Create Pods
When you create a Pod, you're creating an XML file that defines all the tags and the associated data source connection information. You can create this file from scratch, but a faster and easier way is to use AutoTag's built-in functionality.
Step 1 - Select Create Pods
Go to the Blueprint Manager tab and click the down arrow in the Create Pods icon. (If you click the top half of the icon in AutoTag version 10 or higher, you will automatically be taken to the window for creating a doclet pod.)
In this first example, you will create a Datasource pod.
Click Datasources. The Create Pod Datasource(s) window is displayed:
Step 2 - Select and Save the Pod
The window contains all the data sources that are already connected to in this particular template. In this example, there are two data sources. You want to create a Pod for connecting to the Northind data source. Click the desired data source in the left pane and then click Browse.
In the dialog, name the pod (eg. NorthwindDatasourcePod), choose a location to save the pod, and then click Save. All pods are saved as .RDLX files.
Step 3 - Close the Dialog Box
Close the Create Pod Datasources dialog. A window is displayed confirming you have successfully created a datasource Pod.
If you want to create a doclet Pod and have a really complicated tag that you want to use in other documents but you don’t want to have to recreate the tag every time you want to use it, create a single tag Pod.
This also applies to documents, paragraphs, tables, images—basically anything that is not a datasource. This type of tag is known as a doclet Pod.
Let’s use the Query Tag used in the Query Tag example.
<EmployeeID = 5>
This tag takes information from Northwind data for the employee whose employee ID is equal to 5.
Go to the Create Pod under the Blueprint Manager. This time instead of selecting Datasources, select Pod.
A list of options are displayed:
Selected: will create a Pod for the region you have highlighted before selecting Create Pods.Tag on: will create a Pod for the specific tag you have highlightedParagraph on: will be the tags before the return button was used.Cell on/Table on: refers to if you are working with a table and you have selected a specific cell or table.Entire document: will create a Pod that will copy the entire document tags and all.
For this example, do Tag on, and name your Pod EmployeeID, and write a brief description such as “Tag for information on Employee in Northwind data with Employee ID equal to 5.”
Make sure you select New and change the name in the save as screen as well.
