Searching and locating files using Smart Connection

In Enterprise, all files are stored in a database. Before you can work on a file, you therefore first need to locate that file.

This article covers the following topics:

• Browsing for files
• Creating a custom search
• Viewing all files in a Dossier
• Viewing all files routed to you
• Viewing all templates
• Viewing all InDesign Libraries
• Viewing all spreadsheets
• About Current, Previous and Next Issues
• Troubleshooting

Your main access to the files that are stored in Enterprise is through the following panels:

• The Smart Connection panel. To access this panel, choose Window > Smart Connection > Smart Connection
• The Dossier panel. (InDesign only) To access this panel, choose Window > Smart Connection > Dossier

Figure: The Smart Connection panel.

Figure: The Dossier panel.

This article describes the different methods of searching for and locating files using Smart Connection.

Browsing for files

The default method of locating files is by using the Smart Connection panel in Browse mode. As the name implies, this method makes it possible to browse for files by choosing specific locations such as a Brand/Issue/Category/Status combination.

Step 1. From the Search menu of the Smart Connection panel, choose Browse.

Lists appear containing the Brands, Issues, Categories and Workflow Statuses that you have access to.

Step 2. (Optional) Make a choice from one or more lists.

Step 3. Click Refresh.

Note: When making a choice from the Workflow Status list, the panel is automatically refreshed.

Any found files are shown in the panel.

Note: When no files are displayed, either none met the criteria or you have not been given sufficient access rights to view the files.

Filtering the browse results

When using Browse mode, you can further filter the search results down to one or more file types. This way you can view only those file types that you want to work with and hide all the other ones. This gives you fewer files to work with in the Smart Connection panel.

Example: When you want to place images, you can filter out all files except those of type 'image'.

Step 1. Make sure that the Smart Connection panel is run in Browse mode (which it is by default).

Figure: The Smart Connection panel in Browse mode.

Step 2. Do one of the following:

• Right-click anywhere on an empty area in the Search pane.

• From the Smart Connection panel menu, choose Filter.

Figure: Accessing the Filter by clicking the panel menu button (A).

The Filter appears, containing the file types that can be filtered on.

Note: Filtering on the following options require Smart Connection 13.0.1 or higher. In all other versions, these file types are part of the 'Other' option: Advert Archive Article template Audio Dossier template Hyperlink Layout template Layout Module template Library Presentation Spreadsheet Task Video

Step 3. Do one of the following:

• Select none of the options to show all files of all types
• Select one or more options to only show files of these types

Step 4. Click Refresh.

Creating a custom search

A custom search makes it possible to store a set of search criteria for those searches that you perform regularly. This way, it is not needed to enter these criteria each time you want to run the search.

It works by defining the search criteria once, saving them as a custom search and then accessing that custom search from the Search menu of the Search Application whenever you need it.

Note: When logging out, all saved custom searches are stored in the Enterprise system. This ensures that when you next log in — even from a different system — the searches are available to you.

Example: creating a custom search to show all layouts used in the last 7 days

Step 1. Access the Smart Connection panel.

Step 2. From the Search menu, choose Search... .

The Search Criteria dialog box appears.

Step 3. Define the search criteria as follows:

• Brand Select [all] or make a choice from the list.
• Issue, Edition, Category and Status. (Optional, available when a specific Brand has been selected) Select [all] or make a choice from the list.
• Type is Layout.
• Modified Within Lasts 7 days.

Note: Remove any unwanted criteria by clicking the Remove icon () .

Step 4. Click Save... .

The New Search dialog box appears.

Step 5. Enter a descriptive name such as Recently used layouts and click OK.

Step 6. Click OK to close the Search Criteria dialog box.

The search is performed and the results are displayed in the Smart Connection panel.

The custom search is added to the Search menu.

Note: When no files are displayed, either none met the criteria or you have not been given sufficient access rights to view the files.

Modifying or deleting a custom search

Step 1. From the Search menu in the Smart Connection panel, choose the custom search that you want to modify or delete.

Step 2. Click the Search... button.

The Search Criteria dialog box for the Custom Search appears.

Step 3. Do one of the following:

• Make any changes and click Save...
• Click Delete

About criteria dealing with dates and time

Some of the criteria that can be chosen in a custom search deal with a time period such as 'Today', 'Before an entered date and time', and so on.

The following table shows the time periods that these criteria cover.

Note: The time and date are determined by the server on which Enterprise is installed, not the system on which InDesign or InCopy is running. This may produce unexpected results, especially when different time zones are involved.

Range	Start	End
Today	Current date, 00:00:00hrs	Current date, 23:59:59hrs
Yesterday	00:00:00hrs previous day	23:59:59hrs previous day
Tomorrow	00:00:00hrs next day	23:59:59hrs next day
Last week	First Day of previous week (default Monday), 00:00:00hrs	First Day of Current week (default Monday), 23:59:59hrs
Next week	First Day of next week (default Monday), 00:00:00hrs	First Day of week following next week (default Monday), 23:59:59hrs
Within last (x) minutes	Current date minus Current (x) minutes	Current date & time
Within last (x) hours	Current date minus Current (x) hours	Current date & time
Within last (x) days	Current day & time minus (x) days	Current date & time
Within last (x) weeks	Current day & time minus (x) weeks	Current date & time
Within last (x) months	Current month & time minus (x) months	Current date & time
Within next (x) minutes	Current date & time	Current date & time plus (x) minutes
Within next (x) hours	Current date & time	Current date & time plus (x) hours
Within next (x) days	Current date & time	Current date & time plus (x) days
Within next (x) weeks	Current date & time	Current date & time plus (x) weeks
Within next (x) months	Current date & time	Current date & time plus (x) months
Before (entered date and time)	–	Entered date & time
After (entered date and time)	Entered date & 00:00:00hrs	–
On (entered date)	Entered date	Entered date

Viewing all files in a Dossier

Info: This method is available in Smart Connection for InDesign only.

In Enterprise, a Dossier represents a story. All files that are related to the story are collected in the Dossier. These files include reference material such as articles and images as well as the files that are needed to publish the story. In a print workflow these are the InDesign layouts, InCopy articles and images.

In a typical workflow, a Dossier is the starting point for locating the file that you want to work on in InDesign.

Instead of using the Smart Connection panel to locate the file that you want to work on you can also use the Dossier panel.

Accessing the Dossier panel

Do one of the following:

• Double-click a Dossier in a panel such as the Smart Connection panel.

This will open the Dossier panel to show all files that are in that Dossier.

• Choose Window > Smart Connection > Dossier.

When opening the Dossier panel this way, the panel shows the Dossier content of the layout that you are currently viewing. When switching to another layout you see the content of the panel change.

Viewing all files routed to you (Inbox)

Working on a publication is team work and files that you need to work on might be routed to you by other members of the team. Such files are added to your 'Inbox'.

To see these files, do the following:

• In the Smart Connection panel, choose Inbox from the Search menu.

Viewing all templates

Creating a new InDesign layout or InCopy article is typically done by basing it on a template.

To see all templates that you have been given access to, do the following:

• In the Smart Connection panel, choose Templates from the Search menu.

Viewing all InDesign Libraries

Regularly used objects such as logos, graphics or even multi-component articles can be stored in an InDesign Library and shared among team members.

To see all InDesign Libraries that you have been given access to, do the following:

• In the Smart Connection panel, choose Libraries from the Search menu.

Viewing all spreadsheets

To view all spreadsheets that you have been given access to, do the following:

Step 1. Access the Smart Connection panel.

Step 2. Make sure that the Smart Connection panel is run in Browse mode (which it is by default).

Figure: The Smart Connection panel in Browse mode.

Step 3. Do one of the following:

• Right-click anywhere on an empty area in the Search pane

• From the Smart Connection panel menu, choose Filter

Step 4. Make sure that no options are selected in the list.

All files of all types appear, including spreadsheets.

Tip: Spreadsheets can also be explicitly searched on by creating a Custom Search based on 'Type is Spreadsheet'.

About Current, Previous and Next Issues

Within a Brand, your administrator can assign an Issue as being the 'Current Issue': the Issue that is now up for publication. This could for instance be tomorrow’s newspaper, next month’s magazine, and so on.

Similarly, 'Previous Issues' and 'Next Issue' identify the Issue before and after the current Issue.

The advantage of this system is that such Issues can be found without having to refer to them by name:

• Use the Smart Connection panel in Browse mode and from the Issue list choose 'Previous Issue', 'Current Issue' or 'Next Issue'.

• Set up a custom search based on a 'Previous Issue', 'Current Issue' or 'Next Issue'.

Troubleshooting

After performing a search no results are shown or some files seem to be missing. I have entered the correct search criteria and I know that files exist that meet those criteria

This can happen for the following reasons:

• You have not been given enough rights to access these files.

Note: Access rights can be controlled down to Workflow Status level, meaning that you could see a file while it is on status 'A', but not when it is set to status 'B'.

• When working in Browse mode, the filter is set to a different type of file than the one you are looking for.

• The file is placed more than 50 times on a layout that is stored in an instance of Enterprise Server in which the Solr search engine is enabled. Such files are omitted from the search results because collecting the data for these files can negatively impact performance.