External Ads and Edit XML

Concept

When working with ads and editorial content, data will usually come from external systems describing the data. Administrators can link to those systems by going to the Ad Collections menu, and providing a series of URLs to dynamic pages describing the data.

Administrators can configure the connection by providing four URLs:

• Pub. URL: this dynamic page should return XML describing the available publications
• Ad URL and Edit URL: these pages return XML describing the available ads and edit for the selected publication. These URLs can contain the %PUB% pattern, which is replaced by the id of the selected publication.
• Post URL: after saving a document, Ad and Edit placement can be (optionally) posted to this URL

XML Definitions

Publication XML

<publications>
	<item name="Publication 1" value="123" />
	<item name="Publication 2" value="456" />
	<item name="Publication 3" value="789" />
</publications>

The Publication XML contains items describing the available publication. Each directory requires a "value" (id) and "name" attribute.

Ad and Edit XML

<searchresults applyDefaultsOnLoad="true" noMoveOfPlacedContent="true">
  <item adNumber="1309565" name="1309565" id="1309565"
      pdfPath="c:/ADS/1309565.pdf" size="TADV"
      panelColor="#FF0000" borderColor="#00FF00" inlineDescription="A VALUE"
      previewOverridePath="c:/ADS/1309565.png" >
  <metaData>
    <item name="NAME" value="VALUE" />
    <item name="NAME 2" value="VALUE 2" />
  </metaData>

    <defaultPosition pageName="10" positionName="Bottom Right" lockPosition="false" />
  </item>
</searchresults>

Ad and Edit content is represented in the same way. A list of items describes the available content. Each item can contain the following attributes:

• adNumber / editNumber: the number of the content
• name: display name of the item
• id: id of the item
• pdfPath: location where the original PDF file can be found (accessible from the CHILI server)
• size: either the name or the ID of the Ad Size in CHILI. If it does not exist, CHILI will automatically create a blank (unconfigured) size with this value as its name.
• panelColor/borderColor: HTML colors to be used for inline reporting
• inlineDescription: text to be shown for inline reporting
• previewOverridePath: optional path to a file which is used as the master for preview generation (see ResourceItemAddPreviewOverride )

Next to this, each ad can also contain a series of metadata keys, which (according to the configuration of the Ad Collection in the BackOffice) can be displayed in various reports.

Each ad/edit item can also contain an (optional) defaultPosition node. If present and if the "applyDefaultsOnLoad" attribute on the top level node is set to true (or when the user selects the publication for the first time), this is used to automatically position the content. Each "defaultPosition" node may contain:

• pageName: name of the page to place the content on
• positionName or positionNumber: name (or 1-based index) of the position to use, if multiple exist (if not provided, the ad/edit is placed on the first position configured for its AdSize)
• lockPosition: if "true", when placing the ad/edit it also gets content constraints (locked for end user only) on its movement and deletion

Post XML

<positions publication="123">
  <ads>
    <item page="1" type="ad" adNumber="1309565" id="1309565"  size="TADV" x="10mm" y="10mm" width="50mm" height="50mm" />
  </ads>
</positions>

XML containing all ads and editorial content can be posted to a final URL.