Documents

Working with imperia depends mainly on the workflow and the permissions available to you because of your current group. Based on these parameters, imperia manages the entire production process of content, its transfer to target systems, or respectively export to other formats.

When a document is created, it is assigned to a given workflow. All workflow steps, necessary for the completion of this document, are executed in the designated sequence.

This chapter deals mainly with the document functions that a standard user can use. This includes all functions for document creation and editing, backup, One-Click-Edit and for the use of editorial functions as SEO, tracking changes, etc.

1. Creating a New Document#

Creating a new document is really just the act of initiating a document and starting the configured workflow.

There are two ways to create a new document:

Tip

In both modules you are able to search for the desired category via the search field.

Under Menu -> Documents -> Create new Document

  • There, the categories are listed in a tree structure:
    Category selection
  • These categories have been created by your organization and usually correspond to a section or a page of your website.
  • As an editor you should know which category to choose for your purpose, as you always first choose a category in order to create the document.
  • Creating a document guides you into the first interactive step of the configured workflow. Usually, the first interactive step is the “MetaEdit” step, where editors enter descriptive information about new documents.
  • Also, by creating a new document, you create an entry in the archive and, as already been stated, start the first step of a workflow to build an imperia document. Your document now also appears on the desktop.

In the Document Browser

  1. Open Menu -> Documents -> Document Browser.
  2. Click on the desired category.
  3. Click on File -> Create New Document.

2. Working on a Document#

After creating or re-importing a document, the document is “in the workflow”. Being in the workflow means, that a sequence of tasks has to be completed in order to “finish” the document. As long as a document is in the workflow, you will find this document on your Desktop.

Workflow

A workflow separates the whole task of creating a document into subtasks, which are called workflow steps. A workflow step might include the task of entering meta information about the document or setting up a publishing date.

The most notable step of the workflow is the Edit-Step, where you create the actual content. Further information about this step in The Edit step.

The workflow may or include one or more of the following workflow steps:

  • MetaEdit
    Enter meta information about the document

  • Edit or Edit+
    Create the documents content, see The Edit step

  • Publish date
    Set a date on which the document should automatically be published

  • Expiry date
    Set a date on which the document should automatically be unpublished

  • Resubmit date
    Set a date on which you want to alter the document's content again

  • SEO
    Check if your document confirms to SEO standards. For more information, please check section Search engine optimization .

  • Approval
    Approve documents of your staff before finishing them


Workflow Control Bar

In every workflow step you will find at least one of the following functions/buttons:

Buttons of the Edit-Step

  • Cancel-Button

    • If you cancel a workflow step, the content entered in this canceled step is lost.
    • To cancel editing a document, click on the Cancel button. Once you stop editing a document in this way, the respective document is available for other users to edit it.

    Important

    This does not happen when you just close your browser window.

    In this case, you have terminated the editing process but the system cannot register it; because in case of closing the browser window, it does not send a notification to imperia's web server.

    As a result, the document you have last edited remains locked.

  • Save-Button

    • In every workflow step, in which you can enter content, there is a Save button. Clicking on this button saves the made changes. Saving a workflow step takes you usually to the next workflow step. If you save the last workflow step of the workflow, you are guided to the Desktop, where you can finish the document.

    Note

    The Edit-Step however applies a slightly different interaction. Here, the Save button saves the progress without further consequences.
    To save and leave the Edit-Step click on the Save and Close button.

  • Preview-Button

    • The Preview button opens a preview of the document in a new browser tab. It shows how the docuemnt is going to look like, when it has been published.
    • For more information about the preview, please take a look at Preview Documents.

The Edit-Step#

In the Edit-Step you are creating the actual content for the document. The Edit-Step has been designed by your company's template designer and might be plain and simple or very complex.

Templates are the key elements for content input: in most cases they contain the layout of the finished documents and identify parts that can be edited by a user.

Besides the control elements known from the web forms, such as single- and multi-line text input fields, checkboxes, select fields, etc., imperia templates contain other, specific for imperia, input options such as, image upload, Media Asset Management (MAM), imperia blocks, Flex modules, Slot modules, Rich text editors (iWE2).

In the following sections, the different kinds of elements of a template will be explained to you.

Text Input Fields#

These are the standard form elements used to input content into a template. They work exactly as you are used to from the Internet. Text input fields in imperia accept and store HTML code. If in doubt consult your template developer.

Flex Modules#

Flex modules are HTML blocks that you can insert when creating an article. You can combine them as often as desired in arbitrary order.

When you create a document, that uses a template including a flex module, you may see the following control element that is used to insert these blocks:

Flex module control panel

Note

The layout of the control element may differ, if the template developer has chosen a different view for flex modules.


Inserting a Flex Module#

Proceed as follows:

Flex module Insert-how-to

  1. In order to insert a flex module to the current document, use the New module drop down menu to select the desired flex module.
  2. If needed, increase the desired number of instances by using the Instances button.
  3. Click Insert Flex to insert the flex module(s).
  4. You might need to enter other parameters depending on the selected flex module.
  5. You can also copy flex modules, when already inserted, by using the button Flex module plus button in the flex module's menu bar. By clicking this symbol, the module including already entered content will be copied beneath the original one.
  6. You can move the flex module with its content to a desired position by using the buttons Flex module move buttons.

  7. You can also delete a flex module by using in the menu bar.

    Important

    Deleting of a flex module also deletes the entered content.

    Also, in case you have already added a flex module in your document and reimported the document and then delete the flex module all meta variables as well as references will be deleted in the document.


Flex Module Selection#

If you have inserted several flex modules to certain positions in a template, you can save this selection and insert the same selection at any other location.

Note

This function is not available in the minimal view.

Proceed as follows:

Flex module selection


1. Saving a Flex Module Selection

  1. In the Button drop down menu, click the Set preset option. The following dialog opens in a new tab:
    Saving a flex module selection
  2. In this dialog, enter a name for the flex module selection.
  3. Save your settings.

The stored flex module selection is only available to you and not to other users.


2. Inserting saved Flex Module Selection

Note

This option is not available in the minimal view of a flex module.

  1. In the Button drop down menu, click the Open preset option.
    A new dialog with the preset, saved flex module selections opens:
    Open a flex module selection
  2. Click the name of the selection you want to insert.

The preset flex module selection will be inserted directly.


3. Delete saved Flex Module Selection

Note

This option is not available in the minimal view of a flex module.

  1. In the Button drop down menu, click the Open preset option.
  2. In the new dialog, click at the right end of each flex module selection.

imperia Blocks#

imperia blocks are template sections that can be duplicated as often as desired.
They can be used, for example:

  • to create lists. By duplicating a list item you can create a list of any size so it is not necessary for a template developer to know the number of list items beforehand.
  • for repetitive content, especially in the footer.

imperia blocks are usually situated inside the flex module control element, and you can insert them as any flex module or block.

You can easily create image galleries by using imperia blocks:

  1. In the Flex module-control panel choose the flex module image gallery.
  2. You can then set a title (optional).
  3. You also have the options GALLERY/SLIDESHOW and LIGHTBOX (on/off).

  4. Then insert the desired images:

Now you have inserted the images, which will be then shown as a slideshow/gallery in your website.

Inserting a Picture#

There are two ways to insert an image in a document:

You can access both of them by clicking on a link in the Media Asset Management invocation in a template.
However, a template developer can configure the corresponding control element so that only one of the two variants is available.
The following screenshot shows all available options.

MAM invocation in a template

Note

  • The placeholder image has the same dimensions as the inserted image would have in the finished document.
  • The screenshot is the default placeholder image. This can also be configured by a template developer and may differ from the figure.

Inserting an Image with the Media Asset Management#

  1. In order to insert an image from the Media Asset Management in a document, click the Assets link. This opens the Media Asset Management in a new window.
  2. In the MAM, change into the directory with the desired image, if necessary.
  3. Double-click the thumbnail of the desired asset. Please consider that the variant currently specified as default will be inserted. Read the section MAM/Define a Standard Variant to change the asset variant to be inserted.

The image will be inserted directly.


Inserting an Image using Upload#

You can use the image upload to insert images from your file system that are not stored in the MAM into a document. imperia transfers these images to the target system, along with the HTML file, when publishing the document.

Important

When using this Upload button, the image is only connected to the corresponding document and won't be saved in the MAM.
That means, when deleting the document from the imperia system, the image will be deleted, too.

  1. Select the link Upload in the invocation. A new dialog opens:
    Image upload

  2. Click Browse to type the path of the desired file, or search the file on your computer using the Search button.
    If one or more images have already been embedded in a document using the Image Upload, they will be saved in the list “Recently uploaded files”:
    Image Upload when selecting already referenced images
    Instead of embedding a new one, you can then select one of the existing images:

    • inserts the image in the document.
    • delets the image from the list.

  3. Click on the Upload button.

  4. The next dialog opens where you can change the image's filename/alt text.

    Note

    The image upload can be configured in such a way that the file renaming option is disabled. But the corresponding dialog appears anyway in order to be able to check the filename.

  5. Click OK to insert the image into the document and close the dialog box.
    The image appears instead of the placeholder in the document:
    Image upload after selecting an image

  6. If a file with this name is already embedded in a document, a new dialog appears:
    Overwrite confirmation
    • Click OK to override the existing image and close the dialog or
    • Click Back to keep it. In this case, you can return to the file selection to select a different image.

You have now inserted the image. You then can take following actions:


Removing an Inserted Image#

  1. In order to remove an image inserted into a document - via MAM or Image Upload -, mouseover onto the image.
    The icon close icon appears in the upper right corner.
  2. Click the icon to remove the image.


Customizing an Inserted Image#

To customize an image that you have inserted in your document, use the “Customize” link in the MAM call. This opens the Asset Action dialog, where you can choose the desired action (see Asset Actions).

Linktool#

The linktool is used to copy content, e.g. documents or other assets, from another document to different target positions in your current document. The linktool is always opened in the target document.

  • source document is the document where text is to be copied from.
  • target document is the document where the copied content is placed.

Content copied into a document using the linktool is not automatically updated when changes in the source document are made. In such case, you must edit the target document again, or work with dynamic content (SiteActive).

Note

  • Depending on the configuration of the linktool and the target document layout, the user functions can vary. If you have further questions, please contact your template developer.
  • Depending on what filters and restrictions were set by your template developer, you are likely to see only parts of the category tree.

The linktool essentially opens either the MAM or the Document Browser, depending on what was specified in the corresponding template.

In order to copy content via the linktool, proceed as follows:

  1. Click the default icon - depending on the configuration -
    Linktool for the Document browser(for the Document browser) or Linktool for the MAM (for the MAM).

  2. Once you've called the linktool, it opens in a popup window.

    Document Browser MAM
    Document Browser linktool dialog MAM linktool dialog
    You will see an additional Insert column, that you use to insert the desired document or asset in your target document.

    Or by clicking on the URI of the asset, you will insert it in the target document, too.    		 Double-click on the thumbnail to insert the default variant of the asset into the target document.
    Furthermore, there is an additional menu item Template-> Reset link which is used to reset a link in your target document.

  3. You may only insert one item at a time.

  4. Use the FTS and filters to search certain assets. Read Searching in the Media Asset Management on the search options.

iWE2 - imperia WYSIWYG Editor#

imperia's WYSIWYG editor (iWE2) allows comfortable text editing in a template. Formatting, image insertion and links to other documents can be done quickly and easily in a WYSIWYG view. Its use is based on popular desktop word processing software so it is exceptionally intuitive and simple to learn. HTML knowledge is not necessary, but it is possible to directly edit the HTML source code if you want.

The technical basis is the text editor “CKEditor” (ckeditor.com).
The following sections include only the imperia-specific functions. For a detailed description of the “CKEditor” visit the CKEditor User's Guide: http://docs.cksource.com/CKEditor_3.x/Users_Guide (date of the source reference: Sept. 2017)

User Interface#

The user interface is similar to a common desktop word processing software. The picture below shows all the available toolbars and controls:

iWE2 controls

All functions can be accessed by clicking one of the buttons in the toolbar.

Note

Which of the documented buttons you will actually see, depends on iWE2 editor's configuration.

The toolbars can be subdivided according to their functions:

  • Control functions:
    These include, for example, undo and redo functions, search and replace, and paste from clipboard.

  • Document structure:
    The structure functions include, for example, list creation, as well as quotes or block elements.

  • Text formatting:
    The text formatting functions include bold, italic, indentation and text alignment.

  • Colors:
    Both text and background colors can be defined with the iWE2 editor.

  • Inserting objects and text:
    In addition to the insertion of assets, special characters and tables this function group also includes insertion of plain text or formatted text from Word documents via the clipboard, read Inserting Assets or Inserting Tables.

  • Links:
    Using the iWE2, you can generate links to other documents or web sites, downloads from imperia's Media Asset Management, as well as mailto links.

  • Form functions:
    Use the form features to add forms and form elements to your document.

Inserting Assets#

  1. Click MAM button to insert an image from the Media Asset Management at the cursor position in the iWE2. The following dialog box opens:
    Insert an image from MAM

  2. The following tabs in the dialog box allow you to select and insert assets:

    • Image Info
      In this tab you select the asset to be inserted from the MAM, similar to the Linktool:

      1. Click the button Browse MAM. The Media Asset Management opens in a new window.
      2. Double-click a thumbnail to add the standard variant of an asset to a document.
      3. Click the icon in the Insert column to select one of the available variants of an asset to be imported.
        The image with its URL will be added automatically.
        Alternatively, you can enter the URL manually.
        In the Preview window you can see the preview of the asset to be imported and also the effects of the following options when applied:
      4. Enter an Alternative Text if needed.
        If an asset is selected, this field is automatically filled with that asset's title.

      5. In Width/Height enter the desired dimensions for the asset if these dimensions differ from those you need in a document.
        If you specify only the length of one side, the system calculates the other side length based on the aspect ratio of the original asset.

        Note

        Enter the size information prior to the asset selection. The system then automatically generates a new variant of the selected asset with the desired dimensions. In this way, you achieve the best possible image quality.
        Alternativaley, you can edit the assets subsequently, see asset actions.

      6. Apply a border to the inserted asset, if neede, for example 5px.

      7. Enter H distance/V distance, if needed, to apply a certain distance of the assset tom the closest element, for example 5px.
      8. In Wraparound, you can choose the alignment of an image, if needed.


    • Caption (optional)

    Important

    Make sure to activate the check box 'Image with caption'. Otherwise, the inserted will not be displayed.

    1. In Caption, enter the text.
    2. Activate the checkbox image with caption.
    3. In Align you can select the alignment of the entered annotation.


    • Link
      In this tab, the selected asset can be linked:

      1. In URL enter the target URL for the link to be created.
      2. In Target choose the target type for the link.

    • Advanced
      In this tab you can access the advanced settings, for example, apply style classes or set extended properties such as language code and description.

Inserting Tables#

With this function you can add HTML tables in iWE2.

  1. Click Insert Table Button to insert a table. Following dialog window opens:
    Table properties
  2. In this dialog you can specify the properties of the table to be created.
    This includes among other things table size, number of rows and columns, border thickness, line spacing, alignment, and annotations.

Inserting Graphic Button#

In the iWE2 you can add a button and assign an asset from MAM to it. The options available are the same as described in Inserting Assets, except there is no “Link” tab.

Graphic buttons properties

Preview Documents#

To enter the preview mode, you can choose a document on your desktop within any workflow step and click on its URL.

The chosen document opens in a new tab in your internet browser with the toolbar on top that contains the options for the preview mode :

Preview Toolbar The toolbar gives you different options to display your document:

  • mobile symbol:
    • is a preview of your document on a mobile phone.
    • by clicking on it you can also see the values in the fields for height and width change on the right hand side.
  • seven inch tablet-symbol:
    • is a preview of your document on a seven inch tablet.
    • by clicking on the symbol, the values for height and width change.
  • ten inch tablets-symbol:
    • is a preview of your document on a ten inch tablet.
    • by clicking on the symbol, the values for height and width change; the preview is slightly larger than the preview for seven inch tablets.
  • desktop symbol:
    • is the preview for computers.
    • this option is activated by default when you first enter the preview mode.
    • While the values for height and width are fix for the mobile and tablet preview, they are dynamic for the desktop option and depend on the resolution of the display on which your browser is open.
  • rotate symbol:
    • is a preview to see what your site looks like when you rotate your mobile phone or your tablet on the side.
    • It is activated by clicking on the rotate symbol and doesn’t work for the computer preview.
  • input fields:
    • to change the height and width manually.
    • The first input field is for the width, the second is for the height.
    • To submit the numbers you’ve just entered you simply press the check symbol right of the input fields.
  • Animate button:
    • By clicking it you start the animation process, in which the browser automatically swaps between the different previews for mobile phones, tablets and desktops.
    • You can stop the animation by clicking on the same button again.

  • Live-Reload:
    By activating this button, the preview reloads automatically.

  • Diff:
    Shows the differences between the current and the last finished document version.
    When not called from the editmode, the difference of last_version and last_finished_version is shown.

  • Select field:
    There you can switch between documents, e.g. in case of multilingual documents between the documents for every language.

3. Publish Documents#

Published Document

Note

To publish documents you need create privileges for the category the document was created in and read permissions to the categories of the associated files (usually MAM objects).

All documents that leave their workflow, and are ready and approved, disappear from the Desktop and are ready to be published.
They can either be published directly (via a button) or from the publishing list where all to published documents will appear.

The exceptions are documents which have the Auto publisher plug-in in their workflow. These are usually published immediately and do not appear in the publishing list.

Instantly publishing documents#

After completion of the workflow, in the Status Report dialog the extra Publish now button is available. By clicking on it, the document is published and then deleted from the publishing list.

Status report

There, you have the option to leave the status report and go to the Desktop.

Publishing list#

You can access the dialog from Menu->Documents->Publish documents

Publishing list

All documents that can be published are listed in this table. Only documents created in a category you have access to appear.

Change the display of the publishing list

  • Limit displayed documents:
    The topmost section of the Publishing List dialog has some filtering options to limit the displayed documents.
    To reset a filter, click on the next to the filtering option.

    • URI mask:
      The first input field is used to filter documents based on their URI.
      For example, if you want to display only documents with the file extension html, enter .html in the field.
      Click on the Filter button.
      The publishing list is reloaded and only documents that meet the criteria entered in the “URI mask” field are displayed.
    • Categories:
      The second input field is used to filter documents based on category. To enter the desired categories, you have two options:
      • Enter a semicolon-separated list of category node IDs (example: /4; /4/16; /4/22). You can use both category node IDs or names to match these suggestions.
      • or use the Browse categories button. Clicking on the Browse categories button, opens a popup window with the categories tree.
        1. Select the checkboxes in front of the category's name to include it.
        2. Click OK to save your changes. The “Categories” field now contains the node IDs of the selected categories.

  • Change sorting of the documents:
    By clicking on the criteria in the first row of the publishing list. This reloads and sorts the list after the selected criteria. Switch between ascending and descending order by clicking again on the criteria.

  • Change display mode of the publishing list:
    The publishing list has two display modes, which you can select from the drop down menu.

    • One entry per imperia document: here, the documents are sorted by their master document, i.e. the copy pages are displayed beneath the corresponding document
    • One entry per file: list every single document.

Publishing in the publish list#

  • In order to publish single documents, click at the end of a document's line.
  • In order to publish multiple documents, select the desired check boxes in front of the documents and click the button Publish at the end of the page.
  • In order to publish all documents, select the checkbox Select all by the end of the list and click the button Publish.

Once a document is selected you have the following actions available. Those are also to be found under at the end of the line of the document:

  • Remove
    removes the document from the publish-list.

  • Regenerate
    the document gets reparsed with a new template. By clicking this button, you will get to the Reparse settings:Reparse settings

Publishing documents with assets#

MAM Assets referenced in documents are published automatically together with the document, if it is referenced as a relative path to the document root in HTML within the to published document file, e.g.:

<a href="/image.jpg">
<img src="/here/there/image.jpg">

but not as following:

<img src="../here/there/image.jpg">
oder
<img src="http://here/there/image.jpg">
oder
<img src='/here/there/image.jpg'>

Also, it makes no differences whether the HTML tag is visible in the DOM or hidden for example as HTML-/PHP comment.

Searching Documents#

In imperia's title bar, there is an input field for an internal documents search.

Enter one or more words in the input field to search. The result will be displayed as follows:

Search result

  • All matches are displayed in a table that contains the title and the URL of the found documents.
  • Clicking on the URL opens a preview of the respective document in a new window.
  • Following functions are also available:
    • shows information about the document.
    • for editing the document (in case it is still in a workflow).
    • opens the document history.

Search engine optimization (SEO)#

The SEO-Workflow-Plugin is a workflow step that helps you to optimze your web page for search engines like Google or Startpage. It validates your page against a checklist and offers suggestions for improvement.

If your workflow contains the SEO-Workflow-Plugin, it will appear in the Next Step section of your Desktop (probably after the Edit Step):

SEO step

1. Enter keywords

SEO keywords

  1. During the SEO step you can choose one or more keywords as a basis for the SEO-check.
  2. Furthermore you have to select one of your target systems to import information about the status of the robot.txt file.
  3. Click on Apply to start the check.

2. Preview

SEO preview

In the next section of the SEO step you are given a preview of how this document entry might look like as a search engine result.

  • Furthermore several parts of the document are inspected for the presence of the defined keywords.
  • For every instance of a keyword in the respective location, the corresponding counter is incremented by 1. Accordingly you will receive a None, if no keyword is found.

3. Validation of the document

SEO Checklist

The last section validates your document and target system against a SEO checklist. Red entries indicate serious violations of SEO guidelines. Yellow entries are warnings. Green entries indicate that this aspect complies with SEO guidelines.
The check list also shows you how to improve the different issues.

3. Finish SEO workflow plugin

SEO Buttons

To finish the SEO workflow step you can either

  • Save and go on to the next step,
  • Reject and go to a previous workflow step (probably the edit step) or
  • Cancel to go to the Desktop.

Document Browser#

imperia enables you to edit documents that are already located (published) on a target system by using the Document Browser.

But, with the document browser you not only display the documents and assets separately for each target system but also for the development system in the familiar tree structure.
Also, any workflow status of any document is shown (excluding deleted documents that are to be found in the archive).

The Document Browser not only it gives you a detailed overview of your documents and assets; you also have the opportunity to work with them, e.g. create, delete, reparse documents, etc.

Structure of the Document Browser

To open the Document Browser, click Documents-> Document Browser:

Version selection dialog

  • On the left side you will find the category tree as for the Categories or the MAM.
  • On the right side you see columns that contain different kind of information about the documents or assets.
  • The MAM and Linktool are based on the Document Browser so that the working method and structure are very similar;
    also, all three modules have a search tool which is to be found in the bar below, the search results are displayed in the columns.

Also, the menu bars and columns contain important features that are described in the following.

There are two menu bars that contain functions to manipulate the documents and to change the display of them.

Top menu bar

  • Click File -> Create New Document in order to create a new document. Make sure to have chosen the desired category in the tree beforehand.
  • Click File -> Archive to open the (older) versions of the selected category.
  • Click Columns in order to add other information or functions about the documents.

Second menu bar

  • Mode: Here you can change the display of the tree to 'Category' or 'Directory'.
  • Recursive: Activate the checkbox in order to display the subcategories or -directories when you open the main category/directory.
  • Systems (on the right-hand side of the bar): Here you can change between the target or development system to be displayed.
    Or you can display 'All' documents in both systems.

Columns#

There are several columns that give important information on every document. You can add them from Columns in the menu bar.

The most important columns will be explained to you in the following:

  • Column Publish:
    Here you can publish documents and assets via the link Publish.
    Especially assets can be published independantly from the documents. This function is also available in the MAM, see Enable Independant Assets Publishing.

  • Column Info:
    contains all the functions and information about the documents that are contained in the different columns in one overview-window.
    It also contains the Info in order to open the overview.
    By clicking the link, the following window 'Document Info' will be displayed:
    Version selection dialog

  • Column URL:
    This column contains a document's path. Clicking on it will open the document in preview mode.

  • Column Up-to-date:
    In this column you can see if a document on a target system is up-to-date/corresponds with the one on the develop system. Clicking on the link in the column opens the Document Publish Status dialog:
    Document Publish Status
    The dialog provides information about a document's title, as well as the node ID. The first column is a list of the document's copy pages and the next columns are the available target systems. Below each target system, you can see the status of the corresponding copy page. The possible statuses are:

    • Up-to-date - the document version on the develop and the target systems are the same.

    • Outdated - the document version on the target system is older than the one on the develop.

    • N/A - no information available

    • Manually deleted - the document was manually deleted from the target system.

    • Trigger fail - this status is displayed when a publishing trigger is defined for the corresponding target system and the document (or a copy page) does not meet the requirements (resp. is not published).

    • Missing on Develop - the document was deleted form the develop system, but is still present on the target system.

  • Column Reparse:
    In this column you will find the button to start the Template Reparse.

  • Column References:
    This column displays whether the current document is referenced in another document.

    Note

    Please consider that by 'references' only the ones to other documents are meant, not referenced assets. An overview of referenced assets can be found in the column Info under References (see figures below Column Info ).

  • Column Re-importing:
    Re-imported documents are moved from a Target System to the first step of their original workflow. If meanwhile this workflow has been modified, re-imported documents will pass through the modified workflow.

    Note

    While an imported document is still in the workflow, the re-import option is forbidden.

    1. Use the link in the Re-Import column.
    2. Once you've selected to re-import a document, a new page loads with the warning message “You are about to import documents” that you have to confirm.
    3. In a new dialog you are able to make an optional entry to the Archive.
    4. Save by clicking OK.
      The reimport starts.
      You are taken to the first workflow step.

  • Column Delete:
    This column contains a link to delete the corresponding document(s) from the develop system.

    Note

    To delete a document, a user needs both create and delete permissions to the corresponding category.

    You can also delete documents, both during the workflow and the Archive.

    1. Use the link in the Delete column of the corresponding document.
      You can select more than one document by checking the checkbox in the № column.

    2. Once you've selected to delete a document, a new page loads, where you can choose additional options:

      • “delete documents from the workflow”
      • “delete documents from the Archive”

    3. Confirm by clicking the button Delete.
      When a document is deleted successfully a green bar appears. When the documents haven't been deleted a red bar appears.
      Also, with each status additional information are displayed.

The Archive#

All changes to a document that a user has made ​​and saved, are stored in the Archive. In this way it is possible to restore a previous state of a document. Each document version has a time stamp, and can be restored at any moment by authorized users. How to track changes is described in the Tracking Changes.

The Archive structure reflects the category's one and is structured as a tree.
Also, media assets are stored here.

If a user saves a modified document, then this document version is stored in the respective branch of the Archive. If this document is edited ten times, ten different versions will appear in the Archive, and all of them are restorable.

You can import documents and document versions from the Archive back into the workflow, or delete them. If a document branch is selected for import, then the last, resp. the published version, will be imported automatically.

When you delete an entire document, all saved versions of this document are deleted as well. This cannot be undone!

The Archive Browser#

  • To open the Archive, select Menu -> Documents -> Archive.

  • Alternatively, you can use the Document Browser to use the Archive:

    1. In the Document Browser, select the desired category.
    2. In the menu bar, click File -> Archive.

    You will be directed directly to the document/categoriy resp. in the Archive.

The following dialog box opens:

The document archive dialog

In the following, all available (control) elements will be explained to you:

Filters On top of the page, you will a drop-down-menu with all availabe filters to change the display of the categories.
You can choose from the following settings:

  • Display all archived versions
    All document versions, including the published ones, are displayed. For workflows with multiple steps and documents with a longer lifespan there could be a lot of versions. In this case, it can take a long time until the browser completely builds the Archive page.

  • Display finished archived versions
    Choose this setting if you want to see only the finished versions of a document. This setting is recommended for documents with large-scale workflows and/or longer lifespan.

Category tree

  • Categories:

    • The design of the Archive browser ensures optimum performance. In order to build the Archive page as quickly as possible, the Archive browser shows only the content of the category you have currently selected and the nodes or categories, connecting it to higher levels of the category tree. For example:
      Example of a category tree in the archive
      This category contains only subcategories which you can reach by clicking on them. Click the START link to see the whole category tree.
      The same example, one level higher in the category tree
    • The separate categories are displayed in rows. If a category has subcategories or documents, you can open them and view the content by clicking the category.
    • Documents or document versions can be chosen by selecting a checkbox. You then may perform the actions, described under Available actions:

  • Documents:

    • Documents are also displayed in rows.
    • Click on a document entry to view all its archived versions.
    • To perform one of the Available actions below, check the checkbox in front of the name of a particular document or version.

Available actions

Once you have selected a document or a version you want to work with, you have following options:

  • Quickimport: Import
    Read the next section Restoring from the Archive.

  • History Icon: History
    This opens the document history of archived version. You cannot make entries there, see Document History.

  • :
    The sub menu contains following options:

    • Preview: If you are on the level of a document entry, you are able to select the Preview of the last finished version. To preview older versions, click directly on their name.
    • Examine differences: Clicking the Examine differences option will open a new dialog where you can view the changes between two document versions. See also Tracking Changes.

  • buttons Delete and Import:
    Read the sections Deleting from the Archive and Restoring from the Archive.

Restoring from the Archive#

Each document version that has left the workflow, gets a (finished) status in the Archive. If the version is on a target system a shield icon appears next to it.

It is possible to re-import every version of a document.

Note

Imported documents must pass through the workflow before they can be published again. Use this setting only if you are sure this is what you want!

1. Choose document/version

  • Open the category in the Archive browser and select the checkbox next to the title of the document you want to import from the Archive.
    When you check the checkbox next to the title, the document version that was the last to leave the workflow will be automatically selected.

  • Then, either click on the Arrow icon next to the name or click the Import button at the bottom.

  • If you want to import all published document versions at once, use the Select All checkbox.

    Note

    This can cause a huge number of documents to appear on all users' Desktops.

    If all categories in the archive are opened, all documents that are in the publishing list or already on a target system, will be imported in the develop system.

2. Import document/version

Before you successfully import the document/version, you have confirm it on the page Document History.

3. Edit document/version in the workflow

  • If only one document is re-imported, you are directly taken to the first workflow step and can start editing the document immediately.

  • If more than one document is re-imported, there is an Edit button next to each entry in the status report. Choose the document you wish to edit and click on the corresponding button; you are taken to the first workflow step.

Deleting from the Archive#

Note

  • Documents that were deleted from the Archive, are lost forever! Once you delete a document from the Archive, all versions of this document will be deleted.

  • Since version 9 - unlike previous imperia versions - if you delete versions from the Archive, they are also deleted from all the target and develop systems, i.e. no document version remains on a target system anymore when deleted.

You can delete multiple documents or document versions from different categories simultaneously.

  1. If you want to permanently delete one or more documents from the Archive, select them using the checkboxes.
  2. Click the Delete button. You will be directed to the status report.
  3. Confirm the deletion by clicking OK.

Tracking Changes#

imperia allows you to track the changes made to a document since its creation. You can compare any two versions of a document. Newly added, modified or deleted text or images are highlighted in different colors.
Modified images have a colored border and a link that opens a new window where both the old and the new images are displayed.

The colors used can be defined system-wide or in a template.

You can see changes between document versions:

  • in the Desktop (depending on the set desktop view)
  • in the dialog of the Approval plug-in
  • in the “Archive”

Tracking Changes from the Archive#

To access the tracking changes feature, proceed as follows:

1. Open dialog 'Differences'

  1. Open the Archive under Menu -> Documents -> Archive.
  2. At the end of the line of a document, open the drop down menu.
  3. Select Examine differences, which takes you to the following dialog DIFFERENCES:
    Version selection dialog
    • All existing versions of the respective document are shown on the left of the dialog box in a table. This table shows the date of the last modification and the document status.
    • In the Version Filter drop down menu, you can can choose which versions to be displayed:
      • All versions,
      • My versions (created exclusively by you) or
      • only Finished versions.
    • The Count drop down list sets the number of versions per page.

2. Select versions of differences

  1. You can choose a template or a table view of the differences form the Template drop down list.
    The table view allows you to also see changes in meta variables which have no visual representation in a document (e.g. the meta variable directory).
  2. You can define how the changes should be displayed - in a HTML preview or source code - from the Mode drop down list.
  3. Use the radio buttons in the From and To columns to select the versions you want to compare.
  4. Click the OK button to see the changes . The changes will be displayed as follows:display changes - colors
    The changes between the selected versions are displayed in color:
    • Newly added content is green and underlined,
    • deleted content - red and crossed out.
    • These colors and text properties can be changed with a special style sheet or through a template.

3. Start diashow of differences

  1. If you want to start a slideshow of all filtered versions, use the Slideshow button. Two new windows will be opened:
    • the window for displaying the changes, see figure above.
    • the window for the control elements of the slideshow, see following figure:
      display changes - colors
      • to display the changes, click show diffs.
      • you can start/pause/forward/rewind/stop the slide show
      • you can also import the older versions by clicking Import. You then will be directed to a page where you have to confirm the final import.

Tracking Changes from the Desktop#

Another way to get to the tracking changes is through the Desktop.

If a document is still within a workflow, you can see what changes have been made to it at each workflow step on your Desktop.

In this case, any previous version can be compared to the current state or any other previous version. The differences between these versions are also displayed in different colors.

  1. To see the changes to a document, the column Differences should be added to the Desktop view configuration. Please see Adding Columns to a Configuration.
  2. Open again Menu -> Desktop.
  3. In the column Differences click on the link Diff link to open the above described dialog DIFFERENCES (read the description above).

Display Changes During Approval#

Note

A preview with tracked changes is only available for re-imported documents.

Changes to a document version that is about to be approved in comparison to the last finished version can be displayed in the Approval workflow step.

  • Click the Differences button to display the changes. The button opens another window in which the document in question is displayed with tracked changes, see above.
  • Click the Preview button for a preview of the corresponding document without making the changes visible.

In contrast to the Link Checker on the Desktop that is used to check only the links within a single document (see Link Checker), the Link Consistency Check allows you to check all the existing HTML files on various systems.

This process may take some time for larger projects and increase the load on the server. Therefore, only users who have access to the superuser group can start the Link Consistency Check.

All other users, who have this function enabled, can see a report from the last check.

Call the link consistency check by selecting Menu -> Documents -> Link Consistency Check. The following dialog opens:

The Link Validation Check dialog

  • A report from the link consistency check is displayed in a separate box for each configured server. The name of the server is given in the header. The server report is organized as follows:

  • Below the header, containing the server name, you can see the time of the last performed link consistency check. Next come the different report sections:

    • Broken links:
      In this section you can find references that could not be validated, because the target URL was not available.
      The following figure shows an example entry in this section:
      Example of a broken link
    • Orphaned objects:
      This section contains all files which are not referenced by other files. Again, the individual entries are linked.

    • Dummies
      In this section you will find all documents with links that have a hash ('#') as a target. References, which call a yesvaScript function via an event handler, are not included here.

      Note

      Links that contain a yesvaScript call in their href attributes (for example yesvascript:myfunc()), are ignored by the link consistency check.

Note

Please note that the link consistency check can take some time and also generates a significant server load.

  1. Open the Link Consistency Check dialog from Menu -> Documents -> Link Consistency Check. If you have superuser access, you will see the Script Control dialog as decribed above.
  2. Click the link Start the Link Consistency Check to run the check.
  3. If it is already running, the message Checking ...` is displayed.
    You then are able to Stop the checking by clicking the correspondig button.
  4. If you want to return to the Desktop , click the link Close at the end of the page.

One-Click-Edit#

Using One-Click-Edit (OCE), you can edit, delete, republish, etc. the corresponding imperia document in the browser, while you are surfing web or intranet pages.

There are a lot of OCE functions in the form of a toolbar that come with the One-Click-Edit extension.
imperia ensures that the defined workflows, publish mechanisms, and access permissions are observed for all these functions.

To use One-Click-Edit you have to install the browser extension, directly in the Firefox browser/IE browser/Chrome browser or as a bookmarklet.

Background processes

Each web page created with imperia has a unique ID, formed by a unique system ID and a document ID. The browser extension will check if the system ID stored in the web page matches the ID of the imperia system you are logged into. If a match is found, the One-Click-Edit toolbar is displayed and you can use it to access the corresponding imperia document.

imperia detects whether you have already logged in, and, if configured, offers you the login mask automatically. Thereafter, or when you log in, you see a variety of functions for document editing, publishing, deleting, copying, etc. in the toolbar (the functions available depend on your permissions in imperia).

One-Click-Edit Functions#

The OCE toolbar is displayed automatically when installed in Firefox or IE, but the bookmarklet has to be activated via the button for each session.

The toolbar includes the most important editing functions.
The current language of the toolbar and all messages depend on the language configured in your imperia system.

The following chapter describes the standard functions of the One-Click-Edit toolbar.

Note

Since a system administrator can configure the functions for different groups can use in the toolbar, you may only have a limited number of functions. It is also possible that you can add your own functions to the One-Click-Edit toolbar, which cannot be described here.
If in doubt, contact your system administrator.

Button Configuration (im) button (right side of the browser bar):
The new button contains all the functions in one overview. If the OCE toolbar is hidden (i.e. deactivated, see Configuration you still can use the functions via the im button.

  • To Dashboard:
    Leads you to the current develop system.

  • QuickEdit / Edit
    When you click this button, the document is opened directly in the Edit step of its workflow on the development system.

  • Adopt all groups
    Use this button to adopt all groups, available to you. If you have already adopted all your groups, the button is disabled.

  • Copy
    Use this function to create a duplicate of a document. The duplicate is almost identical to its original. The only differences are, for example, the creation and modification date and the user ID of the editing user.

  • Create new document
    Use this function to create a new document in the same category.

  • Unpublish
    Use this function to remove a document from all target systems. It is retained in the Archive of the develop system.

  • Delete
    Use this function to remove a document from all target systems and the develop system. The document is not deleted from the Archive.

  • Erase
    Use this function to completely delete a document. All page copies and linked objects are removed from all target systems, develop system and from the Archive.

    Important

    This operation cannot be undone!

  • Reparse
    Use this function to reparse a document when changes to its template were made, so that these changes are applied.

  • Republish
    With republish you have the same functionality as with the reparse function. In addition, the modified document will be published automatically on all target systems it had previously been published. Otherwise, it will be added to the publishing list.

  • History
    This button displays the document history.

  • Links
    With this button you can check all internal and external links of a document.

  • Meta info
    Use this button to display a document's meta information.

  • Info
    This button displays detailed information about a document.

  • Validate
    With this button you can validate the HTML code of the document with a W3C validator.

    Note

    To use this function you need access to the Internet.

OCE Bookmarklet#

The OCE bookmarklet is a browser extension which is saved in the browser to be used for the OCE toolbar.
You will find a short introdcution on bookmarklets under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet; date of the source reference Sept. 2017.

1. Install bookmarklet

  1. Open Menu -> Account -> Profile. There you will find the bookmarklet (as well as the extensions).

  2. In order to use the bookmarklet, you have to position it into the browser
    Depending on your browser:

    • use Drag&Drop to locate the bookmarklet to the bookmarklets bar of your browser

    or

    1. Right-click on the button Bookmarklet, see figure above. The sub menu opens.
    2. In the sub menu, select the option Add bookmarklet to this link. Another dialog opens.
    3. In this dialog, you can set the name of the bookmarklet, e.g. imperia toolbar. You can also change the name later.
    4. Make sure you that Bookmarklet bar is set as the storage location before you Save.

In the following table it will be shown which browser supports this above mentioned methods:

Browser Drag&Drop Right-click function
IE 9–11 yes yes yes
IE 8–7 no yes yes
Chrome 13+ yes no yes
Chromium 18+ yes no yes
Firefox 3.6-56+ yes yes yes
Safari (Windows/OS X)

2. Using the bookmarklet / toolbar

While navigating over your web site, you can now always click the bookmarklet, and you will see a transparent overlay with the One-Click-Edit toolbar, see following figure:
One-Click-Edit toolbar

  • A second click on the bookmarklet or on the Close button, hides the OCE toolbar again.
  • The im button on the left side leads you back to the Dashboard of your active imperia system.

Note

If you are not logged into imperia, you will be redirected to login page - provided that you have been assigned the permissions to the toolbar!

IE OCE#

In order to use the OCE toolbar in the IE browser, proceed as following:

  1. Open Menu -> Account -> Profile. There you will find the bookmarklet (as well as the extensions).
  2. Next to One-Click-Edit (Internet Explorer) click Download. A dialog opens.
  3. Save the file.

The toolbar is now activated for the IE browser.

Note

If the DOCTYPE of a page is not set, the OCE bar may be displayed incorrectly. Especially IE will switch to the so-called quirks mode and may behave different than expected.

Configuration of the OCE extension in IE#

The One-Click-Edit toolbar configuration is made in a separate dialog. It opens by clicking the leftmost button Button Configuration in the toolbar:

Dialog settings of the One-Click-Edit toolbar (Firefox, Netscape, Mozilla)

The list contains all develop systems where you are, or were, logged into. You can use the buttons to call the following functions:

  • Go
    Opens the selected system/server.

  • Ignore
    If this checkbox is selected, pages, created with this system, are not included in the toolbar.
    The selected develop system opens in a new window.

  • Remove
    Removes the system/server from the list.

  • Auto Login
    If you check this checkbox, a login mask for the corresponding develop system opens automatically when you visit a relevant page on the Internet.

Firefox OCE#

Note

As Mozilla Firefox will only allow API WebExtensions (from the 14th of November 2017 on), there will be two extensions: for Firefox 3.6-56 and for Firefox from 57+.

The new extension is compatible in imperia 9 as well 10.

1. Deactivate deprecated Firefox extension

Optionally, you can deactive the deprecated OCE Extensions as following:

  1. In the Firefox settings (right corner of your browser), select add-ons.
    A new page opens with all the installed Add-ons including the deprecated OCE Extensions.
  2. To completely remove the add-on from your system, click Remove. You also can only deactivate the extensions.

The add-on is now inactive or deleted from your browser.

2. Install new Firefox extension

You can install the new extension as following:

  1. Open Menu -> Account -> Profile. There you will find the extension for common browsers (as well as the bookmarklet), see screenshot under Install bookmarklet.
  2. Select the appropriate Firefox extension by clicking Download. A system dialog opens.
  3. Save the extensions.

3. Display of the Toolbar

The toolbar is activated by default and displayed as following:

toolbar

  • On the left side, you will find a link that brings you to the Dashboard provided you are logged in.
    If you are logged out, the link will lead you the login page of the assigned imperia CMS:
    login toolbar

  • On the right side, you will find the button to hide/show the toolbar.

Configuration of the OCE extension in Firefox#

In the right corner of the browser you will find the button im.

Provided that you are logged in (button is clickable), it opens a popup that shows different kind of information depending on whether you are in your imperia site or system (CMS).

When you are not authorized to edit the document, i.e. to use the toolbar, the im button is greyed out: im button greyed out

1. imperia site

By clicking the button im a list of all features opens. Also, you find the settings by the end of the list.
popup Live
By the end of the list, you will find the button Settings, where you can de-/activate the OCE toolbar.

2. CMS

By clickling the button im a list of recognized, available imperia systems is displayed. The grey pipeline indicates the current, signed in system.
popup Dev

There, you can also de-/activate the OCE toolbar for each system by using the slide by the end of the line of the desired system.

Chrome OCE#

You can also download the OCE for Chrome.

  1. Open the Chrome Webstore https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oneclickedit/dmmmenpaibmekalnkbabhfehconfbnaf.
  2. In the add-on dialog window, click the button Add to add the OCE toolbar as a Chrome extension.

You can instantly use the OCE toolbar with its functions. Here, the toolbar is configured as the Firefoc OCE.