Products

A product describes the structure of content and consists of individual components. There are dedicated products for print media, which are assembled using layout templates, texts and images in layout planning, as well as products that are intended for more structured or digital publications.

Note: Since products are also based on the concept of Fabasoft Cloud Teamrooms, you can manage access permissions granularly on a user, role or team basis, similar to Teamrooms. For more information on Teamrooms, please refer to the general Fabasoft Cloud user help to the chapter "Collaborating with Teamrooms: new window".

Create Products

When creating a project, products may already have been generated automatically based on the standard products preconfigured in the project type. To create another product manually, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the project dashboard of the project in which you want to create the product.
2. Select the "Create product" action in the tool area.
3. Set the following metadata:
   • Name
     Defines the name of the product.
   • Product Type
     Defines the product type that specifies what the product consists of and how it can be published.
   • Publication Date
     Defines the planned date of the product's publication.
   • Issue
     You can set the issue number.
   • Tags
     You can tag your product with the tags preconfigured by administrators.
4. Click on "Next".

Note: To be able to create products, at least one product type must be available for selection. The creation of product types (see chapter “Introduction Product Types”) by administrators is therefore a necessary prerequisite to create products.

Edit Products

By default, when you navigate to a product from your Project Dashboard, it is displayed in the Planning view. Alternatively, you can switch to this area via the Planning tab. There, you have layout planning for layout-based publications and a structure tree that displays a hierarchical overview of the product.

Working with Layout Planning

Navigate to your product and make sure that you are at root or top product level in the structure tree. In the content area, the product is now displayed in the layout planning view. Grouped by components, the individual pages of your product are displayed with page numbers. If you are working with sections or status, these are displayed as (colored) bars above or below the page preview.

You can edit your product directly in layout planning. The following functions are available in layout planning:

• Add empty pages
  Clicking the "Plus" icon will insert a blank page inside the component.
• Add layout template
  By double-clicking on an empty page, you can add a predefined layout template to it.

Note: The layout planning view adapts to the selected level of the structure tree. For example, if you last clicked on the product name, the complete product is displayed. If you have selected a product component or area, the view is filtered to its contents. If, on the other hand, you last clicked on a layout template or image, its PDF preview will be displayed.

Working with Structure Planning

The structure tree is a hierarchical representation of your product. By clicking with the left mouse button on an element of the structure tree you can navigate within the product. Depending on the selected element, the layout view or PDF preview in the content area, as well as the actions available in the tool area are adapted to the current context.

The following functionality is available in the structure planning:

• Team
  In the product, the access authorizations from the project are automatically inherited initially. The "Team" action can be used to authorize additional users or user groups in the product.
• Structure
  You can display the structure tree of the product. Via the close symbol (X) in the column of the structure tree, you can hide it.
• Time travel
  You can view the product at specific points in time in the past.
• Note: More detailed information on time travel can be found in the Fabasoft Cloud user help in the "Time Travel: new window" chapter.
• Settings
  You can view and edit the metadata of the product.
• Create External Area
  You can create an external area at product level.
• Publish
  When you have finished planning your product, you can start your publication here. To do this, select a deployment format in the dialog box and confirm with the "Publish" action.
• Add Predefined Components
  If the standard components predefined by the product type are not sufficient for you, you can add further components.
  Note: Only the standard components and additional components defined in the product type are available to users for selection.
• Add Layout Template
  You can add layout templates to components.
• Add Area - Rubrics
  To structure a product further, you can "add areas" in components. In the corresponding dialog you can name them and assign a rubric.
  Note: Rubrics can be used to identify sequences of pages that belong together logically or in terms of content. Rubrics are managed by administrators in the Publishing configuration (see chapter "Rubrics").
• Add empty page
  You can add a blank page.
• Copy
  You can copy the selected element.
• Delete
  You can delete the selected element.
• Send link
  Send a link to the selected items using your local email client.
• Properties
  You can view and edit the metadata of the selected element.
• Edit
  Structure Tree elements can be "edited" directly in the web browser or in your favorite local desktop application, depending on the object class. For example, you can revise layout templates in your local InDesign desktop application. The installed cloud client automatically triggers the update of the cloud version with every save operation. XML documents, on the other hand, can be edited directly in the web browser using Xeditor.
• Note: For more information on editing Xeditor documents, see the DAM User Help chapter "Edit Xeditor Documents: new window".
• Read
  Users can view structure tree elements in the browser or in the local desktop application, depending on the object class, without the ability to modify them (see Edit).
• Download
  You can "Download" structure tree items for viewing and editing without automatic synchronization via the Cloud Client. The downloaded file is saved in the download folder - predefined in your personal browser settings.
• Upload
  You can overwrite objects in the structure plan with files from your local file system using the upload function.
• Swap with predecessor/successor
  You can rearrange and reorder elements in the tree structure. "Swap with predecessor" or "Swap with successor" allows you to swap an element with the preceding or following element on the same structure tree level and thus change the order of the components of a product or the layout templates within a component.
• Expand/collapse all
  For better orientation, you can collapse or expand the hierarchical tree elements (e.g. completed chapters).
• Search entry
  To quickly find an element in the structure tree, you do not have to expand all elements of the tree structure and search manually, but can also use the integrated search function.
• Add tags
  You can use tagging functionality for keywording.
• Add Content
  You can search Digital Asset Management for Xeditor, Word documents and images and add them to the layout template.
• Remove Assignment
  You can also remove added assets.
• Place content
  After you add XML content and/or images to the layout template, you can write them to the template using the Place Content action to trigger Adobe InDesign production.
• Write XML back
  After editing placed text locally in InDesign, you can write it back to the Xeditor document stored in the DAM. Unlike images, where the write-back of changes to the DAM is automatic, this must be triggered manually for XML.
• Start new process - status
  In the submenu of "Extras" you can "Start a new process" for elements of the structure tree. In the corresponding dialog you have the choice between ad-hoc processes and predefined BPMN processes (see chapter "Processes"). If a status change has been linked to the completion of tasks in the configuration for the selected process, the current status is displayed as a colored bar depending on the process progress for the corresponding layout template. The default statuses are "In progress" (yellow) and "Approved" (green). More details about statuses can be found in the administration help in chapter "Status".
• Close
  In the submenu of "Extras" you can "Close" elements of the structure tree. Afterwards, the object can no longer be edited and a symbol displays the closed-status.

Note:

• The range of functions depends on the element selected in the structure tree and its object class.
• You can find the actions in the tool area of the selected element or in its context menu.
• Components may be marked with a warning symbol in the structure tree. In this case, the maximum or minimum number of pages of the component is exceeded.

Publications

Products can be published as PDF documents, EPUBs, HTML, JSON and in other formats. A supplied process is available for releasing the publication, which can be replaced by a custom process if necessary.

Publish Products

To create a publication for a product, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the desired product.
2. Click the Publications > Publish action.

A new publication is created.

The created publication is stored in the "Publications" dashboard area and in the "Publications" tab of the product's properties. In addition, the publications are accessible via the "Publications" action of the product.

Note:

• The action is only available, if the currently used product type has a provisioning format assigned.

Other Areas within the Product Context

By default, you jump directly to the Planning area when you navigate to a product. Using the breadcrumbs in the title bar, you can jump to a product dashboard which, in addition to the "Planning" and "Publications" areas already described, also displays the "Further Content", "External Areas" and "Assigned Assets" areas described below as widgets.

Further Content

Content that you want to use exclusively within the current product and do not want to reuse, you do not have to manage in the DAM. You can use the "Further Content" area for this purpose. To add content there, you have the following options:

Add Entry

• New
  You can create objects assigned to the product. To do so, select the object class (e.g. Xeditor document or Microsoft Word document) in the corresponding catalog, assign a name and confirm with "Next". You can then "Edit" the object.
  Note: Alternatively, you can find the action "Create Further Content" in the tool area.
• Upload
  You can "Upload" files from your local file system and thus assign them to the product.
• Paste Duplicate
  You can insert objects (e.g. documents, images, folders) from your clipboard as duplicates and thus assign them to the product. If you edit the inserted object afterwards, the object remains unchanged in the original location, you only change the duplicate. You can add objects to your clipboard within the Web Client by right-clicking and "Copy" or "Cut" and move them within the Web Client using "Paste Duplicate". Alternatively, you can also copy files from your local file system in your clipboard and upload them in the product using "Paste Duplicate".
• Paste Shortcut
  You can paste objects from your clipboard with "Paste Shortcut". This creates a shortcut to the object in the original location. Links to objects are visualized by their own icon. When you "Edit" a linked object, you always edit the object in the origin folder.
• Find
  You can use the search function to search the web client for objects using search filters and search operators. Mark your desired results and assign them to the product by clicking "Next".

You can use the context menu command "Register as Digital Asset" to transfer your content created in the "Further Content" area to the DAM for media-neutral management. The asset's origin location is then changed to the target asset shelf selected in the dialog.

Note: For more information on creating and editing Xeditor documents, see the DAM User Help chapter "Xeditor: new window".

External Areas

This tab displays the external areas you have access right to and that have been created at the level of the current product.

Create External Areas

An external area can be created at the level of projects or products. To create an external area, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to your project or product.
2. Click on the "Create External Area" action.
3. Enter a name.
4. Confirm with "Next".
5. You can now authorize additional external members or teams (e.g. Publishing users (external)) via the "Team" action.

Note:

• This area is only displayed if external areas exist on the product level.
• In the external area, external members can also create Xeditor documents and the registration in the DAM can be triggered. For more information, see the separate document of the DAM user help in the chapters "Xeditor: new window" and "(Re)register Assets: new window".

Assigned Assets

The Assigned Assets area provides you with a link to Digital Asset Management. The following actions are available in the tool area:

• Add Assets
  This action lets you search your Digital Asset Management for assets that are already registered and assign them to the product.
  Note: Alternatively, you can use the search bar in the content area.
• Create Asset
  You can create cloud objects and then register them as assets in the DAM.
• Upload
  You can upload files and then register them as assets in DAM.