The priint:comet plugins by WERK II allow you to do database supported publishing and building documents automatically. With these plugins you can equip texts and images of a document with so-called placeholders. The placeholders will allow the linked document sections to be loaded from the database, checked and written back.

The actions for loading, checking and writing placeholders are defined in the datapool and are not part of priint:comet.

This document and all links describe the basic functionality of the priint.comet Plugins and technical details about their configuration. This document is not an user manual.

The contents of text placeholders are commonly imported into the document in a abbreviated TaggedText format called %!TT-Format. To prevent paragraph and character styles, ... in the document from being overwritten, all style information is removed from the import. In the default configuration, InDesign® will show an error message for such imports saying that style information is missing. This error message has to be suppressed for an uninterrupted workflow. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select a document text
2. Select the menu File -> Export ...
3. In the appearing dialog, select the format Adobe InDesign® TaggedText, define the output file and start the export
4. Select the menu File -> Place ...
5. In the appearing dialog, activate the checkbox Show Import Options
6. Select and import the file created in step 3
7. In the appearing dialog, deactivate the checkbox Show List of Problem Tags before Place
8. Import
9. Repeat steps 4 through 8 and turn off the Option Show Import Options again

This plugin is responsible for connecting to the data pool.

There are multiple variations of this plugin available. However, only one of the CoreService/CoreServlett Plugins may be installed at time. If multiple versions are detected, an error message will be shown when starting up InDesign®, saying that a conflict occured during plugin load. In that case, remove the unnecessary plug-in variants and restart InDesign®.

Using menu Plug-Ins -> Logfile -> Write... you can activate and deactivate the writing of log files. The setting is retained after restarting InDesign®. Please note that changes are only visible for all priint:comet plugins after restarting InDesign®. Log files are required for the WERK II support. Information about the workflow of the priint:comet plugins and all queries to the data pool are written to the log file. You can view log files with /ApplicationsUtilities/Console (Mac) or programs like mtail (Windows). Some of these programs (e.g. Console from Apple) have the advantage that they automatically show changes in the log file and you can "watch" the work of the priint:comet plugins.

If writing the log file is activated without any additional keys, the log file is stored in your local Documents folder. By holding down the ALT key you will be asked for the destination folder for the logfile. The name of the logfile is always idlog_csX.log with X as InDesign® version (17 for ID 2022, 18 for ID 2023, ...).

In Scripts, you can log messages with the functions wlog and wtlog.

Attention: Writing the standard log costs about 10-20% more time to execute. But in unfavorable constellations the processing can be slowed down much more. The following factors can influence the writing of the log files unfavorably:

• Large log files. For obvious reasons, the logs are not automatically deleted. You should therefore keep an eye on the size of the logs.
• Virus scanners
• Shared volumes, Cloud drives, ...
• Slow and/or full hard disks

Overall, we strongly recommend that you do not enable writing the default log in production mode. If you cannot do without your own logs, use the wlog and wtlog script functions and specify your own log file in the first parameter. These messages are written even if the standard log is deactivated.

Menu Plug-Ins -> Logfile -> Im Finder/Windows-Explorer zeigen will show the log file in your Finder resp. Windows-Explorer

Menu Plug-Ins -> Logfile ->Open File will open the log file using the default application for .log-files of your OS.

Menu Plug-Ins -> Logfile ->Clear the log file is emptied (but not deleted). The action cannot be undone.

Connections to XML Data Folders can be established in all variants. To do this, use the menu Plug-Ins -> Data Folder -> Select XML Data Folder... The set connection is automatically re-established after restarting InDesign® and after disconnecting Database or PubServer/SOAP connections. The command can be modified with the following additional keys:

• Option : Show the currently used path
• Shift + Option : Reset the XML folder. The connection to the data folder is disconnected.

Below the menu item Select XML Data Folder... the last ten connections are displayed and can be used directly from there. The following additional keys can be used to modify the menu items of the last connections used :

• Option : Show the folder used in the Finder or Windows Explorer
• Shift : Change display name. Only the menu name is changed, the folder path behind it remains unchanged. For your own safety, you should use unique names here. Option + Shift : Delete entry from the list. The entry of the current data folder cannot be deleted.

In versions prior to v4.2 R33270, the menu is simply Plug-Ins -> Datafolder... and has no submenus.

XML data folders must have a structure defined by WERK II and contain XML data to describe the configuration and content data used. Basic versions of priint.comet XML folders are available from WERK II and its partners.

A complete XML data folder with examples can also be found in the Tutorial Page Building. Please unzip the archive Tutorial pagebuilding.zip. The sub-folder xmldata is a complete priint:comet XML data folder.

The plugin supports connections to SQL databases and to XML data pools. The database connections are made via ODBC.

Here is a schematic representation of database queries using ODBC:

The following installations are necessary:

1. Driver Manager : The driver manager is loaded at startup time and without this installation the plugins and comet_pdf cannot be loaded! (And since our software cannot be started at all, we cannot show any corresponding error messages. In most cases the program start simply aborts).

   • Windows: Starting with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the Driver Manager for Windows is pre-installed. You do not need to download and install it unless you are using an older Windows operating system.
   • Mac OS(X): The installation is a piece of cake : Download the software from www.iodbc.org and follow the installation instructions. Make sure to install the driver manager in the version that matches your operating system! Intel-only driver managers can not be started by software in native ARM64 mode (Apple-Silicon M1, M2, ...)!
   • Linux: Here you can find a very detailed description of the installation. Alternatively, you can install the Driver Manager like this:

     sudo apt install -y libodbc1
     sudo apt install -y tdsodbc
     						

2. ODBC Drivers : To establish a concrete connection to a database, the installation and configuration of a corresponding so-called ODBC driver is required. ODBC drivers can be found, for example, at OpenLink or at Devart. Under Windows, the native driver from Microsoft can also be used for SQL Server. For Apple's M series, we were only able to successfully test the drivers from Devart.

   Please note: ODBC drivers are usually not for free and must be licensed. These costs are not included in the cost of priint:comet plugins and of comet_pdf.

   For information on installing and configuring the drivers, please contact the respective software providers. Additional notes on configuration can be found here.

   We have tested the drivers of the mentioned vendors with basic priint:comet installations on SQL Server and mySQL.
   
   Please understand that we cannot guarantee that all drivers used will work in the future exactly as they do today and exclude any liability for this. WERK II GmbH hereby expressly reserves the right to make changes in the priint:comet database structure. Furthermore, WERK II can explicitly not assume any responsibility for the functioning of SQL calls from third parties.

3. Data Sources : Installation of a priint:comet database. Basic versions of priint:comet databases are available from WERK II Support.

Especially documents (publications), templates and page templates can sometimes be quite large. We fetch this data in chunks as needed. For performance reasons, it is nevertheless recommended to (sensibly) increase this package size. The following setting in odbc.ini has proven to be useful:

FetchBufferSize=6000000
max_allowed_packet=6000000

Some ODBC drivers support so-called Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS). MARS are needed when SQL queries are nested, e.g. when the results of a query are used in sub-queries directly when fetching the single results.

Here is a simple example:

#include "internal/types.h"

Query	qu;

int load_action (int id)
{
	query::send (qu, "select name, statement from actions where ID = ?");
    query::input (qu, kInt, id);
    query::exec (qu);
    while (query::fetch (qu)) 
    {
    	// Do your work here
    }
	
	return 0;
}

main ()
{
	DBC		dbc	= sql::dbconnection ();
	int		id;
	
	qu	= sql::query (dbc);
	
	query::send (qu, "select ID from actions where ID > 0");
    query::exec (qu);
   	query::output (qu, kInt, &id);
    while (query::fetch (qu)) 
    {
    	load_action (id);
    }
    
	query::close (qu);
	
	return 0;
}
		

In ODBC drivers MARS is normally disabled by default and we recommend not to enable MARS. In our software we have completely omitted the use of MARS.

In the above example, the MARS resolution is simple (select ID, name, statement from actions where ID > 0). In more complex queries, the results of the outer call must be collected in a suitable intermediate list. Once all results are collected, the subqueries are made using this list. Alternatively (but a bit slower) you can also open a new query in the subfunction and run the subqueries using this inner query. (Do not forget to close the inner queries again at the end of the subfunction!)

#include "internal/types.h"

int load_action (int id)
{
	DBC		dbc	= sql::dbconnection ();
	Query	qu	= sql::query (dbc);
	char 	name[1024];
	
	query::send (qu, "select name from actions where ID = ?");
    query::input (qu, kInt, id);
    query::output (qu, kString, name);
    query::exec (qu);
    while (query::fetch (qu)) 
    {
    	// Do your work here
    	wlog ("", "%d	: %s\n", id, name);
    }
	
	query::close (qu);
	return 0;
}

main ()
{
	DBC		dbc	= sql::dbconnection ();
	Query	qu	= sql::query (dbc);
	int		id;
	
	query::send (qu, "select ID from actions where ID > 0");
   	query::output (qu, kInt, &id);
    query::exec (qu);
    while (query::fetch (qu)) 
    {
    	load_action (id);
    }
	query::close (qu);
	
	return 0;
}

The mySQL driver from Devart apparently contains a small error: If the database used is not already specified in the ODBC configuration (e.g. with Database=%your_dbname%) but is only specified in the login dialog, then the database is only specified correctly in the first opened query. If you open further queries in parallel, they will generate the following error:

# [Devart](ODBC][MySQL]#3D000No database selected, SOLSTATE-HY000

This situation also occurs in the plugins and in comet_pdf. To work around the problem, it is essential that the Data Source Name (DSN) in odbc.ini contains the two (case-insensitive written) words Devart and MySQL. The DSN is specified as Service in the login dialog. Here is an example:

[Generic_DEVART_MYSQL]
Driver=Devart ODBC Driver for MySQL
Port=3306
:
:

The uniqueidentifier data type is often used like a string in SQL queries. This works in most ODBC drivers. Devart's drivers are a bit more precise at this point and generate typecast errors in calls like this, there d.id is of type uniqueidentifier:

d.id =<STRINGID>

It's hopefully clear that this statement is extremely dangerous. The passed StringID can be anything but a valid (and unique) identifier. The error message is therefore completely correct! Correct would be a statement like

d.id = CONVERT (uniqueidentifier, <STRINGID>)
# or possibly
convert(varchar(38), d.id) = <STRINGID>

(which can still set a wrong identifier, but then at least you thought about it :-))

After successful ODBC installation, a connection to your database can be established with the help of the Plug-Ins -> Login... menu. In the appearing dialog, enter your login information. After a successful login the name of the menu changes to Logout and you can now disconnect from there. If an XML folder is configured, a connection to that datapool is established automatically again.

With the buttons , you can save the current dialog settings for later reuse.

Equivalent to CoreService [Database], except it uses OCI instead of ODBC. Only Oracle databases can be used as targets with this plugin.

The plugin is available for MacOSX only. In order for the plugin to run, the software for OCI 12.2 must be installed on your computer and the tnsnames.ora file used by OCI must contain the correct connection descriptions.

How to install OCI 12.1

1. Create the folder /Applications/Oracle/OCI .
2. Dowwload the OCI client from the web: instantclient-basic-macos.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip. We found this software here. If the link is no longer available, please contact the WERK II Support.
3. Unzip the download
4. Move the content of the unzip folder to /Applications/Oracle/OCI.
5. Edit or create /Applications/Oracle/OC/.tnsnames.ora

Here is an example of a tnsnames.ora entry:

DEMO=(DESCRIPTION=
    (ADDRESS_LIST=
    (ADDRESS=
    (PROTOCOL=TCP)
    (HOST=192.168.2.33)
    (PORT=1521) ) )
    (CONNECT_DATA= (SID=orcl) ) )

If you have things like ./MacOSX/environment.plist, and /etc/launchd.conf in mind from previous installations - these settings and reboots are no longer necessary with the OCI-Libs used from CC2014 onwards.

The ociflags.ini file can be used to customize the connection. The file is optional, but if it is to be used, it must be in the same folder as the priint.comet plug-ins. You can find an example here.

The plugin supports the following data connections

• SOAP
• PubServer
• Adobe Experiance Manager® (AEM)
• XML Online [since v4.1.6 R26580]
• XML-Offline

The connection to the services is established via the menu Plug-Ins -> Connect with Publication Server.... Enter your login data in the appearing dialog. 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 disconnecting.

SOAP and PubServer connections are made using gSoap and are based on a structure defined by WERK II (wsdl). No additional installations on your computer are necessary. For installation and configuration of the data pool please contact our support.

Required files from server such as templates and page templates, are automatically downloaded from the server and stored in the so-called XCache folder before they are used.

The folder $DOCUMENTS/XCache/ID_NN.0 is used as the target of the local storage. With the help of the menu Plug-Ins -> Internal File Cache ... you can select any other folder you like. But still take care a little bit: You need full read and write permissions to the selected folder. And, for performance reasons, you should not use a network folder and certainly not a folder in a so-called cloud. The subfolders XCache and XCache/ID_NN.0 are automatically created in this folder.The setting is restored when InDesign® is restarted.

If you are already connected to a PubServer or SOAP service, the XCache can no longer be changed for obvious reasons and the menu Plug-Ins -> Internal File Cache . is deactivated therfor.

As an alternative to a manual setting the XCache can also be set automatically since v4.1.8 R28150. To do this, create the file prefs.xml with the following content in the folder $PREFS/werkii:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>	
<prefs>	
    <pref plugin="CoreService" setting="xcache">	
        <value>$DESKTOP/hahaha</value>	
    </pref>	
</prefs>

Enter the desired path (as always without XCache/ID_NN.0) into the element value. Each time InDesign® is started now, the XCache is set to the path you have specified. However, please note the following:

1. Manual changes of the XCache with the help of the menuPlug-Ins -> Internal File Cache .. are of course still possible. But the next time InDesign® is restarted, the XCache from $PREFS/werkii/prefs.xml is used again.
2. The XCache set once via prefs.xml is retained even if the file is removed. But then a manual change of XCache is of course retained even after restarting InDesign®.

With InDesign® Server, the XCache is usually defined with the help of the -cometcache programme option. Make sure that each server instance uses a unique XCache path!

With comet_pdf the folder XCache/pid_of_process is automatically used as XCache. Information on configuring the XCache of comet_pdf can be found here.

SOAP connections supporting SSL. Since v4.1 R23456 TLSv1.2 is supported in addition. Please note the following restrictions for TLS:

TLSv1.2 on Mac OS X can only be supported since InDesign® CC2017 and at least Mac OS X 10.11 Yosemite. For TLSv1.2 the CoreServie plug-in requires the two system libraries /usr/lib/libssl.35.dylib and /usr/lib/libcrypto.35.dylib, which are part of Mac OS X since Mac OS X 10.11.

For CC 2017 and Mac OS X 10.10, the libraries can be subsequently installed. The installation requires admin rights:

- Unzip libssl35.zip
- Execute in Terminal
    cd Ausgepackter Ordner
    sudo mv libssl.35.dylib /usr/lib
    sudo mv libcrypto.35.dylib /usr/lib

Special properties of the SOAP connection can be stored in a configuration file called soapflags.ini , which has to be located in the installation directory of the priint:comet plug-ins respectively of comet_pdf. A commented example can be found here. This configuration file is usually not required to establish a connection with a SOAP Service, but they allow adjusting to the IT infrastructure or special SOAP implementations.

The following settings can be specified here:

The entire data traffic of a SOAP connection can be recorded. See here for more information.

Connections to an Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) are identified by an trailing aem@ in front of the server address.

Here is an example of an AEM URL to login:

aem@https://192.168.0.206:4052

The connection to the AEM requires the installation of an offline XML folder in the the AEM. This folder can be located anywhere in the AEM and must be specified as a complete path in the Project of the login.

For example, suppose the priint configuration data is in the folder /priint/project_1 folder inside the AEM assets. Since the assets have the path /api/assets or /content/dam the project must be one of the following:

/contest/dam/priint/project_1
/api/assets/priint/project_1

The file alias name $COMETDATA at the beginning of file path points to the current XML folder, in AEM connections this is the URL of the AEM plus the internal asset path plus the Project specification of the login.

Using the above settings, $COMETDATA will have the following value

https://192.168.0.206:4052/api/assets/priint/project_1

Note: If your image placeholders only load images that are inside the XML folder and the image paths begin with $COMETDATA always, image placeholders can still be used from the AEM. Please note, however, that Web Images can only be loaded from the assets of the AEM. If your configuration is located elsewhere in the AEM, you should start image references with an , which you must define in the Settings panel.$ALIAS

As mentioned above, the AEM must have an XML folder with configuration data for priint: comet. This can be done using a standard offline XML folder.

Here you find a complete XML folder without any additional data. The folder is already configured so that asset images can be dragged and dropped into InDesign® documents (see here). It would be nice if you could drag this folder directly to the browser window of the AEM assets - but unfortunately the placement of entire folders is not supported by AEM so far - files and subfolders would have to be inserted or created manually. Not very tempting. Therefore, we have prepared an import file that automates the import:

1. Open file AEM Importer.idml in InDesign®
2. Follow the instructions in the file. As an XML folder, select the empty XML folder described above.
3. After successful import you will be asked if you want to log in immediately. The login dialog is already filled in. If you click on the small plus at the top right, of the login dialog you can save this informations for later logins immediately!

Here is a detailed description of how Drag and Drop can be customized for image assets.

[Since v4.1.6 R26580] Access to priint:comet XML offline data folders can also be done online. To do this, place the data folder to any Internet location. The connection to the data folder is established by the following information in the login dialog:

Local references within the data folder are resolved relative to the specified project folder of the URL.

Note: Images from URLs usually require a file path of the target document. To load Web Images, the target document must therefore have been saved at least once. Here you will find notes on configuring the storage location of Web Images.

An example of a complete XML online folder can be found here. The XML folder is configured to store Web Images in the $DESKTOP/URL Images folder.

xml@http://www.hi13.de/xmldata-tutorial

XML online connections are configured in the soapflags.ini file in the same way as SOAP and PubServer connections. The following specifications are supported:

This plugin supports all three connection types XML Offline, ODBC and Internet (SOAP, PubServer, AEM und XML Online).

[since v4.0.5 R16600, EXPERIMENTAL] The priint:comet plug-ins can record data reveived from external data sources like ODBC database or SOAP service. Also all instructions sent to the priint.comet Javascript interface (app.comet Scripting DOM) are logged too. Image files used via priint.comet functions (such as frame::image) are also backed up.

Thus the recorded data contains all the necessary data to perform the same steps as when recording even without a data source. For this you need a detailed description of the steps performed while recording data. Executed Javascript statements of the app.comet Scripting DOM are logged into synopsis.jsx. In the server case, it is usually sufficient to execute this file.

Please also note the informations for restrictions on data recording.

Recorded data may contain sensible data of customers! Take care of the customers data policy!

Please note: The playback feature is expressly not released for production systems. The data record is for development and troubleshooting purposes only. Please also note the restrictions described below.

In InDesign® Desktop, the playback mode is set in the login dialog. To do this, open the login dialog while holding down the SHIFT key. In the lower part of the dialog, the mode can then be selected in the Data Cache popup:

• Off
• ☂ Record
• ☀ Play back

In playback mode (☀) no password is needed. The selected mode (☂ or ☀) is shown at the beginning of the connection name in the Comet panels.

Some panels have to execute statements when logging in already. Thus, for example, the pop-up of the available templates of the Product Pool is filled directly at login time. Therefore, differently opened panels during recording can lead to error messages during login. You usually can ignore these error messages.

As backup folder always a subfolder of the current data folder $XCACHE/ID_NN.M/XDATA is used. The name of these subfolder is automatically determined from the login data and corresponds to the connection name displayed in the Comet panels. Colons and slashes in the connection names are automatically replaced by _.

Here is an example of the path of a playback backup folder of InDesign® CC2018

/Users/paul/Documents/XCACHE/ID_13.0/XDATA/demo@Comic64_comet_config

In InDesign® Server and comet_pdf, the playback mode is set via program options:

• -playback with the possible values off, record or on set the mode
• -playbackpath path defines the backup folder. If missing, the default folder used in InDesign® ($XCACHE/ID_NN.M/XDATA/connectionName) is used

In comet_pdf named program parameters are introduced by a double -. The options here must be completely --playback and --playbackpath.

Using InDesign® Server, the option record will backup all data regardless of which connection is currently in use. In general, it is better to set the mode to a specific connection instead, see Javascript for more informations.

In Javascript, the recording mode can be set in the options parameter of app.comet.use:

• playback with the values inherited, off, record or on
• playback-path path sets the backup folder. If missing, the default folder used in InDesign® ($XCACHE/ID_NN.M/XDATA/connectionName) is used

Here is an example of a direct connection setup with data logging:

var gOptions = app.comet.ping() + ";-1;";
app.comet.use (
   "##server:demo;type:odbc_utf8;language:;db:comet_config;client:;",
   "demo",
   "***",
   false,
   gOptions+"playback:record;playback-path:/Users/paul/Desktop/abc2;");

The backup folder contains every query sent to the data source and its results including all used scripts and binary data such as templates and page templates.

ATTENTION! The structure of recorded is subject to change!

The so called Panel Actions like the After Login Script with the ID 92 are defined in the file panelstatements.xml. Please pay attention to correct XML when making changes in this file. For example, the characters < and > must be encoded with &lt; and &gt; respectively.

Actions of placeholders, layout rules, etc. can be changed directly in InDesign® after the connection is established. The changes are written back to the data folder. Alternatively, you can also edit the actions directly in the actions subfolder.

Templates can be changed directly in InDesign® after the connection is established. The changes are written back to the data folder. Alternatively, the template files can also be changed directly in the pageitems/data resp. pagetemplates/data subfolders.

Statements and their results are each stored in their own folders. The folders contain the complete statement in CMD.txt and for each result line of the call a numbered text file with the columns of the result:

• CMD.txt : Instruction in plain text
• 1.tx, 2.txt, 3.txt, ...: Result columns of the call

The MD5 hash of the instruction is used as the folder name. See _recording.log for a complete list of all instructions and their MD5 hashes.

So, to specifically change the result of an instruction , say A, of an action (or from the log file), proceed as follows:

1. Look for statement A in _recording.log. You will find the MD5 hash M_A.
2. Open folder M_A
3. Edit file(s) M_A/1.txt (2.txt, ...)

All Javascript commands of the priint:comet Scripting DOM executed by InDesign® are logged t into synopsis.jsx and can be re-executed from there. The file is located in the respective data folder of the recording session:

• Default backup : $XCACHE/ID_NN.M/XDATA/Recorded-Sessions/Logintdate.
• Customized backup : backupfolder/_sessions/Logindate

Using InDesign® Server through a Publishing Server, synopsis.jsx may contain a lot of calls like app.comet.ping and app.comet.getDocumentList. These requests are sent by the Publishing Server to get the current state of the application and can usually be removed from the file.

How to use Javascript files (jsx) together with InDesign® and InDesign® Server:

• Start InDesign® resp. InDesign® Server.
  
  Attention: InDesign® Server must be started with the option -configuration 1401 (or any other integer).
  
  
• Double click synopsis.jsx will open ExtendScript Toolkit. If the program does not start automatically, it must be started manually. Here you will find it:
  • Mac : /Applications/Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CC
  • Wndows : C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CC
    
    
• In the top left corner of the program window there is a pop-up menu near a (still) red chain symbol. In this menu, select the entry for the launched InDesign®. For InDesign® Server, select the entry with the appropriate configuration number of -configuration 1401. The chain icon turns green after a short loading time and ExtendScript Toolkit is now connected to your InDesign®.
  
  Attention Window: If InDesign® is terminated, the program loses the connection of course. At the same time, however, the pop-up will be reset under Windows and you will have to repeat this setting after each InDesign® restart.
  
  
• Use the green triangle in the upper right corner of the window to execute the script.

Please note the following restrictions:

1. Playback mode is strictly read only.
   1. This also means that statements that produce different results when run repeatedly (because they change data on the server side) can result in errors because the data log contains only the results of the last call made.
   2. The same applies to global variablen used in cScript..
2. Of course, only data from instructions that were previously recorded can be used. This means that you can not use local file paths, times and other place or time-related information in the instructions.
3. Oracle-OCI is not supported for now
4. In case of missing data, please directly contact me.

CoreServlett is used in the Reader Version of priint.comet.

This plugin implements the scripting language cscript and provides the basic functionality to all other WERK II Plugins.

There are multiple variations of this plugin available. However, only one of the Comet Plugins may be installed at time. If multiple versions are detected, an error message will be shown when starting up InDesign®, saying that a conflict occured during plugin load. In that case, remove the excess plugin variations and restart InDesign®.

CometXML is the standard variation for desktop versions of InDesign®.

The name ending XML does not stand for the supported data connection, but special scripts that can run in the XML structure of the document.

The Plugin Comet++ offers batch processing of documents.

Because of Adobe's license terms, InDesign® Desktop is no longer allowed to do batch processing. This means you are only allowed to use this plugin on the server.

More information about this plugin can be found here.

Reader Version of the Comet Plugin. This plugin does not have its own panel or menues.

This plugin provides the panel Settings.

This panel solves two problems:

1. Managing global Variables for scripts.
2. Managing Aliaes for XML-files in xmlquery-statements. Maintaining aliases is identical to maintaining global Variables.

This plugin does not have its own user interface or menues. It provides important functionality for use by other priint:comet plugins and has to be installed.

With the Designate plugin you can limit the section of the document where placeholders may be edited. It adds a button to the InDesign® toolbox which you can use to set the desired limitations.

Below the button for the document section, three other buttons are provided:

These buttons run actions for modification management (in this order)

• Update/Load Placeholders
• Checking (sync status) of Placeholders
• Write back placeholders to the data pool.

These actions can perform quite big modifications. Writing back fully configured data to the datapool especially can make many changes. Because of this, you are required to hold the Alt Key when triggering these actions.

Writing back into the datapool cannot be reverted by priint:comet plugins.

The actions can also be run from the placeholder and product pool panels. Corresponding entries can be found in the panel menues.

The plug-in provides some Comet-specific Copy/Paste enhancements in the Edit menu of the InDesign® main menu and the according context menus.

Special care should be taken with normal copy/paste of text placeholders: Because the placeholders of the clipboard are also taken over when pasting, the placeholder at the insertion point is divided into two parts:

The following table describes all additional menus:

With the menu Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts..., you can map the command to its own shortcut. You can find the command, like all other WERK II menu commands in the product section priint.comet.

This plugin provides the panel Comet Tests.

Comet Tests was designed to help ensure the functionality of arbitrary test cases when changing comet versions.

You can find out more about Comet Tests here.

A 30-day Grace Period is granted for each new version of the priint:comet plug-ins. The Grace Period begins automatically when the plug-ins are started for the first time and cannot be interrupted. The test phase corresponds to a Basic Licence, i.e. you have the full scope of the plug-ins but the product build-up is limited to a maximum of one double page. If the plugins are licensed, the watermark is removed when the document is opened.

During the Grace Period, all edited documents are marked with the watermark priint.com. The watermark also appears in the document previews and in the PDFs of the documents. As soon as the plugins are licensed, the watermark is removed automatically when the document is opened.

The Grace Period is only granted once per InDesign and priint:comet plugin version and cannot be reset even by our help desk.

The following licenses are available for the prrint:comet InDesign plugins:

• Basic : Basic license of priint:comet plugins with full functionality, but Product Build-Ups are limited to a maximum of one double page (spread) in each case.
• Pro : Full scope
• Developer : Like Pro plus editing scripts
• priint:adjust : Script-configured Page Adaptations

• Mac : InDesign -> About Plug-Ins -> License -> Order...
• Windows : Help -> About Plug-Ins -> License -> Order...

Please indicate a valid e-mail address for the return of the license. The Save button of the dialoge will not send the directly but creates an order file at the requested local place.

Please send the license order to license@priint.com. You will then receive the corresponding license as soon as possible.

Please note that unlimited licenses are usually LIMITED to 3 YEARS when ordering! This limitation serves exclusively the quality assurance, which makes it possibly necessary to update software regularly. The limitation does not reduce the validity period of purchased licenses in any way and you will receive new follow-up licenses at any time.

You will be warned automatically before a license expires.

In contrast to the first order of a license for the priint:comet, there is an additional step for the renewal of the license keys: When you send the new order file to license@priint.com, please attach the old license to the mail too. This file is needed for the creation of the new license keys. If the old license file is no longer available (e.g. due to a hardware crash), the new license can still be created. However, this will take a bit more time.

After receiving the license file, you can install the license with the following menu command:

• Mac : InDesign -> About Plug-Ins -> License -> Install...
• Windows : Help -> About Plug-Ins -> License -> Install...

• After installing the license, InDesign^® is automatically restarted. Open documents are automatically closed before installation. In case of unsaved documents you will be asked beforehand. If you cancel the Save, the whole installation (including the restart) is canceled.
• The license can only be used by your account. See next paragraph on how to provide a license globally.

License files for InDesign^® Server you may put into the folder werkii/licenses/InDesign Server/vNN (with NN = version number of your InDesign^® Server) of your user preferences ($PREFS). This installation must be done manually.

Licenses for the prrint:comet InDesign^® Plugins are granted per computer, InDesign^® version and Comet version. To make a license globally available for all users of the computer please install (copy) the license file to one of the following places (Admin rights are necessary to do that!)

• Folder Plug-Ins of your InDesign^® installation
• Folder of the priint:comet Plugins inside the Plug-Ins folder of your InDesign^®

You will be warned of the end of the trial period and of time-limited licenses when you launch InDesign^® as follows:

You can additionally find out the validity period of a license at any time via the About menus of the plugins:

• Mac : InDesign -> About Plug-Ins -> Plugin Name...
• Windows : Help -> About Plug-Ins -> Plugin Name...

Placeholders are the central base object in priint:comet plugins. They represent a bidirectional connection between a document and the datapool. Two basic placeholder types are differentiated, Text placeholders and Frame placeholders.

Placeholders can perform various actions:

• Load
• Store
• Sync

Actions can be direct statements or cScript scripts.

Direct statements must be written in the language of the current data connection:

• XML Offline : xmlquery or XPATH
• ODBC : SQL
• SOAP/PubServer : Soap-Calls

Scripts are written in cScript.

With a partner license, actions can be edited directly in InDesign®. To do this, use the Placeholder Options panel.

Some actions are special scripts e.g. for own layout rules. These scripts can also be edited using the Placeholder Options panel. In most cases, these scripts are shown in pop-up menus at the corresponding places and can also be edited from there by holding down the ALT key when selecting the menu item.

Scripts cannot be written back in PubServer connections. However, you can still edit the scripts - but the scripts are only changed locally in the current cache. In this way you can test changes locally. Local changes are lost when disconnecting!

In the database case (ODBC), scripts are saved in the table actions.

Using XML-Offline or SOAP actions are defined in the file actions.xml. The corresponding script code (or statement) itself are stored in the folder actions next to the actions.xml file in individual crpt files.

To execute the action of a placeholder in XML-Offline or SOAP, it is not necessary to define a corresponding entry in actions.xml: If the file actions/1401.crpt exists, action 1401 can also be executed.

To protect your scripts also in XML offline connections, the scripts are encrypted here (hence the extension crpt). The contents of the actions are therefore not directly readable here.

[ab v4.1.6 R25153] Using the hint

#pragma plain

at the very beginning of the action, you can specify that actions are not encrypted.

Please note:

The #pragma plain key may only be used in XML offline actions.
There must be exactly one blank between #pragma and plain.

To migrate an existing actions folder into unencrypted scripts you can use the bin/crpt program with the -plain option:

> crpt your_xmldata_folder/actions -plain

Attention: The option -plain overwrites your crpt files. Make a backup copy of the folder first!

This plugin provides the functionality for text placeholders and their representation in the document. It does not have its own user interface.

This plugin provides the functionality for frame placeholders and their representation in the document. It does not have its own user interface.

With the Placeholder panel, texts and images in a document can be equipped with placeholders, which will link these document elements with database supported actions. The placeholders contain the following information

• How to load placeholders
• How to determine whether placeholder content is still in sync with the data pool
• How to write data back to the data pool

Placeholder actions are implemented as simple instructions. For complex actions, the integrated scripting language cScript can be used. To maintain placeholder actions, use the application priint:workbench.

With a partner license, placeholder actions and other scripts can be edited directly from within InDesign®. Use the Placeholder Options panel for that.

Simple instruction for loading a product name

select value_string
    from
        comet_attribute
    where
        keyname = 'Name'
        and infoobject_id = <StringID>
        and lang = <layer>
        and active = 1

A full description of values containing markings can be found in the documentation of the plugin Placeholder Options. Placeholder Options can also be modified with cScript, for more information about that, see the function placeholder::change_tags.

Linking texts and frames with database values always involves two steps:

1. Mark the document selections with a placeholder. This loads all data required for a linked placeholder into the document. At this stage, the placeholder is still linked with empty data, however.
   
   Markings discern whether they are used for text or image frames. They also get notified about what object types they may be linked with. Once the marking is set, only objects of that type can be linked with it.
   
   
2. Link the placeholder with an object in the database. Use the Product Pool panel for this.
   
   During linking, the type of the object to be linked and the marking have to match, see also ClassID! Usually, the ClassId used here is 3 (Product).

These steps are automatically followed during automatic page build and when importing text with placeholders.

About the so-called individualization serial letters of documents can be created. The creation of serial letters of a document is started with the menu

   Placeholder panel -> Fly out -> Individualization ...

Serializing documents is done in three steps

1. In the first step you will be asked for a file with the serial data.
2. For each record of this data file, a copy of the current document is created.
3. In the new documents, all serial letter placeholders are loaded with the data of the current data record.

Data for serial letters must be stored in XML files. The XML format of the files is arbitrary, the only requirement is valid XML.

The first record of the file may contain information about the individual documents of the series and must then be called preferences. The preferences are optional, if they are missing, the serialized documents are placed next to the original and numbered by the index of data records. The following elements of the preferences element are evaluated (and must have direct content):

• destpath : Destination folder for the serialized documents. In addition to the defined aliases, the terms DOCPATH (folder of the original InDesign® document) and MYPATH (data file's dictionary) are available (in exactly this notation and without an introductory $).
• destname : Name of the output file. The hashtags #0, #1, ... are replaced by the nth subelement of the current record, in the following example, Dr. med. Barbara Seidel and Mr. Paul Seidel. Elements to which a hashtag is referenced must have direct content!
• Name der Ausgabedatei. Die Hashtags #0, #1, ... werden ersetzt durch des nte Unterelement des aktuellen Datensatzes, im folgenden Beispiel also Frau Dr. Barbara Seidel und Herr Paul Seidel. Elements to which a hashtag is referenced must have direct content!
• postaction : Id of an action with ClassID 53. The action is executed after the successful creation and loading at the end of the serialization of every document, for example, to send an e-mail with the new document. The following global r/o variables are defined:
• • char * gSrcPath : The full path of the original InDesign® document
  • char * gDestPath : The full path of the serialized document
  • XMLNode gData : The current record of the data file with which the file was serialized, see xmlnode.

Here's an example of a serialization data file with preferences:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<persons>
	<!-- Generell Settings -->
	 <preferences>
		<destname>#1 #2 #3</destname>
	    <destpath>$DESKTOP/serials</destpath> <!-- DOCPATH, MYPATH, full path -->
	    <postaction>440000739</postaction>
	</preferences> 
	<!-- Repeating Data Sets -->
	<person>
    	<id>1</id>
    	<title>Frau Dr.</title>
    	<firstname>Barbara</firstname>
    	<surname>Seidel</surname>
    	<email>paul@werk-ii.de</email>
    	<sessions>1 10 14 20 24</sessions>
	</person>
	<person>
    	<id>2</id>
    	<title>Herr</title>
    	<firstname>Paul</firstname>
    	<surname>Seidel</surname>
    	<email>paul@priint.com</email>
    	<sessions>3 8 17 26 31</sessions>
	</person>
</persons>

There are three special placeholders to support serialization. The determination of the placeholders type is made in the type attribute of the placeholder definition:

Type	Icon	placeholder.xml	Table placeholder
Serial text		serialtext	10
Serial fahmen		serialframe	11
Serial template		serialpageitem	12

Here is a screenshot of three different serialization placeholders:

The loading of the serial letter placeholders is tailored to the application serial letter and slightly different than in "normal" placeholders.

When loading a serial letter placeholder, you will receive one data file record each. In the Data Index field (where usually the ID of the load action is), enter the (1-based) number of a sub-element of this element. This element must have a direct value, so it must not have subelements.

In the above example, the ID 2 would be "Mrs. Dr." for the first data record, and "Mr" for the second record. ID 3 gives you "Barbara" resp. "Paul" etc..

For more complex XML queries or tasks that require more than just insert text, set the store ID to 0 and enter the ID of an action in the Data Script field (where the sync ID is normally located). This action must determine and use the current value. The current data file record is available as

    XMLNode gData;

in these scripts.

Read the text of the element email from the example above and create a QR code in the serialized letter.

int main ()
{
	char 	to [4096];

	strcpy (to, xmlnode::content_of_child (gData, "email"));
	if (strlen (to)) image::barcode (gFrame, to, "qrcode", 72, 72, 10, 10);

	return 0;
}

In the second example, certain paragraphs of the serial letter are to be highlighted. For this, the data file contains the session element with the paragraph numbers.

int main ()
{
	int 	pos 		= textmodel::start ();
	int 	pstart 		= 0, plen = 0;
	int 	parnum 		= 0;
	int 	i;
	char	pn 			[50];
	char 	sessions 	[5000];

	while (pstart < pos)
	{
		pstart = textmodel::find_surrounding_paragraph (gFrame, pstart, &plen, 0);

		pstart = pstart + plen;
		parnum = parnum +1;
	}
	sprintf (pn, "%d", parnum);

	strcpy (sessions, xmlnode::content_of_child (gData, "sessions"));

	for (i = 0; i< strtokencount (sessions, ' '); i++)
	{
		if (strcmp (strtoken (sessions, ' ', i), pn) == 0)
		{
			textmodel::set_parastyle (gFrame, 0, 1, "SessionPlus");
			break;
		}
	}

	return 0;
}

Placeholders may be grouped at will and individually. Mark any number of placeholders with an eye and select the entry "New Group" in the popup menu "Secion". You will be asked for a name and a color for the group. for each group a placeholder belongs to, a small square will be shown in the panel :

When you select a group, all placeholders in the group (and no others) are marked with an eye.

Use the hints in the tooltip of the popup menu "Group" to maintain placeholder groups.

XML- and SOAP-Datapools have to contain / provide the file placeholdergroups.xml. The XML structure has to have at least one 0-element as described.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<placeholdergroups>
    <placeholdergroup>
        <ID>0</ID>
        <name></name>
        <user></user>
        <color></color>
        <placeholders>
            <placeholder>
                <ID>0</ID>
            </placeholder>
        </placeholders>
    </placeholdergroup>
</placeholdergroups>

The database has to contain the tables placeholdergroups and placeholdergroupsXplaceholders. The tables have to be defined as described:

More notes about how to install placeholder groups can be found here.

[since v4.1 R24442] With generic placeholders, the same placeholder can display different data such as color, weight, size and price of a product: Which property the placeholder should display in the document is defined in the document, not in the data source. This drastically reduces the effort for programming and maintaining placeholders. On the other hand, you can no longer restrict the editing of placeholders in the document to a specific variant of a generic placeholder: If you update the price placeholders, the placeholders for color, weight, and size that are using the same generic placeholder are also loaded. This gap is closed by placeholder variants.

Placeholder variants can be made from any derivative of a generic placeholder and can be shown in the placeholder list. If the Eye Marker is set, only the derivatives of the generic placeholder that correspond exactly to the placeholder variant are processed when the document is edited.

To show the placeholder variants in the list, please activate the button at the upper left corner of the panel.

From a more technical point of view, the set eye of the above image mean: Variant 1 of placeholder 0001 AAA contains a list of name/value pairs and the processing of the document placeholders is restricted to the following placeholders:

1. Placeholders must have the ID 2178 (0001 AAA).
2. The function variables in the document placeholder must correspond exactly to the name/value pairs of Variant 1.

Placeholder variants are added to the placeholder list if the checkbox Show Variants activated. You do not have to open the placeholder variant levels separately: If the variants are visible, all variants are always displayed. The variants are sorted as follows:

• First the global variants
• Then the user-related variants (in Italic font)
• Within these two blocks the variants are sorted case-insensitive alphabetically.

If a placeholder is selected in the document, the appropriate variant is selected in the list. If the list shows several variants with the same settings, the lowest entry is selected.

If you click the name part of a variant in the placeholder list, the document selection is linked with this placeholder. All settings of the variant are transferred to the document placeholder.

Using the button you can create new variants by following these steps:

1. Load the placeholder list so that the main placeholder is included in the list. The variants do not necessarily have to be visible.
2. Configuration of the document placeholder in the area Function Variables of the panel Placeholder Options.
3. Select the placeholder in the document. Exactly this placeholder must be selected!
4. If there is still no variant with the settings made, the main entry of the placeholder in the panel is now selected. If a variant is selected, select the main entry by clicking next to the (colored) placeholder names.
5. 
6. Enter the name and description of the new variant in the dialog that appears. Please note the following:
   • If you use the addtion @* (at star) directly after the name, you create a global variant that is visible to all. Without this addition, the variant is only visible to you..
   • Attention: Variant names are displayed in the panel in their translated language version, if available. However, the untranslated name must be used to create the variants!
   • To trigger the action, the ALT key must be held down.
   • If a variant already exists with the specified name for the placeholder and the user name, you are asked whether you want to overwrite this variant. If you have entered a description, the new description is used. If the description text is empty, the description of the old variant is retained..

Attention: No variants can be created from unconfigured placeholders and placeholders without function variables. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of computational effort to recognize in the list whether a placeholder has function variables in one of its scripts - to do this, all placeholder scripts would have to be loaded and examined first. Therefore, there is no marker in the list whether a placeholder can have variants or not.

To change an existing variant, follow steps 1-6 of the above instructions and enter the name of the variant you want to overwrite as the new name. If you leave the description empty, the old description is retained.

You can use a trick to change the description of a variant. Put the variant anywhere in the document and then follow steps 3-6 of the above instructions. Enter the new description in the dialog and confirm the overwrite.

Wählen Sie gewünschten Varianten mit Klicks neben den (farbig hinterlegten) Namen der Listeneinträge aus und klicken Sie das Löschen-Button der Palette.

No installations are required for XML and SOAP connections. The configuration file placeholder_variants.xml required for the placeholder variants is created automatically if it does not exist.

The only condition for SOAP and PubServer connections is that the server allows the upload of the new placeholder_variants.xml configuration file. If the creation of new files is not allowed, an empty placeholder_variants.xml must be created as described below in the priint:comet configuration of the server.

Here is the general syntax of a placeholder_variants.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<placeholder_variants>
	<placeholder_variant>
		<placeholderID>0</placeholderID>
		<name>0</name>
		<description></description>
		<user></user>
		<definitions></definitions>
	</placeholder_variant>
</placeholder_variants>

The database must contain the tables placeholder_variants and placeholder_variants_values. Here is the table description in mySQL-compatible syntax:

create table placeholder_variants
(
    ID              int(10),
    placeholderID   int(10),
    name            varchar(4000),
    description     varchar(4000),
    use             varchar(4000)
);
alter table placeholder_variants add primary key (ID);

create table placeholder_variants_values
(
    placeholder_variants_ID int(10),
    type            int(10),
    name            varchar(4000),
    value           longtext
);

The plugin provides the panel Placeholder Options. The panel shows all information about the first placeholder of the current document selection. In the panel, local settings of the placeholder can be changed and the function variables of the placeholder can be configured. With a Partner License the placeholder scripts can be edited. In the lower part of the window, additional scripts such as Layout Rules and BuildSupport Scripts can be edited.

The values of all fields labeled in italics can be modified in the document. Use this option sparingly, and oly during development and testing. Click on to edit scripts.

The placeholders' values can also be changed with cScript, for more information about this option see the function placeholder::change_tags.

In the fourth panel section (labeled with "unbenanntes Objekt" here) you can see the ID of the object the placeholder is linked to. IDs always consist of three numbers and a string.

For development purposes, you can copy the ID into the clipboard here.

In the lower panel section, you can edit any action defined in your data pool. Select the action in the popup Action. The ID of the action appears in the field Script. With , you can edit the script. Of course, you can just enter an ID into the field yourself.

More information about this plugin can be found here.

Since v4.1

With the plugins, preflight rules can be created and applied fot testing placeholders in the document. The following plugins are required:

• Preflight (InDesign® Desktop only)
• Preflight [Model] (InDesign® and InDesign® Server)

Warnign: The current Sync-Status is checked. Recalculating placeholder stati is not possible for performance reasons.

You can define preflight rules for placeholders in the flyout menu Edit Profiles of the Preflight panel. You can choose between checking frame placeholders, text placeholders, or both.

Placeholder with a status unequal 1 (meaning Not Okay), are added to the result list of the preflight. In the error information, you can find more details about the linked object and the placeholder.

Templates are the second central concept in priint:comet plugins. Templates are a collection of any number of document frames of any design. Frames and texts of the templates are usually equipped with placeholders that are linked to a product and loaded after insertion.

Warning: Templates depend on the InDesign® version used. Templates created with a newer version of InDesign® cannot be used in older versions. Conversely, older templates have to be converted before use with a newer version. For performance reasons, you should convert all templates as quickly as possible (after all work stations have been upgraded to the new InDesign® version).

In the Templates panel, templates of (grouped) document frames can be managed. The entries can be created from the panel, changed and inserted into the document. Templates are used in the following script commands, among others.

A detailed description of this plugin can be found here.

In the Template Behaviour panel, you can set frame specific properties of a template : the order in which placeholders of the frames should be loaded, whether frames should be used in the text flow, overwrite properties, etc...

More information about this can be found here.

The plugin provides the two panels Layout Rules und Build rules.

The panel build rules is no longer used in Comet 4. You can find out more about that here.

[since Comet 3.1] Layout rules are scripts linked with frames, which are can be executed in the following contexts:

• Creation (from a Template)
• Product Build
• Loading (The frame must not have a placeholder)
• User action
• Positions change and resize

Frames may have any number of layout rules. Each rule may use up to four additional parameters.

Template Behaviour and Layout Rules are two different things : Template behaviour allows you to control how a template treats a frame. Layout rules are used to change the look of the frame.

A detailed explanation of layout rules can be found here.

Page templates control the product build. After placeholders and templates, they are the third foundational concept of the priint:comet plugins.

The panels Page Templates and Page Elements help you manage and configure page templates. Here you can set, among other things, what a page template will be called and what successors it has. Thee pages' frames are considered to be elements of the page template (Page Elements). You can also specify whether a frame should be used to position one or multiple products, or whether the products should flow into the frame as text.

A description of this module can be found here.

Page adaption is the process of adjusting page content when changing page size. The adjustment can be manual, or executed with a control file.

Position changes and resizing of frames is controlled with magnets and nails: Nails freeze the distance to the page boundary, magnets control the distance between frames. Nails and magnets can be set with the toolbox:

Adapting frame content is controlled by rules assigned to the frame. Rules are implemented as cScripts.

A description of this module can be found here.

List allow access to specific database tables and offer the option to search the data pool. With these panels, selected texts and images in InDesign® documents can be linked to databes values. They also offer the option to write back specific entries and check whether document and database contents are in sync and which database objects are used in a document.

The found data is used to solve panel specific tasks. In most cases, that means Linking selected texts and frames with a selected object in the list. Other lists are for job management.

All panels react to the current document and its selection:

• If an object in the list is linked with any placeholder in the document, this is reflected in the list (usually indicated with ).
• If the document selection contains exactly one linked object, and that object is loaded in the panel list, the corresponding entry in the list is highlighted.

The product pool supports multi-selection: All products selected in the document are also selected in the panel (if they are visible there).

Panels contain multiple search fields. The search is started with . The number of records in a list is usually limited to 100.

The list in the product pool is limited to 10000. Additionally, each entry may have up to 10000 subentries.

To link a placeholder in the document with a list entry, follow these steps:

1. Place the text cursor inside the placeholder or select the desired frame.
2. Click the status button of the list entry (first column in the list) while holding down the Shift Key.

If an element of the document was linked with a database object, it is automatically loaded from the database. You can suppress the automatic load with a single click on in the lower right of the list panels .

If automatic loads are disabled (grey arrow), placeholders are not loaded when inserting products via drag and drop from the product pool wither.

If a link does not work, it is usually because the selected placeholder has a different ClassID than the object list, see also ClassID.

By single clicking the status button , you can jump to the place in the document where the object is first linked. With repeated clicking, you can navigate through the document.

The product pool additionally offers the option to select the entire comet group. Above the status button, there is a small button for that, which must show this image: .

The flyout menus of some panels can contain any number of dynamic entries in addition to their standard entries, the so-called Panel Actions. These entries are defined in the configuration data of your data pool and are added automatically after the connection is established (login). When the data connection is disconnected, they are removed again. The following panels support palette actions:

Für Schnellzugriffe kann jede Palettenaktion auch als Front Row Button angelegt werden.

For quick access, each panel action can also be created as a Front Row Button.

The actions behind the menu items are defined in the actions table and implemented as cScripts. A description of how to create Panel Actions can be found here.

There are three ways to limit the selection of objects that are processed by a panel action.

1. Selecting the target objects, see the plugin Designate
   • Text
   • Frames
   • Document
2. Object selection. By clicking the button in the second column in a list, the button changes to an eye and vice-versa. With the eye set, this object is "monitored". With the button in the lower right of the list panels, you can disable multi-selection (). If no object is marked with an eye, all objects are monitored.
3. In Placeholder panel, the selection can also be limited to certain placeholders with . If no placeholder is monitored, the placeholder checking before processing is skipped.

[since v4.1.8 R27334] In the following lists the last used entries of the respective data connection can be shown:

• Placeholder when clicking in the list
• Templates at double clicks, and Drag and Drop into documents.
• Page Templates at double clicks, and .

To get the last used entries, click on the magnifying glass symbol while holding down the ALT key:

• + ALT (Option) : Show the last 10 recent entries in the order of their usage
•  + ALT (Option) + Shift : Clear the list of the recent entries

The recent entries are stored per data connection in the file

    $PREFS/werkii/statistics.xml

Data connections are identified by the connection name displayed in the panels:

The file is read by the respective plugins each time a data connection is established (data folder, login) and updated when the connection is disconnected.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<statistics>
	<recents>
		<connection label="paul@demo:comet_config">
			<products></products>
            <placeholders>120164 13 10</placeholders>
            <templates></templates>
            <publications></publications>
            <pagetemplates>260007 16 15</pagetemplates>
        </connection>
        <connection label="XML /Users/paul/Desktop/fifo/priint 5.5/xmldata/~">
            <products></products>
            <placeholders>50 30 20 2190 2166 720 71000001 20</placeholders>
            <templates>15 11 12 13 14</templates>
            <publications></publications>
            <pagetemplates>64 44 6 8 2</pagetemplates>
        </connection>
    </recents>
    <contexts></contexts>
</statistics>

Currently only the ID lists of the three entries Placeholders, Templates and Page Templates are supported. Manual changes before reading are allowed, changes to the entries of an active connection are ignored.

List panels all have a unique ID, the so called ClassID. This number is assigned by WERK II and controls multiple things:

1. Each placeholder is assigned a ClassID. Only object in the correcponding lists can be linked with these placeholders. This ensures that, for example, a TV show is not linked with a product.
2. The ClassID determines, which panel a panel action belongs to.
3. The ClassID can be used in scripts to interface with a specific panel.
4. Finally, there is a number of special script types (Prescript Product Build, Build Rules, Rules for Table Builds) differentiated by their ClassID. These scripts are defined in actions.

The following table lists all used ClassIDs (to use panel IDs in scripts, you have to include

    #include "internal/panels.h"

at the beginning of the script.) :   

    char   *  gParam1;
    int       gParamInt1;
    float     gParamFloat1;

Instructions for configuring the priint:comet panels are specified in the panelstatements table/file. Unlike the actions that can occur multiple times (such as many Layout Rules), panelstatements exist only once each (such as loading the placeholder colors). The following table contains the list of reserved entries. In addition, all values less than 1000 are reserved.

Panelstatements of type Script are written in cScript or Python as usually. Panelstatements of type Statement are written in the language of the current data connection, that is xmlquery or XPATH, SQL or SOAP-Calls. The locker makrked entries of the table are part of the standard configuration. We strongly advise against changing these statements!

Usage	ID	Type	Description
Session-Handling	139	Script	Allow Login Script The script is executed directly after a successful login and can be used to reject or accept a connection according to your own criteria. If a connection is rejected, it is also automatically released immediately and the login dialog opens again. Return Values With return 0 (no error) you accept the connection. Otherwise the connection will be rejected. ATTENTION Global variables are not yet valid here. The action is not performed for XML Offline data folders The following global variables are defined in the script: int gLogins;   // Counts the successfull connections after starting InDesign®-Start DBC/SOAP gDBC; // Connection to check Here is an example of an ODBC connection: int main () {     int     ret = 0;     char    m [1200];     char    serv [255];     char    name [255];     char    usr [255];     sprintf (m, "Sure to Logon?\nSRV:%s\nDB:%s\nUSR\:%s",          sql::server (gDBC, serv),          sql::dbname (gDBC, name),          sql::user (gDBC, usr));     if (alert ("OK", "Better not", 0, 1, 4, m) != 1) ret = 1;          return ret; }
	92	Statement or Script	After Login Script The script is executed after successful and allowed logins and after setting a new XML folder and is used to initialize connection-typical settings. The global variable gLogins is defined in the script, which counts (separately) how many SOAP/ODBC logins occurred and how many times the XML folder was changed. Recommeded Setting Tunr on document watching (see system::setdocwatch). At logout (or (re)setting the XML folder)the document watching is turned off automatically Set the script buffer size (see prefs::set_script_buffer). This setting is reset at logout automatically too! Turn on the color profile Security (see prefs::set_preserve_color_profiles). Thefeature is deacivated at logout time. Example int main () {     system::setdocwatch (1);     prefs::set_script_buffer (1000);     prefs::set_preserve_color_profiles (1);     return 0; }
	133	Script	Change Session Script. The session ID of the connection is to be changed. In the script the variable gSessionID is defined and contains the new session ID as char[] string.
	134	Script	Use Session Script. The session ID of the connection was changed. In the script the variable gSessionID is defined and contains the new session ID as char[] string.
Placeholder Colors	11	Statement	Load Colors Script Load the colors that will be used for the placeholders. If the instruction is missing, the Mac OS X crayons will be used as default colors.
Product Pool	55	Statement	Load the top level entries of the Product Pool. IDs starting from 1000 can be used for the instructions to load the subentries. Hint: Products can also be loaded with the help of cScript or Python. See here for more information.
	95	Script	Load the ID of the action that has to be executed when double clicking a product.
	148	Script	Filter the templates in the template popup at the top right of the panle. By restricting the templates shown, you can ensure that only the intended templates can be assigned to products.
	155	-	Product Panel of the whiteboard. The instructions are not executed in the priint:comet plug-ins.
	255
	355
Templates	32	Statement	Domain Types in the metadata dialog of the templates. The instruction is used to populate the list of area types in the metadata dialog of the templates. SQL-Example: select 1, 'Mandant 1' from dual union select 2, 'Mandant 2' from dual union select 3, 'Marktplatz' from dual union select 4, 'Basar' from dual union select 5, 'Bauchladen' from dual
	33	Statement	Domains in the metadata dialog of the templates. The statement is used to populate the list of domain in the metadata dialog of the templates. The ? of the statement is replaced by the ID of the selected domai type from panel statement 32. SQL-Example: select id, name from domain where domainClassID = ?
	24	Statement	Restriction of the Domains in the metadata dialog of the templates. Left to the dropdown with the domain there is a small text field with which the list of domain can be additionally restricted. The panel statement is executed each time text is entered into this field and reloads the range list. The first two ? are replaced by their current UserID. The third ? is the text input from the search field + '%' (for 'search at the beginning'). The 4th and 5th ? are replaced by the ID of the selected Domain type (see panel statement 32). SQL-Example: select   distinct (d.id), d.name   from domain d, userxdomain x where d.ID > 0 and (x.userid = ? or 0 = ?)   and d.id = x.domainid   and upper(d.Name) like upper(?)   and (d.domainClassID = ? or 0 = ?)
	25	Statement	Template Types in the metadata dialog of the templates. Load the list of template types for the metadata dialog of the templates. SQL-Example: select id, name from pageitemtypes where ID > 0
	26	Statement	Template States in the metadata dialog of the templates. Load the list of template states for the metadata dialog of the templates. SQL-Example: SELECT id, value FROM relatedto WHERE id > 0
	118	Statement or Script	Before Deletion : The instruction is executed each time before a template is deleted and can prevent the deletion. See here for more information.
	93	Statement or Script	Load the ScriptID for the pageitem-id script (only if the pageitem-id script is enabled). If the statement is empty or not defined, the following default is used: select spread.scriptid node pageitems.pageitem where id = ?
	94	Statement or Script	Load the name of the pageitem-id script (only if the pageitem-id script is enabled). If the statement is empty or not defined, the following default is used : select name node actions.action where id = ?
	22	Statement	Search the templates according to the inputs of the search fields. Under XML and SOAP the statement also returns the single values of the templates. SQL-Example: select ID, 0, 0   from PageItems   where ID > ?     and (upper(Name) like ? or Name is NULL)     and (DomainID = ? or 0 = ?)   limit 0, ?
	23	Statement	Loading a template. Under XML and SOAP, the statement is not needed. SQL-Example: select   p.name,   t.name, d.name, s.value,   p.description,   p.preview,   p.leftPos, p.topPos, p.rightPos, p.bottomPos,   p.spreadID, p.leftID, p.middleID, p.rightID from PageItems p,     PageItemTypes t,     Domain d,     RelatedTo s where t.ID = p.TypeID   and d.ID = p.DomainID   and s.ID = p.StateID   and p.id = ?
	27	Statement	Get the TypeID, DomainID, StateID and PlaceholderID of a template. The statement is unused in XML offline and SOAP connections. SQL-Example: SELECT typeid, domainid, stateid, PlaceholderID   FROM pageitems WHERE id = ?
	28	Statement	Change the metadata of a template when closing the dialog SQL-Example: update pageitems   set name = ?,   typeid = ?, domainid = ?, stateid = ?,   placeholderID = ?,   description = ?,   spreadid = ?, leftid = ?, middleid = ?, rightid = ? where id = ?
	29	Statement	Change the data of a template. SQL-Example: UPDATE pageitems     SET data = _latin1?, preview = _latin1?,     leftpos = ?, toppos = ?,     rightpos = ?, bottompos = ?   WHERE id = ?
	30	Statement	Delete a template SQL-Example: delete from PageItems where id = ?
	31	Statement	Load the data (the InDesign frames) of a template to insert it into the document. SQL-Example: select data from pageitems where id = ?
	56	Statement	Load ID and name of the template of a specific page type for use in the page type popup menus. SQL-Example: select distinct (ID), Name from PageItems where ID > ?   and (DomainID = ? OR DomainID = 0 OR ID = ?)   and (SpreadID = ? OR SpreadID = 0 OR ID = ?) order by name
	57	Statement	Load the preview path/preview of a template for display in the dialog SQL-Example: select preview from PageItems where ID = ?
	121	Statement	Since 3.2 R2155, 29.09.2010 Statement for saving templates in IDML. The statement is needed only for SQL connections. If the statement is empty or not defined, the following default is used : update PageItems set dataIDML = LATIN1 ? where id = ? LATIN1 is replaced by the value of LATIN1 given in the table keywords. The additional saving of templates in IDML format must be activated with the script statement prefs::add_idml_to_templates.
	137	Statement	Since 3.3.1 R3445, 21.02.2013 Statement for saving templates in W2ML. The statement is needed only for SQL connections. If the statement is empty or not defined, the following default is used : update PageItems set dataW2 = where id = ? The additional saving of templates in W2ML format must be activated with the script statement prefs::add_w2ml_to_templates.
Publications	Panel
	36	Statement	Searching the list entries. In XML and SOAP, the statement also returns the contents of the indivual entries.
	37	Statement	Loading the individual entries (SQL only)
	130	Statement	Search for the Template Documents. The syntax of the statement corresponds to panel statement 36.
	131	Statement	Load the Template Document indivdual entries (SQ only). The syntax of the statement corresponds to panel statement 37.
	38	Statement	Loading the items of the popup menu Domain (If your panel has this popup)
	96	Skript	Get the id of the double click action to be preforned on double clicking Publications
	Publication Infos
	100	Statement	How many previews are available for the current publication?
	101	Statement	Load a preview.
	102	Statement	Get the last preview ID used.
	103	Statement	Create a new preview for a publication.
	104	Statement	Delete all previews of a publication.
	105	Statement	Fill the large info field of the panel with any text.
	Check in and out
	110	Script	Load the connection data for the publication server
	111	Script	Checkout Script - executed before opening the publication
	125	Script	After Checkout Script
	112	Script	After Save Script - executed after saving the publication
	113	Script	Before Close Script - executed before closing the publication
	114	Script	Status Script - Calculate the document status. See here for th stati given by the server.
	115	Script	Checkin Script - The checkin button was clicked
	116	Script	After Close Script - executed before closing the publication
	117	Script	Revert Script - The checkin button was ALT clicked
	125	Script	AfterOpen exclusively for the publication documents. The script is only executed when the document watching is enabled (e.g. by system::set_docwatch in the AfterLogin script). Defined variables see here.
	135	Statement	Options for metadata generation, SOAP and ODBC only. The statement is optional and will be executed when generating the publication metadata. Return of the statement is a string with the desired server options. Information about server options can be found here. Default is "content:none;svg:bbox;".
	136	Statement	List of metadata files to be generated, SOAP and ODBC only. The statement is optional and will be executed when generating the publication metadata. The statement can return multiple result colums with the possible values for each: Notes (Ignored by InDesign Server) Spreads Items Groups Placeholders Elements Previews If the statement is empty or missing, everything will be exported.
Document Watch	The scripts are only executed when the document watching is enabled (e.g. by system::set_docwatch in the AfterLogin script). Defined variables see here. If document monitoring is enabled, it will be executed for all (even new) document... See here for defined global variables.
	42	Script	After creating a new document
	43	Script	Before opening a document
	44	Script	After opening a document. Desktop : The document is not yet open in a window. If you want to edit placeholders (e.g. linklist::load), the document must also be visible and selected. In this case use the script 59 that is executed after opening the document window. For documents, which are available via the Publication panle, there is th additionally panel statement 125 (see above), which is executed exclusively for Publication documents.
	59	Script	After showing the document. Server plugins run the script after opening the document ( like script 44). The background is that placeholder actions (e.g. linklist::load) work on the current front document, which is not set in the desktop variants until the window is opened.
	45	Script	Before saving a document
	46	Script	After saving a document
	47	Script	Before 'Save As' of a document
	48	Script	After 'Save As'
	49	Script	Before 'Save a Copy' of a document
	50	Script	After 'Save a copy' of a document
	51	Script	Before 'Revert'
	52	Script	After 'Revert'
	53	Script	Before closing a document
	58	Script	Since 3.1, R1730, 8. Feb. 2010 Script on document change. The script is called every time the front document is changed. In the scripts dialogs should not be used - closing the dialog can trigger the event again!
	59	Script	Since 3.1, R1730, 27. April. 2010 Script after showing the document show. The script is executed after a document window is opened.
Comet	122	Script	Place URLs. A text URL from an Internet browser has been placed in the document. What should be done with the URL? The script chooses the desired action depending on the URL. For more information see here.
	123	Script	Export an InDesign® library. The script defines if and how a library can be exported and selects one of the actions defined with class 42 (see above). More about this see here.
	124	Script	Import an InDesign® library. The script defines if and how a library can be imported and selects one of the actions defined with class 43 (see above). More about this see here.
Settings	85	Statement	Load all setting entries and global variables of the datapool into the panel. Please note that server side defined global variables are not supported by PubServer.
	86	Statement	Get ID of a new Settings entry
	87	Statement	Creating a new Settings entry
	88	Statement	Changing the alias name of a Settings entry
	89	Statement	Changing the path of a Settings entry
	90	Statement	Remove a Settings entry
	91	Statement	Enable/disable a Settings entry
Previews	97	Script	Load the ID of the action to be executed when a Preview is double-clicked.
Page Templates	120	Script	(Since Version 3.1, R1956, 17. June 2010) The script is executed each time before deleting a Page Template and can prevent deletion. For more information, see here.
ToDos	150	Script	Since v4.2 Which paragraph style should be used in newly created Comet Notes, see here.
	151	Script	Since v4.2 Move Comet Notes completed in the ToDos panle to this layer, see here.
Web Images	141	Script	Since v4.1 R23234 Set the image folder for Web Image downloads, see here.
Reserved Externally	126		Whiteboard : 3 Panelstatments for Attributes Panel
	127
	128
	200001		Aufgaben-Palette PubServer intern
	200002

Here an example for a login script. This script can be used for XML data directories. On program startup, the welcome message is automatically suppressed.

int main
{
	if (gLogins > 1)
	{
		showmessage (
				"%d. Welcome to the test environment",
				gLogins);
	}
	system::set_docwatch ();

	return 0;
}

The following is an example script for a document monitoring function. Please note that a target document does not have to be defined in all cases.

int main ()
{
	char		p[4096];

	if (document::current ()) document::path (p);
	else strcpy (p, "undefined");

	showmessage ("Before save %s";, p);
	
	return 0;
}

Panel Actions are stored in the actions table. The names of all action entries whose classID is equal to the ClassID of a plug-in are included in the panels fly-out menu and in the application menu Plug-Ins -> Panel Name. The sequence of the entries is controlled by the sequencenr field.

The following panels are supported:

For quick access, each panel action can also be defined as a Front Row Button. For information on creating front row buttons of palette actions, click here.

With a ^-separated path in front of the action name, the desired submenus are created automartically.

The name and all path parts are automatically translated into the language of the InDesign^® used using the currently available translations.

The Test Script entry is entered in the bbb menu of the aaa menu.

aaa^bbb^Test Script

Separated by two commas (,,), a shortcut and a availability definition can be appended to the menu entry.

Letters are specified normally. The tag notation like &#xD6; for Ö is also allowed. The function keys are referred to with F1 - F12. Please keep in mind, that the function keys may already taken by the OS or by InDesign^®! The following keywords are used to refer to modifier keys

• Shift
• Ctrl
• Cmd
• Opt

Modifiers are separated with +. If a keyboard shortcut is already used elsewhere, the definition is ignored. Please test a shortcut in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts... before using it.

The action Test Script should be triggered by Shift-Control-W.

aaa^bbb^Test Script ,, Shift+Ctrl+W

Before the keyboard shortcut, an InDesign^® context may be defined. This context afftects only the shortcut, not the menu entry itself, and determines which context the shortcut can be used in. The following contexts (and no others!) are available :

• Dialog
• Default oder Ever
• Table
• XML
• Text

If this is unspecified, the shortcut can be used at any time.

The action Test Script should be triggered by Shift-Control-W in texts only:

aaa^bbb^Test Script ,, Text Shift+Ctrl+W

For automatic (de)activation of menu entries, the following options can be specified :

• Panel - The entry is only activated when its panel is opened.
• Document - The entry is only activated when a document is opened.

If neither is specified, the entry will always be activated.

If the panel and a document are open, the test script can be triggered by Shift-Control-W.

 aaa^bbb^Tests Script ,, Panel Document Shift+Ctrl+W

The panel actions are added after the standard entries of the panels. The sequence of the entries is controlled by the sequencenr field.

To avoid permanent adjustments of the sequence numbers, it is a good idea to assign the sequence numbers at least in steps of 10. Then you have enough space for insertions.

Panel Actions can be inserted into the Front Rows panel. The necessary specifications are done in the inputdocumentation attribute of the action. See here for more information.

The actual implementation of the actions to be executed is done in cScript. Scripts can be edited using the panel Placeholder Options or by ALT-clicking the menu item. To edit scripts a partner license is required.

XML Offline : Action scripts are stored in the actions folder next to the actions.xml file and with the name ID.crpt. If the file does not exist when you edit, it is created automatically. To protect your script texts, the scripts are automatically encrypted when they are saved. The line

#pragma plain

at the beginning of the script will disable encryption for this file. Alternatively, you can place the crpt files directly in the actions folder. In this case, the #pragma plain preamble is mandator..

ODBC : The scripts are stored unencrypted in the statements attribute.

PubServer : Creating and editing scripts is done in ISON.  Please note that scripts in PubServer connections are changed only locally and for testing. On logout local script changes are lost.

The following ODBC example adds the menu entry Action 1 to the Product Pool panel, which inserts the text 'Action 1' into the document at the current text selection.

insert into Actions 
(
  id,
  name,
  classid,
  typeid,
  statement,
  sequenceNr,
  domainid)
values
( 
  100000,
  'aaa^bbb^Action 1 ,, Text Shift+Ctrl+W',  -- Name
  3,           -- ClassID of panel Product Pool
  0,           -- typeID, unused by plugins
  'main () {textmodel::insert ("Action 1");}',
  2,           -- Sort order
  1003         -- Domain ID
);

The Previews panel is used to show alternative texts or images for placeholders and products. In the Preview-Details panel, the details for the entry currently selected in the Previews panel are displayed.

More information can be found here.

The Product Pool is the most commonly used panel of all priint:comet plugins.

Additional information about this plugin and its panels can be found here.

Publication management are represented by organized file references in a database. If a file is locally available, its file icon is displayed and the file can be opened. If a file is not available, it can be generated from a document template. The document template may be located in the local network or even anywhere on the internet.

More information about this plugin and its panels can be found here.

The tasks plugin provides two panels; the actual To Dos, and the panel for Comet Notes.

The list shows all placeholders in the document that are not up to date. If you have the right statements configured, the list can also show database tasks and solve them. You can find out more about this here.

[since Version 3.0, R1400] In this panel, the document's comments are managed and configured. You can find a detailed description of comments here.

[Since Comet 4.0.5 R20002] Images in InDesign® must be either available in the local network or embedded into the document. Images located in the internet can not be processed by InDesign®. With the plug-in URL Link and its panel Web Images the priint:comet plug-ins offer a possibility to use images from the net too. To do this, images are downloaded locally first and links are made to these files then.

For more information about the Web Images see here.

XML offline and large parts of SOAP and PubServer connections are XML-based. Data from XML files are determined in two steps:

1. Reading the XML file into an internal structure
2. Query the internal data

Three XML parsers are available for reading XML:

• Classic
  • Windows : msxml
  • Mac : built-in CoreFoundation-Parser CFXMLParser
• Optimized :
  • Using Windows the setting is equivalent to "Classic".
  • Using Mac, whitespaces around <0xXXXX> tags are protected by Unicode characters
• Fast : Fast and system-independent XML parser integrated in the plugins. The parser is about 50% faster than the CoreFoundation parser and msxml.

Up to v4.1.6 R25555 Classic is the standard.

Since v4.1.6 R25556 the fast XML parser is the standard.

The background for the change of the default parser used is the error susceptibility of the classic parser:

Under Windows it must be ensured that msxml is completely and correctly installed. And from Windows 10 Build 1903 on, the msxml parser won't work at all without complex corrections.

And the CoreFoundation XML parser on Mac?

Please see the following XML fragment with the German text 'Ich weiß über alles bescheid.' (I know everything.)

<Text>
    Ich wei&lt;0x00DF&gt; &lt;0x00FC&gt;ber alles bescheid.
</Text>

Apart from the fact that this is a false statement anyway, what the parser reads, it is also misspelled:

Ich weiß über alles bescheid.

The space between weiß and über is unfortunately lost. The parser handles text between &lt; and &gt; as single entities and loses the spaces around it. And since we have to skip whitespaces around the actual content (otherwise the spaces and line separators around the whole text would also be read - and you certainly don't want that, do you?), the spaces around are lost.

In the case of the <0xXXXX> tags used above, we can solve the problem with the so-called optimized parser. This parser will also get the space before über on Mac. But attention: Only entities of the kind <0xXXXX> are considered. In the tagged text "aaa<cSize:72.000000> <cSize:>bbb" the space between aaa and bbb is still lost.

Apple therefore recommends that you no longer use the CoreFoundation parser and use the integrated NSXML parser instead. (NS stands for NextSTEP and ... well, that was a while ago.) We didn't follow this recommendation. If we have to make everything new, then it should be uniform for Mac, Windows and Linux. With Marcin Kalicinski's Rapid-Parser we have found a very good solution.

With the help of the script function prefs::set_xml_parsertype the used parser can be changed. To use the parser type for the entire duration of the data connection, it is best to specify this in the After Login script (Panelstatement 92).

The change of the used parser is only valid for the current data connection. When the connection is disconnected, the default parser is reactivated automatically

InDesign® : By default, the fast RapidXML parser is always used. The up to v4.1.6 R25555 available menu Plug-Ins -> Comet -> XML Parser has been removed due to the error-tending behavior of the other parser types. The other parsers can therefore only be used in exceptional cases and must be actively selected via script command prefs::set_xml_parsertype.

InDesign Server® : The parser type can be set globally by option -cometxmlparser classic | optimized | fast. However, as of v4.1.6 R2556, the fast option is also the default here.

comet_pdf : The parser type can be set globally by option --xmlread classic | optimized | fast. However, as of v4.1.6 R2556, the fast option is also the default here.

Data queries are usually made in the xmlquery language implemented in the plugins. In placeholder actions you also can use XPATH.

In the menue Help -> More Help menu you will find further documentation and help for the priint: comet plugins and cScript. The help is available in German and English and must be installed in the folder Doku_deDE or Doku_enEN in the same folder as the priint: comet plugins. German versions of InDesign® automatically use the German version of the Help. If the German help is not available, the English version of the local help is used. All other language versions of InDesign® use the English version of the local help.

Current versions of the Help are available with each release of the plug-ins.

If the Help is not installed locally, the help installed at publishing.priint.com will automatically be used. This help is identical to the local English help. The online help requires a login for publishing.priint.com.

The standard help can be replaced by your own help. To do this, create an XML file named oem.xml in the folder of priint:comet plugins. Here's an example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Mac"?>
<oem>
    <helpfiles>
        <helpfile>
            <menu>ePaper</menu>
            <path>epaper.html</path>
            <id>1</id>
        </helpfile>
        <helpfile>
            <menu>blabla</menu>
            <path>http://www.hi13.de</path>
            <id>2</id>
        </helpfile>
        <helpfile>
            <menu>bild</menu>
            <path>$DESKTOP/Bilder/1.png</path>
            <id>3</id>
        </helpfile>
        <helpfile>
            <menu>bilder</menu>
            <path>$DESKTOP/Bilder</path>
            <id>10</id>
        </helpfile>
        <helpfile>
            <menu>-</menu>
            <path></path>
            <id>10</id>
        </helpfile>
    </helpfiles>
</oem>

For each helpfile element, a subentry with the name menu is then made in the menu Help -> More Help. Submenus within these menus are not supported. Menu separators are created with the name - (minus). The entries are sorted according to the id attribute.

The reference to the content of the menu is indicated in the attribute path. The following informations are allowed:

• [since v4.1 R23901] Complete file or folder paths. The paths may begin with a defined $ALIAS.
• Relative file or folder paths. The folder Doku_deDE/enEN or Doku of the print:´comet plugins or used as reference.
• [since v4.1 R23901] URLs. URLs must start with http: oder https:.

Please note: For the content of the help you have to take care of yourself in this case!

InDesign® does not natively support cross references. With the comet plugins, you can use crossreferences in your documents. A detailed description of crossrefs can be found here.

InDesign® supports drag and drop of images and URLs from Internet browsers. InDesign® then inserts the text of the URL. Using Mac OS X, images are inserted into the document as embedded images.

[Since Comet 3.2.1] With the help of the priint:comet plugins, the behavior of drag&drop of URLs and images from Internet browsers can be extended with cScripts as desired. A (relatively) simple use case is that images are inserted as Web Images with updating capability. See here for an example. But using more complex URLs, you may start building products or reorganizing whole documents by droping a Web address (URL) into a document (See here for an example).

Please note the following restrictions:

1. We can not "see" what content a URL has. Deciding what to do with a URL must be done in your scripts.
2. Images inside links (for example, <a href="my_link"> <img src = "my_image"> </a>) will always send the link, not the the image.

Which URLs you want to use can be defined in Panelstatement 122. The cScript function stored here will be called for each URL drop. In the function, you can set the action ID the URL should run. If no action should be run, leave it at 0. In that case, InDesign® will continue processing the URL as usual, i.e. insert the path into the document.

If you have set an action ID in panelstatement 122 and the function exists, the action will run on releasing the mouse button.

Here a table of all other global variables defined in the panelstatement.

Actions that run after placing URLs are defined in the table/file actions, like all other actions, and have to have the ClassID 40 there. The following table describes the additional global variables defined for these actions.

In order to minimize the effort to test URLs, it is recommended to check for classes of URLs. Here's an example of a panelstatement 122 script for URL checks.

Apply special URLs from www.priint.com

int main ()
{
	if (strstr (gURL, "http://www.priint.net"))
	{
		if (strstr (gURL, "?PageTemplate="))*gActionID = 20020;
		else if (strstr (gURL, "?ID="))*gActionID = 20021;
		else if (strstr (gURL, "?Book="))*gActionID = 20022;
	}
	
	return 0;
}

URL drop events are implemented as actions of ClassID 40.

This script defines a page template for the current page, or the current page and all its successors. Here's a valid URL:

http://www.priint.net/de/index.html?PageTemplate=300&All=1

int scan_int (char* url, char* name)
{
	int			res 	= 0;
	char	*	str 	= strstr (url, name);

	if (str) res = val (str+strlen (name));

	return res;
}

int main ()
{
	int 		pid 	= 0;
	int 		doAll 	= 0;

	// Scan URL
	pid= scan_int (gURL, "PageTemplate=");
	doAll= scan_int (gURL, "All=");
	if (!pid) return 0;

	if (doAll)page::set_info (0, gPage, "ids", pid);
	elsepage::set_info (0, gPage, "id", pid);

	return 0;
}

Building a product. Here's a valid URL:

http://www.priint.net/de/index.html?ID=300&ID2=10&ID3=0&TemplateID=43

#include "internal/products.h"

int scan_int (char* url, char* name)
{
	int 		res = 0;
	char 	* 	str = strstr (url, name);

	if (str) res = val (str+strlen (name));

	return res;
}

int main ()
{
	int 		id, id2, id3;
	char 		stringid[4096];
	int 		templateid;
	Product 	p 	= 0;
	ProductList	li 	= 0;
	int 		pageTemplate;

	// Scan URL
	id= scan_int (gURL, "ID=");
	id2= scan_int (gURL, "ID2=");
	id3 = scan_int (gURL, "ID3=");
	templateid= scan_int (gURL, "TemplateID=");
	if (!id)return 0;

	p = product::alloc ();
	product::set (p, kID, id);
	product::set (p, kID2, id2);
	product::set (p, kID3, id3);
	product::set (p, kPageitemid, templateid);

	li = productlist::alloc ();
	productlist::append (li, p, 1);

	page::get_info (0, gPage, "id", &pageTemplate);
	productlist::establish (li, 0, gPage, "", pageTemplate);

	productlist::release (li, 0);
	product::release (p);

	return 0;
}

Building a list of products. Here's a valid URL:

http://www.priint.net/index.html?Book=10&TemplateID=400

int append_product (ProductList pp, int id1, int id2, int id3, char * ids, int * pid)
{
	Product 	p;
	
	p = product::alloc (kScriptStack);
	product::set (p, kID, id1);
	product::set (p, kID2, id2);
	product::set (p, kID3, id3);
	product::set (p, kStringID, ids);
	product::set (p, kPageitemid, pid);
	
	productlist::append (pp, p);
}
	
int scan_int (char* url, char* name)
{
	int 		res = 0;
	char	* 	str = strstr (url, name);
	
	if (str) res = val (str+strlen (name));
	
	return res;
}
	
int main ()
{
	int 		bookid;
	int			templateid = 400;
	char		ppath[512];
	char		cmd[4096];
	XMLTree		tree = 0;
	ProductList	li = 0;
	int			id, id2, id3, pid, todelete;
	int			pageTemplate;
	
	// Scan URL
	bookid= scan_int (gURL, "Book=");
	templateid= scan_int (gURL, "TemplateID=");
	
	// Read data
	xmlquery::app_path (ppath);
	strcat (ppath, "/");
	strcat (ppath, file::uncurtain ("$DATAFILE"));
	
	tree = xmlquery::open (ppath, 0, 1);
	if (!tree) return 0;
	
	xmlquery::send (tree, "select bookID, ");
	xmlquery::isend (tree, bookid);
	xmlquery::send (tree, ", 0, toDelete, pageitemid");
	xmlquery::send (tree, " node books.productgroup");
	xmlquery::send (tree, " where productgroupID = ");
	xmlquery::isend (tree, bookid);
	xmlquery::send (tree, " node book orderby bookID");
	
	if (xmlquery::exec (tree))
	{
		li = productlist::alloc ();
	
		xmlquery::output (tree, kInt, &id);
		xmlquery::output (tree, kInt, &id2);
		xmlquery::output (tree, kInt, &id3);
		xmlquery::output (tree, kInt, &todelete);
		xmlquery::output (tree, kInt, &pid);
		while (xmlquery::fetch (tree))
		{
			if (!todelete) append_product (li, id, id2, id3, "", pid);
		}
	}
	
	xmlquery::close (tree);
	
	// Build
	page::get_info (0, gPage, "id", &pageTemplate);
	productlist::establish (li, 0, gPage, "", pageTemplate, templateid, kShowProgress);
	
	productlist::release (li, 1);
	
	return 0;
}

Image assets of an Adobe Experiance Manager (AEM) can be dragged and dropped as images into the document without prior AEM login. The images are stored as so-called Web Images in the document.

For complete documentation on placing assets from an AEM, click here.

ATTENTION: Customizing AEM assets at dropdown is possible because the AEM drop events do not contain binary image data up to at least v6.3 of the AEM. Should Adobe add binary data to the drag and drop of assets in newer versions of the AEM, the customization process can no longer be supported and will crash InDesign®!

To use Web Images, the plug-in URL Link with panel Web Images must be installed.

The following two scripts allow you to configure your installation so that images and InDesign® documents from an Internet browser can be placed directly from AEM in InDesign® documents:

• Dropping an image asset over a graphics frame replaces the image of the frame with its current settings. Otherwise, the image will be placed in a new frame of size 100 x 100 in the top left corner.
• When dropping InDesign® documents, the frames of the first page of the droped document are created on the current document page.

Catch the URLs from an AEM using panestatement 122

int main ()
{
	String 	url = string::alloc (gURL);

	if (	string::find (url, "/content/dam/") > 0
		||	string::find (url, "/asset/dam/") > 0)
	{
		*gActionID = 10000
	}

	return 0;
}

Apply the AEM-URL in an action of class 40

#include "internal/types.h"
	
int main ()
{
	String 		url 		= string::alloc (gURL);
	String 		ext 		= string::alloc ();
	ItemRef 	frame 		= item::alloc ();
	
	// Prepare URL
	string::prepare_aem_url (url, "admin", "admin");
	
	
	// Handle URL
	file::extender (ext, url);
	if (string::compare (ext, "indd") != 0)
	{
		if (frame::is_valid (gFrame))
		{
			//Replace existing image
			frame::image (gFrame, url, kPlaceLikeExisting);
		}
		else
		{
			//Create frame and insert image
			frame::create (frame,
							kRectangle,
							gDropX-36.0,gDropY-36.0, gDropX+64.0, gDropY+64.0,
							gPage,
							gLayer);
			frame::image (frame, url, 1);
			frame::fit_better (frame);
		}
	}
	else
	{
		//Copy/Paste frames of INDD
		string::replace (url, "http://", "aem@http://");
	
		//url is complete, ignore asset path, user and passwd
		file::aem_get_asset (url, "a", "u", "p", "$CACHE/xyz/tmp.indd");
		document::place_indesign ("$CACHE/xyz/tmp.indd",
							1, 0, 0,
							gPage,
							gDropX-36.0, gDropY-36.0);
	}
	
	return 0;
}

Note: In addition to INDD files, HTML files could also be dropped. The execution of Javascript scripts and cScript in the extracted files can also be solved with the method described above.

[Since Comet 3.2.2] In the panel menu of each library, there is an entry

    Export Library

Whether that entry is activated, and what happens when it is selected, is defined by the current data connection.

The global Panelstatement 123 determines whether the menu entry Export Library is activated for a particular library. The activation is checked separately for each channel. If the panelstatement is undefined or empty, the menu entries will always be deactivated.

If it is non-empty, it has to contain a valid cScript. In this script, the following two global variables are defined:

In this script, test the library's file path or other properties (see also Library functions in cScript). If the library can be exported, specify the required action's ID in *gActionID. If the library cannot be exported, assign 0 to *gActionID. The export menu then stays inactive.

Here a script that allows exporting all libraries located on my desktop (or folders on the desktop). Action 20023 will be used for the actual export.

int main ()
{
	*gActionID = 0;

	if (strstr (gLibPath, "/Users/paul/Desktop"))
	{
		*gActionID = 20023;
	}

	return 0;
}

Warning : The script will be run every time the panel menu of a library panel is opened. It should therefore not open modal dialogs.

Actions for exporting InDesign® libraries are defined in the table/file actions, and have to have the ClassID 42 there. The following table lists all additional global variables defined for these actions.

In these scripts, use the Library functions in cScript to export the library.

This example copies the library into a storage directory. For each library entry, a preview of the entry will be saved in a subdirectory. All information about the entries will be written into the logfile (for demonstration purposes). They can also use that information to fill database tables, of course.

int main ()
{
	Asset		asset	= 0;
	int			na		= 0;
	int			i;
	char		destPath[4000];
	char		path[4000];
	char		shortname[200];
	Image		img;
	
	if (!gLib) return 0;
	
	na = library::count_assets (gLib);
	if (na == 0) return 0;
	strcpy (destPath, "$DESKTOP/MyLibraries");
	
	// Duplicate library file
	file::duplicate (gLibPath, destPath, 0, 1, 1);
	
	// Delete preview folder
	sprintf (path, "%s/%s", destPath, file::shortname (shortname, gLibPath));
	file::remove (path);
	
	// For each entry ...
	for (i = 0; i < na; i++)
	{
		asset = library::asset::get_nth (gLib, i);
	
		wlog ("", "# Asset %d\n", i+1);
		wlog ("", "# Name : %s\n", library::asset::get_name (asset));
		wlog ("", "# Descr : %s\n", library::asset::get_description (asset));
		wlog ("", "# Usertype : %d\n", library::asset::get_usertype (asset));
		wlog ("", "# Creation : %s\n", library::asset::get_creationtime (asset, 98));
	
		// Fetch Preview and save to disk
		img = library::asset::get_preview (asset, 200);
		if (img)
		{
			sprintf (path, "%s/%s/%s.jpg",
					destPath,
					file::shortname (shortname, gLibPath),
					library::asset::get_name (asset));
			image::save (img, path);
			image::release (img);
		}
	
		library::asset::release (asset);
	}
	
	return 0;
}

[Since Comet 3.3 R3278, only for ODBC/OCI-Data connections] If no other definition for panelstatement 123 is provided, the plugins will use a standard mechanism for exporting libraries. This uses the same menu commands:

    Library Panel -> Export Library

The libraries are exported to the tables library and library_asset. The following two tables describe the database tables for mySQL. Exporting libraries requires nothing other than these tables being defined.

[since Comet 3.2.2] The comet plugins insert the following menu to the program menus

    File -> New -> Import Library...

Whether this entry is active and what happens when it is selected is determined by the current data connection.

The global Panelstatement 124 determines whether the menu entry Import Library should be activated. If the statement is undefined or empty, the menu entry will remain inactive.

If the panelstatement is non-empty, if has to contain a valid cScript.

You can chack with this script, if and which libraries a user is allowed to imort. If importable libraries are available for a user, set *gActionID to the ID of a defined action that can fetch those libraries when the menu is selected. If no libraries are available or the user is not allowed to install any, set *gActionID to 0.

Here a script that allows the user paul to import any library. The import will be handled by action 20024.

int main ()
{
	char 		usr [256];
	
	system::login (usr);
	*gActionID = 0;
	
	if (strcmp (usr, "paul") == 0)
	{
		*gActionID = 20024;
	}
	
	return 0;
}

Warning : The script wil be used each time the menu is opened. It should therefore not open any modal dialogs.

Actions that import InDesign® libraries are defined in the table/file actions and have to have the ClassID 43 there. For these scripts, no additional global variables are defined.

Use the Library functions in cScript, to open the library in these scripts.

This example collects all libraries in a storage directory and lets the user choose which one should be imported. Afterwards, the library is opened. Of course, that does not make sense to do in your scripts, you will want to at least copy the file somewhere first.

int main ()
{
	char		t1[412];
	char		t2[412];
	int			id= 0;
	int			ok;
	char		destPath[4000];
	char		path[4000];
	char		ext[256];
	IDTypeList	ids	= idtypelist::alloc ();
	int			i, ix= 0;
	
	// Find all libraries in the storage directory
	strcpy (destPath, "$DESKTOP/MyLibraries");
	for (i = 0; i < file::count (destPath); i++)
	{
		strcpy (path, file::get_nth (destPath, i));
		file::extender (ext, path);
		if (strcmp (ext, "indl") == 0)
		{
			idtypelist::append (ids, ix, 0, 0, path);
			ix = ix +1;
		}
	}
	
	strcpy (t1, "");
	strcpy (t2, "");
	
	// Select one library
	ok = askstring2 (
			t1, "", 0,		// Text1
			t2, "", 0,		// Text2
			0, "", "",		// Popup without DB-Content
			&id, "Libraries", 1,
			"Import Library", "", "",
			-1, -1,			// Limitation Text1 and Text2
			ids);			// List of library files
	if (!ok) return 0;
	
	// Open the library
	// Okay, this is somewhat strange. Usually, you would at least copy the file somewhere
	strcpy (path, idtype::stringid (idtypelist::get (ids, id)));
	library::open (path);
	
	return 0;
}

[Since Comet 3.3 R3278, only for ODBC/OCI-Connections] If no other definition for panelstatement 124 is provided, the plugins use a standard mechanism for importing libraries. The same menu entry is used:

    File -> New -> Import Library...

First, all available libraries are shown in a dialog. After selecting an entry and confirming, you will be asked for the location you want to store the library. Finally, the library will be restored as follows:

• If the target library is already opened, you will be asked, if you would like to update that library. if so, the existing file will be overwritten and InDesign®'s library view will be updated.
• If the library file already exists, you will be asked if you want to overwrite it. If so, the old file will be deleted and the new library will be opened after its creation
• After successful creation, the library file is opened in InDesign®.

Note: To restore a library, the entries of the library_asset table are not required. That table is allowed to be missing or incomplete in that case.