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New features and enhancements in SDL Contenta S1000D 5.8

This section lists features and enhancements that were introduced in SDL Contenta S1000D 5.8.

64-bit Contenta S1000D

This release introduces the Contenta S1000D as a 64-bit application, offering enhanced performance and scalability, and streamlining the installation process. By default, new installations of Contenta S1000D on Windows are installed in the Program Files directory (instead of Program Files (x86) as with previous versions). For upgrades, the installation program detects the path of the existing Contenta_home directory and installs Contenta S1000D.

Contenta Web security updates to allow for no applet

Prior to Contenta Web 5.8, certain Contenta Web tools (Dynamic Import, and Check In/Check Out/Fetch tools) allowed the use of an applet to enhance functionality when transferring content to and from the Web Server. By default, the applet was turned on for all these tools. For security reasons, in 5.8 and forward, the applet is no longer supported for any Contenta Web tools, except Dynamic Import and FrameBook tools (with Internet Explorer only). For Contenta S1000D, changes were made to the Arbortext editing tools to allow for graphics to be transferred to the client (if requested) without use of an applet. The graphics are transferred when the user launches the editor by the Contenta S1000D editor plugin, and the user sees an indicator while the graphics are transferred and loaded in the editor. See Notes and limitations when not using applets for information about working with Contenta tools without applets.

S1000D Upload Content tool

Contenta S1000D 5.8 includes a new S1000D Upload Content tool for Contenta Web and Contenta Explorer. The new tool provides an improved user interface and improves support for uploading large batches of files to your SDL Contenta S1000D CSDB. The new Upload Content tool uploads only content files to the CSDB. The Upload tool delivered in previous versions has been modified to upload only CSV codes, and has been renamed S1000D Upload Codes.

The new Upload Content tool enhances performance, increasing the size and number of files that can be uploaded in a session. In addition, the Upload window can now be closed while the upload is in progress, providing greater flexibility when uploading large amounts of content. Other enhancements include the following features.
  • Validation of XML files to confirm they are well-formed and not already in the CSDB
  • Reporting on files not uploaded because they are too large or of an unsupported file type
  • Downloading files that cannot be uploaded
  • Ability to monitor the upload in real-time via the Upload Content window or later via log files
  • Access to information about prior uploads via a Prior Uploads button, which displays a window allowing you to display and delete log files for all previous uploads
  • Improved upload statistical information

S1000D Upload Content uses parallel processing to enhance performance when uploading a large number of files. New registry settings allow you to configure S1000D Upload Content to optimize parallel processing.

In addition, the S1000D Upload Content tool has been enhanced to support pre-2.2 S1000D issues. For more information about support for these additional issues, refer to the Support for legacy S1000D spec issues section later in this topic.

New Contenta Manage Internal References tool

Contenta S1000D 5.8 introduces the new Contenta Manage Internal References tool for Arbortext Editor, which streamlines the process of creating internal references within a DM to elements in the DM (such as figures, warnings, and tables). The tool can be configured to launch automatically when you use the Arbortext menu (Insert > Markup) to insert an <xref> element (S1000D Issue 3.0 or earlier) or an <internalRef> element (Issue 4.0 or later). Alternatively, you can launch the tool manually by selecting Contenta > Manage Internal References.

The tool generates the required markup and assigns an element ID to the reference target (if one does not already exist).

New Contenta Hotspot Manager tool

Contenta S1000D 5.8 introduces the new Contenta Hotspot Manager tool for Arbortext Editor, which streamlines the process of linking hotspots in a CGM or SVG graphic to text elements in the DM. You launch the tool using the new Hotspot Manager item on the Contenta menu in Arbortext Editor.

For more information about setting up and using this enhancement, see Creating hotspot links in Arbortext Editor .

Support for legacy S1000D Issues

Contenta S1000D now supports legacy S1000D Issues 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.9, 2.0, and 2.1. Support for Issue 1.6 and 1.7 DMs includes support for both the Aircraft Ground Equipment (AGE) and Air Vehicle, Engines, and Equipment (AVEE) schemas, which were merged in subsequent issues. To use AGE DMs, several AppData keys, representing AGE-specific Document Types, have been added. For details, refer to the Contenta S1000D database upgrade changes section at the end of this topic. LiveContent S1000D 5.8 does not support AGE DMs.

Issue 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8.1, and 1.9 SGML files are converted into XML before being uploaded to the CSDB, and Issue 1.x XML files may optionally be converted back to SGML during DDN Export.

For more information about this enhancement, see Contenta S1000D support for legacy S1000D Issues .

Enhanced CSS sample styles and updated XSL files for XPP Publish

CSS styles can now be used as starting point XPP styles for customers who publish S1000D Issue 4.0 and later content from Contenta S1000D to XPP for PDF output. Additional XML tags have been styled, CSS has been normalized, style issues have been fixed, and CSS rules have been organized into logical categories.

An issue with table numbering that was introduced with a newer version of XSL has also been fixed. Updated XSL files are available with both the XPP proprietary and CSS style library zip files delivered with Contenta S1000D. Extract the appropriate zip file as described in the following.

If you publish to XPP using CSS styles, copy the updated CSS XPP style library zip, s1kdXppCssStyles.zip, from the Contenta server to the CSS XPP style library, Ls1kd_css, or to your custom XPP style library, on the XPP server, as follows.
  1. Navigate to the S1000D_samples/xpp/ subdirectory of the Contenta home directory on the Contenta Web server.
  2. Copy s1kdXppCssStyles.zip from the Contenta Web server to the sd_liz subdirectory of the XPP home directory on the XPP server, and extract its contents to a directory named Ls1kd_css or to the directory that contains your custom XPP style library.
If you publish to XPP and use proprietary styles, copy the updated XPP proprietary style library zip, s1000dstyles.zip, from the Contenta server to the XPP proprietary style library, Ls1000d, or to your custom XPP style library on the XPP server, as follows.
  1. Navigate to the S1000D_samples/xpp/ subdirectory of the Contenta home directory on the Contenta Web server.
  2. Copy s100dstyles.zip from the Contenta Web server to the sd_liz subdirectory of the XPP home directory on the XPP server, and extract its contents to a directory named Ls1000d or to the directory that contains your custom XPP style library.

Enhanced XPP Publish handling of non-displayed Data Modules

If the content section of a PM includes DMs that are not typically printed and displayed (such as applicability, BREX/brDoc, and CIR/TIR DMs), XPP Publish no longer sends these DMs to XPP to be composed, paginated, and rendered in PDF output. Also, XPP Publish no longer sends Title Page, List of Effective Data Modules (LOEDM), and Table of Contents (TOC) DMs (infocodes 001, 002, and 009, respectively) to XPP because XPP auto-generates those three sections of the publication for the PDF.

Added Issue 4.2 support to SDL S1000D Foundation Suite

The SDL S1000D Foundation Suite has been updated to generate Issue 4.2 modules. The S1000D Foundation Suite is a separate product from Contenta S1000D that generates initial data modules (DMs) that can be uploaded into a Contenta S1000D CSDB. It simplifies the process of beginning a new Issue 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.1, or 4.2 S1000D project by creating all the starting-point data modules required for a new S1000D project, effectively defining the structure of the project.

For further information about this enhancement, refer to Using the SDL S1000D Foundation Suite .

Support for VDS multimedia files

Contenta S1000D databases and tools have been enhanced to support SAP Visual Data Stream (VDS) multimedia files. If your content will include VDS multimedia files, add VDS to the hyphen-delimited list of multimedia object types in the multimediaObjects AppData setting under the {Global} > Settings > Graphics path.

In addition, to enable search of VDS files, add VDS to the hyphen-delimited list of object types available for Advanced Search in the cw_searchObjectTypes AppData setting under the {Global} > content@web > Settings path.

Support for SCORM runtime files: FLA, CSS, JS

Contenta S1000D databases and tools have been enhanced to support FLA multimedia files that, in conjunction with CSS and JS files, may comprise SCORM runtime files. SDL is providing pass-through support so that, for example, you can publish a publication containing SCORM runtime files to the file system and create a .zip file for delivery to a SCORM system.

If your content will include FLA multimedia files, add FLA to the hyphen-delimited list of multimedia object types in the multimediaObjects AppData setting under the {Global} > Settings > Graphics path.

In addition, to enable search of FLA files, add FLA to the hyphen-delimited list of object types available for Advanced Search in the cw_searchObjectTypes AppData setting under the {Global} > content@web > Settings path.

To enable search of CSS and JavaScript files, add the values CSS and JS to the hyphen-delimited list of object types available for Advanced Search in the cw_searchObjectTypes AppData setting.

Application upgrade information

Application upgrades are supported from Contenta S1000D 5.6 and later. For other scenarios, a new, full installation is required. For more information, contact SDL.

Contenta S1000D database upgrade changes

This section lists the changes made to your existing Contenta S1000D databases when you upgrade them to Contenta S1000D 5.8. If you are upgrading a database from a release earlier than 5.5, contact SDL Professional Services at mailto:ProServRequest@sdl.com to discuss upgrade services for your implementation. The Contenta Core database upgrade should be performed before upgrading the Contenta S1000D database. For more information about performing the Contenta Core database upgrade, refer to the Contenta 5.8 Release Notes, available at https://docs.sdl.com
  • The following AGE-specific AppData keys have been added under {Global} > Document Types.
    • descript_age
    • proced_age
    • schedul_age

    The keys and values that exist under all document types to facilitate Checkout, Checkin, and Edit have been added under these keys.

  • A new AppData value is added under the {Global} > Settings > Editors > cw_xml_co key: enableManageInternalReferencesOnInsert, set to no by default.
  • A new AppData value is added under the {Global} > Settings > CaS_Upload key: bytesPerRequest specifies (in bytes) the size of data chunks to be transferred when uploading large files. The default for this new value is 104857600.
  • The following new object types are created, based on the Graphic object type.
    • VDS
      • The MIME Type property sheet field for VDS objects has been set to application/vds.
      • The mimetypeMappings AppData setting has been updated to add a Name/Value pair with Name set to application/vds and Value set to .vds.
    • FLA
      • The MIME Type property sheet field for FLA objects has been set to application/octet-stream.
      • The mimetypeMappings AppData setting has been updated to add a Name/Value pair with Name set to application/octet-stream and Value set to .fla.
    • CSS
      • The MIME Type property sheet field for CSS objects has been set to text/css.
    • JS
      • The MIME Type property sheet field for JS objects has been set to application/javascript.
      • The mimetypeMappings AppData setting has been updated to add a Name/Value pair with Name set to application/javascript and Value set to .js, and to remove the obsolete Name/Value pair with Name set to application/x-javascript and Value set to .js.
  • The S1000D Upload Content tool is added to Configuration, Project, and ContentRoutingProject objects in Contenta Web and Contenta Explorer, and added to SysAdmin and ProjMan toolboxes.
  • The S1000D Upload tool is removed from SysAdmin and ProjMan toolboxes. This tool has been replaced by the S1000D Upload Content tool.
  • The following indexes were added to the linkends database table: linkends_4 and linkends_5.

For customers upgrading from Contenta S1000D version 5.6, there is no Contenta core database upgrade program; customers upgrading from previous versions must run the Contenta upgrade_56 database program before running the Contenta S1000D upgrade_S1000D_58.pl database program to upgrade their Contenta S1000D databases.