Introduction

This part of the manual describes how to work with all program modules of imperia.

Tip: UserEcho

Before we start we would like to introduce our new user feedback tool UserEcho. You can reach the platform at http://pirobaseimperia.userecho.com/.

On this site you can add suggestion for new features or improvements yourself.
For each suggestions you can leave comments, so that customers can discuss the relevance and use of a feature.
We will also take part in these discussions. We are hoping for an active participation, so it is easier for us to understand our customers needs. First suggestions of us and our support-center have already been added.

How Does imperia Work#

This part is intended not only for editors, but for anyone who is new to imperia.

Essentially, imperia consists of two parts: a develop system and one or more optional target systems.

Develop system

The develop system is used to structure a project and add content to it. The develop system can be thematically separated into categories, where new documents can be created. In this way, as a document is created, the added content is structured. Whether you can create documents in a given category depends on your access permissions, granted to you by authorized users.

Target system

imperia documents are transferred to the target systems when all of the necessary steps are completed. This process is called publishing. Publishing can be done automatically or manually.
Documents are published automatically only after a scheduled time - the publication date - is reached. A typical example of a target system is an Internet-connected web server where your site is located and publicly accessible. Of course you can surf a target system and modify pages with a special module, One-Click-Edit (OCE), if you have the necessary permissions.
It is also possible to let your content be published simultaneously to several target systems and stored in different formats.

The working principle of imperia is simple:

As we mentioned above, your project is divided into several categories. For each category there is a template, where the layout of documents in this category is defined. Some parts of a template can be modified and users can add content as they edit a document.
The steps from creation to publishing a document are called workflow. The sequence of those steps is defined in this workflow.
Here is an example:
1. First, the information about a document, or metadata, is entered.
2. Next a user enters content in the editable parts
3. Finally another user reviews the document and publishes it.
There are also workflow steps that do not require user interaction, but are done automatically (for example, retrieving data from an additional data source).
The key to this is your current group. All your permissions, including the capabilities you have with imperia, depend on it:
- Of course, you can have many groups and switch from one group to another. In most cases, with one group you can create or edit documents only in some categories.
  Example:
  A sports editor should not write reviews on the newest play, but should, for example, focus his or her attention on the football league. Nevertheless, if you are part of both the sports editors and the news team, you can switch between your groups and cover the news.
- When you edit a document, it is locked for users with the same group, and cannot be edited by them. Another user can remove this lock if he or she needs to comment on what was logged in the document history. When a document is being edited by two users simultaneously, this causes a conflict which must be resolved.

Users and Groups#

Anyone who wants to work with imperia must have a user account. The user account consists of a username and a password and is created by a user who has the respective permissions. In order for the system to recognize which tasks one user is allowed to perform, resp. see, the user accounts are assigned at least one group. Groups also determine access permissions to the different areas in a system.

The group a user has assumed provides that user with access permissions to categories, resp. to certain documents, as well as to imperia functions, and consequently to a range of capabilities, for example, to create new users or configure system services. Since various groups can be assigned to a user account, you can perform various tasks or see different system parts. For that reason you might have to adopt another group assigned to you. Read more about user permissions in the section Access Permissions in imperia.

Due to this group concept you are seldom or never allowed to work on a document from creation to publishing. In most cases a document appears on your Desktop only in one workflow step and disappears again when you've completed this step. In this case, your current group does not allow you to move on to the next step.

imperia Documents#

When you click on the menu item Create new document and select a category this does not create a file in a directory, but simply a collection of key-value pairs.
When a category is selected, only then values are assigned to preset keys in this collection, for example:

the target directory
the document filename, etc.

Meta variable

When you edit a new document, enter text in input fields or select an image from the Media Asset Management, you assign one or several values to several keys. A “key” is nothing more than the name of the field that must be filled; the entered content is the value. The keys in imperia are referred to as meta variables. imperia documents, thus, consist of many meta variables and their values.

Many bits of information that you or other users enter are stored in meta variables. These can be URLs for images from the Media Asset Managements, text that you entered, article titles or links to other documents.

There are meta variables which values cannot be edited from within a template, because not every user is allowed to modify the information they contain. These include, for example, the document's path, the used template or the publication date. Such information is usually modifiable, but the process is performed in the background.

imperia documents are not files, but a collection of content where every bit of information belongs to a particular key. Therefore, it is so easy to publish this content in many possible ways: as an HTML page, as an XML document, in a database, on different target systems in different formats, etc.

imperia Meta Files#

Meta files are a special kind of templates that allow information to be collected into a document before it is edited. They create the so-called meta pages and often constitute the first workflow step - the MetaEdit. In this step you specify the template for the new document. More information on the usage of meta files can be found in the developer documentation.

Tip

There are historical reasons to use meta files; they were part of the first imperia versions.
Now you can completely stop using meta files and enter the meta information in a separate template or directly in the content template on your own.

Templates#

imperia templates are input forms in which you enter content into the relevant input elements. Templates are a project's backbone. They offer many possibilities to a programmer: on one hand, users can be offered an easy-to-understand way to enter content; on the other hand further content editing can be predefined.

Other than the known from web forms operating elements, such as text fields, checkboxes, drop down menus and select boxes, imperia templates include specific controls as flex modules, imperia blocks, word modules, etc.
Templates are also used to store content independently from a website's layout.

imperia separates content and layout. Content is, as already explained, stored in the key-value pairs, and the layout is determined by the specified template. An HTML page, XML document or data set is initiated in the database from the key-value pairs of an imperia document and the layout information - from a template.

Templates can operate in different modes:

edit mode,
preview mode and
save mode.

There are other modes as well and you can find more details about these modes in the programming documentation.

Edit mode

A document is in edit mode when you enter content in the designated template elements. In this mode the document is locked for all other users.

Preview mode

A document is in this mode while being previewed. Here, you can see the current document status and all data entered so far. This mode and the save mode are essentially identical.

Save mode

In this mode, changes to a document are saved. A document goes into save mode when you click the Save button and exit the edit mode.

imperia Workflows#

By imperia workflow a series of processing steps is understood, which a document must go through before it is created on the develop system and can be transferred to target systems. You can specify this sequence of steps for each category. Thus, each document passes through the workflow which is assigned to the category where the document is created.

Each workflow step is a workflow plug-in, the sequence of plug-ins forms the workflow that a document must go through. Some of these plug-ins require user interaction and have a corresponding input mask at your disposal, while others are fully automatic and work unnoticed by the user.

Note

The workflow is directly assigned to a document when it is created. In addition, the document receives a ticket where the workflow steps are saved. Changes to a workflow, for example, adding or removing steps, or changes to the sequence are not reflected in this ticket.
When a document is edited the sequence of the steps is obtained from the ticket. That is why workflow changes are invalid for documents passing the workflow steps at the time of the change.

You need certain group-based permissions in order to perform a workflow step. If you are not assigned to the respective group, you cannot perform the next step and the document does not appear on your desktop.
Steps, like approving changes or final publishing, can be performed by users with privileged groups only.

When you create a document in a category, this is the first step of the workflow. The standard workflow, already created in imperia, consists of the following steps:

enter metadata
edit document
approve changes

If changes are not approved, the approver decides what to do - move the document backwards to a previous step or send it to the recycle bin. Ideally, the workflow reflects the process chain of a company.

imperia's Interface#

imperia operates through a browser and works well with the following browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 or above for Windows
Mozilla / Firefox version 3.0 or above for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X

All controls, dialogs and input fields, as well as their content, are dynamically generated by imperia and displayed as HTML pages in a user's browser.

The user works with imperia using hyperlinks or other known controls like checkboxes, radio buttons, input fields, drop down fields, etc. With regards to look-and-feel, imperia looks like a web application so that users with basic knowledge of the Internet can easily start working with it.

The appearance of imperia depends on:

user permissions set by the system administrator
the open widgets
the set favorites

The default system language is English. See Changing the System Language for more information on how to change the system language.

Title Bar#

The title bar is located at the top of imperia's interface.

Title bar

It contains

On the left side of the title bar:

: button to expand/collapse the imperia menu
the product's logo
the version

On the right side of the title bar:

: button for adding/removing your favorites (e.g. dialogs, pages, functions)
: button for internal messages:
- By clicking this button, you open the internal mail system. If there are no messages, the white envelope icon is displayed. If you have message, the color turns to orange.
: button for visiting the Add-on page
: button for settings and logout
- Shows you your current user login and opens the [user settings](user.introduction/#user-settings
- : opens the dialog .
- : Shows you imperia system information, i.e version, licence holder, licences, etc.
input field for the full text search, see also Searching Documents.

The menu is the main control element that you can use to call imperia functions you are allowed to access.

With a few exceptions, this navigation option is always available and it is the fastest way to access each available menu item both default and individually set ones.

Mouseover menu items to access their submenus (if any). A submenu contains all the designated functions that you are allowed to use.

System submenu

All imperia functions are contained in six menu items. Every user has access only to the menu items and submenus which their group allows them to use; other menu items that they cannot use will be hidden automatically. The following menus will be shown with the appropriate access permissions:

: this menu contains all functions used for document creation, management and editing. It contains the following submenus:
: this menu takes you to the media asset management.
: this menu includes links to different management modules:
: This menu includes all system administration functions:
: this menu takes you to the workflow control page.
: this menu contains the account functions:

Dialog box#

When opening a menu, you will be directed to a page with mostly one or two dialog boxes where you can execute the function.
Example: Dialogfenster-Beispiel

Depending on the function, additional dialog boxes might open via buttons.
You can maximize/minimize dialog boxes by using the symbol in the right corner:
- If you minimize the dialog box, the view changes to two columns.
- If you maximize the box again, the dialog boxes are displayed one below the other (default view).
- This is handled for the menus for example under Categories, Templates, Users, Groups, Target Systems.

Favorites#

You can add frequently used functions, i.e. menus or dialog boxes, to the Favorites menu and, thereby, are able to ensure fast access especially to the functions in the submenus.

As described above, the favorites are located left to the default buttons on the right side of the title bar. The favorites are displayed with the icons from the menu.

Favorites are user-specific. This means that every user can create a personal menu.

Favorites

If you have not added any favorites yet, the menu is empty. For setting the favorites menu, please read the following section.

Adding or Removing Favorites

Favorites menu

Open the page/function that you want to add to the favorites.
Click on the right side of the title bar.
The icon of the selected page/function is now added to the favorites in the title bar.
You can remove the page/function from the title bar by again clicking . The respective icon is now removed.

Note

You get an overview of your set favorites under
Account -> Edit favorites.
There, you can also delete favorites more simply by selecting in the respecting row:

User settings/Profile#

You can individually change and save certain preferences. For example your password, the interface language, as well as optional information, like address or email address.

To change these settings, select Account -> Profile. The following dialog opens:

Preferences Dialog

Save the changes by clicking on Save.
Use Cancel to close the dialog without saving changes.

You will find more details on the individual settings in the following sections.

User Information#

To change this settings, open Account -> Profile.

Only imperia's administrator (superuser) can change the login. The administrator creates all user accounts and initializes their passwords. When logging in the system for the first time you should change your password (see Password Change).

Password Change#

Open Account -> Profile.
Click on the link Change password.
The new dialog SET PASSWORD opens.
Enter the old password in the resp. field.
Enter and repeat the new password in the resp. fields.
Save your settings.

You have successfully changed your your password. Next time you log in, you must enter your new password.

If you have forgotten your password, an administrator can assign you a new one.

Changing the System Language#

The default system language is English. This means that, by default, all imperia menus and system messages appear in English.

imperia's administrator can change the default system language, but at the same time each user can choose a language different than the default one.

To change this settings, open Account -> Profile.
In the drop down menu Language, you can set your preferred language. If the default option is selected, the user's and the system's language will be the same.
Save your settings.

The language will be changed immediately after saving.

Installing One-Click-Edit#

Please refer to One-Click-Edit in the chapter Documents.

Deleting User Files#

All settings and files stored in a user's profile can be deleted from the user interface.

Open Account -> Stored Settings.
The page DELETE PRIVATE FILES opens:
Click at the end of the line of the desired files to remove them from your system.

Look and Feel#

You can set your personal color scheme (available colors are black, green, purple, blue and red), but also other system relevant settings, for example the filter for your desktop.

Note

The settings here will only be applied to your imperia system.
Only the system administrator (Superuser) can make changes of the look and feel for all users.

If you are in the menu Profile, click the button Look and Feel, or click Account-> Look and Feel.
Set the desired options, see below.
Save your settings by the end of the page.

Available options for the look and feel:

Theme selection: You can individually change the theme color of imperia.
To do so, deactivate the checkbox Automatic selection.
my Docments: Here, you can set change the filter that is used for the desktop.
Main menu behavior: Here, you can decide whether the main menu should stay hidden/displayed or whether it should close/open automatically after a certain time.

Access Permissions in imperia#

All access permissions in imperia depend on a user's groups. A group defines:

the workflow steps that a user can edit
the categories that a user can see and thus documents he or she can edit
the menus and modules which are available for a user
groups that a user can adopt

For a user to be able to see a document, that user should adopt a group with the following access permissions:

to the respective workflow step
to the respective category

Access to documents is controlled by access permissions to the respective category. A user can edit documents only in categories that his or her currently adopted group has permissions to. Documents, contained in categories that a user has access to, are displayed on his or her Desktop.

Adopt a Group#

When creating your user account, a system administrator defines groups you can adopt, and thus, the imperia functions you are allowed to use and the categories you have access to. In the work process you can change between these groups so you can execute tasks that are not designated to your current group.
It is also possible to adopt many/all groups.

Proceed as follows:

Open Account -> Change Group. (Or via the title bar, under -> Available Group)
Following page opens:
Click into the field All groups selected. You will be shown all groups that you are assigned to:
By selecting the groups, you can either adopt all groups or only certain ones.
Click OK to save your settings.

Your profile is now active in the selected groups. By that, you can execute all the functions that your groups are assigned to.

The Internal Editor#

You can edit templates, meta files, flex modules, etc. using the internal editor. The internal editor opens automatically or can be called by clicking at the end of the appropriate files list. The editor opens in a pop up window, see following figure:

Internal Editor

The internal editor consists of

the editor to display the source code to be edited,
controls to save the changes, change the size of the editor and close the internal editor.

Editor

The source code of the selected file is displayed in the editor.

The browser search function is available in this window. This function is started with the shortcut Ctrl. + F under Windows^® and Alt. + F under UNIX^®.

You may resize the editor by clicking on the right corner at the bottom and dragging the text box until it is the desired size.

Controls

Save and close: In order to save the changes and close the editor.
Save: To save your changes and keep the window open.
Close: To exit the internal editor without saving. Any changes will be lost.

Add-ons#

You get an overview of all your already installed add-ons, if you proceed as follows:

In the title bar, click .
In the sub menu, click .
The page IMPERIA SYSTEM INFORMATIONEN opens. It shows you all the already installed and (de)activated add-ons and plug-ins, and also gives you information about your current imperia version, see following figure:

about imperia

On the market place you will find an complete overview of our add-ons that allow you to extend your imperia system.
The most important ones are also to be found in the title bar by clicking .