Publication objects

A publication object is a named set of name/value pairs that enables you to publish and release a Web Designer publication as part of your USoft application by running the "Release publication" action.

Each publication object has a unique Publication Object name that identifies it within Delivery Manager. This name is not used in other tools than Delivery Manager.

Each publication object is a combination of:

•A Database Account name identifying the source location where the publication has been developed, or is being developed.

•A name that identifies your USoft application. This is the application name you have been using in Web Designer.

•A name that identifies a Publication Configuration in Web Designer.

•Optionally, a name that identifies a Page Set in Web Designer.

When you run the "Release publication" action:

•Delivery Manager logs on to Web Designer in the database account, and publishes the application against the Publication Configuration. If you specified a Page Set, this is what is published. If you did not specify a Page Set, the entire application is published. It is not possible from Delivery Manager to publish a single Page.

•Delivery Manager copies the publication result from the Publication Directory of the Publication Configuration to release subfolder

\publications\publication-object

In this routine, the Publication Configuration is relatively unimportant since it is reduced to an interim directory. In Delivery Manager, you can block folders and files: blocked folders and files remain in the Publication Directory but are not copied to the release subfolder:

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Publication and release of web application GUIs from Web Designer by Delivery Manager

To release a publication, you must first define a Publication Object. Do this by choosing Define, Publication objects from the menu. You can have the publication object validated. Once you have a valid publication object, define a task, include a task step with Action = "Release publication", and then run the task.

You can also perform this sequence of operations but write the output to a different location than the release folder. To do this, use the Publish publication object instead of the Release publication action.

The Publish routine

The Publish routine is the operation that assembles web GUI deliverables from the sources and places them in a location called the publication directory.

Each time you publish, you extract application GUI definitions from the Web Designer repository to .XML files (one .XML file for each Page that is published). In addition, you publish a set of .HTML, .CSS, .JS and other non-XML files. The source for this set of non-XML files is the USoft-delivered default by default, but files in this set are overwritten at publish times by files and folders of the same name that your team has placed in the Alt (Alternative Template) Directory.

This makes the Alt directory the source for non-XML web GUI deliverables.

Therefore, if multiple developers in your team are able to publish the web GUI of your application, it is essential that you choose is a shared folder on the file system as your Alternative Template Folder.

When you publish in Web Designer, you must indicate a Publication Configuration against which to publish. Among other things, this Publication Configuration determines the filepath to the Alternative Template Folder and the filepath to the publication directory where the output (the publication) is placed. In the context of delivery, this publication directory is used as an interim folder only. It may be a shared folder or it may be a local folder.

The Release routine

For publications, the Release routine is the operation that consists of :

•picking up the folders and files in the publication directory that were left there by Publish,

•removing from this set all the folders and files (if any) that are currently blocked * for release,

•copying the remaining folders and files (if any) to the \publications subfolder of the current release frame.

* In Delivery Manager, for each Publication Object, you can define a list of the folders or files to be blocked, ie., barred from inclusion in the release. This list remains in force until it is changed. Any entries in this list for folders and files that are not actually found in the publication directory are without effect, but do not raise errors.