Exchange of developed tasks (insertion & retrieval

dudamic

Hi,

being new to the forum I would like to know if there is a type of marketplace to exchange developed insertion and retrieval tasks. It would be great for us to share best practice solutions.

Thanks

Michael

lyman

I think it is an excellent idea, and in fact may ping a few of our better task writers :-). I wanted to clarify a few points up front before it snags anyone!

1) The preferred method of task exchange is via XML which is the format used in the Export. The XML is supposed to be pretty self explanatory (there is a DTD in the System Tasks and Sample Tasks directory for anyone curious). However there are a couple of cases in which tasks are not completely self-contained:

a) Any reference to ICC profiles make reference to a GUID identifying a profile living inside a MediaBin repository. If one wants to share a task involving color profiles, the profile must be installed on the new machine and then inserted into the correct parameters (the easiest way is to edit the task in ones own Windows native client).

b) The Layer Replacer primitive makes reference to a background template which must be the name of a file on the file system. The AGS and FlipFactory (for more recent builds) encoders also make reference to a script file that must be provided separately.

In many cases documenting the intent of a task may be more instructive than the full task itself. To that end here is are come generic pieces of advice:

Hint 1: Many of the primitives are designed to "normalize" content. Often tasks use the Flattener and the Color Converter to ensure that past that point the image is a single layer or is in a known colorspace. Both are designed to do nothing if the assumptions have already been met.

Hint 2: The color converter primitive unfortunately does not allow al N squared conversions from one format to another, but it does guarantee that anything can be converted to and from RGB. Therefore it is often wise to include two color convertrs say: Convert to RGB followed by Convert to CMYK for example if one cannot be sure o fthe input and wants the output to go to CMYK. This task would correctly handle an indexed color input while simply putting in a "convert to CMYK" would flag an error. The downside is that this cmbination is not neutral if it encounters a CMYK original.

Hint 3: The Photoshop flattener behaves differently in different colorspaces. If you wish to convert colorspaces, always put the flattener in front of the color converter. Generally if one of the steps in the process is flattening it is beneficial to put that first.

Hint 4: There is one major exception to Hint 3. Adobe Graphics Server (AGS) has a restriction on the size of the files that MediaBin does not. In cases in which one has exceptionally large Photoshop files (you can tell if this is the case because they will not insert as the insertion task flattens first), one needs to put an image sizer first. If you encounter this problem contact Support for a patch.

Cheers,

Lyman

MediaBin Server Team
Interwoven, Inc.