The new features of the DMP FLO Suite all revolve around production tools. And this is not limited to the prepress production. The single most powerful feature of the DMP FLO Suite is its flexibility, and we wanted to expand on this. So we created new tools for the production of workflows, web2print applications and other types of customized applications.
External libraries
First of all, this means that external libraries can now be easily used from the FLO Suite development environment. Simply place the .NET dll you want to employ into a pre-defined directory ( D:\FLO_DATA\printFLO\preferences\CLIENT_ID\libraries, for a default installation) and use it from any entry point in that client. Placing the library in your top-level client’s directory makes it available for the entire server. This allows you to use external libraries, which might contain functionalities that were previously not available in the FLO Suite. We also are using it already to create interfaces on top of existing applications. For example to connect to the webservices of MIS applications.
Visual Studio Export/Import
External libraries allow you to develop core functionalities from Visual Studio and use them within the FLO Suite EntryPoints. But the new Export/Import functionalities go even further. You can select any client from your server, and export the full environment to a Visual Studio project. In this project you can change any code/html/css/javascript that you need, and import it again into the FLO Suite server. And in the meantime, you can make use of a lot of the advantages of Visual Studio. Complete intellisense, syntax control, test building, and so on.
New functionalities
The DMP FLO Suite 4.0 comes with a lot of new functionalities for prepress workflow automation. The connection with Enfocus Switch, embedded functionalities from Elpical Claro Single, preflight capabilities with callas pdfToolbox, export settings for a lot of external systems, and so on.
It almost goes without saying that integrators and developers can use these functionalities with just a few lines of code.
FLO Suite API
We recognize the fact that not every developer in the world is able to program in the DMP FLO Suite development environment (yet). We also realize that not all developers can be asked to do this. And actually most of our customers don’t care about the development environment. They just want to sell prints. And they appreciate the flexibility that the DMP FLO Suite offers them to accomplish this.
But many of our customers are also faced with customers that already have a development environment. A brand site, a web site, an intranet. A lot of ways existed already to integrate the FLO Suite into those environments. Embedding contentFLO interfaces in iframes, creating custom webservices, and so on. But the FLO Suite API takes this to a next level. It basically is a .NET library that your customers can use in their own ASP.NET (or local .NET) environments. The API exposes the object model of your own server to any external environment. You grant privileges to the external consumer, and they can fill your templates, browse through your assetFLO, and use your custom modules. The result: they do the implementation, you print the PDF files!