feed® catalog module for iBridge
Configuration / getting started with catalog
If you use our iBridge solution for producing print catalogs, feed® has a dedicated catalog module for setting up a structure and selecting the right templates. This guide assumes that you have iBridge set up and that the catalog module is activated in feed®.
Catalog templates are custom created templates for made by iSYS according to customer specifications. Contact your iSYS project manager for more information about this.
Functionality that is common to all structures is not documented here, see Structures for documentation on this (click here).
Once this is done you have a empty catalog structure to work with.
- "Root folder" for catalog. This defines the name for the catalog, in this case "Product catalog". This name is used as the default name for generated PDF files if one doesn't choose to change the name. It is not possible to add products, pages, or inserts directly to the root folder. One must create at least 1 subfolder.
- To create a new folder, either click on the "Create folder" button or the right icon on the page you are on.
- On the catalog root level you have the following tabs (more on these later on):
- Structure folder
- Catalog information
- Select template for structure
- Select attributes for structure
- This section let you:
- Generate catalog
This icon will make a call to iBridge to start generating a PDF from the catalog folder you have selected. If you are on the root folder, it will generate a PDF for the entire catalog, but it is also possible to select a catalog folder further down in the structure and generate a partial catalog.
This is recommended when building and testing a new catalog. When you click on this, a dialog will appear where you can change the desired name of the generated catalog, as well as choose whether the generated catalog should be archived. Archived catalogs are not automatically deleted from feed®. - Sort the subfolders on the level you are at
- Edit name and import code
- Navigate to generated catalogs
This is only available from the top folder in the catalog structure, or alternatively from the overview of structures in feed®. Here you can navigate in and download fully generated catalogs. A generated catalog is normally stored for 2 weeks, but you can choose to archive it. An archived catalog will not be automatically deleted.
- Generate catalog
Structure folder:
Create folder, add search, add product, delete all products are covered in the general information about structures.
Folders/chapters:
One important thing to add about folders you create in the catalog structure is that they are viewed as chapters if you create a "table of content" (TOC) template.
A table of content template, like any other templates, are user specified fordevelopment, and are not available out of the box in the Catalog module.
Note! "Table of content" only includes information from catalog folders that are "below" the folder where the template is selected. It will not include folders at the same level. If you want a table of contents at the beginning of the catalog that contains all folders, the catalog folder using this template must be at the top of the catalog, and you then build the catalog structure under this folder.
Add page: This is not available on the top folder, but can be used when you are on a "regular" catalog folder. This assumes that you have some "page templates" defined. Page can be used for custom page templates where there isn't necessarily any product information, it could for example be a full page with a background image, information about the company, etc.
Add insert: This is not available on the top folder, but can be used when you are on a "regular" catalog folder. This allows you to upload a pre-generated PDF which is then used as an insert in the catalog. This means it is inserted at a defined place "as-is" in the catalog. Catalog will read out the number of pages in the insert (an insert can be multiple pages) and continue page numbering correctly after the insert.
Note: Catalog will not add page numbers to the insert. If you use an insert and want page numbering, the PDF you upload here must contain the correct page numbers.
Catalog information
When you are in the Catalog information tab you have the following options:
Size: To be able to choose your catalog templates , you must first specify what size the catalog should be. Here you will see the sizes for which product templates are installed. If there is no value available here, feed® has not been able to retrieve information about installed templates from iBridge. In that case, contact support@isys.no.
DPI: Here you can specify the desired DPI for PDF generation. We recommend setting this lower when working on and testing the catalog to make generation faster, and then increase it when you're creating the final version of the catalog for sending to the printer.
Crop marks: If this is selected, the generated PDF will automatically have crop marks added. This is normally something you need in the final version if it is to be sent to a professional printing house for production of a print catalog.
Catalog templates
When you have selected the page size of the catalog in the Catalog information tab, you will see a list of available templates you have in this overview.
Available: These are templates that are registered in your system, but are not yet included in the catalog. These will not be possible to select later on catalog folders if you don't move them over to the "Selected" selection.
Selected: These are templates that have been made available for this catalog and can be used further.
Attributes
When using structure attributes, it's possible to use attributes in the catalog structure to send information to the catalog engine at the folder level, which is then used further down in the structure. This assumes that your templates are designed to account for custom attributes. If you wish to use custom structure attributes, this is something that must be implemented in the development of the specific templates, and each structure attribute must have a programmed functionality in order to have the desired functionality you need. It's also important to inform whether you want the attribute to be inheritable down to any sub-levels in the catalog, or just have effect on the present folder you have activated it on.
Root folder (selecting attributes for the present catalog)
Attributes selected above is then available to use on a folder in the catalog (but only if the template supports the attributes).
Selecting templates to Catalog structure folders.
The catalog module primary purpose is to create PDF catalogs that you can print or publish digitally.
A PDF catalog must have a design setup. This is where the custom templates comes in.
On every folder in a catalog structure (except the root folder) you must choose a template to be able to place products in that folder, and to get a visual presentation of the products that the folder contains.
You can only choose one template on each folder. If you want to use different templates for products under a chapter or product category, you must break this up to several folders where you choose different templates.
For example, if you have a product template for 2 products per page and another for 4 products per page, you can create a folder that you assign the 2-product template on, and another folder with the 4-product templates.
In both of these you can add as many products you want, but the template will split to new pages depending on how many products or how much information the templates support.
This is how you select a template to a folder.
Once you have chosen a template for the folder that will contain products, you can link products to it, either manually by using "Add product", or by specifying a product search via "Add search".
If you want full control over which products are included and their order, we recommend adding the products manually. When using search, all products that match the search criteria at the time the catalog is generated will be included. These will then be printed in the order that the search returns them, and you don't have the ability here to control this sorting.
It's important to note that you cannot combine "Add search" and "Add product" within the same folder. Here you must choose whether you want to add the products manually or use search, not both. More details on how to Add search or Add products to a folder can be found HERE.
Keep in mind that before a template is assigned to the to the folder you cannot add products to the folder.
Index templates
Finally, there is a type of template that can be created called "index templates". These allow you, provided you use them, to create product indexes in your catalog that list content with corresponding page numbers in the catalog. These must, like other templates, be placed on a separate folder, typically at the end of the catalog. If you want the index to be included in the table of contents, it must be placed under it, but if it should not be included, you just place it at the same level as the content template as shown in the example below.
