Resources.

Most data in CHILI Publisher is managed as resources. Examples are assets, documents, fonts, users, and so on. Resources can be compared to databases or tables, depending on your usual environment.

Resources in CHILI Publisher come in three variations, each with slight differences in logic and management:

• list
• directory_file
• directory_object

An overview of all current resources (and their types) can be gotten by calling the Resourc eList webservice function, or you can check the Webservice DataTypes - resourceName page.

Commonnalities

All resources and resources have a series of functionalities in common (both in the backoffice and in the use of the API).

All Resource Items are represented at least as an XML node in its list. An example for a document:

<item name="MY_DOCUMENT" id="9a060ed3-55a7-40d4-ade6-739056d7802a" relativePath="Test Documents/MY_DOCUMENT.xml" />

All items have a "name" and "id" attribute. Depending on the type of resource, more information will be available in the basic XML node.

The basic definition XML of a Resource Item can be fetched using the ResourceItemGetDefinitionXML (see ?Resource Item Definition XML for more info)

All resource types can be searched using the ResourceSearch webservice function.

Based on the items ID, all Resource Items can be deleted by calling ResourceItemDelete

All resource items have a history, which can be retreived using ResourceItemGetHistory.

List

Lists consist of objects in list form. Examples are users, user groups, PDF Export Settings.

In the backoffice, a resource of type list only has the "search" interface. This is also exposed in the API as the ResourceSearch function.

Lists have most of the same functionalities as the other types, although the folder argument is ignored in most functions.

Directory_file

Resources of type directory_file consist of an underlying file structure. Examples are fonts and assets.

Each item has a node with information on the underlying file. An example for an Asset:

<item name="MY_IMAGE.tif" id="6f924bb7-096b-4cc7-9f52-4f75bccccbf6" relativePath="Exported/MY_IMAGE.tif">
	<fileInfo fileIndexed="2010-06-30 14:46:18" numPages="1" resolution="300" width="3317" height="2209" fileSize="29.44 Mb">
		<metaData>
			<item name="Width (px)" value="3317" />
			<item name="Height (px)" value="2209" />
			<item name="Resolution" value="300" />
		</metaData>
		<boxes />
	</fileInfo>
</item>

This node contains name and ID for the asset, but also its location, file info, metadata, and potentially boxes (in case of a PDF file).

Files can typically be previewed. Using the ResourceItemGetURL function you can get urls of various types for a resource item.

Items in a resource of directory_file can be searched, but you can also call the ResourceGetTree function to get a list of the directories (and optionally files) available in the resource.

Directory_object

In many ways the resources of type directory_object are similar to resources of type directory_file. But instead of an underlying file, and XML document is stored, describing the object further. Examples are fonts, workspaces, viewpreferences.

The underlying XML of the object can be fetched using the ResourceItemGetObjectXML function.

Certain resources of this type (eg Documents) also automatically create previews.

Samples of working with general Resource and Resource Item information can be found in the CHILI_API_Sample application in page resourceInfo.aspx