WoodWing Software's Smart Connection family of products is a scalable solution aimed at publishing environments. From small to large workgroups, Smart Connection offers publishers the ability to set up workflows where editors and designers can work on a project simultaneously. The Smart Connection family offers an inexpensive but highly efficient workflow system.
Integrated production environment.
By their design, the InDesign/InCopy combo offers an integrated production environment for very small workgroups of 2 to 5 users. Most professional content creators, however, deal with larger workgroups. The Smart Connection family of products is aimed at workgroup publishing for these larger environments. They turn Adobe InDesign and InCopy into an integrated, flexible production system.
The Smart Connection family has three members: the Light, Pro and Enterprise version. Smart Connection is also integrated by several WoodWing partners with 3rd party advanced backend systems, making a wide variety of systems available tailored to different vertical markets.
Three-tier architecture.
Smart Connection Enterprise relies on a three-tier architecture to ensure scalability and flexibility. All business logic is centralized on the application server. The database ensures document security, rapid document search and-retrieval and all the advantages related to database use. The client is a traditional InCopy/InDesign setup or a remote setup where a highly 'compressed' version of the InDesign document is embedded in the InCopy file the editor can work with while travelling or working from home.
Customization power.
Because all business logic is centralized on the application server, Smart Connection Enterprise can be easily customized using the included PHP Software Development Kit. Scalability is guaranteed as the application server can run on the database server, on one separate server, or even on multiple servers if the environment is too large to handle from one server only.
Protecting your investment.
Smart Connection Enterprise offers a free choice of databases. You can opt for the high-performance open source MySQL database on Windows and Mac OS X. The Smart Connection Enterprise application server supports Apache on Windows or Mac OS X, and or Microsoft IIS on Windows.
Several VARs/SIs offer Smart Connection Enterprise with other databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or an existing content management system, supporting Linux, Solaris and AIX platforms.
The power of databases.
Except for scalability, Smart Connection Enterprise adds the power of database queries to Smart Connection Pro's production capabilities. Queries are easy to use, and offer many different search options. Finding just the right files is not only simple but also blazingly fast.
Document Information.
While Smart Connection Pro supports basic meta data for each file, Smart Connection Enterprise offers complete information on your documents. Smart Connection Enterprise will store information on the author, creator, modifier, copyright, creation and modification date, comments, and much more.
Access rights management.
With Smart Connection Enterprise, you can define users, groups and access rights. For each group, you can set detailed access rights for maximum security, which can differ per publication, section and even object state.
Remotely managing your production system.
Web-based tools enable users to get an overview of all files in the database, including their status and meta data. Smart Connection Enterprise also allows you to configure the system by using a web-browser from any location in the world.
