Modular SPSs
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Modular SPSs |
The global templates of an SPS, as well as Design Fragments, JavaScript functions, and page layout items can be used in the design of another SPS. This enables:
| 1. | The re-use of global templates and other components across multiple SPSs, the main advantages of which are single-source editing and consistency of output. |
| 2. | SPSs to be modularized, and thus to be more flexibly structured. |
In any given SPS, one or more SPSs can be added as modules. Some types of components (or objects) in these modules are then available to the importing (or referring) SPS.
Available module objects
The section, Available Module Objects, not only describes the extent to which, and conditions under which, the various components of an SPS are available to an importing SPS. It also lists those components that are not available to the importing SPS. You should note that if an added module itself contains modules, then these are added recursively to the referring SPS. In this way, modularization can be extended to several levels and across a broad design structure.
Creating a modular SPS
To build a modularized SPS, first add the required SPS to the main SPS as a module. All the global templates, Design Fragments, JavaScript functions, and page layout items in the added module are available to the referring SPS. Each of the available objects is listed in the Design Tree, under its respective heading (screenshot below), and can be activated or deactivated, respectively, by checking or unchecking its check box.
These objects can then be re-used in the referring SPS according to their respective inclusion mechanisms. Global templates and page layout items typically would need merely to be activated in order for them to be applied in the referring SPS. Design fragments have to be dragged from the Design Tree to the required location. And JavaScript functions are assigned via the Property window as event handlers for the selected design component.
How to create and work with a modular SPS is described in the section, Creating a Modular SPS.
When an SPS is used within another module it is said to be added to the latter, and we call the process adding. The two SPSs are referred to, respectively, as the added SPS module and the referring SPS module. When an SPS module is added, its objects are added to the referring SPS module. These objects are called module objects, and are of the following types: global templates; Design Fragments; JavaScript functions; and page layout items.
See also:
Design Overview, for a description of how manage modules at the file level.
Schema Sources, for a description of how schemas are used as sources for the SPS design.
Output Structure, which contains detailed descriptions of main templates, global templates, and Design Fragments.
Using Scripts, for information about using JavaScript functions.
Designing Print Output, for a description of page layout control in StyleVision.
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