MDM Publisher in Depth

SAP AG Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16 69190 Walldorf Germany +49 1805 34 34 34 fax +49 1805 34 34 20

SAP NetWeaverMaster Data Management (MDM)

MDM PublisherReference Guide

Release: MDM 7.1 SP09August 24, 2012

ii MDM Publisher Reference Guide

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MDM Publisher Reference Guide iii

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................. 7Welcome ........................................................................................ 9

Prerequisites............................................................................... 9Basic Concepts ............................................................................ 10

Families and the Family Hierarchy ............................................. 10Publications and Presentation Hierarchies ................................. 11Sections, Spreads, and Pages ................................................... 11Items and Objects ..................................................................... 12

Items ..........................................................................................................12Objects ......................................................................................................13Object Snapshots .....................................................................................14

Repository Preparation ................................................................. 15Step 1: Verify The Families Table Exists .................................... 15Step 2: Refine Product Families................................................. 15Step 3: Add Data Fields to the Families Table ........................... 15Step 4: Create Masks of the Records to Publish ......................... 15

Publisher Steps ............................................................................ 16Step 1: Create Default Layouts .................................................. 16Step 2: Create the Publication ................................................... 16Step 3: Arrange the Publication ................................................. 16Step 4: Publish.......................................................................... 16Step 5: Create an Index ............................................................ 16

Part 1: Guided Tour ............................................................... 17Starting and Connecting to a Repository ........................................ 19

Starting Publisher...................................................................... 19Setting Up Unencrypted Repository Connections ....................... 19Setting Up Secure Repository Connections ................................ 20

MDM Publisher Main Window ....................................................... 21The Toolbar .............................................................................. 21Main Window Panes ................................................................. 22

Hierarchy Pane .........................................................................................22Families Pane ...........................................................................................23Spreads Pane ...........................................................................................23Master Pages Pane ..................................................................................23Objects Pane ............................................................................................24Spread Editor ............................................................................................24Layout Tabs: Node, Workspace, Object Properties ................................25Template Tree Pane .................................................................................25Image Links Pane .....................................................................................26Objects Snapshot .....................................................................................26Defining Perspectives ...............................................................................26

iv MDM Publisher Reference Guide

Part 2: Creating Default Layouts ...........................................29Layout Properties .......................................................................... 31

A Customized Layout for Family Objects .................................... 31Absolute and Conditional Properties .......................................... 32

Working in Layout Mode ................................................................ 33Understanding the Anatomy of a Layout..................................... 33

Layout Items .............................................................................................33Default Family Layout ...............................................................................34Node Items Tab ....................................................................................35Attributes in Layout Item Lists ..................................................................36Resetting and Inheriting Property Values ................................................37Layout Processing and Layout Elements ................................................38

Setting Default Layout Properties ............................................... 38Promoting and Demoting Items ................................................................40Promoting Layout Items............................................................................41Grouping Common Information ................................................................42Demoting Layout Items.............................................................................43Demoting Images ......................................................................................45Combining Related Items .........................................................................45

Creating Pivot Tables ................................................................ 47Example ....................................................................................................48Stack Pivot ................................................................................................49Horizontal Pivot .........................................................................................50Vertical Pivot .............................................................................................51Nesting and Combining Pivots .................................................................52Advanced Use of Pivot Tables .................................................................52

Representing Qualified Table Data ............................................ 53Managing Attribute Ratings........................................................ 54Formatting Text and Image Values ............................................ 55

Managing Style Inheritance ......................................................................57Arranging the Look-and-Feel of the Table .................................. 57Setting Multilingual Settings ....................................................... 58

Part 3: Creating The Publication ...........................................59Creating Publications .................................................................... 61

Creating a Publication ............................................................... 61Working in Publication Mode ......................................................... 63

Anatomy of a Publication ........................................................... 63Comparing Family and Publication Hierarchies........................... 64Understanding Inheritance in Publication Mode .......................... 65Using Masks ............................................................................. 66Publication Operations .............................................................. 67Composing the Spreads ............................................................ 69Creating a Layout Template....................................................... 71Arranging the Catalog ............................................................... 71

Removing Empty Pages ...........................................................................72Using Freestyle Text on a Page ...............................................................72Managing Image Links (Links Pane)........................................................72

MDM Publisher Reference Guide v

Part 4: Publishing to InDesign .............................................. 75Publishing a Publication ................................................................ 77Creating an Index ......................................................................... 79

Extract Indexed Data Sources ................................................... 79Creating and Editing the Index ................................................... 79Assigning Styles to the Indexed Keys ........................................ 80Publishing the Index .................................................................. 81

Part 5: Advanced Topics....................................................... 83Advanced Pivoting ........................................................................ 85

Horizontal Pivots and Column Duplication .................................. 85Pivoting Images ........................................................................ 87Stack Pivots and Partitions: A Comparison ................................ 87

Advanced Layout Operations ........................................................ 89Using the Spread Pane ............................................................. 89Incorporating Images in Text Objects ......................................... 89Merging Cells in a Table ............................................................ 91Using Qualified Lookup Tables .................................................. 93

Part 6: Reference .................................................................. 97Conditional Property Types ........................................................... 98Layout Item Properties .................................................................. 99Style Properties .......................................................................... 115Glossary ..................................................................................... 118

MDM Publisher Reference Guide 7

INTRODUCTION

This part of the reference guide provides an overview of MDMPublisher, including its distinctive features, terminology, and overalldesign philosophy.


WelcomeSAP MDM enables you to create visually stimulating print catalogs thatretain their connections to ever-changing product data. MDM Publisheris a powerful tool for single-source, cross-media catalog publishing.With MDM Publisher, you create and manage catalogs that contain therich product data stored in an MDM repository. Key catalog creation andmanagement features include:

The use of product families that are based, by default, on thetaxonomy structure of the repository. Rather than tying cataloglayouts to specific product records, layouts in MDM publications arebased on these product families, making it easy to add, delete, ormove products in a catalog.A partition feature, used to group the records of product familiesaccording to attribute values and other data elements, such aslookup tables and text attributes.Easy and intuitive catalog layout and design tools.Separate storage of images, PDF files, and other data that apply toall records in a family.Connection to “live” MDM repository data, which facilitates theupdate of catalogs whenever new product information is available.Web and print publishing capabilities.Options for producing multilingual publications, for use by differentgroups of users.

PREREQUISITES

Before you begin working with SAP MDM Publisher, be sure that yourMDM repository has been created and that most or all of the initial datahas been added.The following software must already be installed:

Master Data Server (MDS)MDM Layout Server (MDLS)MDM PublisherMDM Indexer

If problems occur, see SAP NOTE 1290736 to troubleshoot issueswhen starting to work with the MDM Publisher.

10 MDM Publisher Reference Guide

Basic ConceptsFAMILIES AND THE FAMILY HIERARCHY

A family (or product family) is a group of records that are related bycommon fields or attribute values. Families are organized hierarchicallyin a tree, usually according to the underlying repository taxonomy. Eachindividual family appears as a leaf node in the tree. Attributes within afamily can be shared through inheritence.The following is an example of a family hierarchy:

Each family in the family hierarchy is stored as a record in theFamilies table of the MDM repository. You can add fields to theFamilies table to store general family data, such as images, textblocks, and other information that applies to a product family as a wholerather than to the individual product records.The family hierarchy is dynamic, meaning that as product records areadded, deleted, and edited in the MDM repository, MDM automaticallyadds, deletes, and repopulates families in the family hierarchy.


PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATION HIERARCHIES

Publications are the catalog documents created by MDM Publisher. Youcan create, open, close, and print them just like any document.MDM organizes publications in hierarchies, rather than as single,continuous, scrolling documents. The leaf-node item in a publication’shierarchy is a presentation, which can represent either a family or anindividual record. It contains the actual product information that will bepublished in the catalog. For this reason, a publication’s structure iscalled its presentation hierarchy.Unlike the family hierarchy, you can organize the presentation hierarchyto meet the specific needs of each publication. For example, for a singlecatalog, you may want to publish only certain sections, or divide it into“chunks” so that different people can work on the overall publicationsimultaneously. You add, delete, move, and split nodes to suit thecatalog that you want to produce.The following is an example of a presentation hierarchy:

SECTIONS, SPREADS, AND PAGES

Like chapters in a book, an MDM publication is made up of individualsections, represented by the section nodes in the presentationhierarchy. Each section is made up of individual pages and spreads,each of which can contain one or more presentations. You can add,delete, and reorder sections, and to move presentations from onesection to another.You can view a section by selecting it. Its pages and spreads aredisplayed in the Spreads pane and in the Spread editor of the MDMPublisher main window.


The following figure is an example of the pages and spreads of aselected section:

ITEMS AND OBJECTS

The information that appears on the pages and spreads of an MDMpublication is determined by the items and objects that belong to itspresentations. Although the terms items and objects seeminterchangeable, they mean different things in MDM Publisher:

Items are the fields, attributes, and qualifiers that belong to therecords of a specific family or presentation.Objects are the layout elements (text blocks, tables, images, and soon) that appear on the actual spreads of a publication.

ItemsMDM compiles the list of items for a family or presentation by collectingschema information from the tables of the MDM repository, as illustratedin the following example:


The main table Main includes the qualified lookup field LocalPrice, which looks into the Prices qualified table.

The qualified table Prices includes the field Region and thequalifier [Price].

The families table Families includes the family data fields Logoand Features.

Note that items are not directly related to actual record values. Instead,they work on the metadata level and let you create standard layouts foryour publication.In MDM Publisher, you can customize the placement and appearance ofevery item in a family by defining the layout properties for each item.

ObjectsMDM Publisher supports two classes of objects:

Family or presentation objects. The table, text, and image objectsthat MDM Publisher generates from record data associated with afamily or presentation.Non-family objects. Text blocks, drawings, and images that you adddirectly to a spread.

MDM generates family and presentation objects by getting records fromthe MDM repository and then applying the various layout propertiesdefined for the items in those records. The resulting objects aredisplayed in MDM Publisher, as illustrated in the following figure:

Non-family objects can be added from a source within the MDMrepository (such as an image that belongs to a separate product family)or from an external file.Once objects have been added to a page or spread, use the Spreadeditor to size and place each object precisely on the pages of thepublication.


Object SnapshotsOnce MDM Publisher generates objects for a presentation, it creates asnapshot of those objects and stores it with the presentation. From thatpoint forward, Publisher populates the spread according to the objectsnapshot, instead of regenerating objects from the “live” records in therepository. This is to protect the publication design from changing everytime an update is made to the connected repository.Whenever you do want to include the repository changes in yourspreads, you can instruct MDM Publisher to update the snapshots.


Repository PreparationThe following steps must be completed before you begin using MDMPublisher.

STEP 1: VERIFY THE FAMILIES TABLE EXISTS

To create publications, a Families table is needed. A repository’sFamilies table is created automatically when the repository is created,but it may be deleted at a later time, in which case a new Familiestable must be added. For more information about the Families table,see the MDM Console Reference Guide.

STEP 2: REFINE PRODUCT FAMILIES

The content of an MDM publication is derived from the families definedin the family hierarchy of an MDM repository. The default familyhierarchy is its main table taxonomy, meaning that, in most cases, thefamily hierarchy in a repository starts out identical to its categoryhierarchy. While categories are ideal for organizing records in arepository, you will probably want to group records differently for yourpublications.For more information about refining families, see the MDM DataManager Reference Guide.

STEP 3: ADD DATA FIELDS TO THE FAMILIES TABLE

You can add fields to the Families table. This is efficient when youhave data that is related to families themselves instead of singlerecords. Such fields may be family images, a family description, or otherdata.For more information about adding fields to the Families table, seethe MDM Console Reference Guide.

STEP 4: CREATE MASKS OF THE RECORDS TO PUBLISH

You can create MDM record masks to reorganize an MDM repositoryinto any number of custom virtual repositories. Using masks can helpyou filter only the repository records you want to use in a specificpublication.Using masks, you can create sets of different records that can bepublished as custom catalogs.For more information about creating and using masks, see the MDMData Manager Reference Guide


Publisher StepsThe following steps outline the basic process of creating a publicationwith MDM Publisher. Each step is later expanded into its own chapter ofthis guide.

STEP 1: CREATE DEFAULT LAYOUTS

Default layouts are the templates used to present family data in yourpublicationsFor more information, see “Working in Layout Mode” on page 33.

STEP 2: CREATE THE PUBLICATION

Create a publication document, which fills in your layouts with actualproduct data.For more information, see “Creating Publications” on page 61.

STEP 3: ARRANGE THE PUBLICATION

Customize the layouts, data flow, and pagination for your catalog.For more information, see “Working in Publication Mode” on page 63.

STEP 4: PUBLISH

Once your publication is ready to publish, you have options for printingindividual sections or the entire publication to the Adobe InDesignplugin.For more information, see “Publishing a Publication” on page 77.

STEP 5: CREATE AN INDEX

You can use the MDM Indexer plugin to automatically create an indexfor the publication.For more information, see “Creating an Index” on page 79.


PART 1: GUIDED TOUR

This part of the guide lists the prerequisite tasks for creating yourpublication in MDM Publisher. It explains how to start MDM Publisherand provides an in-depth description of the panes and main features ofthe MDM Publisher user interface (UI).


Starting and Connecting to a RepositoryA repository must be loaded on a running Master Data Server to haveMDM Publisher connect to it.

STARTING PUBLISHER

To start Publisher and connect to a repository:1. Double-click the MDM Publisher icon.

The Connect to MDM Repository dialog box appears.

2. Select the desired MDM repository, the language layer to work in, andtype your user name and password.

3. Click OK.Publisher is then connected to the repository.

NOTE If an MDM repository does not appear in the list, you mustadd it by clicking the Browse button “…” to set up the connection (seethe following sections for more information).

NOTE If a repository’s TCP/IP port number changes, you must re-add the repository because the old entry will load whatever repositoryis loaded on the old TCP/IP port.

SETTING UP UNENCRYPTED REPOSITORY CONNECTIONS

To set up an unencrypted connection to an MDM repository:1. In the Connect to MDM Repository dialog, click the Browse button “…”.

The Choose Repository dialog box opens.

2. Select the Master Data Server on which the repository is running.

If the Master Data Server has not been previously connected toPublisher, type the name or IP address of its host, or click the Browsebutton to select it from a list.

NOTE If the Master Data Server is configured to listen on non-"MDM default" ports, you must type in the port number after the MasterData Server name, using the format ServerName:PortNumber (forexample, ServerXYZ:54321). Otherwise, Data Manager will beunable to connect to the Master Data Server.

3. Select the repository (you may have to click the “Refresh” button nextto the Repository field to load the repository names).

4. Click OK.The repository is added to the Connect to MDM Repository list.


SETTING UP SECURE REPOSITORY CONNECTIONS

Secure connections are only possible for repositories loaded on SSL-enabled Master Data Servers (for more information, see “Network andCommunication Security” in the MDM 7.1 Security Guide).

To set up a secure connection to an MDM repository:1. In the Connect to MDM Repository dialog box, click “(browse).2. In the Choose Repository dialog box, do the following:

a. Select the SSL-enabled Master Data Server.

b. Click Secure Connection.

c. Enter the paths to the client Key File and SSL Library.

3. Click the “Refresh” button next to the Repository field and select therepository you want to connect securely to.

4. Click OK.The repository is added to the Connect to MDM Repository list.

In the Connect to Repository dialog box, a lock icon similar to the oneshown below indicates that communications with the selectedrepository will be established on a secure connection.


MDM Publisher Main WindowThe main window of MDM Publisher includes a combination of panesand sub-panes, which can be configured and saved in separateperspectives. This section describes the toolbar controls and thedifferent panes available in the main window.The following is a sample configuration of the MDM Publisher mainwindow:

Depending on the task that you are performing, a different configurationof panes is displayed by default. For example, the first time you definethe family layout of the individual families in the family hierarchy, theFamily Hierarchy pane is displayed at the top left, with the FamilyObjects pane towards the right. If you are working on the actualpublication, the Family Hierarchy pane will be the PresentationHierarchy, and the Family (tree) pane will display the Family Hierarchyinstead.

THE TOOLBAR

The toolbar contains a collection of lists, fields, and buttons.Toolbar controls include, from left to right:

Publication list. Contains the Family Hierarchy and all publicationsavailable on the Master Data Layout Server for the connectedrepository. Only one publication can be open at a time.Zoom options. Provides zoom levels of the Families,Presentation/Family Objects, and Spread panes.


Tree options. Expands or collapses branches of the selected tree.Redirection list. Contains all the qualified lookup fields available forpublication. Selecting a field opens a dialog box that lets you choosehow to display subrecords of qualified data associated with thequalified lookup field.Context Colors button. Toggles the display of context colors in theSpread pane. Context colors indicate which pivots have been appliedto a layout table.Annotation button. Toggles the display of annotated objects on theSpread editor pane. An annotated object can be displayed/hiddenwithout having to recalculate the object.Measurement toolbar.Specifies the exact placement and size of objects on a spread in theSpread editor, based on axis, width, and height values. To move thetoolbar, click View Measurement Floating.

MAIN WINDOW PANES

This section describes the full list of available panes. The next sectionexplains how to define and save different configurations of panes forreuse in performing specific tasks.

Hierarchy PaneThe pane at the top left of the main window contains a tree of thehierarchy selected from the Publication list in the toolbar. In Layoutmode, the pane displays the Family Hierarchy of the connected MDMrepository. In Publication mode, the pane displays the PresentationHierarchy.The default structure of a family hierarchy is a direct result of thepartitioning defined in MDM Data Manager. All new products with thesame data partition values are added automatically to the correct family,without needing to assign products to the families.Nodes are displayed in the tree as follows:

Nodes that are the result of family partitioning have a pinkrectangular icon to the left of the node name.Nodes whose layout properties have been set directly (rather thanhaving been inherited) have a small pink square to the left of thenode icon.An internal node or a leaf-node family that does not contain main-table product records is highlighted in gray.


Selecting a node in the Hierarchy pane updates the rest of the paneswith the information for the selected node. You can also right-click anode to select hierarchy-related operations.For example, select Set Record Mode Search to set the searchselections that correspond to the selected node in the Family Hierarchy.This lets you conveniently identify the product records associated witheither the selected leaf-node family or the set of families that arechildren of the selected internal node.

Families PaneIn Presentation mode – when your publication hierarchy is displayed inthe Hierarchy pane – the hierarchy of the families in your publication isdisplayed in the Families pane. You can add content to a publication bydragging nodes from this pane into the Presentation Hierarchy pane.

Spreads PaneYou can perform the following actions in the Spreads pane:

Control the flow of presentations over multiple spreads and pagesAdd new pagesRemove empty pagesReorder pagesRepaginate sections

The Spreads pane displays thumbnails of the pages and spreads of thecurrent publication. A spread is a combination of two facing pages. Thethumbnails contain shaded areas that represent the layout positions ofspecific families on the page/spread. Hovering the mouse above ashaded area displays a tooltip that gives the name of the family orpresentation that it represents.Selecting a hierarchy node displays a red box on the correspondingthumbnail in the Spreads pane. This red box corresponds to the displayin the Families, Objects and Spread panes. You can move the box onthe spread, and resize it to control the zoom.

Master Pages PaneThe Master Pages pane, below the Spread pane, contains thumbnailsof the master pages for the publication. You can select a thumbnail toadd or edit non-family objects (text, drawings, and images addedmanually to a spread) on the master pages of the publication.You can choose to hide or display master page objects, spread-by-spread or section-by-section.Dragging a master-page thumbnail to a location in the Spreads paneadds new pages to that part of the publication.


Objects PaneThe Family Objects or Presentation Objects pane displays a preview ofeither the family or the presentation objects that belong to the nodecurrently selected in the Hierarchy pane. These objects reflect thelayout properties defined for the items of the selected family orpresentation, listed in the Node (Properties) pane at the bottom.Right-clicking an object displays a shortcut menu that lists theoperations that you can perform on the selected object, such as [list afew examples in a bulleted list]Family object data is cached on the Master Data Layout Server at thetime MDM Publisher is accessed. Pressing F5 refreshes this cache andupdates family objects with any repository changes that have occurredsince the current MDM Publisher session began.

Spread EditorThe Spread editor is a WYSIWYG canvas on which you can preciselyplace and size each presentation object on the page and spread of yourpublication. The way your presentation appears in the Spread pane isthe way it will look on paper.A spread initially displays the layout captured in the latest “snapshot” ofits corresponding presentation objects. You can add non-family objectsto a spread by creating them from within MDM Publisher or by draggingthem from an external source.You can rearrange, delete, and resize each of the objects appearing ona spread, independently of the other objects. The following visualindicators are used in the Spread editor:


Layout Tabs: Node, Workspace, Object PropertiesAt the bottom right of the MDM Publisher main window is a set oftabbed panes that display the layout properties defined for the family orpresentation node selected in the Hierarchy pane. These propertiesdefine how the record items of the selected node will be transformedinto objects. As you make changes to the layout properties in thedifferent tabs of this pane, MDM Publisher updates the Objects paneaccordingly.Depending on the tab that you choose along the bottom of the pane,you can display the fields and attributes that belong to the records of theselected family or presentation. You use the tabs to group the items asfollows:

Node. The family fields and the main table fields, qualifiers andattributes of the layout items.Workspace. The global settings for the publication, such as pagesetup details and the paragraph and character styles available to theitems in the publication.Object Properties. The specific properties and values of theselected object.

Template Tree PaneThe Template Tree pane is used to store your presentation spreads astemplates. The templates can be stored hierarchically, with leaf nodesrepresenting the individual templates. You can provide organizationalstructure to the tree by adding, deleting, moving, and renaming internalsection nodes.

NOTE When applying a template of one category to anothercategory, to avoid mismatches in the layout ensure that the generallayout size is similar.

To save a template:1. With the Presentation Hierarchy displayed, select the node of the

presentation to lay out.2. In the Spread pane, make the changes to be used for the presentation.

3. Right-click in the Spread pane and click Save as Template. Thetemplate – named according to the presentation – is saved in theTemplate Tree.

4. To apply the template to another category:a. Display the presentation in the Spread pane.

b. Drag the selected template into that pane.


c. Right-click the template and click either Apply Template ToConnected Items Only, or Apply Template To All Items, asappropriate.

Image Links PaneThe Image Links pane displays the properties of the selected image in alayout object. To display the pane, click View Pane Image Links.This pane is useful for viewing the image information needed forpreparing the catalog for printing and publication.

Objects SnapshotThe (Presentation or Family) Objects Snapshot pane displays all objectsthat have been deleted from a presentation, either by using the Deletecommand or as a result of a content refresh (calculation). Objects notcurrently used in the spread are indicated by a red icon in the corner ofthe object in the Spread paneRight-clicking in the Objects Snapshot pane displays a shortcut menuthat lists the operations you can perform on the selected object.

Defining PerspectivesRarely, if ever, will you need to use all the panes in the MDM Publishermain window at the same time. Instead, you will use only those panesthat are relevant to the task that you are performing. Once you choosethe set of panes that are relevant to what you do, you can save theconfiguration as a perspective for later use.For example, when creating default layouts for family objects, you donot need any of the spread-related panes, such as Spreads pane, andSpread editor. Hide the panes that you do not need and choose ViewPerspectives Save Perspective to create a perspective that you willuse for Layout mode. The next time you begin an MDM Publishersession or need to work in Layout mode, you can select the savedperspective from the View menu.Common publication tasks and their related panes are listed in thefollowing table. You can use the lists as starting points for creating yourown perspectives:

Task Related Panes

Customizing layouts Hierarchy paneObjects paneNode tabWorkspace Properties pane


Composing spreads Hierarchy paneSpreads paneSpread editorTemplate Tree pane

Building publications Hierarchy paneFamilies pane


PART 2: CREATING DEFAULT LAYOUTS

This section shows how to create templates for family data in yourpublications.


Layout PropertiesA Layout is a visual representation of an MDM product family’s records.It is created automatically by MDM Publisher by applying layoutproperties to the records which belong to the product family in the MDMrepository. The default layout for a product family is a single table with a row foreach record in the product family and a column for each record andfamily data field.To refine this table into a more attractive and readable layout – such asin the following example – you need to customize the layout propertiescontained in the MDM Publisher Node and Workspace tabs, in the mainwindow of MDM Publisher.

A Family Layout

Family layouts are used as the basis for the presentations you will lateradd to the spreads in your publications.

A CUSTOMIZED LAYOUT FOR FAMILY OBJECTS

Use the Layout properties to customize the appearance of a familylayout:

Hide unwanted field or attribute data.Move selected data out of the table.Pivot the table on one or more items.Group common values among records.Combine item data into a single object.Format text values with customizable styles.


As you save changes to layout properties, you can immediately see theeffects on the family layout in the Family Objects pane.You can customize layout properties for each individual leaf-node in thefamily hierarchy.

NOTE For greater convenience, you can use inheritance tocustomize layout properties on higher-level nodes (such as internalnodes or the root node) and let each descendant family receive theseproperties automatically. Inheritance is a powerful tool for creatingflexible, reusable layouts.

ABSOLUTE AND CONDITIONAL PROPERTIES

There are two types of properties: absolute and conditional.Absolute properties are applied globally, regardless ofcircumstance. Most layout properties are absolute.Conditional properties are applied only if certain conditions are met.The values of conditional properties are applied on an item-by-itembasis.

For descriptions of conditional properties, see “Conditional PropertyTypes” on page 98 .


Working in Layout ModeYou use Layout mode to define the family layout of each individualfamily in the family hierarchy. When you define family layouts in Layoutmode, MDM displays a preview of how each family layout will publish tothe Web and to paper. The set of tabs along the bottom of the MDMPublisher main window allows you to view, edit, and restructure anyaspect of the family layout.In Layout mode, you can set layout properties at the default item level,the root node, internal nodes, or on a leaf-node family-by-family basis todefine the layout of each family, and also to restructure the tables ofproduct records using a table pivoting tool.

UNDERSTANDING THE ANATOMY OF A LAYOUT

A family layout contains a set of items that provide different types ofinformation and which are rearranged into different layout elements, asdescribed in the following sections.The panes that are needed for the layout process are as follows:

Family HierarchySpreadsFamily Objects

SpreadFamily Objects SnapshotTemplate Tree

Node Items tabYou may want to close any other open panes.The following sections explain the main elements used in creatinglayouts for your publication.

Layout ItemsThe layout items in a family layout contain both family information andinformation for each object, consolidated from the records of twodifferent source tables within the repository, the Families table and theMain table:

Families table. The family data that applies to all the productrecords in the family is stored in the fields of the Families table;these items contain the same value for every product record in thefamily.Main table. The information for each product in the family is stored inthe fields, qualifiers, and attributes of the main-table product records;these items usually contain a different value for each product record.


Among the layout items from the main table, the partition items – thefields and attributes that define the family itself – also contain the samevalue for every product record, just as the items from the Familiestable.You can access the value of lookup table fields (other than the lookup-table display fields), which are extensions of the main-table productrecords through the main table / lookup table relationship. You do thisby flagging the lookup table files as alternative display fields in the MDMConsole.The set of layout items from the Families table and the set of layoutitems from the main table are combined to form a single collection oflayout items for the family layout.

Default Family LayoutBy default, a family layout consists of a single table that contains all theinformation within the family, with all the layout items arranged ascolumns of the table as in a spreadsheet.This is the starting point for any family layout process, before any layoutspecifications have been changed from their default values. In thisdefault layout, each individual layout item (regardless of the sourcetable) is just a column in the single table layout of product records forthe family, as illustrated in the following figures:

Layout Items

Family fields are, in effect, grafted onto the set of fields, qualifiers, andattributes of the main-table product records, to create a virtual record foreach product that consists of: (1) the family-specific family data and (2)the record-specific object information.


A Default Family Layout

The columns of the table layout can include layout items of any datatype, including images, text blocks and other data types.

Node Items TabA list of layout items appears in a number of places in the panes ofLayout mode, including the Items, Table Layout, and Ordering tabs inthe Node tab at the bottom of the main window. These item lists includethe family fields and the main-table fields, qualifiers, and attributes.

List of Layout Items


In the item lists, MDM:Appends the item name as follows:

[Fam]: family fields

[ADF]: alternative display fields (non-display fields)

[Rel]: relationship fields

[Qual]: qualified table fields and qualifiers

Highlights attribute names in italics

Highlights layout items that have been hidden with the Hide ItemEntirely property in grayHighlights attribute names linked below the selected node in blue

NOTE In the Items and the Table Layout tabs, you can use thecontext menu on any item to sort the items in a number of differentways.

NOTE Clicking on any item in the Family Objects paneautomatically selects the same item in the list of the active tab.

NOTE In the Ordering tab, layout items that have been hiddenwith the Hide Item Entirely property or that are used as stackor horizontal pivots are not included in the item list.

NOTE You can select all items in a list by pressing Ctrl+A.

Attributes in Layout Item ListsUnlike the sets of family fields, main table fields, and qualifiers – whichare always the same for every product record in the family – the set ofattributes that appears in layout item lists varies according to theselected node in the family hierarchy. Specifically, the set of attributesincludes only those that are visible from the selected node. An attributeis visible if it is:

Linked to or inherited by the selected node (“linked at orabove”).

Linked to a category directly beneath the selected node(“linked below”). These attributes are highlighted in blue.

When the root is the selected node, the set of visible attributes is all thelinked attributes in the repository, because all the categories are belowthe root.


As you move down the family hierarchy from node to node, you willnotice that:

Attributes linked at or above the selected node – in particular thosethat had been linked below the previously-selected node -- changefrom blue to black in the list of layout items.Some attributes are no longer visible because fewer categories occurdirectly beneath the new selected node; these attributes disappearfrom the list of layout items.

NOTE For inheritance purposes, you can use the Table Layouttab to pivot or sort by any visible attribute, including those that arelinked below the selected node and are highlighted in blue. When alower-level node then inherits the pivoted or sorted attribute item, andthe attribute is no longer visible, the attribute name is highlighted in redin the corresponding bin in the Table Layout tab, rather than beingremoved from the list, and the attribute item is ignored when the tablelayout is generated.

Resetting and Inheriting Property ValuesThe second column of a properties grid contains checkboxes thatindicate the status of each property value:

Reset. When the checkbox is deselected, the selected layout objectdoes not support inheritance, it is the default object, or it is at the rootnode and has no default object. You can use the Reset checkbox tochange an individual property value back to its factory default value.Inherit. When the checkbox is selected, the layout object can inheritfrom a default object, from a parent node in the hierarchy, or fromanother node. You can use the Inherit checkbox to break or restoreinheritance for an individual property value.

You can copy a set of properties from one higher-level node to anothernode or set of nodes in another category. This enables you to apply aspecific set of properties that have manually overridden inheritedproperties to another set of nodes.

To copy properties from one node to another:1. Right-click the node whose properties have been overridden and

choose Copy Overridden Node Properties from the context menu.

2. Right-click the node to which you want to assign the copied set ofproperties and choose Paste Overridden Node Properties from thecontext menu.


Layout Processing and Layout ElementsOnce you begin the layout process – promoting and demoting columns,pivoting columns, hiding columns, merging cells, and so on – thevarious layout items within the table (the columns) are restructured andrearranged.A processed family layout ends up consisting of several different layoutelements, with some of the layout items still within the table layout andothers of them outside the table, as follows:

Common information. Layout items that have been promoted –both family items and main table items -- appear in text boxes abovethe table layout.Footnotes and legends. Layout items that have been demotedappear either above or below the table layout, as footnotes (in asingle text box) or as a legend (in a subtable).Table layout. The table layout contains the layout items that remainafter promoting, demoting, and hiding columns. The table can befurther restructured and reformatted using the table pivoting tools.

The following items are placed into a single text box or table cells:All individual values of a multi-valued layout item, with valuesseparated by the Multi-Valued Delimiter

An image and the image descriptionA text value image and text value, for an attribute text value with anassociated text value image

SETTING DEFAULT LAYOUT PROPERTIES

The catalog layout for a product family is automatically generatedaccording to the layout properties defined for its items, shown in theNode tab (see “Layout Item Properties” on page 99 for a full list of layoutitem properties).As described previously, the layout properties are listed in a singletable, with each column representing a separate family item and eachrow representing a separate product record belonging to the family, asin the following example:


A Family Layout

To customize the family layout and create a default layout, you need toapply rules to the default level of the family hierarchy.

NOTE You can define rules for any specific node of the hierarchy,any parent node or the top parent node. You should, however, alwayswork from the highest node possible in order to define rules once andlet them propagate to the child nodes.

Some of the common properties that you may want to set include:Hide / Unhide items. You can hide internal or organization-relateddata that you do not want to publish, or which is not relevant. To hidea selected item, choose Hiding Hide Item Entirely.

Hide empty items. Empty fields do not usually add any additionalinformation for the reader, and they take up space on the layout.Therefore, you may want to hide an item when it is empty. To do so,select all the items in the Items list, and choose Hiding HideEmpty Item.Converting units of measurement. You may at times need toconvert the values of a numeric item with a unit of measurement to acommon unit for all records. For example, you may choose to havethe Cutting Diameter unit of measurement in microinches for allrecords. To do so, select the item and choose Units of Measure

Convert to Common Unit, and select the Value from the list.


Promoting and Demoting ItemsYou can move information out of the table layout into other family layoutelements in a variety of ways and based on a range of criteria, asfollows:

Common information. You use the Promotion to CommonInformation set of properties to promote layout item informationinto text and image boxes above the table layout. You can promoteentire items with all common values, just the common values, andonly distinct values. You can promote properties, text, and images.

Footnotes and legends. You use the Demotion to Footnotesand Legends set of properties to move layout item informationabove or below the table layout as footnotes or as a legend. Whenyou demote items, you can use your own custom set of numberingsystems.

Depending on the particular property, promotion and demotion do notalways remove the layout item itself from the table layout. You can alsohide layout items so that they do not appear in the family layout at all.The following illustration depicts the different layout elements and howeach relates to the overall family layout.

Layout Elements of a Processed Family Layout


The following illustration is the source table that is used throughout thissection to explain the different means of promoting and demotinginformation in a table:

Source Product Family Table, Before Promotion and Demotion

Promoting Layout ItemsYou can promote a layout item out of a table so that its value or valuesappear as common information and its column is removed from thetable layout. The range of options for promotion is found in thePromotion to Common Information set of properties in the Properties listof the Items tab. The layout item properties are data-sensitive, andMDM promotes each item only if it meets the corresponding criterion.The most basic property used for promotion is Promote ColumnWith All Common Values. This property promotes a layout itemwhose values are the same for all products in the family, or for allproducts in a stack pivot subtable.Looking at our source table, you can see that the table layout hasseveral columns with all common values:

The Image field, which is a family item

The Category field, which is a partition item that defines the family

The Style field, which is a regular layout item that has the samevalue for every product


None of these layout items should take up valuable space in the tablelayout. By applying the Promote Column With All CommonValues property, these items are promoted and the column for eachitem is removed from the table, as follows:

Promoted Items

NOTE The family items from the Families table and thepartition items from the main table always contain the same value forevery product record in the family, and should almost always bepromoted.

Other properties used to promote common information include:

Promote Common Multi-Values. Used when the values are notthe same for all products in the family, and you want to promote justthe common values of the layout item

Most Common Value. Used to promote only the most commonvalue of an item, leaving the column in the table layout and taggingthe common value to indicate that it applies to a product “unlessnoted.”

Distinct Values. Used to promote an entire set of differentvalues even when the values have nothing in common from productto product.

Grouping Common InformationWhen the set of layout items promoted out of a table is large, you canuse the Common Information Grouping set of properties to arrange thepromoted information into groups of layout items, as in the followingexample.


Grouped Items

In this example, the six promoted layout items have been placed intotwo groups of common information, each containing three items.

To arrange promoted items into a group:1. Select an item that should go into the first group.

2. In the Properties list, choose Common Information GroupingGroup ID.

3. From the list in the Value cell, choose a value (such as 1) for thegroup.

4. Select the other items to be added to that group and assign each itemthe same value (the group number).

5. Repeat the previous steps to create other groups with other numbersfor the remaining common information.

Demoting Layout ItemsYou can demote a layout item so that its values appear as footnotes oras a legend, and its column can be removed from the table layout.Using the Demotion to Footnotes and Legends set of properties, youcan:

Display the demoted values either as footnotes or as a legendPlace the demoted values either below or above the table layout


Either remove the demoted column and make the correspondingrecords superscript entries in the previous column of the table layout,or leave the demoted column in the table layout

In the following figure, the most common value in the Size field(Medium) and the common value in the Materials multi-valued field(Cotton) were each promoted to appear as common information. Theremaining values in each field can now be demoted to appear asfootnotes, shown in the boxes below the table.

Demoted Items

NOTE The superscripts are attached to the values in the columnpreceding the demoted column in the table layout, based on the itemordering. If the demoted item was the first column of the table layout,the superscripts are attached to the new first column.

To demote item values to footnotes:1. Select the item – usually one that has been promoted using either the

Promote Common Multi-Values property or the PromoteMost Common Value property – whose remaining values shouldbe moved to a footnote.

2. In the Properties list, display Demotion to Footnotes and LegendsDemote Remaining Column Values to Footnotes.

3. Select the checkbox in the Value cell.


4. Use the Footnote and Legend Numbering Symbolssubproperty to choose a numbering symbol set:

5. If you choose the Auto Select option, MDM selects the next setof symbols from the built-in sequence of numbering symbol sets.

NOTE You can use the Custom Symbols subproperty tooverride the setting of the Footnote and Legend NumberingSymbols property by specifying a comma-delimited string ofnumbering symbols.

NOTE The Restart Numbering For Each StackPivot Subtable property restarts at the first symbol of the symbolset for each stack pivot subtable, and places the corresponding set offootnotes right after each subtable, rather than all the footnotes after allof the subtables.

Demoting ImagesEach image in an image field may also have a description associatedwith it. Conversely, each text value of a text attribute may also have animage associated with the text value.In such a case, for each product record, the single layout item has twovalues that are displayed in the family layout in a single text box or tablecell: the image itself, and the image description or attribute text value.When you demote an image field or text attribute, both the images andthe image descriptions or text values are removed from the table layoutand appear as the footnote or legend values.

NOTE You can also use the Demote Image and UseText as Symbol property to leave the description or text value inthe table layout column, and use the value as the numbering symbolfor the demoted image. This option is often used in conjunction withthe Preserve Demoted Column Rather ThanSuperscript property.

Combining Related ItemsCertain items in a family may have a common general meaning, andyou may want to combine them visually in the layout in order to highlighttheir relation to one another. Combining items creates subsectionswithin the main item.


For example, you have a raw table that includes items that describedrilling performance on different materials, as follows:

Raw layout

In order to display the three drilling performance attributes combineditem by item, you may want to rearrange the table as follows:

Rearranged layout

To rearrange the table:1. Combine the items:

a. Choose the Node Table Layout tab.

b. In the Properties pane, choose Sort/Combine Items (at thebottom of the Properties list).

c. From the Available items list, Add the items to theSort/Combine Items pane.

2. Set the Combined Value and Name Delimiter:

a. Switch to the Items tab.

b. Choose Delimiters Combined Item ValueDelimiter and enter a delimiter. For example, you mayuse a semi-colon (;) to display the items in a row, or the linefeed symbol (¶, .Alt+0182 on the keyboard) to display eachitem in a different row.


3. Omit repetitive item names (in our example, DrillingPerformance):

a. In the Items tab, choose the second of the items to becombined from the Items list.

b. From the Properties list, choose Item Name DisplayName.

c. In the Value cell, change the display name to omit therepetitive words, leaving spaces instead.

d. Repeat steps b and c for the other item(s).

The results for our example would look like this:

Finished layout

CREATING PIVOT TABLES

In addition to promoting and demoting layout items, MDM Publisher alsoprovides a special “pivoting” tool. Pivoting enables you to restructure thetable of records within each product family to eliminate redundant datavalues and streamline a densely-structured table layout.The pivot tool eliminates the selected columns, and sorts and groupsthe records into multiple subtables based on the pivot column values.You can then rearrange the resulting subtables, labeling each of themwith the pivot values in a number of different ways. Each resultingsubtable is called a base table.The general procedure for defining pivots is as follows:

1. Choose the Node Items tab.

2. In the Properties pane, choose the relevant option in the Pivotingset of properties.

Each type of pivot arranges the resulting subtables differently, asfollows:

A stack pivot (Stack Pivot Type) recombines each of theresulting base tables into a single table arranged vertically one ontop of the other. It either adds an additional row containing the pivotvalues above each base table, or it labels each of the base tableswith the pivot values.


NOTE You can use the Separate Stack PivotSubtables option in the Value list to break the table into multiplesubtables, so that the stack pivot behaves somewhat like a partition.

A horizontal pivot (Horizontal Pivot Type) recombines eachof the resulting base tables into a single table by arranging themhorizontally side-by-side. It adds an additional row containing thepivot values at the top, to label the set of columns comprising eachbase table.

NOTE A number of undesirable side effects – such as columnduplication and record holes – can occur when using horizontal pivots.

A vertical pivot (Vertical Pivot Type) recombines each of theresulting base tables into a single table by arranging them verticallyone on top of the other. It adds an additional column containing thepivot values to label the group of rows that comprise each basetable.

You can apply any combination of pivot types to a table, and multiplepivots of the same type can be nested and combined. Each pivot typealso supports several different formats.

ExampleThe following two tables – resulting from a number of different pivots --display SKU and Price information for 18 shirt types in different sizesand colors.

A pivoted table from a typical department store catalog


The two tables are a more compact and readable version of thefollowing single source table.

Original Unpivoted Table

All three types of pivots were applied to this table to create the resultingtwo tables shown previously.

Stack pivot by MaterialHorizontal pivot by SizeVertical pivots by Color and Price

To achieve the final table of the catalog, a single pivot at a time wasapplied to the source table.The sections that follow use this example to explain the differencesbetween the pivot types.

Stack PivotA stack pivot by Material is applied to the original table, resulting intwo vertically-stacked base tables, each labeled by one of the stackpivot values – Cotton and Linen – in an additional row above eachtable.


Single Stack Pivot by Material

Horizontal PivotA horizontal pivot by Size is applied to the original table, resulting inthree horizontally-arranged base tables, each labeled by one of thehorizontal pivot values – Small, Medium, and Large – in an additionalrow above each base table.

Single Horizontal Pivot by Size


Vertical PivotA vertical pivot by Color is applied to the original table, resulting inthree vertically-arranged base tables, each labeled by one of the verticalpivot values -- Black, White, and Red – in an additional column to theleft or right of each base table.

Single Vertical Pivot by Color


Nesting and Combining PivotsYou can nest and combine multiple pivots of the same type. Forexample, if a second vertical pivot – by Size – is applied to the table inthe previous section, the result is nine vertically-arranged base tables oftwo records each, as follows:

Nested Vertical Pivots Color and Material

The order in which you apply the pivots affects the sort order of theresulting base tables, where the values of the first pivot are used as theprimary sort, the values of the second pivot are used as the secondarysort, and so on.If the pivots were combined rather than nested, the Color and Sizecolumns would be combined into a single column that contains a set ofvalue combinations, such as Black/Small, Black/Medium, Black/Large,and so on.

Advanced Use of Pivot TablesTo utilize pivot tables in the most efficient way, it is necessary tounderstand the benefits and disadvantages of using each pivot type,and how to best combine the range of options. For more informationabout pivoting and manipulating tables, see “Advanced Pivoting” onpage 85. For a complete list of the pivot-related properties, see “LayoutItem Properties” on page 99.


REPRESENTING QUALIFIED TABLE DATA

MDM uses qualified tables to store a set of lookup records that supportqualifiers: database “subfields” that apply not to the qualified tablerecord by itself, but rather to each association of a qualified table recordwith a main table record. Qualified tables support multiple prices(including quantity price breaks), cross-reference part numbers, otherdistributor/supplier/customer-specific information, and productapplications.MDM Publisher provides an easy way to manage qualified links,enabling filtering and inclusion of qualified links per the non-qualifiervalues.For example, consider the case of a Prices Qualified table that isreferenced from the Products main table. The prices vary according tothe country in which the products are sold, and are translated to aCountry flat lookup table field as Non-Qualifier, and a PriceReal field as Qualifier, as in the following illustration:

Default Layout of Qualified Table Data

Yu may want to publish a catalog for France only, and exclude the pricelinks for Germany. To do so, you would:

1. Choose the Node Qualified Records tab. The list of non-qualifiedrecords is displayed.

2. Select the relevant Include checkbox or deselect it to exclude asappropriate.


The result of the exclude would be:

Table after price links for Germany are excluded

See “Using Qualified Lookup Tables” on page 99 for more informationabout working with qualified tables.

MANAGING ATTRIBUTE RATINGS

You can define ratings for numeric attributes, and have them appear bydefault as a suffix in the attribute display name, such as Length [Nom]or Height [Min].

To manage the display or non-display of a rating suffix:1. Choose the Node pane Items tab.

2. In the Items list, select all the items (Ctrl-A).

3. Use the Ratings set of properties as follows:

Rating Tags Hide [Nom] Only:Hides the [Nom] rating tag of the numeric attributes.

Rating Tags Hide All:Hides all the rating tags: [Nom], [Min], [Max], [Avg],and [Typ] of the numeric attributes.

Hide Only If Single Rating:Hides the tag only if the numeric attribute has onlyone rating; if more than one rating is available, theratings are displayed.

Often, you may want to merge a minimum and maximum rating for anumeric attribute. For example, a numeric attribute Width has [Min]


and [Max] ratings that appear as independent items in the Items list andas separate columns in the table, as follows:

Min and Max width ratings

To merge the ratings:1. Choose the Node Table Layout tab.

2. In the Available Items list, select the relevant items (in our exampleWidth[Min] and Width[Max]) and add them to theSort/Combine Items list. The two items will be combined into a singlecolumn, with the item names separated by a semicolon.

3. To represent the range of values, such as between [Min] and [Max],change the delimiter as follows:

a. Switch to the Items tab.

b. Choose Delimiters Combined Item ValueDelimiter and enter the appropriate delimiter, such as ahyphen (-).

4. Rename the combined column to show the attribute name only once:a. In the Items list, choose the second item that was combined.

b. In the Properties list, choose Item Name OriginalName.

c. Delete the name in the Value cell.

d. In the Items list, select the first cell and change the entireheader name, such as Width Range in our example.

5. To show the UOM only once, after the second item:a. In the Items tab, choose the first item again.

b. Choose Units of Measure Common UnitFormat.

c. In the Value cell, choose Hide Entirely.

FORMATTING TEXT AND IMAGE VALUES

MDM assigns a default style to the text values contained within it. Youcan customize the default style, or you can create entirely new stylesand apply them to different family items.


MDM Publisher supports the following types of styles:Style. A combination of character and text-box formatting propertiesapplied to itemsCharacter style. Font-related properties applied to specific itemnames and/or valuesTag. Hard-coded formatting applied to specific characters in itemvalues

You assign, define and manage styles in the Workspace Styles tab.

To add a new style to the list of user-defined styles:1. Right-click in the Styles tab and choose Add Style from the context

menu. A New Style entry is added to the list. By default, it inherits itsproperty values from the Default Style.

2. Type the name for the new style and press Enter.

3. Select the name of the new style and edit the relevant properties in theProperties pane:

a. Deselect the Inherit checkbox of the font property that youwant to modify.

b. In the Value cell, select the new value.

c. When you have completed your changes, pressShift+Enter to save the style definitions.

To duplicate a style:1. In the Styles list, right-click the style that you want to duplicate and

choose Duplicate Style from its context menu. A new Copy of <style>entry is added to the list.

2. Rename the style.3. Define the style properties by modifying them in the Properties pane.

4. Press Shift+Enter to save your style.

To edit the default style:1. Choose Default Style in the top field of the Styles list.

2. Edit the properties list as needed.

3. Press Shift+Enter to save.

To assign a style to an object:1. With the specific family node selected, or from the top Family

Hierarchy node, choose the Node Items tab.

2. From the Items list, select the item to assign to the new style.

3. In the Properties pane, choose Styles and select the relevant property.


See “Style Properties” on page 115 for a complete list of available styleproperties.

Managing Style InheritanceUser-defined styles inherit their properties directly from the DefaultStyle, rather than according to the hierarchical inheritance within thefamily hierarchy. When you change a property value for a user-definedstyle, it breaks the inheritance for that style property.You manually restore inheritance from the Default Style byselecting the checkbox again.You cannot propagate inheritance of style properties, because they donot support hierarchical inheritance.

To restore or break inheritance for multiple properties for one ormore styles:

1. Choose the Workspace Styles tab and select one or more styles.

2. In the Properties pane, select one or more properties.

3. Right-click one of the properties and from the context menu, chooseInherit Reset or Break Inheritance (as appropriate).

ARRANGING THE LOOK-AND-FEEL OF THE TABLE

You use the Node Table Properties tab to define the look-and-feel ofthe family table. Styles that you can define for the table include:

Column header format. Use the Column Header Formatproperty to:

Display or hide column headings Swap column headers with horizontal pivot values Add spanning headers Vertically merge empty and non-empty cells to

eliminate wasted space.Maximum number of rows or pivot values per table. Use theMaximum Record Rows Per Table property and the MaximumHorizontal / Vertical Pivot Values Per Table propertiesto split a table layout into multiple tables across multiple pages, or towrap it horizontally or vertically.

Borders. Use the Table Border property to define the thickness ofthe different borders, and row and column separators of the table.You can also remove the table borders entirely. To remove bordersat the individual layout item level, use the layout Item properties.


SETTING MULTILINGUAL SETTINGS

MDM repositories can store field and attribute data in multiplelanguages. This lets you publish different language versions of thesame catalog without having to recreate each presentation. Using theRedirect Data Language property, you can print item data in multiplelanguages inside the same catalog by cloning the item and selectingdifferent languages for the original and cloned items.Note the following multilingual inheritance rules:

String property settings made in secondary languages do not affectthe corresponding settings in the primary language.String property settings made in the primary language affect thoseproperty settings in secondary languages

For more information about using multilingual repositories, see the MDMConsole Reference Guide.


PART 3: CREATING THE PUBLICATION

This part of the reference guide explains how to create and customize apublication.


Creating PublicationsAfter creating your default family layouts, you are ready to arrange theminto a catalog. To do so, you create a new publication in MDMPublisher.Publication mode enables you to create one or more publications, eachof which contains a presentation hierarchy that is based on the FamilyHierarchy and family layouts defined in Layout mode. Typically, you willwant to organize the published catalog accordingly: first by category,and then, if you have partitioned the data by another field such asmanufacturer, by the partitioned subcategory.Note, however, that you can organize the publication according to anylookup field that was used to partition the root of the family hierarchy inFamily mode, rather than by the field upon with the family hierarchy islayered.

CREATING A PUBLICATION

When creating a new publication, you have three options:Create an empty publication. You add all of the catalog contentmanually, rather than automatically loading the nodes of thePresentation Hierarchy.Create a publication organized by partitions. You load thehierarchy based on one or more of the fields used to partition theFamily Hierarchy.Create a publication based on a defined mask. You load recordsfiltered according to selected product masks.

Additionally, you can add specific single records and images into yourpublication by dragging the record or image directly from Data Managerto its spread in MDM Publisher. Note that the Node Records tab mustbe open in both Data Manager and in MDM Publisher (at the bottom).

To create a new publication:1. Choose File New. The New Publication dialog box appears.

2. In the Name field, enter a name for the new publication.

3. From the dropdown list, choose the type of publication that you want tocreate:

Empty Publication.

Family Publication.

Recordset Publication.


If you choose Family Publication or Recordset Publication, you canchoose from the set of masks that have been preconfigured for thefamily. From the Available masks list, select the masks to be appliedby adding them to the Selected masks list.

In addition, if you choose Family Publication, select the followingboxes, as appropriate:

Maintain node status:Transfers the status of each node form the Family Hierarchyto the publication

Partition to single record nodes:Splits a family into single-record presentations

4. When you choose OK, the default configuration of Publication panes isshown in the main window.

NOTE When a new record is added to a family after a publicationis created, the record is automatically added to the publication if it is afamily publication, but is not automatically added if the publication is arecordset publication.

To drag-and-drop a record into MDM Publisher1. In Data Manager, choose Record mode, and display the category

containing the record(s).

2. In MDM Publisher, display the publication, and choose the NodeRecords tab at the bottom.

3. Drag the record from the Records pane in Data Manager to theRecords pane in MDM Publisher.


Working in Publication ModeIn Publication mode, the following panes are displayed by default:

Presentation HierarchySpreadsPresentation Objects

SpreadPresentation Objects Snapshot (Unused Only)Families

Node Section Properties tab

Default Publication Panes

See “Main Window Panes” on page 22 for more information about thedefault publication panes.

ANATOMY OF A PUBLICATION

Each publication that you create in Publication mode contains aduplicate of every Layout mode object and family. Layout settings madein Layout mode are inherited in the publication and continue to reflectany changes that are made there.The nodes of a publication are organized into a publication hierarchythat consists of the following node types:


Publication root. Displays the user-specified name of thepublication rather than the fixed name of the base table of the FamilyHierarchy. You can rename an existing publication.Leaf-node families. A standard publication family that directlycorresponds to its Layout mode family, and usually inherits directlyfrom it rather than from the node above it in the publication hierarchy.Non-family leaf nodes. Nodes that can occur if you delete all theleaf-node families beneath an internal node, or use context-menucommands to add a non-family node as a leaf.Internal nodes. Nodes that are structure only and do not store orallow you to set property values, so that property values set at theroot are inherited directly by each leaf-node family. Note that internalnodes are also considered “non-family nodes.”

Publication Node Types

COMPARING FAMILY AND PUBLICATION HIERARCHIES

When it is first created, the publication hierarchy appears to be verysimilar to the family hierarchy, but differs from it in a number ofimportant ways:

Inheritance. Properties that support hierarchical inheritance inLayout mode can be set at the publication root. This breaks theinheritance from Layout mode so that inheritance can be set for eachpublication family.


Flexible structure. Whereas in Layout mode, the structure of thefamily hierarchy and the set of families are fixed and defined by thepartitions that you have created, in Publication mode, you can add,remove, duplicate, and resequence families and internal nodes in thepublication hierarchy.

A family hierarchy may be altered when the following occurs:You add or remove leaf-node families according to explicit changesthat you make to partition items.MDM automatically adjusts data to maintain the integrity of the familyhierarchy in the:

Set of main-table product records Values of main-table fields and attributes Taxonomy hierarchy Set of linked attributes

Removing families from the family hierarchy can affect the integrity ofexisting publications. Specifically, a publication family that correspondsto a family that no longer exists in Layout mode becomes invalid. Youcan manually delete invalid nodes one-by-one, or you can use theSynchronize Publication Children command to validate every publicationfamily and delete the invalid families automatically.

UNDERSTANDING INHERITANCE IN PUBLICATION MODE

The rules of inheritance in Publication mode extend Layout modeinheritance as follows:

Inheritance from Layout mode. Each property value in Publicationmode directly inherits from the corresponding object and family inLayout mode, and each property can be overridden or inherited.No hierarchical inheritance. Publication mode does not supportinheritance within the publication hierarchy, nor can property valuesbe set for internal nodes, which are structural only.Root override. Properties that support hierarchical inheritance inLayout mode can be set at the publication root to break inheritancefrom Layout mode for each publication family.

The specific inheritance from Layout mode to Publication mode – foreach family in the publication – is summarized in the following table:


Inheritance in Publication Mode

Layout Object Inheritance fromCorresponding Objectin Layout Mode

Special Behavior

Page setup Each property inherits NoneLayout items Each layout item

property inheritsRoot override for layoutitem property values

Table layout Each pivot and sort bininherits

No root override; tab isdisabled at root

Item ordering Each item ordering listinherits.

No root override, butitem positions can bepropagated from theroot (without inheritancefrom the root)

Qualified records Each qualified tablerecord inherits

Root override forqualified recordselection

Relationships Each relationship inherits Root override forrelated record inclusionfor each relationship

Table properties Each table propertyinherits

Root override for tableproperty values

Styles Each style propertyinherits

Publication-specificstyles can be created inPublication mode andinherit directly from theDefault style

Whenever possible, set property values in Layout mode rather than inPublication mode. When you override inheritance in Publication mode,you do so on a publication-specific basis.

USING MASKS

When you create a publication, you can apply one or more productmasks to filter the set of main-table records that appear in thepublication. When the masks are applied, the publication hierarchy doesnot include every family in the family hierarchy. Instead, it includes eachfamily only if one of the masks contains at least one of its records.For each family included in the publication, the main-table records thatare in the family but are not included in one of the masks are deselectedin the Node Records tab.


To include records that were excluded when you first created thepublication, you can do either of the following:

If the family that contains the excluded records is in the publication,you can reselect excluded records in the Node Records tab. (Youcan also deselect records that were previously included.)If the family is not in the publication, you can drag-and-drop (or copy-paste) the family from the Family Hierarchy pane into the publicationhierarchy.

PUBLICATION OPERATIONS

The tree structure in the Presentation Hierarchy pane displays eachpublication as a separate node. You can use the tree context menu tocreate, rename, delete, load, and unload publications. You can also setthe active publication for viewing, editing, and publishing one or morefamilies within a particular publication.The Set Record Mode Search option in the context menu allows you toset the search selections in Record mode to correspond to the selectedleaf-node family. This allows you to conveniently identify the productrecords associated with the family.You can use the context menu from the top node of the PresentationHierarchy to select most operations that you need to perform. Thefollowing table describes operations that you can perform to edit apublication.

Publication Editing Operations

Operation Description MethodAdd families Add a selected family

or branch of families tothe publication.

1. From the structure inthe Families pane,drag the family or thebranch to thePresentationHierarchy and drop itat the target location.

2. Choose the relevantoption from the popupmenu to determine thelevel at which it shouldbe placed in thepublication hierarchy.


Operation Description MethodAdd non-familynode

Add a new non-familynode to the publication.

1. From the contextmenu of the top nodeof the PresentationHierarchy, choose AddInternal Node or AddNon-Family Node.

2. Drag the new node tothe target position inthe hierarchy andchoose Insert asSibling or Insert asChild as appropriate.

NOTE: The Add Childoption is not activated whenthe drop target is a leaf-node publication family.

Rename node Renames the selectednode.

1. From the contextmenu of the node thatyou want to rename,choose Rename.

2. Type the new nameand press Enter.

Delete node Removes the selectedleaf or internal nodefrom the publication.

From the context menu ofthe node that you want todelete, choose Delete.

Move node Moves a leaf orinternal node betweenlocations in thepublication.

Drag the new node to thetarget position in thehierarchy and choose Insertas Sibling or Insert as Childas appropriate.NOTE: The Add Childoption is not activated whenthe drop target is a leaf-node publication family.


Operation Description MethodSynchronizepublicationchildren

Synchronizes thepublication familieswith the current familyhierarchy. Thisprevents a publicationfamily from becominginvalid if it correspondsto a family that nolonger exists in Layoutmode.

From the context menu ofthe node whose childrenyou want to synchronize,choose SynchronizePublication Children.

Delete non-family children

Removes all non-family nodes from thepublication. Thisquickly eliminates allinternal structures fromthe PresentationHierarchy, and therebyflattens and collapsesthe tree so that eachpublication familybecomes a first-levelchild of the publicationroot.

From the context menu ofany node whose non-familychildren should be deleted,choose Delete Non-FamilyChildren.

Set/Preventautomatic datarefresh

Determines if data inthe publication isautomatically refreshedas it changes, or if thedata in the publicationis “frozen” at aselected stage.

In the Node > RefreshOptions tab, choose eitherEnabled or Disabled for theNew Records and the NewFamily Data elements.

COMPOSING THE SPREADS

You use the Spread pane in MDM Publisher to define the physicalgeometry – the size, place and other special parameters – of thepresentation objects in each publication spread.We recommend that you initially compose the spread of a selectedfamily that is representative of most of the families in the publication.When you are satisfied with the results of your efforts, you can save thelayout as a template, and apply it to other similar families. This savesyou significant time and effort in repeating the composition procedurefor each family spread.


Before you begin, you need to synchronize the data between thePresentation Objects pane and the Spreads pane. To do so, from thecontext menu of the top node of the Presentation Hierarchy, chooseCalculate Initial Presentation Objects. The layout in the Spread pane willnow be identical to that in the Presentation Objects pane.The following table describes some of the operations that you canperform on objects in the Spread pane.

Spread Composition Operations

Operation MethodChange position of anitem in a spread

In the Spread pane, simply drag the item toits new location

Resize an image From the context menu of the image,choose Size Images and use theoptions in the displayed dialog box tochange the image size.

Drag the handles on the image border tomanually resize the image.

Adjust the image size toa defined frame

From the context menu of the image, chooseFit Content to Frame.

Adjust the image frameto the image contents

From the context menu of the image, chooseFit Frame to Content.

Align multiple images 1. Select the multiple images by usingthe Shift key as you click on eachimage.

2. From the context menu of the lastimage selected, choose Align andDistribute and then choose therelevant option.

Adjust the relativepositioning of multipleimages

1. Select the multiple images by usingthe Shift key as you click on eachimage.

2. From the context menu of the lastimage selected, choose the relevantBring... or Send... option.


CREATING A LAYOUT TEMPLATE

When you have achieved the desired layout for a representative familyin your publication, you can create a template that you can apply toother families.

To create a layout template:1. In the Spread pane, from the context menu of layout, choose Save as

Template. The family name is added as the first node in the TemplateTree pane.

2. From the context menu of the new template node, choose Renameand enter a name for the template.

To apply the template to other families in the publication, either at thelevel of specific families or at the level of parent node:

1. Display another family to use the template.

2. From the Template Tree, drag the template name to the layout in theSpread pane.

3. From the popup menu, choose one of the following:

Apply Template to Connected Items Only:Applies the template to the specific family

Apply Template to All Items:Applies the template to all children of the parent family

ARRANGING THE CATALOG

Once you have customized the layout for your publication, you areready to arrange the families in the catalog.Usually, at this stage, each family will occupy a single page. In order toarrange multiple families per page, you use the Flow Section option toflow in family data and place the families together on single pages asefficiently as possible.

To flow family data:1. In the Spreads pane, right click the first (or other) family and choose

Flow From Page from the context menu. The Flow Presentationsdialog box appears.

2. Select the following parameters:

Alignment. Aligns all family data to the selected parameter.Inner Edge and Outer Edge are used with the double-spreads.


Runaround and Runaround Anchor. Runaround allowsfamilies to flow around a family designated as a RunaroundAnchor, which locks the position of the selected family on thepage.

Separation. Defines a space, in points, that separates onefamily from another on the page.

Split Presentations To Fit Pages. When selected, dividesfamily data (such as between promoted data and the table)between different pages

3. Click OK. The families are flowed onto the pages according to theparameters selected.

Removing Empty PagesAs a result of the Flow Section operation, certain pages of your familymay now be empty and need to be removed.

To remove empty pages:1. Right-click the empty page and choose Remove Page from the context

menu. The Confirm Remove Page dialog box appears.

2. Click OK. The page will be removed and the remaining pages will berenumbered.

3. Repeat the previous steps to remove other empty pages.

Using Freestyle Text on a PageYou can add text blocks to a page and manually position them anddefine their text styles.

To add text blocks to a page:1. In the Spread pane, right-click on the spread and choose Add Non-

Family Text. the Formatting dialog box appears, along with awindow into which you type your text.

2. In the text window, type the text that you require and then select it.

3. In the Formatting dialog box, define the paragraph and font styles byselecting the appropriate options in the Value column. Different textstrings can have different styles in the same text box.

4. Click Apply.

Managing Image Links (Links Pane)You can use the Image Links pane to view information about an imagethat is linked to one or more families of your publication. This pane givesyou the name of the image and its file name, the data group it belongs,along with all of the relevant size and print parameters.


To view the Image Links pane:1. In the Spreads pane or the Spread pane, select the family layout that

contains the image.

2. Choose View Panes Image Links. The Image Links dialog boxappears, with a list of all parameters relating to the linked image.


PART 4: PUBLISHING TO INDESIGN

This part of the reference guide describes the options for publishing tothe Adobe InDesign plug-in.


Publishing a PublicationSAP NetWeaver MDM uses a plugin to Adobe InDesign, a desktoppublication application, to handle the page layout, pagination, and finalpublishing.MDM Publisher provides two options for publishing your catalog data:

Publish Section. Sends the pages and spreads of a selectedsection of the catalog to InDesign.Publish Sequential. Sends selected presentation objects only, notthe spreads.

With either option, you can select the following publication targets:Adobe InDesign. The publication data is sent to the InDesignapplication as an InDesign document.Adobe InDesign Server. The publication data is saved as anInDesign document on the Adobe InDesign server.XML. The published data is saved as an XML file.

Once the document opens in Adobe InDesign, you can modify, save,and package the publication as you would any other InDesigndocument. In addition, you can perform certain MDM Publisheroperations – such as refreshing object data and reflowing presentations– from within InDesign. This enables you to update the publication withnew data quickly and easily, without having to refresh within MDMPublisher and resend to InDesign.

Publishing a section of a publication:1. From the top node of your Publication Hierarchy, right-click and choose

Publish Section from the context menu. The Publish dialog boxappears.

2. In the Format dropdown list, choose the target of your publisheddocument.

3. In the Paper Module dropdown list of the Publish to block, choose theIP address of the running InDesign machine.

4. In the Page range in section block, choose:

All to print all individual pages of the catalog

Pages and the page range (from and to) to print a selectedset of pages


Publishing a range of sections from a publication:1. From the top or any node of your Publication Hierarchy, right-click and

choose Publish Sequential from the context menu. The Publish dialogbox appears.

2. In the Format dropdown list, choose the target of your publisheddocument.

3. In the Paper Module dropdown list of the Publish to block, choose theIP address of the running InDesign machine.

4. In the Publish what block, choose:

Entire publication to print the entire catalog

Families and the range (from and to) to print only a selectedset of families

5. In the Publish options block, indicate the options for paginating, layingout and sorting the family data


Creating an IndexYou use MDM Indexer – a separate MDM application – to generate anindex for your catalog, based on the paginated InDesign documents.The general procedure for creating the index is as follows:

1. Extract the indexed data sources from the InDesign document.

2. Create the index in MDM Indexer.

3. Assign styles to the indexed keys.

4. Publish the index.

The following sections describe these procedures in depth.

EXTRACT INDEXED DATA SOURCES

You use the MDM Indexer plugin to extract paginated indexed datasources from each InDesign document, and store the sources in theMDM catalog. These sources are then used to generate the indexes forthe publication.

To extract indexed data sources:1. In MDM Indexer, open the first paginated document to be indexed.

2. Choose SAP MDM Indexer Document Set Paginated State. Theapplication begins to extract the indexed keys. On the MDM tab [withinthe DTP], the Notification Pending indicator displays Yes during theextraction, and No upon completion.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each paginated document.

The paginated indexed keys are compiled and saved as Chapter 1 ofthe catalog, along with a document name and time stamp.

CREATING AND EDITING THE INDEX

To create the index:1. In MDM Indexer, open the catalog used for creating Chapter 1 in the

previous procedure.2. Click the Index Mode button to switch to Index mode.

3. Right-click in the Indexes pane and choose Create Index from thecontext menu. The Create Index dialog box appears.

4. Type a name for the index and select the index sources that youextracted from the paginated documents in the previous procedure.

NOTE You can also add or delete sources after the index iscreated.

5. Right-click in the Keys pane and choose Add Index Key from thecontext menu.


6. In the Properties pane, modify the names for Key Field 1. Rename KeyField 2 and Key Field 3 (and so on), if the index has multiple levels.

For example, you might call the first level (Key Field 1) Category,and the second level (Key Field 2) Manufacturer.

7. If you choose No Sources in step 4, you can add the sources now bydragging them from the Indexes pane to the proper location in theindex tree in the Index Sources pane.

MDM Indexer takes all of the paginated indexed keys and creates anindex using the selected sources and the created keys. The results aredisplayed in the Index Preview pane.

8. If the index is to contain multiple chapters, repeat this procedure foreach catalog.

ASSIGNING STYLES TO THE INDEXED KEYS

Within MDM Indexer, you can apply font styles and properties to theindex keys that you have created. You can view the formatted text in theIndex Preview, prior to publishing the index to InDesign.

To assign styles to indexed keys:1. Open the Styles tab of Index mode. The index styles are organized in a

hierarchy. The default style is shown for each level.

2. Using the Properties pane at the right, you can assign styles for eachkey field that you defined in the previous procedure. Use the dropdownmenu in the second column of the Style row of each key field.

Assigning Styles to Index Keys


PUBLISHING THE INDEX

Publishing generates the index and sends it to Adobe InDesign, whereyou can edit it and finalize it as part of your published catalog.

To publish the index:1. In MDM Indexer, right-click on the index tree and choose Publish

from the context menu. The Publish dialog box appears.2. In the Format dropdown list, choose the target of your published

document.3. In the Layout Server dropdown list, choose the name of the

Master Data Layout Server.4. In the Paper Module dropdown list of the Publish to block,

choose the IP address of the running InDesign machine.


PART 5: ADVANCED TOPICS

This part of the reference guide describes a range of MDM Publisherfeatures and tasks that you can perform while creating and publishingyour publications.


Advanced PivotingA pivot is a table layout operation that divides the entire set of productrecords into subsets based on the set of values of a pivot column. Eachsubset corresponds to one of the distinct values, and the set of subsetscorresponds to the entire set of product records.Pivots can be nested, so that a second pivot operates on each of thesubsets of the first pivot, further dividing each of the first pivot subsetsinto second pivot subsets, and so on until all pivots have been applied.The following sections describe pivoting operations that are morecomplex than those explained previously in this guide. The pivoted tableused for the examples is as follows:

A pivoted table

HORIZONTAL PIVOTS AND COLUMN DUPLICATION

Because a horizontal pivot arranges the base tables side-by-side, itreduces the height of the pivoted table by reducing the number of tablerows. In so doing, the pivot may often result in the undesirable sideeffect of dramatically increasing the width of the pivoted table byduplicated each column of the base table for each horizontal pivotvalue.


For example, in the following figure, the single horizontal pivot by Sizereduces the height of the pivoted table from 18 to six rows, but itincreased the total number of columns from five to 12.

Columns Duplicated Under a Horizontal Pivot

This column duplication may be acceptable if the number of unpivotedcolumns is relatively small, and it may be unavoidable if the data valuesin each instance of the column are different for each row. However, ifthe data values are the same across each instance of the columns, theresulting tables may be unacceptably wide and may need to beeliminated.A way to solve the problem of too-wide tables is to use a vertical pivotto reduce the column duplication. Vertical pivoting eliminates theduplication of vertically-pivoted columns by removing it from thehorizontal pivot span. If we apply a vertical pivot by Color to theprevious table, the total number of columns in the table is reduced tonine, as follows:

Use of a Vertical Pivot to Reduce Column Duplication


PIVOTING IMAGES

You can use a layout item to pivot by an image when the layout item isan image field or a text attribute with text value images. This enablesyou to create compelling illustrated table layouts, as in the followingexample.

Vertical Pivot Displaying an Image Rather than Text

NOTE Use the Hide Image Text property to hide the imagedescription (of an image field) or the attribute text value (of a textattribute) and leave only the image.

STACK PIVOTS AND PARTITIONS: A COMPARISON

When you use the Separate Stack Pivot Subtables option ofthe Stack Pivot Type property, the single table layout is broken intomultiple table layouts, one for each stack pivot subtable.In this case, the stack pivot behaves somewhat like a partition, in thatboth the pivot and the partition break the set of records in the family intomultiple subsets based on the values of the item by which you partitionor pivot. But whereas the partition breaks the family into multiplefamilies, the stack pivot preserves the single family and breaks it intomultiple table layouts, as summarized in the following table.


Partitions versus Stack PivotsBefore Action After

Single family/ single table

Partition Multiple families / single tablesfor each

Stack pivot Single family / multiplesubtables

Here is a rule of thumb for deciding whether to partition or stack pivot:To assign different family data to each subset of the records, use apartition.To assign the same family data to each subset of the records, use astack pivot.


Advanced Layout OperationsThis section describes different means of fine-tuning your family layout,using the tools provided in MDM Publisher.

USING THE SPREAD PANE

The Spread pane is a WYSIWYG editor that displays how the selectedfamily will appear when published. You can use the pane to monitor thecurrent status of the family layout as you make changes to each of thelayout and style properties.The Spread pane consists of the following elements:

Simulated page. The white background is a simulated sheet ofpaper that is accurately sized according to the page height andwidth. It provides a rough estimate of how the family layout will fit onthe page.Guides. Purple guide lines indicate the page margins, as well as themargins between columns.Layout elements. The common information, table layouts, andfootnotes and legends all faithfully reflect the specified layout itemproperties, pivots and sorts, item ordering, and formatting styles.Context colors. The cells of the table layout are color-coded tovisually highlight stack, horizontal, and vertical pivots. You can turn

context colors on and off using the (Context Colors) button.

When you hover the mouse over a layout item in the Spread pane, atooltip appears with the following information:

The original name of the layout itemThe style of the itemThe original value of the layout item, if it is a lookup field or a textattribute

If you double-click on a layout item, the item is highlighted in the Itemsor Table Layout tab in the Node tab and the Formatting dialog box isdisplayed for common information items.

INCORPORATING IMAGES IN TEXT OBJECTS

When publishing data that resides in multiple forms of text – text, textblocks, non-family text, large text and so on – you may want toincorporate images to make the overall layout visually more stimulating.You can use the options described here for this purpose.


Creating Bulleted ListsTo emphasize multiple values of an item in promoted text, you can usethe Bullets Display Values as Bullets property, choosingthe string to use with the Bullet Symbol subproperty.Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop non-family images from theImages table in MDM Data Manager to the Spread pane, to function asimage bullets in your text, as follows.

To use images as bullets:1. In MDM Data Manager, in Record mode, display the Images data

group.

2. Size the windows of MDM Data Manager and MDM Publisher so thatboth windows are visible.

3. In MDM Publisher, with the Presentation Hierarchy open, display thetext block that will receive the image in the Spread pane.

4. In the Records pane of MDM Data Manager, scroll to the image to beadded to the spread, and drag-and-drop it to the Spread pane.

5. In the Spread pane, select the image and use its handles to define theappropriate size. You can use the Fit Content to Frame option in thecontext menu to size the image properly within the frame.

6. Move the resized image to its proper location on the layout.

7. Select the image, use the Shift key to select the text block to whichit belongs, and choose Group Items from the context menu. Thisenables you to treat the images and text as a group so that youmanipulate the items as a single entity.

Adding Images in Text StringsYou may at times need to incorporate symbols and icons in the middleof text strings.

To add images to text:1. Add the image as described in steps 1 to 5 of the previous procedure

(“Creating Bulleted Lists”).

2. Choose the Object Properties Items tab at the bottom of the mainwindow.

3. From the Items list, select the image name, and in the Properties list,select the Wrap Text Around Image property.

4. Position the image into the line of text, which should automaticallywrap around it as needed.


MERGING CELLS IN A TABLE

When structuring tables for publishing, you may notice that certaincolumn cells are common to all records, but it would still be morereasonable to leave the information in the table rather than promote it.In this case, you may want to merge the common repetitive cells tomake the table more readable and, at times, save paper space.The following illustration is an example of manipulating table data with acommon single-valued cell family.

Table cells containing the same data value

The last column – Standard Package Size – contains the samevalue for all records. Therefore, you might want to merge the cells sothat the value appears only once.

To merge cells with the same data value:1. Choose the Node Items tab.

2. In the Items list, select the item (name of column to be merged).

3. In the Properties list, select the property Unpivoted ColumnsMerge Like Cells in Unpivoted Column. All cells of thecolumn are merged into a single cell.


The results in our example would look like this:

Merged cell contains the single value

Next, you may want to align the text so that the shared value appears inthe center of the merged cell.

To align text in a cell:1. Choose the Workspace Style tab.

2. Right-click New Style and choose Add Style from the context menu.

3. Right-click the New Style (x) name, choose Rename Style from thecontext menu and enter a meaningful name for the style (such asCenter Alignment in our example).

4. In the Properties list, define the style properties:

Horizontal Alignment: Center

Vertical Alignment: Center5. Switch back to the Node Items tab.

6. In the Items list, select the item (Standard Package Size inour example), and choose the Styles Column Value Style<your new style>. The value of the column is displayed in themiddle, as defined by the new style.

This function can be useful when using the Common Multi-Valueproperty.For example, you have a table similar to the following, with aMiscellaneous item that contains multi-valued text that is the samefor all products.


Multiple text values apply to all products in the table

You want to combine all cells in the column into a single cell with the listof values shown one time.

To merge cells with multiple shared values:1. Choose the Node Items tab.

2. In the Items list, select the item (such as Misc. in our example).

3. In the Properties list, select the property Unpivoted ColumnsMerge Like Cells in Unpivoted Column. All cells of thecolumn are merged into a single cell.

4. Switch back to the Node Items tab.

5. In the Items list, select the item (Misc. in our example), and choosethe Delimiters Set Multi-Valued Delimiter <yourdelimiter>. For a delimiter, you may choose a semicolon (;),quotation marks (“ “) or another character.

USING QUALIFIED LOOKUP TABLES

Qualified lookup fields present a special set of challenges in familylayouts because they are multi-valued in two dimensions – horizontallyand vertically – as follows:

Multiple links. A qualified lookup field is multi-valued, in that eachfield value can store multiple links, not only to multiple qualified tablerecords, but also to multiple instances of the same record.Multiple values for each link. The value for each link is multi-valued, in that each link value consists of the one or more displayfields of the qualified table and all the qualifier values for the link.

Layout mode handles single-valued lookup fields with multiple displayfields by placing all the lookup display field values into a single text boxor table cell, and separating individual values with a semi-colon (;). Youcan also access the individual lookup-table display fields by flaggingthem as alternative display fields in the MDM Console.For example, the following two main-table product records containpricing data for each product, for the years 2002 and 2003.


Quantity Pricing Information for Two Product RecordsSKU Name Lookup [Pricing]213 Gear 2002; 1; $3.51

2002; 10; $3.362003; 1; $3.542003; 5; $3.462003; 10; $3.39

215 Sprocket 2002; 1; $5.012002; 10; $4.852003; 1; $5.042003; 5; $4.962003; 10; $4.88

The pricing information is stored in a qualified table. The Pricingqualified table has the fields Year and Qty and the qualifier Price, andcontains five records, as follows:

Qualified Table with Quantity Price Records Per YearYear Qty [Price]2002 12002 102003 12003 52003 10

If qualified lookup fields were treated like any other multi-valued layoutitem, MDM would pack the qualified information for each product –consisting of the multiple year / quantity / price values – into a single cellin the table layout, as shown in the first figure of this section.Layout mode uses a general approach in which the highly structuredqualified information is automatically “decomposed”, so that you canpromote, demote, and pivot the constituent items as needed to properlyrepresent the data.


Rather than pack all the qualified information into a single cell, Layoutmode automatically expands the multi-value in each of its two multi-valued dimensions, as follows:

Split. The qualified lookup field is split horizontally into its componentvalues by replacing it in the list of layout items – and the defaultfamily layout – with each of the display fields and all of the qualifiersof the qualified table (thereby increasing the number of layout items).MDM appends the [Qual] tag to the name of the qualified tabledisplay fields and qualifiers in layout item lists.

NOTE MDM includes all the qualifiers as layout items, not just thequalifiers that are display fields.

Clone. Each product record is cloned vertically across each of themultiple qualified lookup values for each record, with each instancerepresenting a single qualified link of the qualified lookup field(thereby increasing the number of records in the table layout of thefamily).

The splitting and cloning of the qualified looking field in the first figure ofthis section would result in the following table.

Qualified Table Display Fields, Qualifiers, and Cloned Records

In the table layout, the single qualified lookup field has been replaced bythree layout items, and the two product records have been expandedinto 10 (with five instances for each records, one for each year/quantitycombination in the qualified table).Horizontally pivoting the table by Year and Qty (and vertically pivotingby SKU and Name to eliminate the column duplication) results in thefollowing compact table layout.


Qualified Information Properly Structured with Pivots2002 2003

1 10 1 5 10SKU Name Price Price Price Price Price213 Gear $3.51 $3.36 $3.54 $3.46 $3.39215 Sprocket $5.01 $4.85 $5.04 $4.96 $4.88


PART 6: REFERENCE

This part of the reference guide includes tables of parameterdescriptions for the main functions used with MDM Publisher:


Conditional Property Types

Conditional Type Description and ExamplesContext sensitive Applied only if the layout item appears in the

family layout in the corresponding layoutcontext. Examples include:Common Information Name Style

Column Header Style

Data sensitive Applied only if the data values within the layoutitem meet a particular criterion for applying theproperty. Examples include:Promote Column With All Common Values

Hide Empty Item

Type sensitive Applied only if the data type of the layout item isapplicable for applying the property. Examplesinclude:Convert to Common Unit

Image Variant

Property sensitive Applied only if another property or layout actionhas already been applied to the layout item.Examples include:Common Information Format

Stack Pivot Format


Layout Item Properties

Property Description [Default Value]Item NameOriginal Name The repository name of the layout

item.Type The data type of the layout item.

Redirect Data Language The language to use formultilingual items, if not thecurrent language [None]

Display Name The name actually displayed inthe Layout pane. The OriginalName is displayed in the Layoutpane tooltip.

Strip New Lines When Not inColumn Header

Strips new line characters fromthe layout item name whenpromoted or demoted.

Common Information Format The format for the layout itemwhen promoted as commoninformation:[Item Name With CommonInformation Value]

Hide Common Information ItemName

Separate Item Name and Value

Item Name Font Style The font style of the layout itemname (style override):None

Regular

[Bold]

Italic

Bold Italic


Property Description [Default Value]Swap Item Name and Value Interchanges the order of the item

name and value when the nameand value appear in the same textbox or table cell in a pivotedcolumn, so that the item nameappears after the value or values.

Spanned Column Header Name The string to place in the spannedcolumn header [<None>].

Number of Columns To Span The number of columns to merge[<None>].

Column Width The value of the column width touse instead of the auto-sizedwidth [<None>].

Common Information GroupingGroup ID The ID of the group into which the

layout item is placed whenpromoted to common information:[None]

1

:

10

Group Delimiter The string used to separate layoutitems in a common group [¶].

PivotingStack Pivot Format The format of the layout item

when used as a stack pivot:[Item Name With Pivot Value]

Hide Pivot Item Name

Item Name in Vertical PivotColumn [n/a ]

Span Item Name Above StackPivot Value


Property Description [Default Value]Stack Pivot Type The pivot type of the layout item

when used as a stack pivot:[Single Stack Pivot Table]

Full Horizontal Span in SingleStack Pivot Table

Separate Stack Pivot Subtables

Horizontal Pivot Format The format of the layout itemwhen used as a horizontal pivot:[Item Name With Pivot Value]


Item Name in Vertical PivotColumn [n/a ]

Span Item Name AboveHorizontal Pivot Values

Vertical Pivot Format The format of the layout itemwhen used as a vertical pivot:[Item Name With Pivot Value]


Item Name in Vertical PivotColumn Header

Do Not Merge Value Cells Does not merge the table cells inthe vertical pivot column eventhough they contain the samevalue.

Pull Out Like Columns FromHorizontal Pivot Span

Condenses duplicated columnsthat contain identical values forthe layout item, and removesthem from the horizontal pivotspan as much as possible(performs a partial vertical pivot).

Position After Rather ThanBefore

Places columns removed from thehorizontal pivot span for thepartial vertical pivot layout itemafter, rather than before, the basetable.


Property Description [Default Value]Ignore NULL Values Ignores NULL values when

comparing values and attemptingto pull out duplicated columns, sothat the NULL will match anyvalue and not interfere with thepull out.

Extend HeaderUnpivoted ColumnsHide Item Name in UnpivotedColumn Header

Hides the name of an unpivotedlayout item when it appears in thecolumn header of the table layout.

Merge Like Cells in UnpivotedColumn

In a single base table, mergestable cells that contain the samevalue.

Item ValuesItem Value Font Style The font style of the layout item

value (style override):[None]

Regular

Bold

Italic

Bold Italic

Missing Record Item Value The string to use as the layoutitem value for each column of arecord hole created by thecombination of horizontal andvertical pivots.

NULL Item Value The string to use as the layoutitem value for a NULL value. Ifempty, the layout item name issuppressed when the name andvalue appear in the same text boxor table cell in a pivoted column[<None>].

N/A Item Value The string to use as the layoutitem for a N/A value.


Property Description [Default Value]Treat N/A as NULL Value Whether or not to format N/A

values using the NULL Item Valueproperty.

Override Promoted Value [<None>].Copy Block Markup Text [<None>].Value Sorting and GroupingSort Order The sort order of the layout item

when used as a pivot or sort:[Ascending]

Descending

Natural [n/a Ascending]

Reverse Natural [n/aDescending]

Sort Numeric Text ValuesArithmetically

Sorts the values of a text layoutitem based on its numeric, ratherthan text, values.

Value Ordering and Grouping Manually overrides the defaultnatural sort order of a lookup fieldor text attributes (alphabetical,hierarchical, or text-value order),renames values, and combinesthem into value groups. Theoriginal value is still displayed inthe Layout pane tooltip.

Multi-value Sort Order Options are:Ascending

Descending

[Natural]

Reverse Natural [n/aDescending]

Data Entry Order is Natural


Property Description [Default Value]Sort Holes in Table Whether empty values (“holes”)

appear first or last in the table.First

[Last]

HidingHide Item Entirely Unconditionally hides the layout

item.Apply Pivot or Sort Before

HidingPivots or sorts the table layoutbefore hiding the item.

Hide Empty Item Hides the layout item if all itsvalues are NULL.

Treat Each ColumnSeparately

Hides the table layout column if itsvalues are NULL on a per-stack-pivot subtable basis and/or on aper-horizontal-pivot base tablebasis.

Generate as AnnotationBulletsDisplay Values as Bullets Displays the layout item values as

bullets.Bullet Symbol The string to use as the bullet

symbol [ ].Insert Tab Between Symbol

and ValueInserts a tab between the bulletsymbol and the layout item value.

Promotion to Common InformationPromote Column With All CommonValues

Promotes the layout item toappear as common information ifall its values are the same for allproducts in the family.

Treat Each Stack PivotSubtable Separately

Promotes the layout item if itsvalues are the same on a per-stack-pivot subtable basis.

Hide Rather Than PromoteColumn

Hides, rather than promotes, thelayout item with all commonvalues.

Promote Common Multi-Values

Promotes only the commonvalues of a multi-valued layoutitem.


Property Description [Default Value]Promote Most Common

ValuePromotes only the most commonvalue of a layout item.

Most Common Value Suffix The string to append to thepromoted most common value, toindicate that not all records in thetable layout share that value[(unless noted)].

Promote Column Even WithDistinct Values

Unconditionally promotes thelayout item to appear as commoninformation even if all its valuesare not the same for all theproducts in the family.

Tag Each Value With Valuesof Specified Item

Appends to each promoteddistinct value in square brackets ([]) the corresponding values of thespecified layout item, to indicatethe table layout records to whicheach distinct value applies.

Tag Item The layout item whose values areused to tag the distinct values[display field of table].

Preserve Duplicate Instancesof Each Value

Preserves, rather than collapses,duplicate instances of eachtagged distinct value.

Demotion to Footnotes and LegendsDemote Remaining ColumnValues to Footnotes

Demotes the layout item valuesthat have not been promoted tocommon information to appear asfootnotes.

Demote to Legend RatherThan Footnotes

Demotes the layout item value tocreate a legend, rather thanfootnotes.

Position Above Rather ThanBelow

Places the demoted layout itemvalues above, rather than below,the table layout.

Preserve Demoted ColumnRather Than Superscript

Leaves the demoted layout itemcolumn in the table layout andplaces the numbering symbols inthe column, rather than thesuperscript.


Property Description [Default Value]Display Item Name WithFootnote Values

Displays the layout item namealong with each footnote value.

Restart Numbering For EachStack Pivot Subtable

Restarts numbering at the firstsymbol of the symbol set for eachstack pivot subtable, and placesthe footnotes or legend before orafter each stack pivot subtable,rather than all at the beginning orend.

Demote Image and Use Textas Symbol

Uses the image description (of animage layout item) or the textvalue (of a text attribute layoutitem), rather than the symbol, tofootnote a demoted image.

Footnote and Legend NumberingSymbols

The set of numbering symbols touse for the layout item whendemoted to appear as footnotesor as a legend:[Auto-Select]

*, , , #, ¦, ¦, ¤, $...

i, ii, iii, iv…

I, II, III, IV…

A, B, C, D…

1, 2, 3, 4…

Custom Symbols Overrides the built-in symbol setswith a user-defined set ofsymbols, specified as a comma-separated list [<None>].

Insert Space BetweenSymbol and Value

Inserts a space between thenumbering symbol and the layoutitem value.


Property Description [Default Value]Symbol Font Style The font style of the numbering

symbol (style override):None

[Regular]

Bold

Italic

Bold Italic

Symbol Character Style The character style to use forsymbols:New Style

[None]

Prefix to Symbol The prefix to add to a symbol.Suffix to Symbol The suffix to add to a symbol.Units of MeasureConvert to Common Unit Converts the values of a numeric

layout item with a unit of measureto a common unit, chosen fromthe list of applicable units [None].

Convert Unit Suffix The string to use as the commonunit instead of the built-in unitstring [<None>].

Coupled Convert to Common Unit Converts the coupled values of acoupled numeric layout item to acommon unit, chosen from the listof applicable units [None].

Converted Unit Suffix The string to use as the coupledcommon unit, instead of the built-in unit string [<None>].


Property Description [Default Value]Common Unit Format The common unit format of a

numeric layout item with a unit ofmeasure:[Display With Value]

Promote to Column Header

Hide Entirely

Display in First Row Only

Surround Promoted Unit WithParentheses

Encloses a common unitpromoted to the column headerwith parentheses.

Item Name / Promoted UnitDelimiter

The string to use to separate thelayout item name and thepromoted common unit [Space].

UOM delimiter The delimiter to use for units ofmeasure .

Units Character Style The character style to use forunits of measure.New Style

[None]

RatingsRating Tags Hides/displays the rating tags:

[Display All]

Hide [Nom] Only

Display All

Hide Only If Single Rating Hides the tag or tags only if thenumeric attribute has a singlerating.


Property Description [Default Value]ImagesImage Variant The variant to use for an image

layout item, chosen from the list ofimage variants:B&W

JPG

New Variant

[Original]

Thumbnail

Hide Images Hides the image (of an imagelayout item) or the text valueimage (of a text attribute layoutitem).

Hide Image Texts Hides the image description (of animage layout item) or the txt value(of a text attribute layout item).

Image Scale Percentage The percentage by which to scalethe image [<None>].

Image Width The bounding image width to useinstead of the image print sizewidth [<None>].

Image Height The bounding image height to useinstead of the image print sizeheight [<None>].

Interchangeable Interchanges the bounding widthand height if the resulting resizedimage would be larger.

Expand Expands the image to exceed abounding dimension if the otherdimension does not meet acertain threshold (for extremeaspect ratios).

Threshold Percentage The threshold percentage belowwhich the image should beexpanded [<None>].

Adjustment Percentage The adjustment percentage bywhich the image should beexpanded [<None>].


Property Description [Default Value]DelimitersItem Name/Value Delimiter The string to use to separate the

layout item name and value whenthey appear in the same text boxor table cell [:].

Multi-Valued Delimiter The string to use to separate themultiple values of a multi-valuedlayout item [;].

Combined Item Name Delimiter The string to use to separate thecombined layout item nameswhen the name and value appearin the different ext boxes or tablecells [;].

Combined Item Value Delimiter The string to use to separate thecombined layout item valueswhen the name and value appearin different text boxes or tablecells, or the combined layoutitems when they appear in thesame text box or table cell [;].

Coupled Numeric Delimiter The string to use to separate thevalue pairs for a coupled numericlayout item instead of the stringset in Taxonomy mode [<fromTaxonomy mode>].

Numeric FormattingDecimal Places The number of decimal places for

a numeric layout item [<fromMDM Console or Taxonomymode].

Show Fractions Displays the numeric layout itemas fractions, rather than decimal,but only if the unit permits it[<from MDM Console orTaxonomy mode].

Thousands Separator The thousands character for anumeric layout item [,].

Decimal Symbol The decimal character for anumeric layout item [.].

Allow E Notation Permits E notation for a numericlayout item.


Property Description [Default Value]Strip Trailing Zeros Removes trailing zeros from the

values of a numeric layout item.Display Leading Zero Displays a leading zero for the

values of a numeric layout item.Value PaddingPrefix to Value The string to add to the beginning

of each value of the layout item[<None>].

Suffix to Value The string to add to the end ofeach value of the layout item[<None>].

Maximum Pad Width The width of each padded valueof the layout item [<None>].

Leading Pad Character The character to prefix to eachvalue [<None>].

RelationshipsRelated Category Matching Item

SynchronizationCopies or moves values from therelated category that matches thelayout item within the relatedrecords of a matching set, into thecorresponding matching layoutitem in the product family, whenthe two layout items are different.[None]

Copy Values to Matching Itemin Product Family

Move Values to Matching Itemin Product Family

Apply NULL Values in RelatedRecords

Clears the value of the layout itemwithin the related records of aproduct relationship, to de-emphasize related record valueswhen horizontally pivoting ordemoting to footnotes.


Property Description [Default Value]Ignore Values in Related Records Ignores the values of the layout

item within the related records ofa product relationship to furtherde-emphasize related recordvalues when pivoting, promoting,demoting, and hiding, so that therelated record values will matchany value and not interfere withthe applicable operation.

StylesCommon Information Name Style The style to use for the layout

item name when the item appearsas common information [DefaultStyle].

Common Information Value Style The style to use for the layoutitem value when the item appearsas common information [DefaultStyle].

Column Header Style The style to use for the layoutitem name when the item appearsin a column header [DefaultStyle].

Column Value Style The style to use for the layoutitem value when it appears in atable cell [Default Style].

Stack Pivot Name Style The style to use for the layoutitem name when the item is usedas a stack pivot [Default Style].

Stack Pivot Value Style The style to use for the layoutitem value when the item is usedas a stack pivot [Default Style].

Horizontal Pivot Name Style The style to use for the layoutitem name when the item is usedas a horizontal pivot [DefaultStyle].

Horizontal Pivot Value Style The style to use for the layoutitem value when the item is usedas a horizontal pivot [DefaultStyle].


Property Description [Default Value]Collapsed Horizontal Pivot Value

StyleThe style to use for the layoutitem value when the item is usedas a collapsed horizontal pivot[Default Style].

Vertical Pivot Name Style The style to use for the layoutitem name when the item is usedas a vertical pivot [Default Style].

Vertical Pivot Value Style The style to use for the layoutitem value when the item is usedas a vertical pivot [Default Style].

Footnote and Legend Style The style to use for the layoutitem when it appears as footnotesor a legend [Default Style].

Character StylesName The character style to use for item

names:New Style

[None]

Value The character style to use for itemvalues:New Style

[None]

Borders and SeparatorsCommon Information Border The thickness of the text box

border when the layout itemappears as common information[<None>].

Stack Pivot Row Bottom The thickness of the borderbeneath the stack pivot value rowwhen the layout item appears as astack pivot [1/2 pt].

Stack Pivot Name/Value RowSeparator

The thickness of the border thatseparates the stack pivot nameand value rows when the layoutitem appears as a stack pivot [1/2pt].


Property Description [Default Value]Horizontal Pivot Row Bottom The thickness of the border

beneath the horizontal pivotvalues row when the layout itemappears as a horizontal pivot [1/2pt].

Horizontal Pivot Name/Value RowSeparator

The thickness of the border thatseparates the horizontal pivotname and values rows when thelayout item appears as ahorizontal pivot [1/2 pt].

Horizontal Pivot Value ColumnSeparator

The thickness of the border thatseparates the horizontal pivotvalues when the layout itemappears as a horizontal pivot [1/2pt].

Vertical Pivot Inner ColumnSeparator

The thickness of the inner borderof the vertical pivot column whenthe layout item appears as avertical pivot [1/2 pt].

Vertical Pivot Value RowSeparator

The thickness of the border thatseparates the vertical pivot valueswhen the layout item appears as avertical pivot [1/2 pt].


Style Properties

Property Description [Default Value]Name The style name.Font The text font [Helvetica].Font Size The text font size [8 pt].Text Format The text format (overridden by

Item Name Font Style and ItemValue Font Style layout itemproperties):[Regular]

Bold

Italic

Bold Italic

Text Position The vertical text alignment:[Normal]

Superscript

Subscript

Horizontal Alignment The horizontal text alignment:[Left]

Center

Right

Justify

Character

Alignment Character The character on which align thecharacter horizontal alignment(where the value of ‘.’ createsdecimal alignment) [<None>].

Character Indent The amount to indent thealignment character from the rightindent [10 pt].


Property Description [Default Value]Vertical Alignment The vertical alignment within the

text box:[Top]

Center

Bottom

Left Indent The amount to indent from the leftside of the text box [0 pt].

Right Indent The amount to indent from theright side of the text box [0 pt].

Text Color The text color [Black].Background Color The color of text box behind text

[None].Shade The shading percentage of the

background color [0].Leader Dots The string to use as leader dots

[<None>].Leader Dot Size The font size of the leader dots

(Font Size override) [0 pt].Leader Dot Format The format of the leader dots

(Text Format override):[None]

Regular

Bold

Italics

Bold Italic

Leading The amount of space betweenlines of text [0 pt].


Property Description [Default Value]Change Case The case to use:

[None]

UPPER CASE

lower case

Sentence case

Title Case

tOGGLE cASE

Tracking The amount of space betweencharacters [0]

Locked Row Height The fixed row height to use [0 pt]


GlossaryThe following is a set of selected MDM terms that are directly relevant tothe work that you perform in MDM Publisher.

absolute property A property – such as Page Width --whose value is applied globally in allcircumstances.

attribute A subfield that applies to a specificcategory rather than to the entirecollection of records.

attribute rating A weighted ranking of a numeric attributecompared with other similar numericattributes.

base table A subtable that results from pivoting amain table. See also “pivot table”.

conditional property A property whose value is applied onlywhen specific conditions are met for thelayout item in the particular family.

family A group of main-table records that arerelated by one or more common fieldsand/or attribute values (also called“product family”).

Families table A table that stores data about the productfamily, such as images, text blocks, andother information applicable to theproduct family as a whole, rather than toindividual product records.

family hierarchy A tree that represents a product family,with each individual family appearing as aleaf node in the tree. This hierarchicalstructure is important for organizationalpurposes and for inheritance reasons. Itis linked directly to the MDM repository.

hierarchy Information organized in a hierarchicaltree in which each record is related to aparent record and may be related to asibling record and/or child records.


inheritance The automatic transfer of properties in ahierarchy. Multi-level inheritance withinthe family hierarchy is extended with two-dimensional item-level and property-levelgranularity, so that each property can beoverridden for each individual item, orinherited from the node above it in thehierarchy.

items The fields, attributes, and qualifiers thatbelong to the records of a specific familyor presentation. Items – or “layout items” -- are compiled by MDM from the main,qualified, and Families tables in theMDM repository. Items work on themetadata level.

mask A kind of filter defined to block all main-table records from view except thedefined subset of records included in themask.

object model The application of layout specifications tolayout items at the metadata level ratherthan directly to the product data. Thisguarantees publishing consistency whenchanges are made not only to the databut also to the set of product recordsitself.

object snapshot A recording of the presentation objectsafter they are initially generated. MDMPublisher stores these snapshots with thepresentation and uses them – not thedynamic repository data – to populate thespread in the publication. In this regard,snapshots serve as a firewall between theongoing changes that occur in therepository and the static spreads in thepublication.

object The layout element displayed on theactual spread of a publication. This is incontrast to an item, which refers to theschema information originating in theMDM repository.


pagination The division of the laid-out families intopages of the spreads, after layout andtemplate creation.

partitioning The division of a set of records in one ormore product families into subsections.You partition the product records intofamilies.

perspective A feature in MDM Publisher that lets yousave and reuse different configurations ofvisible and hidden panes.

pivot table A tool that divides tables in a number ofdifferent ways. The spreadsheet-styletable of product records within eachproduct family can be dynamicallyrestructured to eliminate redundant datavalues and create the stylized anddensely-structured table layouts that arestandard in paper catalogs.

presentation The leaf-node item in a publicationhierarchy. A presentation can representeither a family or an individual record, andcontains the actual product informationthat is published in the catalog.

presentation hierarchy The actual hierarchical structure of thepresentations within a publication.

product family See “family”.

promotion Selected product information, relevant formost or all records of a family, which canbe selected – or “promoted” -- to bedisplayed above the family data table.This simplifies the data display andmakes the data more understandable.

property The defining characteristics of a field.Each collection of related layoutspecifications is grouped into a single setof object properties. The property valuesare stored as publishing metadata withinMDM, rather than in the DTP page layout,to ensure consistent and predictablepublished results.


publication The set of catalog documents created byMDM Publisher. You can create, open,close, and print the publication just likeany document in a word processing ordesktop publishing program. It can be a“flyer” of one or two items, a book of anentire catalog, or any selectedsubsection(s) of the entire record set.

qualified table A versatile lookup table that can be usedto efficiently store complex relationshipsbetween a main table record and one ormore lookup table records that containdifferent types of additional information.

rating See “attribute rating”.

runaround anchor Locking a family to a page.

section A discrete part of a publicationrepresented by a section node in thepresentation hierarchy. Each section, inturn, is made up of individual, discretepages and spreads (a combination of twofacing pages). Each page and spread cancontain one or more presentations.

spread A combination of two facing pages in apublication.

style A set of properties defined within MDM tocontrol all of the formatting of the finalpublished output.

Documents

MDM Publisher in Depth