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Editor File menu (Device Stage Visual Editor)

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You can use the Device Stage Visual Editor File menu to develop, open, and save a metadata package, and to import and export locale resources data.

The File menu contains the following commands, which are described in this topic:

  • Develop New Metadata Package
  • Open Existing Metadata Package
  • Save Metadata Package (Save or Save As…)
  • Save and copy to Metadata store
  • Export Locale Resources to an Excel file
  • Import Locale Resources from an Excel file

Develop a new metadata package

To develop a new metadata package

  1. Open Device Stage Visual Editor.
  2. On the File menu, click New.
  3. In the New Metadata dialog box, select a device category and click OK. (In this example, the Digital Camera is selected.)

Note  

Running Microsoft Device Experience Development Kit _7R2.msi installs a set of starter device experience templates for various device categories. These templates contain the files and folder hierarchy to generate a basic device metadata package. These templates also have the required tasks for any given device category.

Every time that you select a device category, a template is loaded and Device Stage Visual Editor generates a new globally unique identifier (GUID) for the ExperienceID of the metadata package, as shown in the ExperienceID field of Properties Panes in the following figure.

Device Stage Visual Editor displays the Digital Camera template together with the default values in the Device Experience and Properties panes in the following figure.

Templates and other device-category specific documentation are included in the Microsoft Device Experience Development Kit.

Open an existing metadata package for editing in Device Stage Visual Editor

To open an existing metadata package

  1. On the File menu, click Open.
  2. In the Open dialog box, locate and select the existing metadata package and click Open. (To cancel the action and close the dialog box, click Cancel.)

Customize existing metadata

After the template for a new metadata package is loaded or you have opened an existing metadata package, you can customize and edit the metadata.

To edit the default metadata

  1. Navigate the elements in the Device Experience pane and corresponding device properties in the Properties pane by clicking the plus sign (+) to expand the options and the minus sign (-) to contract the options. As you expand the information in the Device Experience pane, the corresponding task information displays in the Properties pane.
  2. You can edit existing metadata values in one of four ways:

    • Edit an existing value. Select the field and type the appropriate value.

    • Select the new value from the drop-down list box. Click the drop-down arrow and select a predefined value.

      Tip  

      You can double-click in any drop-down list box to click through the available options.

    • Select a graphic file from the Open dialog box. Click the ellipses (…) and then browse the Open dialog box to select the applicable graphic .ico or .png file.

    • Add text in the String Collection Editor or in the Raw XML Editor. Click the ellipses (…) and then paste or edit the string or XML source as shown in the following figure:

Device Stage Visual Editor Device fields shows all device property metadata fields, their content description, whether they are required or optional, and references to associated technical details (which includes element type metadata for manually modifying the XML source).

Save a metadata package

When you save a metadata package, Device Stage Visual Editor compresses the build-generated XML and graphic files into a single cabinet file. Even though the usual suffix of a cabinet file is .cab, the suffix for a device metadata package file is .devicemetadata-ms. This emphasizes the fact that you must not decompress or modify these packages.

Device Stage Visual Editor v1.5 offers you a storage option “Save and Copy to Metadata Store”. When you save the data, it is edited and automatically copied to Metadata Store. Modified data reflects in the system so that you can view the results.

To save a metadata package

  1. On the File menu, click Save. If you are saving the package for the first time, Device Stage Visual Editor automatically assigns a GUID that looks like “bf949168-249f-49e2-be1a-79d998f1e6ae.devicemetadata-ms,” and displays the Save as dialog box.
  2. In the Save as dialog box, identify a target folder location and then click Save. If this is a subsequent save of the same device metadata package, Device Stage Visual Editor saves the experience under the same GUID file name by default.

In earlier versions of Device Stage Visual Editor, if any errors occurred during the Save operation, Device Stage Visual Editor did not temporarily save the metadata to the file. You had to resolve all problems before you could save the data to the file. Device Stage Visual Editor 1.5 lets you force the save without having to fix problems. In addition, a tool shows any detected problems in the pop-up window during the save, as shown in the following figure. You can copy the error messages to the clipboard, and then paste and save the messages in any text editor.

We recommend that you save the metadata package whenever you make changes.

You can save your metadata package under a different file name than the default GUID. To do this, obtain a new GUID by using the Create a GUID tool. Then, on the File menu, click Save as, and then paste the new GUID in the Save as dialog box. Note that all metadata packages must have a GUID file name.

Export locale resources to an Excel file

Device Stage Visual Editor supports metadata package settings in 36 languages. The Export Local Resources feature lets you export the information that needs to be localized to an Excel file, thereby making it easier for translators to localize the information.

Note  

The Export Locale Resources feature is only available in the en-US locale. The feature is dimmed for other locales.

To have multiple different locales of metadata packages, first create an en-US metadata package and then translate the en-US metadata package to other locales.

To export a locale resource

  1. On the File menu, click Export Locale Resources.

  2. In the Export Locale Resources window, select the local language or languages to support. Then, specify the location to store the generated files.

    To use the same header as the file name for this collection of files, type the name in the Prefix Name text box. The system-generated file name is in the format PrefixName-ModelName-LanguageName. For example, if you type Example as the prefix name, mFeb as the device name, and zh-tw as the language to localize during export, the name for the exported file is Example-mFeb-zh-TW.

When the data is exported to the Excel file, three fields are created in the file: StringID, en-US, and one of the locales that you selected.

String ID and en-US fields cannot be edited. If you try to edit them, a warning message alerts you that these fields are read-only and cannot be modified. You can edit the additional locale field.

Import locale resources from an Excel file

After you receive the localized file from the translator, you can use the Import Locale Resources feature to import translated content to the corresponding metadata package.

To import locale resource to an existing metadata package

  1. On the File menu, click Import Locale Resources.
  2. Select the file to import and then click Open. The system automatically loads localized data and changes the value of LocaleLanguage field in Device Experience properties to the corresponding locale.

Note  

If you receive an error message “The locale file is not for this metadata package” during the import, the imported file does not match the current metadata package.

The metadata package changes after the system imports localized content. The system updates the data that is exported to the localized content.

Device Stage Visual Editor v1.5 User's Guide

Windows 7 device experience

 

 

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