DPS 29: Streaming Video and Audio

Adobe’s DPS just keeps churning out updates. For the full release notes, go here. but the big news for me is the ability to stream video and audio for DPS, so you no longer have to embed them. I guess this had always been possible as a web embed feature, but this is nice because you can decide where to host your own videos.

DPS: Looping Video

Bart Van de Wiele at City Desktop Training posted this video on how to loop video with Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite. It’s pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp_4CtGVSF4

If you don’t want to sit through all 8 minutes of it though, here is the quick run down.

• Make video auto play
• Make video into Multi-state object
• Make  slideshow auto play
• Make slideshow loop with sufficient delay

If you are clever with MSOs, they really can do A LOT of stuff. Thanks, Bart, for the wonderful tip!

Adobe InDesign: DPS: Add Button Cushion Zone

So it happened. I built a bunch of buttons in InDesign and they were too small to target (fat fingers). The button looked good at the current size (36×36 pixels), but the activation zone needs to be bigger. Apple’s HCI guidelines for minimum touch area size is 44×44 pixels.

Instead of rebuilding everything and changing the look and feel of the interface, I added a stroke to the button (it increases the size of the already-built button), and then turned the stroke opacity to zero. And it worked! The only thing that would have made it better is if I’d already made an object style for the button.

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 7: Building a Custom Look, Feel and Experience for DPS Apps

Social Networking & Favoriting

• Enable Wev Viewer
• Uncheck “Protect’ content
• Viewer Builder (enable sharing) (web based browser)
• Facebook sharing,
• Desktop (web broswer) viewer
• Favoriting (Star Icon) – like bookmarks, works across multiple issues

Custom HTML5 Features

• DPS Supports most webkit APIs and HTML5 functionality
• Use embedded webviews or create standalone html5 pages
• Examples: Search, custom TO
• Use Adobe Edge to create animated and interactive HTML5 content

Enterprise App Distribution

• Enterprise App distrbution – distribute your DPS app from your own location without listing it on the Apple iTunes store.
• Useful for corporate and educational apps that are intended for internal company
• Folio & content is hosted by Adobe’s DPS service

Restricted Distribution

• Deliver content to specific group for Free (without signing in)
• Differs from entitlement in that the folio is not available for separate purchase
• Offer specific folios to sub segments of user base authorized users

Branded Storefronts

• Publisher controlled UI for folio broswer (library view)
• Allows for incorporation of branding and unique elements
• Common uses: Sponsored ad placement. Content categorization, incorporate other content, Deliver personalized information, Search functions.

DPS Enterprise Edition APIs

• Entitlements API –  user database
• Store Front  API – can use HTML, Javascript
• Use as combinatio for personalized experience

More Resources

• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishingsuite.html
• Adobe TV show: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-digital-publishing-suite-enterprise-edition/

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 6: Analytics & Services

Digital Magazines are truly measurable. Every interaction is measured!

DPS Dash Board

• Basic internal analytics from DPS dashboard (website)
• Track individual downloads, day by ay break down, purchases, individual overlays

Site Catalyst

• Advanced internal alalytics
• For larger publications
• Top 10 articles, reading patterns, time spent on ads, user segmentation (create custom group of people with any shared attributes. ie, user who looked at at least one page ad for at least 30 seconds). Auto reporting

Audience Research

• 3rd party approval for public statments, external reporting
• MPA (assocition of magazine media)  metrics
  • Total consumer paid digital issue
  • Total readers per issue
  • Total sessions per issue
  • Total time spent per reader per issue
  • Average # of sessions per reader per issue
• MRC accredited!

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 5: Assemble & Publish

Terminology

• Entitlement – Permission to download an item
• Fulfillment – Process of making entitled content available for downloading
• Marketplace – Where apps are available for downloading
• Distribution Service – Where Folios are availalbe for downloading
• In-App Purchase – Allows the purchase of content or subscription within your app

Types of Apps

• Single Folio – The folio is built into the app. The app has no library
• Multi Folio – A libray based viewer that is a shell for all your published folio/issues (in Ap purchase allowed)
• Multi-Folio with subscription App – Gives publishers the ability to offer itunes or google play based subscription options
• Multi Folio with Entitelment – Connects the app with an entitlement server to give customers the ability to ahtenticate a subscription purchased outside of the application (ie, buy print subscription, get digial subscription for free)
• Enterprise Signed App – Internal distributio of app rather than downloaded from App Store. Requires Apple ios enterprise license.

Folio Producer Tools

• aLibrary Filter – specify filter name in each folio (ie can filter by language)
• Update Content – include content in update, otherwise just metadata update

Folio Editor

• Change metadata
• Download Priority
• Protected – enables social sharing and desktop broswer

DPS App Builder: Before you Begin

• Aple requires all applications to be signed by a valid certificate
• Each certificate requires its own p12 file and mobile provisions file
• Certificates are not tired to the product ID. You can use these for multiple apps
• Mobile provision file determines which ipad/iphones ca install and use your app
  • Tied to app ID
  • Mobile provisions file & development app includes a list of ipad IDs called UDIDs (Testing apps have a list of Ipad Serial Numbers attached to restrict distribution)
  • Mobile provision file for distribution app does not include UDIDs

APP Builder

• Use App Builder (application) on Mac only
• or from Dash Board (browser based) (?)
• Use App Builder to download test app or upload to distribution server
• Options include setting persistence of scroll bar, hot zones, rate this app
  , Setup icons and splash screens, enable newssteand, custom store fronts

Enterprise Signed App

• Apple allows you to distribute iOS applications using an enterprise distribution provider profile. When you use this profile, you do no thave to distribute the application through the app store. Rather, your end users can download and install the applications from a webpage that you provide
• From DPS App builder, choose “enterprise signed build’ option.
• look up distributing_enterprise_ios_ viewer_apps.hml for more help

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 4: Folios & Articles

.Folio File

• A collection of articles (cover, articles, ad.). Indesign files
• Represents an issue of a magazine
• Folio assets are bundled as a package, like a ZIP file
• Folio is a package of assets built by the Folio Builder and unpackaged and rendered by the Viewer
• Articles in folios are created as snap-shots of the original Indd files (Jpgs, PNG, PDF)
• Overlays are nteractive objects that are layered on top of the static snapshots
• An XML manifest file describes the order of articles and includes XY coordinates for the interactive overlays on the page.
• Folios can be produced manually or by using Folio Builder, Folio Producer, and distributed APIs

Contents of a .Folio file

• Rename the folio as .ZIP to see inside
• includes Folio.xml – the manifest file for articles and locations of overlays
• Meta-INF (folder) – like an epub

Attributes of a Folio file

• Name
• Viewer Version
• Target device & Dimensions
• Orientation selection
• Ridge Edge Binding
• Default Format (Jpg, PNG, PDF)
• Cover Previews – Shown in the library view
• Publication Date
• Status (retail/public)
• Product ID
• Library Filter – specify category of folio, eg, different languages

Viewer Versions

• Folio Builder allows you to create folios that are targeted for specific viewer versions
• Newer version – with newer features are available ~6 weeks with each DPS release
• Newer versions can display old content but old viewers can display new content
• Incompatibility case: For example, if a viewer (app) is build with v20 and a folio is published with v23, then the app has to be updated before the folio can be displayed
• Mandatory updates
  • Folio builder updates are always mandatory to maintain compatibility with folio producer service
  • Targeted viewer version is set to stay the same during updates
  • Best practices is for publishers to change targeted viewer version 2-3 times a year.

Attributes of an Article

• Name
• Format
• Title
• Byline
• Kicker
• Description
• Tags
• Download Priority
• Protected – Allow social sharing if it is turned off
• Smooth scrolling
• Ad
• Hide from TOC
• TOC Image

Previewing & Testing

• Desktop Content Viewer – Part of the DPS Tools
• Test on Ipad – Upload and sign in with the viewer App
• Sideload the app – requires to build a side loadable content viewer app with Enterprise edition for Apple. Android just plug it in

Renditions

• Renditions are variations of the same folio that have different dimensions targeted to different devices.
• Must have same name and properties (except dimensions)
• The distribution service detects the type of device and services the corresponding rendition.
• If a specific device rendition is not available the distribution service picks the losest one based on screen size / aspect ratio, letterboxes the content and services it to the device.
• CS6 aids the creation of renditions with the liquid layout feature.

Misc

• Need enterprise edition DPS service and Enterprise app developer license to create private apps
• Single edition has no custom UI, no updates except as a whole app update

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 3: Interactivity & Overlays

Overlay Classes

• Resampled Overlays: Overlays will be resampled and optimized for the device
  • Slideshow
  • Scrollable Frame
  • Buttons
• Passthrough Overlays: Assets just get passed through. Optimize it yourself!
  • Pan & Zoom
  • Image Sequence
  • Audio & Video
  • Audio Skins
  • Panorama
  • HTML Resources (probably)

Slideshows

• Slideshows can be saved as vector output
• Multi State Object names will be updated automatically (when using buttons)
• Can place Movies/Scrollable Frames..etc
• States can have different location, size..etc

Scrollable Frames

• “Content” and “Container” frame
• Can be resampled as raster or vector
• make container 10 px wider for scroll bar
• Make sure content frame is sized to fit

Hyperlinks

• New hyperlink with hyperlinks panel or buttons. Don’t shre hyperlink destination
• To navigate to other parts of the same folio use
  • navto://articlename#3 (exact article name and page count starting with zero)
• mailto://

Pan & Zoom

• This one is the most resolution dependent overlay, so make sure there is enough resolution for ipad2 and 3
• Zooms up to 100%
• For v23, have [HD] folder of asset next to normal assets. allows for creating multi-rendition folios

Web Assets

• Adobe Edge into OAM files for animation
• or HTML Resources

Image Sequence

• Point to folder with images named sequentially.

Panorama

• use Pano2VR software

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 2: Document Design

Basic Structure of DPS

• Renditions: The publication as different apps on different devices
  • Create different folios (using the same name)
• App: An app that appears on iPad,
  • Single & Multiple folio apps (Multi folio app has a library view)
• Folio – The publication you are building is called a folio
• Article – The folio is made up pf articles. Appears in your TOC and Navigation
• Layout – One or two orientation for each article

Orientation/Layouts/Alternate Layouts Considerations

• Different devices nave different screen dimensions and different aspect ratios, so each needs its own layout
• Single or dual orientation option for each rendition
• Font sizes need to be bigger than print (16 to 18pt type for a 1024×768 screen)
• No Facing Pages/Spreads (But you can think of a horizontal layout as a spread)
• Use RGB
• Make it Interactive
• There is no “hover”

File Intent

• CS6 adds a “Digital Publication” option as an intent
• Color space is in RGB
• Rulers are in Pixels
• Facing pages turned off
• Dimensions pre-dialed in for tablets
• Primary Text Frame selected (CS6)

Paginated Design Considerations

• Default behavior for page is vertical swipe
• Can be set to horizontal swipe (options for creating article)
• Scrolling Page (set up a long page 1024×5000 for example)

Alternate Layouts (CS6 Feature)

• Makes it easy to create Renditions
• Liquid Layout allows page to have a set of rules (object based, guide based) to determine how objects behave when page resizes
  • In object based setting, each object can be set to snap to an edge
• Text frames can be set to add/subtract columns automatically (fixed width)
• In CS 5 and 5.5, Each layout and rendition has to be its own file.

Managing Files for Article Creation

• Open System Workflow
  • Use CS6 and Alternate layout
  • Add open document. Create  articles one at a time
  • One Design file makes multiple folios
• Import Workflow
  • Import articles function from Folio builder only works with this method.
  • File names and folder structure creates order
  • Specific file naming conventions and folder structure
  • Efficieent but more file management
  • XML side car file for meta data
  • CS5 and 5.5 System
  • Requires multiple InDesign files for each layout.
  • [Folio folder] <– becomes folio name
    • Sidecar.xml
    • [Article folder] <– become article name
      • indesign_h.indd
      • indesign_v.indd
      • [links]
        • [HD]

Renditions

• Each target device for the same publication has to be a new ‘rendition’ (A new folio at a different size with the same name)
• To publish on both iPad 2 and 3, have to create a new rendition (or just create iPad 2)
• New Multi-Rendition Folio allows you to create SD & HD content in one folio!
  • Use most current viewer version (version 23) when creating folio (based on PDF based viewer)
  • Use two sets of assets (HD folder within links)
  • Dependent on file names and folder structure to create renditions properly

Types of DPS content

• Background Content: Non-interactive elements in the layout. Rasterized and optimized during the conversion process
• Basic Interactivity: Slideshows, Buttons, scrolling frames. Are resampled during DPS conversion
• Pass Through Content: Video and Audio files are NOT resampled and optimized during DPS conversion so you have to do it yourself.
  • Video doesn’t need to be higher than 1080p

DPS Webinar Notes: Part 1

Digital Publishing Overview & Preparation

This is just a high-level overview of the overall process…

• Creative Suite CS 6 [InDesign] + DPS Services [Produce | Distribute | Monitize | View | Analyze]

Multiple Platforms

• Multiple target device, including browser based sharing for those not on tablet

Workflow Automation

• InDesign -> Folio Produced SDK Automated Workflow -> Digital Publishing Suite Services

Analytics

• Optimize editorial and advertising content
• Site catalyst by Omniture

Getting Started

• Just need InDesign CS 5, 5.5 or 6
• And free Adobe ID

New Folio

• Single or dual orientation
• Cover Preview – Seen in library/bookshelf
• Recommended to use multiple Adobe IDs for multiple publications when creating content

Branded Application (App Builder)

• Make Branded Viewer
• Create App… command
• Specify Icons for App
• Options for navigation tool bars
• Social sharing options are setup here
• [Sign up for Developer Account with Apple]
• Fill out certificate information
• Create app – All information sent to server that builds the .ipa (app file) that can be installed/sideloaded on ipad
• Add locally to ipad (through itunes)  for testing
• “publish’ in folio producer – File is moved to distribution serverce (enterprise solution)

Complexities in Building Content (Realistic Timeline)

• Month 1 : Basic configuration & Setup, Outline Internal processes & schedules.
• Month 2: Initial app development, content lock & App QA
• Month 3: App submission & Approval (2 weeks), App launch
• Going forward: Subscriptions & bundles, plans for upgrade

DPS Test Plan

• Verify application compatibility
• Verify & test content
• Test in-app purchases
• Ensure analytics are working
• Test enterprise features
• Test application updates

Create Security Certificate

• Apple & Android require all apps to be digitally signed with a certificate whose password is held by the application’s developer
• The certificate is used to identify the author of an application
• Apple requires certificates be generated by “certificate authority” (apple)
• Android allows self-signed certificates by a standard Java library
• Apple requires dev versions to be signed with a “mobile provision’ file that limits the number of devices they can be run on (to avoid side-loading)
• Apple allows signing apps with Enterprise certificates to remove this limitation