Constraints XML

Concept

To limit (or guide) end users (and even administrators) when editing CHILI Documents through the Editor, a variety of constraints can be configured throughout the XML.

For more information on how to configure this within CHILI Editor itself, see ?Content Restrictions

Constraints can be configured through the "frameConstraints" and "frameContentConstraints" (respectively of type ?Document Object Model - FrameConstraints and ?Document Object Model - FrameContentConstraints) of various levels of content:

• document
• page
• layer
• frame

Each of those levels can have one or both (or none) of the constraint properties configured, and in those objects, one or more coonstrainable settings may be set to something else than "inherit". The "lowest" applied value for any single constrainable setting is applied to the frame.

XML Structure

On a layer level, the XML might look like:

<layers>
  <item textLanguage="" name="Locked" id="42980ED3-FE78-98CB-4661-7453EE116331" moveRegion="" contentType="">
    <frameConstraints
                      lockFrameSettings="yes"
                      lockContent="yes"
                      lockDelete="yes"
                      lockRotate="yes"
                      lockResizeHorizontal="yes"
                      lockResizeVertical="yes"
                      lockMoveVertical="yes"
                      lockMoveHorizontal="yes"
                      />
    <frameContentConstraints
                      allowedBorderColors="C85CBD56-C47D-B50D-DD39-7C0F8139FBD8;3B846B59-00FA-8C9D-4800-A83382BB2404;"
                      limitBorderColors="yes"
                      />
  </item>
</layers>

Where:

• all frame constraints are applied
• only the border colors are limited in the content constraints

See ?Document Object Model - FrameConstraints and ?Document Object Model - FrameContentConstraints for a full list of available properties.

TIP: in general, rather than fully locking items (eg: lockContent="yes"), it makes more sense to only do this for end users. This makes it easier for designers/administrators to make modifications in the document when needed

Locked Layers during import

Using those constraints can be useful not only for limiting content for end users, but is also used by the ?CHILI InDesign Extension, for example, for importing "Locked Layers". During that conversion process, the Extension:

• Creates the new layer, as usual
• Sets it completely locked
• Takes all of the page items of that layer (per page), and converts it to Press Quality PDF
• Creates an ImageFrame Item on that layer in the new document's XML, and places that PDF in there
• Ignores the content on the layer in InDesign otherwise

The result is a layer which looks identical to InDesign's content (and can be exported to PDF in CHILI without loss of data), but can't be edited or moved around.