are then automatically replaced by their values before execution.

In the example, <product.id> is automatically replaced by the ID of the first selected product (or 0) before execution.

if (<product.id> == 120)
{
	...
}

Please take care, the automatic replacement of tags does not work, of course, if you use the text of a tag, e.g. <product.id>, in a different meaning, e.g. as text output!

In versions prior to v4.3 R35700, these tags are not defined in scripts. However, you can easily determine the relevant information using the corresponding cScript/Python functions. Placeholder-relevant information, for example, can be obtained using the functions textmodel::selection and placeholder::(s)get_value.

Determine the product ID plid of the first selected placeholder in the document.

ItemRef		frame 	= item::alloc ();
ItemList	frames 	= itemlist::alloc ();
int			s, e;
int			plid = 0;
char		sid [5000];
		
textmodel::selection (&s, &e, frame, frames);
if (s < 0) frame	= itemlist::get (frames, frame, 0);
plid = placeholder::get_value (frame, "ID", s);
item::release (frame);
itemlist::release (frames);

Product-relevant information you can obtain using the functions stringlist::alloc (3, kSelected) or productlist::get ("selected").

Determine the ID plid of the first selected entry of the Product Pool panel.

#include "internal/panels.h"
		
StringList	sl = stringlist::alloc (kPanelProducts, kSelected);
int			plid = 0;

if (stringlist::length (sl) > 0)
{
	plid	= stringlist::getint (sl, 0, "ID");
}

[ab v3.3 R2660, 26. Sept. 2011] Die Ergebnisliste kann mit zwei Suchfeldern eingschränkt werden. Auf die Inhalte der Suchfelder kann wie folgt zugegriffen werden :

The search fields can be labeled according to the statement. For this purpose, you can add the names of the search fields separated by ## to the name of the entry in the definitions of the preview statements. The individual name parts are translated individually. 

Here is an XML definition of a preview statement with custom names for the search fields:

<id>1004</id>
    <name>Einige Templates (Script)##Namensanfang##ID kleiner</name>
    <classid>6</classid>
    <needsselection>0</needsselection>
    <condition></condition>
    <statement>...</statement>
    <sequencenr>0</sequencenr>
    <domain></domain>
    <isdefault>0</isdefault>
</previewstatement>

The entries of the list can react to double clicks. The action to be performed is defined as follows:

1. The panel statement 97 is used to assign an action ID to the product. The statement must supply an integer and can have up to four input values (int, int, int, varchar) which are replaced by the current product ID. In the statement, in addition to the common tags like <ID>, <ID2>, <folder>, the tag <depth> is defined, it contains the (0-based) list level of the product.
2. If an action ID is defined (>0), the action is executed as a script. In the script an additional global variable gClicked is defined, which specifies the 0-based line number of the entry.

Here are some examples of valid panel statements with which the double-click ID can be defined.

select 900+<depth> from dual;

"datafiles.xml"                        -- beliebige XML-Datei
select 900+<depth>

select id%3 from ... where ID = ?       
select id%3 from ... where ID = <ID>   -- Die ?en sind optional

And here is a simple double-click script

int main ()
{
	showmessage ("Zeile %d, ID = %d",
			gClicked+1,
			gRecordID);
			
	return 1;
}

After insertion into the document, the new data can be post-processed with the so-called Link Script. For example, you can reset the object ID of the target placeholder in this script.

The link script is shown also in the help text of the entries.

How to define a link script for an entry of the Preview panle.

1. Extent previewstatements by the int attribute hasLinkScript. The fields are initialized with the value 0.
   For XML files, you must pay attention to the spelling and that the attribute is inserted in each item.
   
   
2. In all list item load statements that are to execute a link script, set the value of hasLinkScript to the value 1.
   
   
3. The LinkScript is defined by the ID of an action. This ID is entered in the LinkScript result column of the statement.
   
   Please note, if you disable or make invisible the load button, there is also no situation where your link script could be executed.
   
   If the list entries are loaded using a script, you can set the link script with the following statement :
       product::set (your_entry, kPreviewLinkScript, your_action_id);
   
   
4. Define the action whose ID you passed in point 3. More about this in the next paragraph.

The following global variables are defined in the link scripts:

The scripts for text, image and snippet differ a little in the basic structure. Here is an example for each case.

A text was inserted (not by a snippet). The ID of the preview entry should then be used as the object ID. For demonstration purposes, another text is added to the new text.

Attention : In general, of course, this is not quite correct. The IDs of the preview list are normally not valid object IDs. In this case you could have used the Product Pool.

int main ()
{
	placeholder::link (
			gFrame,
			3,
			gRecordID, gRecordID2, gRecordID2,
			gStart, gLen,
			gRecordStringID);
	textmodel::append ("AAA");

	return 0;
}

An image has been replaced. Enlarge it to fill the frame and center it.

int main ()
{
	frame::fit_image (gFrame, 1);
	frame::fit_image (gFrame, 5, 5);
	
	return 0;
}

A snippet has been inserted. If text was replaced (also by inline frames), a marker is inserted behind the new text. If page frames were inserted, they get a random (but same) color.

int main ()
{
	if (gSnippetLen >= 0)
	{
		textmodel::insert ("by action 905", gSnippetStart+gSnippetLen);
	}
	else if (gInsertedFrames)
	{
		itemlist::apply (
		frame::color_rgb,
			gInsertedFrames,
			0, 
			random (255), random (255), random (255), -1, -1);
	}
	
	return 0;
}

[Since v4.0.5 R8410]

Comet 4 sSnippets are InDesign®-compatible versions of built-up products. They can be inserted anywhere in documents. Comet4 snippets can be uniquely assigned in the combination of the following three specifications:

1. Document. If the document has a PubServer DocumentID, this ID is used to distinguish the documents, otherwise the full document path is used (or, for new documents, the document name).
2. Template
3. Product

Comet snippets cannot go across multiple pages. Therefore, when saving snippets, only products that do not have continuations are saved. To create and delete Comet snippets, use the +, -, x buttons of the Previews panel or the script commands productlist::create_snippets and productlist::remove_snippets.

While building up products, you can decide whether products should be rebuilt in each case or whether a Comet4 snippet should be used. When inserting snippets, no placeholder data is loaded and no further layout rules are executed.

In the popup menu of search methods there are two methods for showing the available Comet snippets:

• Document Snippets : The list shows all Comet Snippets available for the current document. The snippet selection is made as follows:
  • If the document has a so-called PublicationPlanner DocumentID, all Snippest available for this DocumentID will be shown.
  • Otherwise all snippets are shown that have the same document path ud -name
• Product Snippets : The list shows all snippets that have the same RecordId as the first selected entry of the product search.

The menus are only available if the current data connection supports Comet snippets (See here for more).
The menus are always added to the end of the search methods.

Use the checkbox Document selection/Customize product selection to suppress the automatic reloading of the snippets.

Note: The snippets described here are not identical to the Comet snippets described above.

Here is a validSQL statement for loading the preview IDs for showing all entries of comet_snippets_2.

select
    id, 0, 0, '', 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, '', 1, 1
from comet_snippets_2 where id > 0

Matching the second example of list loading, here is the instruction for loading the snippet entries. The snippets are not loaded from the default pageitems table, nor do the IDs come from this table. To ensure that the correct data file is used when inserting a snippet into a document, the table (comet_snippets_2) and attribute (data) of the data source must be specified here.

select
    name,
    "snippet@select preview from comet_snippets_2 where id = <ID>",
    "" ,
    CONVERT (rightPos-leftPos, UNSIGNED), CONVERT (bottomPos-topPos, UNSIGNED), 0, 0,
    2,  // hasButtonState der Listensuche auf 1 setzen!
    0,  // hasLinkState der Listensuche auf 1 setzen!
    "Info1", "Info2","info3" , "Snippetbeschr",
    "comet_snippets_2",
    "data"
from comet_snippets_2 where id = <ID>

The table comet_snippets_2 must be defined at least as follows (mySQL) :

create table snippets
(
    ID         int(10),
    name       varchar (4000),     
    data       longblob,
    preview    longblob,
    format     int(10),
    leftPos    float(10,4),
    topPos     float(10,4),
    rightPos   float(10,4),
    bottomPos  float(10,4)
);

And here is an example script how the comet_snippets_2 table could be filled.

#include "internal/types.h"
	
int main ()
{
	Query		qu		= sql::query (sql::dbconnection ());
	long		id		= 0;
	char		path	[2000];
	ItemList	frames	= itemlist::selected ();
	Image		img		= 0;
	float		l, t, r, b;
	
	// create content
	strcpy (path, "$DESKTOP/aaa");
	itemlist::create_snippet (frames, path, 1);
	itemlist::bbox (frames, &l, &t, &r, &b);
	img = image::snapshot_frames (frames, 100);
	
	// next free comet_snippet id
	query::send (qu, "select max(id) from comet_snippets_2");
	query::output (qu, kInt, &id);
	query::exec (qu);
	while (query::fetch (qu)) {}
	id = id + 1;
	
	// create the new entry
	query::send (qu, "insert into comet_snippets_2 (ID, active, leftPos, topPos, rightPos, bottomPos) values (?, 3, ?, ?, ?, ?)");
	query::input (qu, kInt, id);
	query::input (qu, kFloat, l);
	query::input (qu, kFloat, t);
	query::input (qu, kFloat, r);
	query::input (qu, kFloat, b);
	query::exec (qu);
	
	// store snippet
	strcat (path, ".idms");
	query::send (qu, "update comet_snippets_2 set data = ?, preview = ?, format = 3 where ID = ?");
	query::input (qu, kBinfile, path, kCopyLocalFile, "PICT");
	query::input (qu, kImage, img);
	query::input (qu, kInt, id);
	query::exec (qu);
	
	// clean up
	query::close (qu);
	image::release (img);
	itemlist::release (frames);
	file::remove (path);
	
	return 0;
}

If image files are to be displayed for which no preview exists, the program tries to generate a preview matching the disired size. The generation of the preview can take some time, so generated previews are cached on your hard disk. If the image file changes, the preview is updated automatically. The previews are saved in the preferences of the user:

• Mac : /Users/your_name/Library/Preferences/Werk [2]
• Windows : C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\your_name\Lokale Einstellungen\Anwendungsdaten\Werk [2]

The files and folders in this storage can be deleted but not modified. Using the buttons they can also be deleted from the panel.

The preview files contain, although their ending suggests that, no valid images of the respective image format and can not be opened with other programs. The format of these files is as follows (the actual image data and the previews begin only at the last entry in the format description):