Database publishing starts with content management
Leaflet pulls data from your database to publish it cross-media, but how do
you get the data in the database and how do you manage them ?
Some do it with :
1. An existing database management system.
But this system can be limited to data processing while what you want
is a system that can process pictures, free formatted text etc…
2. An industry standard ERP.
But your ERP is probably optimized to process financial and logistic
streams and while some ERP can do about everything they may be heavy, expensive
and perhaps not user friendly.
3. A dedicated content management system.
If you are serious about database publishing this is the way to go,
but for some projects - and perhaps yours - it could be overkill.
When all those alternatives don't fit, CatEdit might be the
right way to go :
Easy content management for powerful database
publishing!
next >>
CatEdit is not another database
CatEdit is a shell to the database of your choice. CatEdit uses ADO (an enhanced
Microsoft protocol to communicate with the database engine), that's about
the only technical requirement.
The structure of the database is free. Ideally its design depends on the data
to publish : best results will be obtained when the database structure is
optimized for the kind of publications that you want to produce.
Database design is usually part of the database publishing project
CatEdit is open-ended
CatEdit screens are drawn in the " CatEdit Screen Designer "
instead of coded, so it is easy for a power user to let the
content management system evolve in parallel with his publishing needs.
Maintenance tasks are easy as most of the changes have to do with choosing
options in menus and the screen layout is WYSIWYG with real data available
while drawing.
CatEdit is multi-user. A shortcut on the desktop is enough in order to give
a workstation access to the CatEdit content management system.
Have a look at some configuration samples to convince yourself
that it can fit your own requirements.
CatEdit main features :
Manage data
- Manage all relevant data at one single place in mixed tabular
or form display.
- Display and associate pictures with the click of the mouse.
- Edit text and enrich it (through < html > tags) with a WYSIWYG
editor.
- Copy/paste tabular data to and from Excel for easier mass
editing.
- Put objects into categories that have specific attributes.
Output focused documents in real time
- Sort records
- Apply sophisticated filters in form or table views
- Fast select individual items, ranges or groups of items
to be injected in the document
- Output with the click of the mouse and watch the result
in Acrobat.
Produce publish ready documents by yourself
- PDF ready for flashing
- PDF ready for Internet, CD-Rom or e-mail
- Dynamic HTML pages generated from a faithful copy of the
database at the site.
CatEdit and Leaflet are tightly integrated
CatEdit is tightly coupled with Leaflet that is running in the background
when requesting outputs. Once the data have been updated, press the button
to get a real-time PDF preview of your document with the latest values.
The PDF can be draft or pre-press ready.
Thanks to the unique combination of CatEdit and Leaflet you
have now the opportunity to produce in a few seconds a document that is :
- up to date
- professional
- looking focused
CatEdit Web edition :
the comprehensive solution for cross-media publishing.
As Leaflet, the publishing engine behind CatEdit, can produce
the same documents cross-media, the CatEdit Web edition provides a comprehensive
solution for all your publishing needs : At the office and on the Web with
one single tool : CatEdit.
Additional functionality of the CatEdit Web edition includes
:
1. a smart replication engine of the database to publish to the web
site
2. a Leaflet Server runtime to be integrated to the web site in order
to publish HTML or PDF pages dynamically (ie on demand).
Smart replication engine
The heart of trouble-free Web publishing is an efficient replication
of (part of) the database maintained at the office in order to provide the
customer with a consistent view of your product and services offering.
Therefore CatEdit uses a smart replication engine capable
of :
- Replication of the database through the use of XML interfaces
for a minimal database downtime.
- Replication, resizing and reformatting of the pictures.
- Unattended operation with automatic retries in case of
poor line quality and success/failure reporting.
On demand dynamic publishing on the Web
The same Leaflet technology can be used for publishing Web
pages on demand in HTML or PDF format.
The leaflet Server runtime is integrated with the other parts
of the Web site application.
Leaflet generated HTML pages are typically shown in sub-frames
and they may include objects used in a web environment that make them interactive
like hotspots, input fields, buttons, forms etc….
They can receive and send back parameters.
- Input parameters will be used to personalize page content
(products to be displayed, prices, availability, language etc…)
- Output parameters will pass ordering (eg item number and
quantity) or page control information back to other modules of the web application
like e-commerce.
Leaflet is fast enough to publish those pages at Intranet
speeds.
Read more about the HTML option of
Leaflet
Get our white paper about CatEdit
The CatEdit screen designer
A CatEdit application can consist of an unlimited number of screens connecting
to various databases that provide an OLEDB link.
After the opening of a database, the design of a CatEdit screen begins with
drawing tables on the screen surface. From then on any data coming from those
tables can be used on the screen.
CatEdit screens are drawn
With the CatEdit screen designer the controls are drawn on
the screen surface. Most of the work consists of specifying attributes for
those objects concerning :
- The linking of the objects to the database contents and
to each other
- The look of the objects (font, size, color etc…)
- The editing rights
…
There is a palette of more than 20 drawing objects
With them you can draw all the objects needed for managing
the content of your database publishing project :
- Static and dynamic text of any length
- Static and dynamic Comboboxes and checkboxes
- Calendar assisted dates
- Editable plain or WYSIWYG HTML text
- Static and dynamic pictures
- Lookup and calculated fields
- Tabs in order to divide one screen into multiple layers
- Text or picture Buttons
- Data trees for easy display of hierarchical data
...
| Data can be showed in form or grid mode. Both modes can
be combined on one single screen. |
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Editing a screen is just a click away. Actual data remain
on screen while editing the screen, design is fast and accurate because
you see what you get.
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Scripting is there to give you full power and flexibility
For some objects, like buttons, scripting is available for
basic to complex actions when depressing the button. Scripts can also be written
for specific behavior when posting data to the database.
| This is standard Windows scripting and debugging
is built-in, so there is no extra language to learn. |
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A library of the most common scripts is available. Most
of the time editing a few words or lines is enough to get the script
working on a specific screen.
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Some common uses of scripts are :
- Actions before or after posting changes
- Actions before deleting records
- Calculated fields
- Go to another screen
- Print the screen
- Generate a PDF file with a Leaflet template
…
Finding a particular record is a breeze
Just put the cursor on (almost) any field and specify in the
search window the criteria and CatEdit will find the first matching record.
You can see which records correspond to the criteria
that is entered key by key.
Import/export from Excel is straightforward
| As many users know and like Excel as an efficient tabular data manipulation tool, CatEdit can easily import and export data from Excel with the click of the mouse.
If the CatEdit screen allows it, the user can copy all or part of the records of a grid to Excel.
Provided the column headings correspond he can also update or append records coming from Excel to the grid.
All data traffic goes through the clipboard
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Connect
to your database
Page-setting
Page-filling
Manual
adaptation and finishing
Publication
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Leaflet®
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...
just 5 simple steps to create a catalogue using Leaflet® |
Leaflet®,
CatEdit, ...