modify file without editing

Hi-
I am looking for some conceptual thoughts on how I can achieve the following.

TS 5.52
WinNT

How can I modify a files contents without explicitly opening it. For example. If I author a page, and when I am complete I want another page to link to me. Ideally, without having to manually edit it. The end result would be, something like, if you like this parent page, you should look at this other child page.

The flow would be...

Author page
Generate page
kick of WF (maybe)
WF updates parent page by adding link to new page
regenerate
submit

Directory structures wouldn't really work (like generating a news index) because I may need to do this for 50 different files in the same directory.

IW_ostream either rewrites the page or appends to the bottom, so I don't think that would work.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

Matthew Petitjean
BOC Group
Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA

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Comments

Johnny

iw_ostream is probably your best bet,
or another template type that is run during workflow.

Either way you would need to search for all DCR's including the new one to rebuild the page. Data Deploy would probably scale the best in these situations.

Im not sure how you could get around not rebuilding the page.
Unless you move away from templating it and use a JSP for example that queries a database, or a generated xml manifest maybe?

Hope that helps you.

John Cuiuli
Consultant
Sydney, Australia

Adam Stoller

Can you refine your description a bit - what kind of file are you trying to modify "without explicitly opening it" (presumably in an editor) ? Is this file a DCR, a generated page, or something else (what)?

I'm thinking you're talking about something like this (but I'm not sure):
Old_DCR + PT => Old_Page
New_DCR + PT => New_Page
New_Page should be referenced by Old_Page, which requires modification to Old_DCR - which means adding the proper XML snippet in the proper location (recommend using TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode / TeamSite::XMLnode)
Modify Old_DCR to contain reference to New_Page, regenerate Old_Page from Old_DCR.

Is that what you're talking about?

--fish
(Interwoven Senior Technical Consultant)

MattP

The page that receives the links is a templated page, so editing the DCR. I never thought of the TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode / TeamSite::XMLnode. I need to look at the docs for that. It may do the trick.

Here is the business logic. There is global content, and it takes precedence. On about 25% of the content, there is a local iteration of the content. Say...marketing material. There is a global page with global standards, but the local zones may have some local specific additions. So, I want the local author to do their thing, then programmatically add a link tothe global page. The ending result is a standard looking section on the global page that says "see local content...US, UK, SA, SP". I have attached a mock-up.

I also thought about making it an include on the page, so that the page that I insert the link into is a non templated page with links on it. However there are issues there with IW_Ostream because every time the page is regenerated, it would either wipe out the other links (to other local zones) or append another link copy.

Thanks in advance.

Matt

Matthew Petitjean
BOC Group
Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA

MattP

So given that your description is correct.

In order to modify a dcr with TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode, can I just use iw_load_dcr?

So the flow would be....
user points to the file that they would like to have the link inserted in (the global file)
I check to see if the file is locked (if yes email the lock owner)
I get the EA to determine the DCR
I load the DCR using iw_load_dcr
Modify a dcr note to insert a link using set_inner_xml($xml_string)
Regenerate the file
submit it

Can you se any issues with this? Am I on the right track?

The documenttion for set_inner_xml and DCRNode seems pretty tedious.

Matt

Matthew Petitjean
BOC Group
Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA

Adam Stoller

I'm not sure that you can use the iwpt_load_dcr() routine to get a text-stream that can be used by TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode - I tend to just slurp the file in using something like:

my $text;
if (open(IN, "<$dcr")){
    local $/ = undef;
    $text = ;
    close(IN);
    # Now you can parse $text with TeamSite:CRnode
}

I'm sure there are several ways to approach this - but unfortunately right now I don't have the time or presence of mind (**** head cold) to try.

--fish
(Interwoven Senior Technical Consultant)

MattP

huh, ok. Anyone else have any experience with TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode.

After I manipulate the content, how do I write it back to the file?

Matt

Matthew Petitjean
BOC Group
Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA

Johnny

have a read on the perldoc if you havent already... perldoc TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode

get_dcr() is what you are looking for

it returns a string which you can write back to file via normal perl means...

if its a new file then dont forget to set the extended attributes

John Cuiuli
Consultant
Sydney, Australia

Adam Stoller

I would imagine that after you've manipulated the content, you can then use the print the return from the get_xml() method into the desired output file (and make sure the EA's associated with that file are still intact, or recreate them if doing a copy/move)

--fish
(Interwoven Senior Technical Consultant)