The initialization of the DesignComposer is based on a set of data specified by the content provider. The data set contains information about the presentation script, the DCL style sheets to be used, some general generation parameters, and pathnames that are important for the output production. In particular, the file related to this data set looks as follows.

DESIGNCOMPOSER
	CREATEOUTPUTWINDOW
	CREATEDEMOSTARTER
	CREATEPROFILE
	PROFILE filename

	OUTPUTMODE (stylesheet | table | smil | realtext)

	DCL rank *.dcl file
	DIL *.dil file

	entityFilename name of a Java property file
	iconDir directory
	outputDir directory
	relOutputDir directory

	documentWidth number
	documentHeight number
	browserWidth number
	browserHeight number
	dc:timebound number

	( attribute definition )*

Parameters in detail

• DESIGNCOMPOSER marks the file as DesignComposer initialization file. A file will not be accepted without this marker.

• CREATEOUTPUTWINDOW causes the DesignComposer to open an output window, where the progress of the layout generation is shown.
  OPTIONAL.

• CREATEDEMOSTARTER lets the DesignComposer create a helper web page when output is written. This web page contains a JavaScript which opens a window with the browser size used for generation and shows the result.
  OPTIONAL.

• CREATEPROFILE lets the DesignComposer create a profile after a generation run. This profile is used for the self-optimization of the system. When set, the parameter PROFILE has to be specified too.
  OPTIONAL.

• PROFILE is the name of a DesignComposer profile should be used to optimized the generation process. Note that this profile should fit to knowledge base currently in use (what means it should have been extracted from an identical knowledge base).
  REQUIRED when CREATEPROFILE is set; else OPTIONAL.

• OUTPUTMODE determines the kind of output which is written. Currently, HTML stylesheets or tables, SMIL scripts and RealText are provided.

• DCL specifies a DCL file whose contents should be added to the current layout knowledge base. The parameter may occur several times. A rank may be specified to influence the resolutions of multiple definitions of DCL-elements. The rank is applied the following way: if - for instance - two constraints with the same name are given, the one with the higher rank is selected. If their rank is identical, the later definition is used. This means not necessarily that the constraint with the higher rank is used by the generation process: additional aspects like the compatibility to already read structures may also have an impact on the selection process.

• DIL specifies the DIL script to be used as input for the current DesignComposer run.

• entityFilename is the name of a Java property file that carries entity definitions required for HTML text processing.
  DEFAULT: Entity.properties.

• iconDir specifies the directory, where icons (*.gif) for images loaded are stored.
  DEFAULT: The current directory.

• outputDir specifies the directory, where output should be written to.
  DEFAULT: The current directory.

• relOutputDir specifies a relative pathname for the output. The relative pathname is cut away from each pathname produced in an output run.
  DEFAULT: -

• documentWidth specifies the width (in pixels) of the document. Overrides the definition found in the reader profile.
  DEFAULT: -

• documentHeight specifies the height (in pixels) of the document. Overrides the definition found in the reader profile.
  DEFAULT: -

• browserWidth specifies the width (in pixels) of the browser window. Overrides the definition found in the reader profile.
  DEFAULT: -

• browserHeight specifies the height (in pixels) of the browser window. Overrides the definition found in the reader profile.
  DEFAULT: -

• dc:timebound specifies a timebound (in MSecs) for the generation process. It is automatically stopped when the bound is reached. In that case, the generation is considered to be failed.
  DEFAULT: -

• Attribute definitions may be added to transfer additional information to the generator. These attributes are stored in the set of global attributes, and hence may be accessed via DCL.
  OPTIONAL.