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Workstation Software Integration

Working with native content on the client

Documents stored in the repository

Documents uploaded to the EVA Netmodeler repository will be available to authorised users on client workstations and will show as links in the user interface. Users can download the files to the workstation for local use by right clicking the link and choosing "save as" from the browser context menu. Refer to your browser documentation for help with saving web content if necessary. Alternatively, files can be launched for viewing or use in the relevant application by left clicking the link. This requires:

• Browser configuration of helper applications per file type. This may be achieved automatically (e.g. on Windows/IE combination) by the installation of the application. Alternatively, it may require configuring the browser for the relevant file type (e.g. .doc files launched from Firefox)
• The source application to be installed on the client workstation

Modified Documents

When documents have been modified locally they must be uploaded to the server in order to replace the existing version in the repository. This is achieved thru the upload functionality within the EVA Netmodeler browser user interface. A button is provided next to the relevant document link for this purpose when the item is edited in an EVA Netmodeler browser. Uploaded documents will replace the previous version and appear in association with the link. The previous copy on the server will have a date and time stamp appended to its file name and will be viewable as a previous version of the content via the versions button. See the section on Managing EVA Netmodeler Content for more detail on this.

Using the EVA Netmodeler API

It is possible to exchange data between workstation applications capable of scripting and EVA Netmodeler. This is achieved with the:

• Visual Modeling Support System in the server
• Provides data from the repository in the form of XML messages and
• Accepts command requests via HTTP from authorised clients to perform actions within the server
• Archi Requester middleware component on Windows clients from COM+ applications
  This component provides a COM+ interface to the scripting application on the workstation (e.g. Visio, PowerPoint etc. ) and communicates with the Visual Modeling Support System in the server via the HTTP network

Refer to the Visual Modeling Interface section for more detail on using scripting to access EVA Netmodeler data.

Exchanging content with Spreadsheets

Various interfaces within EVA Netmodeler allow the immediate generation of CSV output from the content being viewed. These include:

• Cross Reference Browser
• Composite View Browser
• Worksheet Browser
• Report Browser
• Context Browser
• Item Browsers and GIDE (for related items to the current focus item)

If the browser is configured to launch an appropriate spreadsheet application for the .csv file type, then the spreadsheet application (e.g. Excel) will launch automatically with the relevant content. Some spreadsheet applications require CSV import process, while others automatically interpret the CSV data and display it as a spreadsheet. The data can then be modified and saved locally if required. It can also subsequently be imported via the CSV import feature. If the browser does not launch the spreadsheet automatically, a CSV text file will be displayed. User can right click and save as to use the file in a spreadsheet by loading directly from the spreadsheet file menu.