Working with User Data

Using Customer's Canvas on Public Websites

Customer's Canvas offers two modes that can be used on public websites: demonstration and anonymous. Both modes allow users to customize a product without authorization. The main difference between modes is the automatic clean-up of user files. In the demonstration mode Customer's Canvas automatically cleans up user files, including saved products, while in anonymous mode no files are cleaned up automatically.

Let us discuss both modes in detail.

Anonymous Mode

The anonymous mode allows users to customize products without authorization. The editor in this mode treats each session as belonging to a unique user. So, on a public website it allows keeping user files separated, preventing a user from accessing another user's images and products.

The usual workflow using the anonymous mode is as follows:

1. An anonymous user customizes a product.
2. The user continues working with the previously customized product as many times as they want.
3. The user signs in or signs up and orders the product. Your system uses the RuntimeConfiguration.setUserId method to set a unique user identifier and move user files to the user folder.
4. The system calls the Editor.finishProductDesign method and gets the hi-res output URLs.

To activate the anonymous mode, set the AnonymousModeEnabled parameter to True in web.config.

<appSettings>
...
    <add key="AnonymousModeEnabled" value="True" />
...
</appSettings>

Demonstration Mode

The demonstration mode allows users to play with the editor. It does not require user authorization, and it prevents your system from overfilling with user files. The editor in demo mode treats each session as belonging to a unique user. So, on a public website it allows for keeping user files separated, preventing a user from accessing another user's images and products.

To activate the demonstration mode, set the DemoModeEnabled parameter to True in the web.config file.

<appSettings>
...
    <add key="DemoModeEnabled" value="True" />
...
</appSettings>

Load User Info Feature

Imagine your user is customizing a series of different products requiring them to enter the same information into the fields. Filling out each product from scratch is drudgery. Fortunately, Customer's Canvas supports the pre-populating of fields with data loaded from the customer's account. For example, suppose the e-commerce system stores first and last names, phone numbers, and email addresses in user accounts. We can make Customer's Canvas pre-populate these fields in user generated products:

1. On demand: enable the Load my info button either in clientConfig.json globally or through the IConfiguration interface for a single product.

   "loadUserInfoButtonEnabled": true

   After that, when the page opens or reloads, the Load my info button is displayed in the user interface.

   

2. Automatically on product load: enable the autoLoadUserInfo feature either in clientConfig.json globally or through the IConfiguration interface for a single product.

   "autoLoadUserInfo": true

   In this case, when a product is loaded into the editor, it is already populated with data; the Load my info button is not displayed in the user interface.

Populating Products with Predefined Data

The data used to populate a product should be loaded from your e-commerce system and passed to the loadEditor method as a part of the editor configuration.

var productDefinition = {
    surfaces: [ "business-card" ]
};

var configuration = {
    autoLoadUserInfo: true,
    userInfo: {
        "FirstName": "Jon",
        "LastName": "Snow",
        "Phone": "0123456789",
        "Email": "jon.snow@example.com",
        "Photo": "https://example.com/jon.snow.jpg",
        "Slogan": "<p><span style='bold:true;color:green'>Only premium printing</span></p><p>always</p>",
        "Barcode": {
            "BarcodeFormat": "QR_CODE",
            "BarcodeSubType": "Url",
            "Url": "https://example.com"
        }
    }
};

CustomersCanvas.IframeApi.loadEditor(iframe, productDefinition, configuration);

The userInfo property accepts data in the JSON format, where keys are layer names (without markers) or in-string placeholder names in PSD templates. For example:

• If a layer name is "FirstName<LC>", the corresponding key is "FirstName".
• If a layer contains the Position: [#Your_Position] in-string placeholder, the corresponding key is "Your_Position".
• If a layer is an image placeholder named <PH>Logo, the corresponding key is "Logo". Values for images and image placeholders contain details about the image location:
  • If the target image is stored in the user folder, then the value should contain user: prefix; for example, the following key-value pair "Logo": "user:myLogo.jpg" tells the editor to fill the Logo image placeholder with the myLogo.jpg from the user folder.
  • If the target image is stored in the public folder, then the value contains the public: prefix; for example, the following key-value pair "Logo": "public:car_logos/ford.jpg" tells the editor to fill the Logo image placeholder with the ford.jpg logo from the \car_logos\ subfolder of the public image folder.
  • If the target image is stored on the Web, then the value should contain either http: or https: protocol name; for example, the following key-value pair "Logo": "http://example.com/company.svg" tells the editor to fill the Logo layer with the company.svg image by the direct URL.
• If a layer is a barcode placeholder named <BPH> Barcode, the corresponding key is "Barcode". Values for barcode placeholders are objects whose properties depend on the barcode format.

For populating a product with predefined data, Customer's Canvas matches layer names and in-string placeholder names against keys passed in the userInfo dictionary. If a layer or a placeholder has a match, its value is replaced with a corresponding value from the dictionary.

Note that rich formatted text elements accept data in a special format defining paragraphs through the <p> tag and text styles through <span>. In the previous example, the Slogan layer consists of two paragraphs, and the first paragraph contains the bold green text. For details about paragraph and text formatting, you can refer to the specification of the Aurigma Graphics Mill library.

Passing User Data for a Single Product Page

The previous example illustrates how you can predefine userInfo for the entire product. Also, Customer's Canvas allows you to pass user data for a single product page by using the surfaces object. You can refer to a page through its name or index starting from 0.

// Defining a multipage product.
var productDefinition = {
    surfaces: { designFolder: "brochure" }
};

var userInfo = {
    // The default content.
    "Name": "Jon Snow",
    "Phone": "18005551234",
    // The content for specific surfaces (pages).
    "surfaces": {
        // The content for the "surface_0" page.
        "surface_0": {
            "Name": "Christopher Bennett",
            "Phone": "18005551255"
        },
        // The content for the third page.
        "2": {
            "Name": "John Wood",
            "Phone": "18005551011"
        }
    }
};

Passing User Data to the Loaded Editor

You may want to pass user data to a product at runtime. Editor.loadUserInfo allows you to populate a product template with user data. Pass the data dictionary as the method parameter to populate the template with the required values. The data dictionary has the same structure as userInfo. This method can be called without parameters; in this case it applies the userInfo set when the Customer's Canvas editor has initialized.

...
// Load the web-to-print editor.
CustomersCanvas.IframeApi.loadEditor(iframe, productDefinition, configuration)
.then(function (e) {
    // Retrieve the loaded editor.
    editor = e;
});
...
// Populate the product with user data.
editor.loadUserInfo({"FirstName": "Jon", "LastName": "Snow", "Phone": "0123456789", "Email": "jon.snow@example.com"});

See Also

Manual

• Integration with E-commerce Overview
• Supported Markers
• Aurigma Graphics Mill