Page 199 - Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

Graphic Design 187
One of the most common methods for implementing a business rule is using a conditional or IF statement
comprising a logical test, an action for a ‘true’ result, and an action for a ‘false’ result (see Figure 6.11).

The logical_test means that the answer will be either true or false. In this case, we want to change our
graphics based on gender.
In plain English, you may say:

“IF gender is male, THEN use plane_blue.tif, or ELSE use plane_orange.tif”

In scripting, it would look something like this:

IF(Gender=”male”,”plane_blue.tif”,”plane_red.tif”)

When doing this in a spreadsheet, you would enter the script in a cell in a new column. The result of the
script is displayed in the cell, not the script itself. This new column could now be used to specify the
content to be displayed in your layout application. In dedicated VDP applications, the script is attached
to the object itself and is processed and displayed in real time.

Figure 6.12 Plane blue

The “@Plane” column was added to dynamically change a graphic based on the contents of the cell in
the “Gender” column (B2) (see Figure 6.12).

Business rules can also be applied to the VDP workflow. In this case, the workflow application or
component can manipulate the data before applying it to a document, or it can select the document or
destination to be used for the record and much, much more.