SysManager and Sales keep layouts updated using the same method that Sales uses to keep its data files up-to-date. To accomplish this, SysManager must convert the layout files (the .txt or the .frx and .frt files) into database columns in the layouts table. Once they are converted, they can be sent to Sales through the normal update process via Pool/SalesEZ application. PrintEZ application then reconstructs the layouts locally at the salespoint by converting those columns in the layouts table back into the .txt or the .frx and .frt files. (It does not do a regular file copy from the Siriusware\Layouts directory on the SQL Server.) There are several ways to get layouts to be listed in the layouts table:

 

Note: Layouts are not linked to products in the layouts table. The layouts table is merely used to facilitate rebuilding Shared Text Merge layouts (.txt files) and Graphic layouts (.frx and .frt files) in the Sales\Layouts folder at the salespoint. When items reference graphic or shared text merge layouts in a sale, Sales searches for the reconstructed files in the Sales\Layouts folder.

 

The layouts table does not know which layouts are in use; it is simply a recorded history of every layout that has been edited, assigned to a product, etc. (Basically, if you touch a layout in SysManager it gets written to the layouts table.) When a layout is no longer used, the layouts table is not pruned. (Because layouts are not linked to items using the layouts table, there is no active tracking of layout usage that can be used to perform maintenance on the layouts table.) If a layout is changed and that layout’s name exists in the layouts table, the layout’s record is updated and the lastmod value is tagged to reflect that a change was made (an append was made).

What does this mean? Every time you assign a layout to an item (even once) or change a layout that was already assigned to an item, a record is added or updated in the layouts table. Sales “pulls” the layouts table across the network (copying changes into the local data version of the layouts table) and PrintEZ application reconstructs local layout files based on the data in layouts table. No files are physically copied.