How It Works
Authentic editing has long given non-technical users a familiar, forms-based way to work with XML content, with the schema validation and XML rules enforced behind the scenes. Authentic Server extends that same functionality to the web. Users open a document in a browser, edit it in a clean WYSIWYG view, and save the valid XML, all of it done from the browser.
For IT, deployment is simple. Install Authentic Server where it fits your infrastructure, on a server or in the cloud. The system is managed from a central admin interface. Document editing permission can be granted per user or for a group of users.
How Authentic Server works is explained in broad outline below.
Before using Authentic Server
Altova's Authentic View of an XML document is a graphical template for an XML document. These Authentic templates are created in Altova StyleVision and saved in StyleVision's native SPS file format (StyleVision Power Stylesheet).
The starting point for creating an SPS is an XML document structure, typically defined in an XML schema. In StyleVision, the elements and attributes of the XML schema are laid out in a page design, and the design is stored as an SPS file. If an XML file is now assigned to the SPS and the SPS is opened In Authentic View, then the XML document is presented in the graphical layout of the associated SPS. In Authentic View, the actual XML content takes the place of the elements and attributes that were used in the design.
The XML content can be formatted in a wide variety of ways, for example, into tables, lists, and data-entry devices such as combo boxes. The layout can also be enhanced with dynamic or static content. Dynamic content is calculated from the XML content—summations or percentages, for example. Static content is extraneous to the XML content—fixed text in the layout or graphics.
In StyleVision, you can also generate a PXF file, which is a zipped archive that contains the SPS file and all its associated files (such as XML, XML schema, and graphics files). The advantage of using a PXF file in Authentic Server is that all the files of an Authentic project are packaged together into one file.
Authentic Server users can open an SPS or PXF file to view and edit the associated XML documents.
Using Authentic Server
Authentic Server works as follows:
1.Authentic Server is installed on a server machine.
2.Users are registered and assigned various (admin or user) rights. Each user thus has an account with certain permissions.
3.Users can create folders in their respective accounts. In each folder they place the files of one or more Authentic projects. An Authentic project contains either (i) an SPS file with its associated files or (ii) a single PXF file.
4.Users specify whether the folders in their account can be viewed by other users. They can further specify whether other users can only read the files or edit them as well.
5.Edits to a document can be saved to the file on the server. Note that a shared file can be edited by multiple persons. Files can also be downloaded to the browser's Downloads folder.