Data Entities

There are many data entity types used by PReS Connect, but not all data entities can be accessed through the REST API. The main data entities to be aware of when working with the API are:

• Data Sets
• Data Records
• Content Sets
• Content Items
• Job Sets
• Jobs

Data Set & Data Record Entities

The data set is the artefact produced by a data mapping operation. It holds the data that was mapped out of the input data file. A data mapping operation produces a single data set, which contains as many data records as there are documents.

Each data record contains a collection of data values. The data records in the data set form the master record, or document record, which typically contains document recipient information. The master record can also contain a collection of data tables, which form the detail records that hold data such as invoice line items.

Each data table contains a collection of data records, where each data record contains a collection of data values and a collection of data tables, and so on.

The following diagram illustrates the basic relationship between these entities in the context of the data mapping process:

The data set and data record entities (shown above in blue) are accessible via the Data Set Entity and Data Record Entity services.

Content Set & Content Item Entities

The content set is the artefact produced by a content creation operation. It holds all the pages that were produced by the operation. A content creation operation produces one or more content sets, which contain as many content items as there were data records given at the start of the operation.

Because the data records used may have different data set owners, a content set cannot be linked to a single data set, but rather content items are linked to data records. A content item is further divided into content sections and content pages.

The following diagram illustrates the basic relationship between these entities in the context of the content creation process:

The content set and content item entities (shown above in blue) are accessible via the Content Set Entity and Content Item Entity services.

Job Set & Job Entities

The job set is the artefact produced by a job creation operation. It consists of a hierarchical structure that divides documents into various structures and it basically decides which documents are to be printed and in what order.

A job creation operation creates a single job set which contains a series of containers where every level contains one or more of the next level down: jobs, job segments, document sets, documents and document pages. The last level in the chain, the document pages, contains a single content item. Hence, at the job creation level, a document may consist of one or more content items.

The following diagram illustrates the basic relationship between these entities in the context of the job creation process:

The job set and job entities (shown above in blue) are accessible via the Job Set Entity and Job Entity services. The job segment, document set and document entities (also shown above in blue) are accessible via the Job Segment Entity, Document Set Entity and Document Entity services.

In summary, the following diagram illustrates the basic relationship between all data entities in the overall context of the primary workflow in PReS Connect: