#### Preparations

Before you can use the Catalog API to perform certain tasks, you will have to create a Designer object and then get a Catalog API instance.

##### Creating a Designer object

To create a Designer object, use the constructor Designer(String path, String name, DesignerUserInfo user) in the Design API. The constructor has three parameters: the catalog path, catalog name, and the user ID and license key provided by Jinfonet.

The path needs to be a valid path to an existiing directory. The catalog name can be the name of an existing catalog when you want to open a catalog, or the name of a new catalog when you want to create a catalog. If you want to create a new catalog, the path directory should not already contain a catalog file.

To create the DesignerUserInfo instance, use the following constructor providing the user ID and the Server Designer License Key or Designer License Key you received when you purchased JReport.

`DesignerUserInfo userInfo=new DesignerUserInfo(Uid, key);`

##### Getting a Catalog API instance

To get a Catalog API instance, use the method getCatalogAPI() in the Design API. You need to first get an instance from Designer as follows.

`Designer desg = new Designer(catalogPath, catalogName, userInfo);
CatalogAPI catalog = desg.getCatalogAPI();`