DocScape from an IT point of view

DocScape is a leading database publishing standard product which does not itself store data. Documents for prepress or the Internet - from product sheets through technical documentations to the main catalog - are generated 100% automatically from the available data.

DocScape’s philosophy relies exclusively on white-box functionalities, i.e. every detail of every aspects of the print product is configured via XML - beyond the scope of a graphic editor, using only established, reliable and tried-and-tested technologies throughout.

DocScape is a purely server-based system which runs on all established platforms. Existing installations with up to 16,000 users in total and a performance capable of handling 350 concurrent requests prove the software’s stability and performance.

An XML configuration file describes from which systems the data are to be read out “on demand” via interfaces. Connectors are available for all established standard systems, including SAP etc. An increasing number of technology partners have been integrating DocScape into their own systems as a publishing solution to become independent of proprietary systems.

The actual document design requires a rule-based definition: unlike templates (comparable to mail-merge templates), this allows the automation of documents with sophisticated design requirements. The rules may be defined by a designer, provided that they understand the concept of a mark-up language such as HTML.

The figure below illustrates how the DocScape server reads out the relevant data from the connected systems, using the rule guide (technical XML) and the data structure definition (also XML) to generate a printable PDF file: