regenerate and ostream

tobias

Hi everyone,
this is with TS6.5 on Windows 2003 Server.

We need the presentation template to write to a specific output file, so the user is not supposed to specify the folder and file name. However when the user clicks "Generate" he is asked for a file name to generate to. (I know you can user FormAPI's setOutputFile() function but in case the DCR is opened in view mode no FormAPI is being executed.)
To make sure this is the case we let the user specify a file name but then generate this file into a temporary directory and ignore it. The "real" output file is specified in the presentation template and generated using <iw_ostream>.
So, basically two files are generated: one dummy file the user has specified, and one "real" file whose location and name are specified by the presentation template.
Using the "iwextattr" command we set the extended attribs for the "real" file (for the dummy file - since it is stdout - they are set implicitly at generation time).

Now the problem:
Once I have generated my "real" output file, I might want to use the GUI's "Regenerate Page" command to regenerate it.
When I mark the "real" output file and click "Regenerate Page" in the TS GUI, the marked file is re-generated, only now it contains the output that is supposed to go to the dummy file.
Are the <iw_ostream> tags ignored completely when I use TS's "Regenerate Page" command?
Or are both files generated, only in absence of a user-defined dummy page the stdoutput overwrites the <iw_ostream>-generated output that was created directly before?
Is there a defined order for stdout and <iw_ostream>-generated output?

Adam Stoller

Hi everyone, this is with TS6.5 on Windows 2003 Server. We need the presentation template to write to a specific output file, so the user is not supposed to specify the folder and file name. However when the user clicks "Generate" he is asked for a file name to generate to. (I know you can user FormAPI's setOutputFile() function but in case the DCR is opened in view mode no FormAPI is being executed.) To make sure this is the case we let the user specify a file name but then generate this file into a temporary directory and ignore it. The "real" output file is specified in the presentation template and generated using <iw_ostream>. So, basically two files are generated: one dummy file the user has specified, and one "real" file whose location and name are specified by the presentation template. Using the "iwextattr" command we set the extended attribs for the "real" file (for the dummy file - since it is stdout - they are set implicitly at generation time). Now the problem: Once I have generated my "real" output file, I might want to use the GUI's "Regenerate Page" command to regenerate it. When I mark the "real" output file and click "Regenerate Page" in the TS GUI, the marked file is re-generated, only now it contains the output that is supposed to go to the dummy file. Are the <iw_ostream> tags ignored completely when I use TS's "Regenerate Page" command? Or are both files generated, only in absence of a user-defined dummy page the stdoutput overwrites the <iw_ostream>-generated output that was created directly before? Is there a defined order for stdout and <iw_ostream>-generated output?

First of all, unless you explicitly set the EAs on the iw_ostream generated file - they don't get set - so iwregen / Regenerate won't work on them.
Secondly - if you want to control the page generation process (not necessarily preview) - then you should handle it either via FormAPI in the save handler or via workflow and use the viewoptions settings to remove that option from the DCT form (and then you don't have to worry about it being brought up in View vs. Edit more).

The intention of iw_ostream is to be able to generate multiple files from a single processing of a DCR - using the PT to create a temporary file with iw_ostream to generate the "real" file is, IMO, "wrong".