Map the object data to the template

After you selected a Word template for the Template attribute of the publication entry, a Mappings folder with one mapping node for each bookmark found in the Microsoft Word® template is added automatically to the publication entry node.

To check the position of the bookmark you are currently mapping to the Word template, right-click the mapping node and select Show bookmark in template. A document preview opens in the center pane displaying the page that contains the currently selected bookmark.

For each mapping node, define the Alfabet data that shall be displayed at the location of the bookmark in the attributes of the mapping node. The mapping depends on the type of data to be published and the attribute setting is described per data type in the expandable sections below.

• Publish an object class property
  • Source Type: Select Property.
  • Property Path: Define the object class property for which the current value should be published. The object class property to be displayed can be an object class property of the current object or an object class property of a related object defined in another publication entry in the same publication definition. Each object class must be defined by the Parameter Name specified in the respective publication entry. The object class and object class property must be separated by a period as < Parameter Name value>.<object class property name>.

    The start date of the current application with a Parameter Name definition of App in the current publication entry reads:

    • App.StartDate
• Publish a standard view
  • Source Type: Select GraphicView.
  • View: Select the Alfabet standard view that you want to display. You must ensure that the selected view is relevant for the current object.

    To evaluate which page views are relevant for an object class, you can consult the content area definition of the object class. The standard content area for an object class that are visible in the Content Areas explorer node in the Presentation tab in Alfabet Expand contain the relevant page views for the respective object class.

  The standard view will be added with the following restrictions:

  • If a view has filters, the view will be executed with empty filter fields. If a default is available for a filter setting, the default will be used. The filter settings currently stored for the user triggering the publications will be ignored. If a report shall be executed with defined filter settings, you can either use a configured report that returns a dataset that would result from the filter settings on the standard view or define a query instead to return the required result.
  • Grouped views allow the user to expand or collapse sections of the report to view or hide subordinate information. These are displayed with all collapsible levels expanded to display all available information in the publication. This applies to Gantt charts and expandable tabular reports, for example.
  • The scaling of graphic reports is identical to the scaling used in the Alfabet user interface if the resulting image size fits on the document page. If the image is larger then the width of the document page, the image is resized to fit the page.
• Publish the legend of a standard view
  • Source Type: Select GraphicViewLegend.
  • View: Select the Alfabet standard view that you want to display. You must ensure that the selected view is relevant for the current object.

    To evaluate which page views are relevant for an object class, you can consult the content area definition of the object class. The standard content area for an object class that are visible in the Content Areas explorer node in the Presentation tab in Alfabet Expand contain the relevant page views for the respective object class.

• Publish a configured report
  • Source Type: Select CustomReport.
  • Apply to Class: If you want to map the bookmark to a configured report applied to an object class via the Apply to Class attribute of the configured report, you must first select the object class that the configured report is applied to.
  • Custom Report: Select the configured report to map the bookmark to a configured report. If you selected an object class in the Apply to Class attribute, the drop-down list will display all configured reports that apply to the defined class. If the attribute Apply to Class is not specified, the drop-down list will display all configured reports that are not applied to tan object class.

    Configured reports that trigger publications cannot be selected.

  The configured report will be added with the following restrictions:

  • If a configured report has filters, the configured report will be executed with empty filter fields. If a default is available for a filter setting, the default will be used. The filter settings currently stored for the user triggering the publications will be ignored. If a report shall be executed with defined filter settings, you can either use a configured report that returns a dataset that would result from the desired filter settings by default, or define a query instead to return the desired results.
  • Grouped datasets allow the user to expand or collapse sections of the report to view or hide subordinate information. Configured grouped datasets are displayed with all collapsible levels expanded to display all available information in the publication. This applies to Gantt charts and expandable tabular reports, for example.
  • The scaling of graphic reports is identical to the scaling used in the Alfabet user interface if the resulting image size fits on the document page. If the image is larger then the width of the document page, the image is resized to fit the page.
• Publish the legend of a configured report
  • Source Type: Select CustomReportLegend.
  • Apply to Class: If you want to map the bookmark to a configured report applied to an object class via the Apply to Class attribute of the configured report, you must first select the object class that the configured report is applied to.
  • Custom Report: Select the configured report to map the bookmark to a configured report. If you selected an object class in the Apply to Class attribute, the drop-down list will display all configured reports that apply to the defined class. If the attribute Apply to Class is not specified, the drop-down list will display all configured reports that are not applied to tan object class.

    Configured reports that trigger publications cannot be selected.

• Publish the result of an Alfabet query
  • Source Type: Select Query.
  • Alfabet Query/Alfabet Query as Text: Define an Alfabet query either in the Alfabet Query attribute using the Alfabet Query Builder or in the Alfabet Query as Text attribute using a text editor. The dataset returned by the Alfabet query is displayed in the publication as specified in the String Formatting Type attribute of the mapping entry. The Parameter Name values of this or any other publication entry in the publication definition can be used in the query as a parameter in order to return the REFSTR of the current object of the respective publication level.
  • String Formatting Type: Select one of the following types of formatting for the dataset returned by the query:
    • DataSet: Select to display a tabular output of the query results.
    • DelimitedString: Select to display search results in a string with a defined delimiter between each column value of the returned dataset. Whether data is displayed in a new row for each dataset or without line breaks between the returned datasets depends on the setting of the Use New Line For Each Row attribute.
    • FormattedString: Select to display search results as variable part of a static string defined with the attribute Format String.
  • Format String: If you set the String Formatting Type attribute to FormattedString, define the string that shall be displayed for the search results of the defined query. Add results returned in a column of the query to the string in the format {dataset column name}.

    The name and caption of a dataset column are not necessarily identical. Which value must be taken over depends on how the Alfabet Query is defined.

    For example, data about an application shall be published. For the current bookmark, the name of the ICT object that the application is assigned to shall be published as part of a sentence. The ICT object is found by a native SQL query definition:

    • SELECT icto.REFSTR, icto.NAME as 'ICTObject'
    • FROM ICTOBJECT icto, APPLICATION app
    • WHERE app.REFSTR = @BASE
    • AND app.ICTOBJECT = icto.REFSTR

    The text string is defined as follows to include the name of the ICT object:

    • The application is assigned to the ICT object {ICTObject}.
  • Delimiter: If you set the String Formatting Type attribute to DelimitedString, define the delimiter between values within a result in the dataset. By default, values are delimited with a space.
  • Use New Line for Each Row: Select True to display each result returned by the query in a new line. Select False to display all results without line breaks between results. This attribute is not evaluated if the String Formatting Type attribute is set to DataSet.
• Publish the result of a native SQL query
  • Source Type: Select NativeQuery.
  • Native Query: Define a native SQL query. The dataset returned by the native SQL query is displayed in the publication as specified in the String Formatting Type attribute of the mapping entry. The Parameter Name values of this or any other publication entry in the publication definition can be used in the query as an Alfabet parameter in order to return the REFSTR of the current object of the respective publication level.
  • String Formatting Type: Select one of the following types of formatting for the dataset returned by the query:
    • DataSet: Select to display a tabular output of the query results.
    • DelimitedString: Select to display search results in a string with a defined delimiter between each column value of the returned dataset. Whether data is displayed in a new row for each dataset or without line breaks between the returned datasets depends on the setting of the Use New Line For Each Row attribute.
    • FormattedString: Select to display search results as variable part of a static string defined with the attribute Format String.
  • Format String: If you set the String Formatting Type attribute to FormattedString, define the string that shall be displayed for each search result of the defined query. Add data returned in a column of the query to the string in the format {dataset column name}.

    The name and caption of a dataset column are not necessarily identical. Which value must be taken over depends on how the native SQL query is defined.

    For example, data about an application shall be published. For the current bookmark, the name of the ICT object that the application is assigned to shall be published as part of a sentence. The ICT object is found by an Alfabet query definition:

    • SELECT icto.REFSTR, icto.NAME as 'ICTObject'
    • FROM ICTOBJECT icto, APPLICATION app
    • WHERE app.REFSTR = @BASE
    • AND app.ICTOBJECT = icto.REFSTR

    The text string is defined as follows to include the name of the ICT object:

    • The application is assigned to the ICT object {ICTObject}.
  • Delimiter: If you set the String Formatting Type attribute to DelimitedString, define the delimiter between values within a result in the dataset. By default, values are delimited with a space.
  • Use New Line for Each Row: Select True to display each result returned by the query in a new line. Select False to display all results without line breaks between results. This attribute is not evaluated if the String Formatting Type attribute is set to DataSet.