Use data from your data source

Select Data Sources in the left panel to view the connected data sources.

Select a data source to view the content snippet generators available for the selected data source.

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The Data Sources panel lists the available content snippet generators.

Select Add to add a new content snippet generator. The Add content snippet generator panel opens.

Enter the query in the Data query text box. Select Copy sample query to quickly copy a data query. Instead of manually creating the query, you can copy and paste the sample query into the Data query text box. Then, simply edit the query as per your data requirements.

If you use a file connector, you can upload the JSON file from your computer or browse a JSON file from Adobe Experience Manager assets.

Select the template which maps with your data source from the Data mapping template dropdown.
The out-of-the-box templates for the selected data source are displayed in the drop-down. For example, you can view the “sql-table” template for datasource named “PostgreSQL” datasource.

The Resource dropdown appears for some connectors like REST Client, Salsify, Akeneo, and Microsoft ADO. Select any resource from the dropdown and connect to it to create a content snippet or a topic using the generator for it.

Click Fetch to fetch the data from the data source and apply the template on the data that results from the SQL query.

You can view the data in the preview or the DITA source view.

1. The preview shows how the data will be displayed when inserted into the content. The preview displays a small fraction of the data in the format of the selected template.
   For example:

   • If you’ve selected the sql-table template, you can view the SQL data in a tabular format.
   • If you’ve selected the jira-ordered-list template, you can view an ordered list for the Jira issues.

2. The source view shows the data in the DITA source view.
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   Add a content snippet generator. View the data in source or preview mode.

To save the results of the query, enter the name of the generator and then click ADD. A new content snippet generator is added to the list.

Select a data source to view the content snippet generators and the topic generators available for the selected data source.

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Add a topic generator for a connected data source.

Select Add and select Topic generator from the dropdown to add a new topic generator. The Add topic generator panel opens.

Enter the values in the fields under the following three tabs of the Add topic generator panel:

Fetch Configuration

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Add the Data Query, Data mapping template, and Root node details for the topic generator and give it a unique name in the Fetch Configuration panel.

1. Enter the query in the Data query text box. Select Copy sample query to quickly copy a data query. Instead of manually creating the query, you can copy and paste the sample query into the Data query text box. Then, simply edit the query as per your data requirements.

   note note
   NOTE
   Experience Manager provides different sample queries for all resources in the various data sources. These map to the data source from which you are fetching the data.

2. If you use a file connector, you can upload the JSON file from your computer or browse a JSON file from Adobe Experience Manager assets.

   note note
   NOTE
   You will view the options to upload or browse files in place of a data query if you use a file connector.

3. Select the template which maps with your data source from the Data mapping template dropdown.

   note note
   NOTE
   If your administrator has configured customized templates, then you’re also shown those templates in the drop-down list (based on the template path configurations done by your administrator). For example, you can create a topic template containing an ordered list, tables, paragraphs, or other DITA elements.

4. Enter the Root node. This is the node at which you want to access your data. The topic generator then creates each topic at the level defined in the root node. For example, you can add ‘issues’ as the root node in Jira. So, if a query returns 13 issues, you will get 13 topics, one topic for each issue.

5. Click Fetch to fetch the data from the data source and apply the template on the data that results from the SQL query. The preview shows a small fraction of how the topic appears in the format of the selected template. For example, you can view a single Jira issue with all the fields that result from the query.

6. Enter the name of the topic generator.

   note note
   NOTE
   You need to follow the file naming convention for the name of the new topic generator. You cannot have a space in the name of the topic generator. Also, you cannot save a new topic generator with the name of an existing topic generator. An error occurs.

Output Configuration

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Enter the Output path and Topic naming convention details in the Output Configuration panel. Generate a DITA map and name it.

1. Enter the Output path details where you want to save your topics.
2. In the Topic naming convention, you can enter a value or a variable with velocity tags. The new topics will follow the convention. For example, you can enter the $key to create topics based on Jira keys.
3. Enable the option Generate a map if you want to create a map that contains all the generated topics.
4. Enter the name of the new DITA map.

Metadata

Select the metadata properties from the drop-down to pass to the topics. Name dropdown lists both the custom and the default properties.

For example, in the following screenshot, dc:description, dc:language, dc:title, and docstate are the default properties for which you can define the values. You can create a custom property like author and define its value.

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Add the metadata properties in the Metadata panel to pass to the topics.

Enter the generator’s name and click Save to save the query results. A new topic generator is added to the list.

Click Save and Generate to save the topic generator and generate new topics from the topic generator.

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Generate new topics from an existing topic generator.

Edit a Velocity template in the Web Editor.

Add a tool and its function in the <tool.function> format. For example:

• To generate a random number using the math tool, use $mathTool.random.
• To generate the sum of numbers using the math tool, use $mathTool.add(num1, num2).

Use the template to create a content snippet or topic.

After you apply the template to the data, you can view the data in the preview or the DITA source view.