Gradual PowerSWITCH 06

PowerSWITCH 06, EN, Mac + 5 clients PowerSWITCH is the workhorse of the SWITCH product family. Using its comprehensive scripting and metadata tools you can build a smarter and more advanced workflow that integrates seamlessly with third-party technology. The workgroup client bundled with PowerSWITCH allows your team members to submit and track jobs from their own workstation.

Customization through full scripting support

In any publishing workflow there comes a time when the standard tools fall short and more advanced customization is in order. That is when you call on the scripting capabilities of PowerSWITCH. You can create your own custom tools to control third-party applications that aren't supported out of the box, to integrate with a DAM or MIS system, or to interact with a proprietary solution you have running in your company. Scripted tools have all possibilities of the tools built into PowerSWITCH; you can even specify your own custom icons. PowerSWITCH supports JavaScript (on both platforms), AppleScript (on Mac OS X) and Visual Basic Scripting (on Windows).

Intelligent processing enabled by metadata tools

Workflows can often be made more "intelligent" by taking advantage of the metadata that increasingly is stored with documents. PowerSWITCH provides tools to read incoming metadata in various formats including XML, Adobe XMP and JDF. The contents of metadata fields can be used in flows to make routing decisions or to set processing parameters for automated tasks.

Involving a complete workgroup - SWITCHclient

Even in small workgroups it can be a challenge to keep track of jobs and make sure nothing slips through the cracks. SWITCHclient allows anyone in the workgroup from their own workstation to submit jobs, to track progress of these jobs, and to intervene when jobs are being held for inspection.

The workflow administrator can determine who has which access rights and keep an eye on all jobs. PowerSWITCH activity logs can be accessed through the workgroup client as well.

Major benefits

- Expand automation possibilities using scripting
- Introduce intelligent processing based on metadata
- Submit and track jobs from anywhere in a workgroup
- Save costs through increased automation
- Protect investments in third-party products
- Preserve flexibility to choose best-of-breed technology
- View full activity logs remotely

Filter files using JavaScript

In all SWITCH products you can filter which files flow through a connection: you might only want to have files of a certain file type or with a certain naming convention to pass through a certain connection. In PowerSWITCH you can also use JavaScript expressions to filter files.

Integrate applications using platform specific scripting

FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH feature configurators to work with key applications such as Adobe Acrobat Distiller and Enfocus PitStop Server. For those applications that are not supported through a configurator, PowerSWITCH supports full Visual Basic Scripting on Windows and AppleScript on Mac.

Scripts can also be used to talk to databases, MIS or vendor-specific workflow systems and to perform special routing and filtering not directly supported by the SWITCH products.

Import incoming metadata

More and more publishing workflows include various types of metadata together with the actual content. PowerSWITCH has built-in support to read incoming XML, XMP and JDF metadata. All metadata is stored with the processed files and can be used later on in the flow.

Use metadata to route files

Metadata properties stored with a file (from metadata generated in SWITCH or imported) can be used to determine how a file should be routed through a flow.

Set processing parameters for files depending on associated metadata properties

Metadata properties stored with a file (from metadata generated in SWITCH or imported) can be used to directly set processing properties for built-in tools or configurators in PowerSWITCH. This for example allows different preflight or distilling parameters to be used depending on the final destination or purpose for a file (as long as that destination or purpose is available as a metadata property).

Submit and track jobs from workstations

Using the SWITCHclient that is bundled with PowerSWITCH you can submit jobs from your own workstation and track their status. This allows for a much greater control over the jobs you process without ever having to go to the server where PowerSWITCH is running.

For adminstrators the workgroup client also shows full logging information so that it becomes easier to keep an eye on what is going on with PowerSWITCH.