The InstantAtlas Batch Publisher

The Batch Publisher is a command-line interface version of the normal Publisher. It is useful when you need to publish large number (say 10 or more) of dynamic reports displaying data for different sets of geographic features. It makes the publishing of multiple reports easier because you do not have to click through the screens of the normal Publisher making selections. The Batch Publisher can be controlled using either the Excel or Access Data Managers but just the instructions for using the Excel Data Manager are given here.

The process for using the Batch Publisher is the following:

a. You enter your indicator data for ALL of the geographic features into a single Excel workbook

b. You define a “split” column that splits the geographic features into different dynamic reports

c. You include a Publisher worksheet that provides the commands for running the Batch Publisher

d. You click the ‘IA Export’ button in your Data Manager. This will trigger the Batch Publisher to create a set of reports, one for each split value. Each report will initially contain dummy data.

e. Re-export the data files with the setting ‘Update Files Only’ set to ‘Yes’ in the Publisher worksheet. This will generate the data JSON files and copy them into the respetive report folders.

These steps are explained in further detail in the following sections.

Note: Before using this guide you should read sections ‘The InstantAtlas Desktop Publisher’ and ‘The InstantAtlas Excel Data Manager’.

Further in this section: