Opening files in Smart Connection from a custom Web application

When making use of a Web application (such as a planning tool or a custom application), users may want to directly open layouts or articles directly from that application into InDesign or InCopy with Smart Connection installed.

This can be made possible by letting the application call a URL with specific parameters.

This article explains the working of this feature.

Info: This feature requires Smart Connection 14.2.2 or higher.

Tip: How to check the version of Smart Connection that is installed.

Functionality

Using this method, the following can be done:

• Open layouts in InDesign or articles in InCopy
• Open multiple layouts or articles with one URL
• Open the files checked-out or as read-only
• Open a template for editing or instantiate a new document from the template

URL parameters

The URL that is passed has the following format:

protocol://<server>&id&readonly&instantiate&dossier

The parameters are described in the following table:

Parameter	Value	Description
Protocol	wsopenic2019 wsopenid2019	Required. Multiple values are not allowed. Defines the application and its version with which the file should be opened. Use 'ic' for InCopy, 'id' for InDesign, followed by the version.
server	Server name	Required. Multiple values are not allowed. The name of Enterprise Server (as defined in the WWSettings.xml file) from which the files should be opened. Note: Server names may not contain characters other than ASCII and extended ASCII. For extended ASCII, the %** notation should be used.
id	database ID	Required. Multiple values are allowed. The IDs of the files that should be opened.
readonly	true or false	Not required. Multiple values are not allowed. Defines if the file should be opened as read-only. Default value: false. Note: Has to be set to true when a layout is opened in InCopy. Layout templates and Layout Module templates cannot be opened as read-only.
instantiate	true or false	Not required. Multiple values are not allowed. Defines if a new document should be instantiated from a template. The referenced file should therefore be a template; the parameter is ignored when the file is a regular layout or article. Default value: true.
dossier	Dossier ID	Not required. Multiple values are not allowed. The ID of the default parent Dossier. Only used when instantiating Layout templates or Layout Module templates. Default value: an empty string.

Example: The following URL opens 2 layouts (with ID 123 and 456) as read-only from server 'MyServer' in InDesign 2019: wsopenid2019://server=MyServer&id=123&id=456&readonly=true