Using an AfterPublish Batch File in HTML

Enterprise Edition Only

Batch files can save time by automating a number of specific actions into one simple click. They can incorporate any command prompt parameters, execute multiple commands in sequence and choose which commands to use based on user input or the results of previous commands. Quite simply, anything you can do in the command prompt you should be able to do better and faster with a batch file.

Even better, Author-it can invoke this batch file automatically... Provided the batch file is named AfterPublish.bat and is present in the Additional Files properties of the Book being published, Author-it will execute it automatically when publishing your document to your web based outputs.

An AfterPublish batch file can be used to invoke any additional processes you may want to run automatically. For example you could use a batch file to:

• Integrate your published content with a Document Management System
• Move published content to a web server using FTP or some other means
• Reindex a server side search engine when published content has changed

And so the list goes on... If there is any processing that needs to be done and it can be written into a batch file, you can have Author-it trigger that batch file for you automatically.

To make full use of this feature, a good understanding of batch files - what they are, how they work, and how to create your own - is required.

To add an AfterPublish Batch File

1. Create your batch file outside of Author-it with a plain text editor like Notepad, ensuring it is named AfterPublish.bat
2. Specify the batch file as an Additional File under the HTML properties of the Book object.

   

3. Save your changes.

   Author-it copies all additional files to the publishing folder at the time of publishing your Book. Provided the batch file is found, Author-it invokes the batch file automatically as publishing completes.

Important: The batch file must be called AfterPublish.bat and must be defined as an Additional File.