ADPOINT 7.X (Java)

Introduction

ADPOINT is the hub for all Your ad material handling services

ADPOINT manages all your ad materials through a powerful user interface. Camera-ready or production ads – ADPOINT offers the full overview of the status of every order, ad and asset. In a single window you have access to booking information, deadlines, preflight logs, annotations and other meta data.

ADPOINT  offers flexible tools that have been designed to automate time-consuming tasks that are done every day. Here are a few examples:

  • Automatic e-mail material reminders and proofs alerts.

  • Automatic matching of materials and orders.

  • Technical changes such as cropping, scaling and file conversion.

For production ads, ADPOINT reduces preparation time. And through automatic production partner management, zipping, copying and distribution of ad materials, roughs and copy instructions, are now a thing of the past.

 

ADPOINT Workflow

Workflows incorporate the basic functionality of a flexible and stable workflow solution. Ads and assets are picked up through hot folders, ftp-uploads or simply dragged into the workflow from your desktop. Using ADPOINT plugins for production a menu in Indesign saves and registers  the material and assets in ADPOINTt.

Through the connection to the ad booking system, ads are identified and linked to the correct booking. Through this link ads can be controlled for size and information about insertion date, publication and production enables ADPOINT Workflow to route ads through the quality control workflow.

Built in normalization, preflighting and pre-ripping ensures that all technical aspects of running the ad are revealed for optimal quality assurance. And a single window displays all relevant tracking information for each job down to every historic detail.

ADPOINT Workflow incorporates the Adobe PDF Library for normalization, preflight and conversion of PDF and EPS file formats offering the highest level of compatibility with industry standards. Support for Flash files and streamed data make ADPOINT Workflow a one-stop solution for all advertising needs.

 

Track and Control of ads

For each version of the ad, all tasks can be easily monitored. The current and previous status of the ad file are listed here, and since all actions are time stamped and marked with version and username, it is very easy to track ads down to any level of detail.

Technical documentation and logs is also available in this window. No more opening of log files from other system and no more querying of external databases.

The ad tracking window can be tailored to display exactly what is needed – no more, no less. This gives the best possible overview and allows system operators to monitor exactly what is happening with each ad in a simple and easy to overview window.

Booking and Traffic

ADPOINT is connected to the adbooking system. As soon as an order is created or updated in adsystem it appears in ADPOINT with a small delay. All data that is relevant for production, traffic and communication with relevant parties are available to ADPOINT users such as sales, traffic, production team, approval.

Essential data is shown for user in the overview. A lot more is available when needed

  • Customer is shown in list for reference but also customer contact information is available.

  • Internal contact information, salesrep, booker, producer

  • First publicatindate and publications, size and color.

  • Proofing method or production method, reeady material or production ad

  • Pick up admaterial or production documents from existing ad

As a rule of thumb the adbooking system should provide as much data to ADPOINT as possible. In some cases installations is not possible or wanted. Some attributes to the boking can be changed or generated in Adpoint, manually or automatically. Production method manually as an example, deadlines for admaterial and proofing automated.

All of this booking data can be filtered to create lists of ads that are relevant to users function and activity. For example:

  • Ads booked for next three days for NN  & YY publications expected as ready material

  • Ads to be prepared for production with assets and all relevant information

  • A filter to see ads ready for production

  • Ads to be approved or annotated internally or by customer

  • Ads to be corrected

  • Full list of a specific publication/issuedate

Filters are easily created on the fly or can be saved and shared with usergroups. A saved filter can be changed on the fly to show another publication, more days ahead, different status and so on.

Preparing Production Ads

When booking appears in ADPOINT production ads are ready to be prepared and released for production. This involves ensuring that all information and assets are assigned to the booking and that deadlines, production site, proofing method and deadlines are correct. Reference to previously produced ad(s) to be used as starting point for the new ad.

  • Sending Asset request to customer. Asset may be graphical files and textfiles with manuscript, rough and so on.

  • Drag ‘n Drop assets from desktop or from an email

  • Retrieving assets from the DAM module – assets allready registered in ADPOINT are easily found based on customer and previous ads or from ClipArt.

  • Pick up information – previously produced ad. This can be picked up to the new booking either manually or automatically triggered from Ad booking system.

  • Reference to customer layout template.

  • Proofing method. Which proofing route to follow, Internal proof / Customer proof or both

Change status to release for production

When everything is ready status is changed to “To be produced” and the job proceeds into producers route.

Print Ad Production

Status Ready for production indicates that all information and assets are assigned to the booking and that deadlines, production site, proofing method and deadlines are correct. Reference to previously produced ad(s) to be used as starting point for the new ad.

Open details view and review this information in the tabs for order, assets and notes. Perhaps some assets need to be worked, adding clipping path, scaled. This can be done directly from ADPOINT with plugins for Photoshop and Illustrator.

Details view holds all information about the job in tabs

When ready the producer creates a new Indesign job with the booked size by clicking on the pencil icon in the toolbar or from functions menu.

Status in ADPOINT changes to Work in progress and the job is locked for other users and the producers is registered as current Producer.

In Indesign an ADPOINT menu is available, offering functionalities to save and export the job back to ADPOINT.  This plugin also keeps a live thread open allowing to Drag n’ Drop assets directly from ADPOINT to InDesign.

Besides what is assigned to the job being worked all assets in ADPOINT are easily retrieved in the DAM module. 

Assets from users desktop can also be placed in InDesign and will be automatically registered when document is saved.

Drag n’ drop directly from ADPOINT into InDesign

When the InDesign job is ready for proofing Save & Export from ADPOINT plugin performs

  • Export PDF with the joboptions specified

  • Saves the InDesign document

  • Registers all assets used in document

  • The PDF passes through technical workflow and is soft-ripped for preview and proofing

  • Status changes to the workflow step defined, typically Internal Proof – progressing the job to proofing route.

If job is annotated with corrections status Need correction will tell and the job is opened for edit by using the pencil icon tool again.

There many functions available to support daily tasks. All described in detail under Functions.

Proofing Route

The proofing and approval route in ADPOINT usually flows through stages according to the proof flags set on the job. Either Internal Proof or Customer Proof – or both.

When new ad material is processed on the job without errors ADPOINT the job goes into the appropriate status according to the proof flag.

Internal Proofing

Double click ad in List View to open the job in Details view. This offers a preview of the ad, a tab showing annotations as they are created and a set of annotation and approval tools.

Print ad previews you see here is a real Print Preview consisting of the print plates on top of each other. You can see the  plates individually. The preview will show you problems with fx “overprint” that you would not see in a PDF on screen or printed.

Ad a “Yellow Poster” to ad text, “Highlight” to request reformatting, a “Frame” or a “Pin”. Drag ‘n Drop a new asset to a position in the preview and a pin is automatically created with a note on which asset to position at pinned position.

 

When annotations are all registered click Commit Changes and you will have a choice to accept the default status Need correction or choose another status from the list. 

Producer will see the job that needs correction, see the annotations and do the corrections in InDesign. If there are many annotations in a complex ad ticking the  “Mark as completed” tag. User can toggle to see these or not in the annotations list.

Producer corrects what is annotated and sends in a new version of the job which then goes into status Internal Proof once more. This time we assume that the ad passes Internal QA. Clicking the green approve icon progresses the ad in the workflow. Status is changed to Contact Customer. Email is often sent by clicking the email icon and open the template to send proof request.

The email is automatically filled with customer proof contact and information about the ad, what to do, deadline for approval and who to contact in case of any problems.

Customer Proofing

Customer recieves the email and opens a preview of the ad in any internet browser.

Here the customer has allmost the same tools and information as in the internal ADPOINT.

Customer approves or annotates the ad – and the job follows the workflow as illustrated above. Please also visit chapter discussing Status – a thorough introduction to the way ADPOINT routes jobs from source to destination.

Workspace

Filters and user-definable views allow workflow operators, whether they work in the prepress or sales department, to monitor the latest status of each ad together with a ripped preview to reflect exactly how it will appear in the paper.

You can define several tabs reflecting the needs of your different tasks, one for ad tracking, one for monitoring a certain product and one for production ads you are working on.

Since the entire workflow is controlled by a central process on the ADPOINT server, all actions can be monitored from a single window. Furthermore, all interaction with advertisers and producers is gathered in the same system. Literally, everybody is on the same page, anytime, anywhere.

Setting up your workspace

This chapter explains how ADPOINT has been laid out to provide fast and accurate tools for optimal productivity.

The use of Tabs, drop-down menus, right-click menus, shortcuts, toolbars, message boxes, highlights etc. defines the workspace, which can be modified to accommodate users and groups.

After login, users view the main screen of ADPOINT. This window offers a number of ways to look at the bookings and materials in ADPOINT.

Panels

The illustration above shows the Digital Asset Management module “Graphics Management” or “DAM” with two panels. The upper job Panel showing bookings and the lower showing assets tha has been uploaded to ADPOINT to be used for ad production.

The Ad Tracking Module shows bookings in upper and ad materials in lower panel

Modules

Depending on installation and user permissions the following modules are available. Each module can be opened in one or more tabs according to your needs.

Ad tracking
Used for tracking ad materials which are not automatically matched with a booking. This module has two panels, the upper Order Panel showing bookings and the lower Ad Material showing ad materials.

Ad production
Has one panel showing bookings. Working booked job through workflow,  all the way form booking to approval. Can also be used to monitor bookings for various purposes, to see all bookings for a specific product/issue date for example.

Graphics Manager (DAM)
Digital Asset Management, work with and retrieve assets, i.e. logos, pictures and layout documents. GM module has two panels, the upper Order Panel showing bookings and the lower Asset Panel showing assets and asset tracking controls.

Monitor
Monitor Workflow progress and performance.

Deadline and Partner Rule
Setting up deadline and partner rules to apply deadlines and production partners to bookings coming in from adbooking system.

View Modes

ADPOINT has three different view modes:

List view 
Data is displayed as text only – each booking, material or asset being represented by one row. Click on the column header to sort list on this column, click again to toggle list to show in descending or ascending order

Icon view
Small previews with a summary of important data. At the bottom of list and icon view you can set “Items per page”, browse pages and scale the size of icons or lines in listview.

Image view      
Detailed information with large preview, tools and tabs for every booking, ad material or asset.

Menu bar

Functions, preferences and settings are available from the menu bar situated in the top of the ADPOINT window. Often used menu points can be activated with keyboard shortcuts. These are shown in the menu.

Tool Bar

A number of frequently used commands are available as buttons in the Toolbar. Mouse over text explains the buttons. See list below that explains buttons from left to right. The individual functions are described in Functions.

Order Panel: List & Icon view 

(Left to right)

  1. List View

  2. Icon View

  3. Refresh mode, menu to toggle manual or autorefresh

  4. Grouping

  5. Upload Assets

  6. Download Assets

  7. New ad / Edit ad booking data

  8. Create / Edit in Layout application

  9. Change Status

  10. Email

  11. Approve workflow step

  12. Open Report

  13. Choose Filter

  14. Chose / activate predefined statusfilter

Order Details View

(Left to right)

  1. Save changes

  2. Refresh preview and data

  3. Open job in HTML browser to see digital ads

  4. Print Jobticket

  5. Change Production Partner

  6. Change status

  7. Upload Assets

  8. Download Assets

  9. Email

  10. Approve workflow step

  11. Create / Edit in Layout application

  12. Preview individual plates CMYK or all

  13. Annotation tools, Yellow Poster, Frame, Highlight, Pin

  14. Preview size slider

  15. Fit preview to window

  16. “Magnifying glass”

  17. Admaterial Tools: Crop, Scale, Convert to BW, Trim whitespace, Add Whitespace

Note: Some buttons may not be available to you according to your role and access level.

Filters

ADPOINT filtering gives the user a detailed overview of the jobs in scope for just about any task to be performed. A simple filter is easily created on the fly or can be activated from a pool of saved filters.

The filter dialog is expanded / collapsed with the double upwards and double downwards arrows in the upper right corner of the panel. Expanded very basic filter on status above is understood like this:

Search in production where Status equals “Internal proof” and Jobnumber equals …

Search in:

Production, Archived or Both
Jobs are typically archived a few days or weeks after first insertion date. In this way default filters are focusing on jobs in Production – but you can chose to search what is relevant, “all ads on a customer one year back” would need to search in Both: Production and Archived

Where

Field

Data fields from booking system and ADPOINT.
In the example above the first field used is Status. Clicking the drop down icon reveals all the fields that are available for filtering. The list is very long but the often used fields are easily accessed by Right-clicking a value in list of jobs choosing “Filter by this value”.  More about this later.

Operator

Equals, Starts with, Range … different operators on different kinds of data
This example shows the operators when searching on a date. Most of these are self explanatory, “Range between to dates” – the Predefined is offering complex filtering at the tip of your fingers. 

Predefined operator is available filtering “Date” and “Status”.
Chosing “First insertion” predefined Tomorrow returns what it sais, jobs for tomorrow i.e 2016-10-10.
The filter is is dynamic so coming in next day still shows “Tomorrow” i.e 2016-10-11

This is very useful for saved filters that will always show what is in scope for the coming day(s), week(s) or weekday

Predifined on Date adds two more fields: “Number of days” ahead and “Interval”.
Interval set: Interval from Tomorrow + 2 more days ahead.
Interval not set: Tomorrow + 2 days exact i.e “3 days from now”.

Value

Depending on type of data as for operators

  • Status value: “Internal proof”

  • Date predifined value: “Tomorrow”

  • Productioncode value: “Ready Material”

Filtering multiple fields

Typically a filter searches on multiple fields. This filter uses AND to search: All Chris Marks bookings for two titles for the next four days that are not already done:

  • First insertion predefined from tomorrow and 4 days ahead

  • AND Title equals IIA

  • AND Salesrep equals Chris Mark

  • AND status predefined “All but completed

To combine rows in the filter you can use AND & OR. This is where filtering becomes tricky. As long as you use only AND in a filter or use OR in another things are pretty simple.

As soon as you use both AND & OR the result becomes very different. If for example Marks filter above used OR instead of AND in the last line the result would be all Marks bookings for the specified days and Titles PLUS all other bookings in ADPOINT that are not done!

  • First insertion predefined from tomorrow and 4 days ahead

  • AND Title equals IIA

  • AND Salesrep equals Chris Mark

  • OR status predefined “All but completed”

“All Chris Marks bookings for two titles for the next four days PLUS all others that are not already done.”

If you must use both AND & OR you must make certain that the complete search is defined on both side of the dividing AND/OR. In this example it is the same search but on Chris Mark OR Betty Lewis

  • First insertion predefined from tomorrow and 4 days ahead

  • AND Title equals IIA

  • AND Salesrep equals Chris Mark

  • AND status predefined “All but completed”

OR 

  • First insertion predefined from tomorrow and 4 days ahead

  • AND Title equals IIA

  • AND Salesrep equals Betty Lewis

  • AND status predefined “All but completed”

Note: Most combined filters can be handled with the operators “IN” or “NOT IN” like this

  • First insertion predefined from tomorrow and 4 days ahead

  • AND Title equals IIA

  • AND Salesrep IN Chris Mark, Betty Lewis

  • AND status predefined “All but completed”

For more details on operators and values please see Filter operators and values.

Field Definitions

Some data from ad booking systems and ADPOINT has the same importance for all user roles and ADPOINT functionalities.  Status, Title(s), First insertion date, Customer and so on is important no matter what you are doing.

Other tasks requires more specific data in focus.

Traffic focus on ready material. “Material Deadline”, “Reference number” from delivery service, “Input channel”.

QA group and ad production focus on production ads: “Asset deadline”, “Proof Deadline”, “Production Method”, “Last producer”.

In upper right corner the  Field Config icon opens a drop down menu with the fieldconfigs that are available for you.

If user has permission to do so the Field config can be edited on the fly, new created and shared with usergroups.

If columns are too many to show in window check “Horizontal Scroll” and “Pack all Columns”. This will add a horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the list.

Modules and Panels

Three modules are most commonly used in every day work with adpoint. The modules has one or two panels as described below. The panels are described in detail under Panels chapters.

As you see below the same or different modules can be loaded in users ADPOINT. Each module can be set with own filters and column definition. In this way information and function for diffeerent tasks are always available. Click on the + and load another module.

Adproduction

The Adproduction module has one Order Panel showing bookings. As naming indicates this can be used by adproduction in case DAM is not licensed. Otherwise it is mostly used for overview purposes, to monitor status on all bookigs for a specific issue or all bookings in error status.

DAM module

Digital Asset Management or Graphics Manager module has two panles. Order Panel and below that the Asset Panel. This module is often used for preparing and producing ads as assets assigned to the order and the customer is readily at hand.

Adtracking Module

Ready material is typically automatically matched with booking by Drag ‘n Drop to the booking or via the Customer Portal. However, ADPOINT can also upload admaterial from delivery services using FTP or hotfolders.

Matching files coming through these input channels automatically requires excact data in both booking and file. If a material cannot math a booking it will show up in Admaterial Panel as “Unmatched”. User can Drag ‘n Drop the file to the correct booking when this is available.

Order Panel

The Order Panel is probably the most important panel and is always shown at the top of modules.

  1. Functions Menu with all available functions. This menu is also available when right clicking with on or more bookings selected.

  2. Toolbar with the most commonly used functions, Filter menu and Quicksearch.

  3. Column headers. Clicking on a header once or twice will sort the list descending or ascending

  4. Bookings shown in list or as Icons with a larger preview.

  5. Insertions detail unfold/fold. Shows all insertions if booked for more dates or titles

  6. Number of bookings in actual search and page browser

  7. Pages in actual search

  8. Number of bookings shown pr. page

  9. Slider to increase decrease size of lines in List View or previews in Icon view

Asset Panel

The lower panel in DAM module holds all the assets and the functionality to work with assets and assigning these to bookings.

  1. Toolbar with the most commonly used functions, Filter menu and Quicksearch.

  2. Column headers. Clicking on a header once or twice will sort the list descending or ascending

  3. Asset control sidebar to focus on assets based on relation to bookings, tyoe and intention

  4. Assets shown in list or as Icons with a larger preview.

  5. Bottom controls similar to Order Panel

Ad Material Panel

Ad Material panel shows materials uploaded to specified flow. As most ad materials match with bookings these are best monitored in the upper “Order Panel” where booking data together with the preview of the ad material and the status gives the full picture.

Materials coming in via delivery services, self service protals or hotfolder may not match a booking. This is where the default Unmatched tool comes in. Waht you see below are unmatched ad materials. User Drag ‘n Drop to matspecs in upper panel the materials to match ad material and matspec. File is automatically renamed and can be sent on to pagination or publishing.

List and Icon View

In all panels toolbars the list and icon buttons will switch between List View and Icon View.

List View

Icon View

 

Details View

Details view offers a lot of information and functionality for the individual matspec.

  1. Menus: Work, Functions, Annotations, Zoom, Separations

  2. Toolbar: Often used commands and functions

  3. Information Tabs: Detailed information grouped on type of info

  4. Preview: Composite of four plates if a print, a jpg on digital ad

  5. Info bar: Infor on zoom, status & version

Tool Bar

(Left to right)

  1. Commit changes: Saving changes to notes, deadlines, annotations. Active when pending changes

  2. Refresh: Refreshes preview

  3. Open in Browser: Useful for digital ads to see animated elements and hear sound

  4. Print jobticket

  5. Change Productionsite

  6. Change Status

  7. Download assets

  8. Upload assets

  9. Email

  10. Approve workflow step

  11. Open/Edit in InDesign: Drop Down for other options

  12. Preview indivual plates or composite

  13. Annotation tools

  14. Preview size slider

  15. Fit to window

  16. Magnifying glass

  17. Material correction tools

    • Crop

    • Scale

    • Convert to B/W

    • Trim Whitespace

    • Add Whitespace


Functions overview

Function

Description

 

Approve

Approve current step and move onwards in workflow.

Alt+X

Attach and Sign off

Opens a dialog to move admaterial to another booking.

 

Change priority

Opens a menu to change priority to 1, 2 or 3

 

Change production code

Opens a menu to change production code.

 

Change production quality

Opens a menu to change production quality from list

 

Change production site

Change productionsite from list of productionsites

 

Change Status

Change status if current status does not reflect the actual situation[Alt]+B

 

Clear selection

Deselects all selected

 

Copy to clipboard

Copies the content of the field value mouse is pointing at to memory.

Ctrl+c

Customer administration

Opens a dialog with customer data. Usually this is imported from bookingsystem and should not be edited. “Note” may be useful to add to be shown in ADPOINT

 

Delete

Delete booking, admaterial or asset according to permissions

 

Detach

Detach ad material from booking. The material can be traced in Adtracking module and assign to another booking.

Alt+Shift+F

Download

Opens a sidemenu from where you can choose which file to download

 

Download assets

Choose which assets to download [Alt]+D

Alt+D

Edit ad

Opens dialog with key booking data. Usually this is imported from bookingsystem. Data can be added edited according to installation setup.

 

E-mail

Opens the email dialog. Choose template according to current workflow step.

Alt+E

Filter by this value

Creates/ads to existing filter with the field mouse is pointing at.

 

Initiate production

Opens an asset upload dialog and sets status “Ready to be produced” at commit.

 

Move to archive

Moves the booking to archive so it is not appearing in lists unless searched specifically in archive or global.

 

New ad

Create a new booking not associated with the ad booking system.

 

Open

Open details view

 

Open in browser

Opens a sidemenu where you can choose which file to view in browser:

 

Open mail in history

Opens the bookings history tab where sent emails can be reviewed.

 

Open natively

Opens document in its native application, i.e. word file in Word, indd file in InDesign.

 

Open report

Side menu with installed reports.

 

Pick Up

Pick up ad material from one booking to another.

 

Reject

Mark ad material “Rejected”

 

Reprocess

 

 

Set bleed

Sets bleed flag for ad and thus allowing extra bleed margins in admaterial. In many installations the bleed value is imported with booking.

 

Set responsible

Sets current user as writer/responsible on the ad.

 

Sign Off

Approve ad material – you may have the possibility to send ad material to different targets and destinations

 

Start work and lock

Sets status that indicates the ad production is started and locks the job for other users.  Timeregistration is started. Ad is locked and cannot be opened in Indesign by other user.

Alt+Shift+P

Time tracking

Opens dialog with tracking of sessions where job has been opened/closed in Indesign or from Start/Stop work function

 

Upload assets

Opens a dialog where you can browse for or drag assets to upload to the booking. You can ad notes in notefield and you can qualify metadata. You can upload several assets in the same dialog.

Alt+Shift+U

Upload material

Opens a dialog where you can browse for or drag ad material to upload. You can ad notes in notefield. Only one admaterial can be uploaded to a booking.

Alt+U

Pick up ad

This function copies material from an existing booking onto the target. This can be done by user or it can be automated if the pickup number is imported from the booking system.

Pick up ad from functions menu opens this dialog:

 

Jobnumber or see that this is populated with pickup number from bookingsystem. If the number exists the form is populated with customer, caption, publicationdate and status. WIth this user can verify that the correct material is picked up

Pick up PDF: Check to pick up the ad material

Pick up Layout doc and assets: Pick up production indd file and the assets used for this. In illustration above this option is greyed as no indd file exists.

Warnings: In a red frame user is warned if picking up material from different customer, different size or color.

Ok commits the request. If picking up PDF this is processed and the job goes into status according to workflow. If only layout doc is picked up status changes to “Picked up”

Automated pick up will pick up when the booking arrives and certain criteria are met:

  • Pickup number refers to existing job

  • Source has material to pick up

  • Status of source is “Sent”

  • Material or asset deadlines for target job is not met

If a source job receives new ad material after fist pickup this will automatically be picked up by target if criterias above are met.

If a manual pickup has been performed future automated pickup is disabled.

Status

Jobs that run through ADPOINT will always have a current status which tells the system and users about the progress. This chapter describes the typical route and functionality and also lists statuses in detail. Your ADPOINT installation may have added or renamed statuses to meet the needs of your organisation – please refer to inhouse documentation.6

Filters on status will provide real time overview of status on the current activities for individual or group of users:

  • Ready to be produced

  • Deadlines exceeded

  • All but completed

  • Need correction

Simple filter on status showing ads “To be produced”

Statusdriven workflow

All new bookings in ADPOINT starts out as “Booked”. The bookings route to “Sent” typically depends on production method and proof method.New status is triggered in three different ways:

 

  1. Ad Material processed by workflow results in a new status for the job.
    DnD ready material to a booking. Status is automatically set to “Arrived” if processed without errors.

  2. ADPOINT functions set new status in a number of cases
    Email material request to customer sets status “Requesting Material”

  3. Change status by user

     

    Change Status dialog allows user to overrule the status set by ADPOINT

Status Groups

  • Progress
    A job is being processed by workflow and current status is reflecting the progression: Ripping, Rip completed, Waiting for Preflight, Working …
    These statuses will help System Admin what is wrong in case of problems. Everyday user will just be informed the “Something is going on”. Do not start working the job while in these intermediates.

  • Waiting
    The job is processed and waiting for a user action: Requesting Material, Internal proof, Arrived, To be produced …
    The job is waiting for some kind of action from a user. Who is responsible for which actions will be determined by the individual organisation using Adpoint.

  • Error
    The workflow has detected some kind of error or error status that requires user intervention: Preflight error, Deadline exceeded, Wrong size, Wrong number of colors, Multiple errors …
    Only a few of these errors are for everyday users: Preflight, size, colors … Most are for System administrators to deal with.

  • Completed
    Sent to pagination or online publishing: Sent
    This is the Final step in the workflow – the job is finished in ADPOINT and sent to pagination or publishing online. If a new admaterial arrives after this point the job starts in ADPOINT workflow again. 

Administration

Production Site

ADPOINT is accessible and fully functional from internet allowing users to work with jobs from anywhere. Production of print and digital ads possible without having access to assets in a local network. In order to direct jobs to appointed production sites production sites must be created and assigned to jobs.

 

Production sites are handled from Admin menu, Partner administration.

In some installations the production sites and assignments to jobs come from the bookingsystem, in others all everything is handled in ADPOINT.

When production site is available bookings  can be assigned to the site either in booking system or in ADPOINT as shown here with Function/Change productionsite.

 

Productionsite users can easily filter their assigned jobs – or an access filter may be applied to productionsite usergroup. The latter will set a filter on users ADPOINT allowing to see only assigned jobs.

Field Configuration Editor

Field config editor is used to create and create and maintain Field configurations and share these with Usergroups. Create, save own, save others and share Field Config is granted in user role permissions.

 

  • Drop down “Name” menu to choose Field config to work

  • Clone button to create a copy of the chosen Field Config. After clone you must either restart Adpoint or Clean caches from General menu to fetch data from server.

  • Data type: Order, Asset or Admaterial according to which panel it relates to

  • Creator: Not shared field configs are only visible to Creator. (Admin role can see all filters)

  • Name*: Name the Field Config

  • Fields: Left column shows available not used fields.

  • Fields: Right column shows definitions fields. You can remove and reorder the fields.

  • Fields: Checkmark indicates that the field will be shown in Icon View – this allows you to show only some fields in Icon View

  • Share with: Move groups from left to right column to share Field Config

Rename and remove

If you rename an existing config from Field Config icon as shown at the top of the page you will create a copy instead of renaming. Use Admin/Field Configuration Editor to maintain

Permissions

Deadlines Administration

In Deadline module rules can be created that sets deadlines on productionmethods, titles, placements and any other data available in ADPOINT.

Open the Module “Deadline module” in a new tab. The first window shows a week calendar and you can choose an exitsint deadline rule and show how this sets deadlines on a selected date.

At the top following options are available:

  • Productioncode administration

  • Deadlines Administration

  • Partners Administration

  • Salesteam Administration

Deadline Administration

To the left the existing rules are listed, in folders if this is configured. At the top buttons to create, clone and show deleted are available.

Selecting a rule will populate the details. Upper part of shows the Name of the rule and the Filter. Working in the same way as any other filter in ADPOINT this is used to point out which orders are in scope for this deadlinerule.

Make sure that rules are not overlapping so that a booking is hit by more rules. In the example shown above there are two rules for Ready Material that are almost identical. One where Placementcode equals REALESTATE and the other where Placementcode does not equal  REALESTATE.

Working days sets the days where deadlines will apply. In this example Monday through Friday are checked. This means that no deadlines are set on Saturday or Sunday. Deadlines are calculated as timestamp / number of workdays before first insertion day.

  • 1 day before a Tuesday is Monday

  • 2 days before a Tuesday is Friday

Valid from and Valid to sets the period where the deadlinerule is calculating first insertions. If no dates are set the rules is infinit.

Ready for page is defining deadline where the ads must be ready to be outputted with page. (Currently not implemented)

Deadlines 

A list of Production methods (production codes) are listed – these are activated for Deadline module in Productioncode Administration (Show in deadlinerules)

Deadlines are set on the production methods that are relevant for the filter set for the rule.

  • Asset deadline: Assets registered for ad production

  • Proof delivery deadline: Ad ready for proofing internally or externally

  • Proof deadline: Ad annotated or approved

  • Material deadline: Ready material PDF uploaded

Deadline has two fields:

  • WorkDays before first insertion date. (0 is same day)

  • Timestamp

Deviating deadlines

Deadlines may deviate from normal at seasonal holidays fx. Click on Add and choose a date where deadlines are deviating. Deadlines are shown and can be changed for the specific date only.

Deviating deadlines can be edited or deleted.

Apply rules

When a rule is saved it will apply to bookings and bookingupdates from bookingsystem. Run all rules will apply the rule to existing bookings with a future first insertion date. This may take some time before you can actually see the deadlines in ADPOINT.

If a user has set a deadline manually in ADPOINT deadline rules will not apply to this booking.

Productioncode Administration

Productioncode Administration is opened from Admin menu or in Deadline Module basepage

Production codes are usually imported with bookings from the booking system. A number of functionalities can be derived from the production code at booking import.

  • Production or ready material

  • Proofing method – internal, external or both

  • Productionsite assignment

Show in Deadlines module checked will show the production code there. This is useful if there are many not relevant for deadlines.

Email Template has currently no functionality.

Appendix

Filter Operators & Values

The many operators available on type Status is due to the fact that you can search either Status Name or Status Code. Please see Appendix A for details on Status.

 

Field

Operator

Value

Comment

Date

Predefined

Today

 

 

 

Tomorrow

 

 

 

Week

This week Monday to Sunday

 

 

Month

This month, 1st to last

 

 

Monday

Coming Monday

 

 

Tuesday

Coming Tuesday

 

Weekdays

Monday

Any Monday

 

 

Tuesday

Any Tuesday

 

Range

 

Days specified from - to

 

Approx

 

Specific date. + days before and after can be specified

 

Newer

 

Specific date

 

Older

 

Specific date

Status

Predefined

All but completed

 

 

 

Requires work

 

 

 

Work in progress

 

 

 

Proof

 

 

 

Needs correction

 

 

Equals

 

 

 

Starts with

 

 

 

Ends with

 

 

 

contains

 

 

 

in

 

 

 

Does not equal

 

 

 

Not starting with

 

 

 

Not ending with

 

 

 

Does not contain

 

 

 

Not in

 

 

 

Not

 

 

 

less

 

 

 

Greater than

 

 

 

Less and equals

 

 

 

Greater or equals

 

 

 

Range

 

 

 

Not in range

 

 

 

Empty

 

 

 

any

 

 

String

Equals

 

 

 

Starts with

 

 

 

Ends with

 

 

 

contains

 

 

 

in

 

 

 

Does not equal

 

 

 

Not starting with

 

 

 

Not ending with

 

 

 

Does not contain

 

 

 

Not in

 

 

Object

Is

 

Drop down lists values. Ctrl click to ad multible. Production codes, Production sites …

 

Is not

 

 

User

is

 

Drop down lists values. Ctrl click to ad multible. Select ME to filter logged in user

 

Is not

 

 

Status list

Filtering on status is vital to ADPOINT functionality. Please see Appendix B for details on operators and possible values

Code

Name

Manual

Remarks

  • 9 to -4

Special

 

 

-4

Booked

 

First step in workflow

-7

New Assets

 

 

-9

Killed

 

Booking cancelled

1 to 499

Progress

 

Intemediate as material are processed

3

Working

 

 

100

Ripping

 

 

108

Rip completed

 

 

110

Collecting RIP outputfile

 

 

200

Waiting for preflight

 

 

500 to 999

Waiting/paused

 

Waiting for user action

510

Arrived

 

Material processed without error

513

Waiting for external approval

 

Portal uploaded material waiting for customer to approve

514

Need correction

M

Corrections from internal QA

515

Production on hold

M

Production set on hold

516

To be produced

M

Ready for production

517

Internal proof

 

In internal QA

518

Customer proof

 

In Customer proof

519

Ready

M

Marks job ready – moves job to Sent

520

Work in progress

 

Production working the job

521

Need correction client

 

Annotations from Customer

522

Requesting material

 

Material request sent or waiting for internal user to upload material

524

Customer Ready

 

Customer approved material

527

Producer requested Input

M

 

528

Hooked

M

Marks job ready – moves job to Sent

529

Legal Proof

M

Extra proofing route

530

Contact customer

 

 

531

Customer contacted

M

 

534

At external Producer

 

Zip with production materialsent to external production partner

535

Client needs assistance

 

Customer requests assistance via portal repairing preflight errors

550

Close to material deadline

 

 

551

Close to proof deadline

 

 

552

1st mate. Reminder sent

 

 

575

Suborders not complete

 

Mother / Child ads, one or some children not complete

577

Approve with changes

 

When corrected no more customer proofs sent

578

Picked up

 

Layoutdocument picked up from another job

580

1st asset reminder sent

 

 

581

Close to asset deadline

 

 

1000 to 99999

Error

 

 

1001

Error

 

General not specified error

1002

Discontinued

 

Error in flow, cannot progress the job

1006

Illegal format

 

Illegal file format for type of ad

1007

Empty file

 

File has no content

1008

File lost

 

ADPOINT workflow lost the job. Upload again

1009

Stopped

 

Processing has stopped

1010

Preflight error

 

Preflight has found errors that may disturb printing

1011

Missing font

 

 

1014

Preflight timeout

 

 

1021

Can't convert to PDF

 

 

1022

Can't convert to postscript

 

 

1050

Rejected

 

User rejected file

1201

Unknown ref. nº

 

Material has not matched with booking

1202

Multiple ref. nº

 

Material finds multiple reference numbers

1205

Wrong number of colors

 

 

1206

Wrong size

 

 

1209

New version

 

New admaterial received after completion

1211

ADSystem Warning

 

AdSystem cannot be updated with status

1212

Wrong ad type

 

 

1220

No email or SMS

 

Missing address or cell

1221

Can't send email or SMS

 

Cannot send Email or SMS

1222

Proof deadline exceeded

 

 

90000

Multiple_errors

 

More than one error, mouse over or open details view

> 100000

Completed

 

 

100001

Completed

 

Partially complete in workflow

100002

Shifted

 

Partially complete in workflow

100005

Sent

 

Distribution file(s) sent to pagination or publishing system

100200

Resized

 

ADPOINT modification complete

100210

Cropped

 

ADPOINT modification complete

100220

Converted To Black & White

 

ADPOINT modification complete

100230

Trimmed whitespace

 

ADPOINT modification complete

100240

Added whitespace

 

ADPOINT modification complete

Definitions

Throughout this User Guide we refer to several topics related to ad production in general and to ADPOINT in particular. In this section, we’ll explain the meaning of these topics.

Workflow
In ADPOINT all actions that take place on an ad is defined by a workflow. The workflow is a sequence of tasks that are applied to the ad. All these tasks can be monitored through the history window. Status change accordingly and everybody involved can create a proactive list of tasks ToDo.  This is a typical workflow:

Booking – Ordernumber – Materialspecification
Order is booked in Ad Bookingsystem. All relevant data from bookingsystem is readily at hand in ADPOINT, Jobnumber, insertions, customer and contact, publications, production method and so on.

An order may have more than one material specified, different for insertions or even print and digital. As ADPOINT is basicly a material handling system it creates a “job” for each material specification.

Ordernumber

Materialspecification

00444

00444-01

00444

00444-02

00444

00444-03

This booking has three materials and show up as three lines in ADPOINT The ordernumber is the same for all three but the materialspecification is unique for each line. The numbering method varies for different bookingsystems so it may look different in your adpoint.

Sometimes ordernumber and the materialnumber is put together into the ADPOINT MatSpec as in the example above, sometimes the it is unique

Insertion – Firstinsertion
A MatSpec must have at least one insertion and can have more, on different dates or different titles on the same date. In this example there are three insertions, two different dates and two different titles.

MatSpec

Firstinsertion

InsertionDate

Title

00444-01

10-07-2016

10-07-2016

IX Daily

-

10-07-2016

11-07-2016

IX Daily

-

10-07-2016

11-07-2016

IX Weekly

Material must be ready for publication on the earliest insertion date so Firstinsertion is used to filter on materials that needs to be ready for any particular date. All deadlines are also calculated in relation to Firstinsertion.

  • Filter on Firstinsertion to see MatSpecs that needs to be ready for publication.

  • Filter on Date to see all Matspecs – also Matspecs produced ealier.

Status
Every booking or admaterial has a status at any given time. ADPOINT workflow progresses jobs from “Booked” to “Sent” through different routes and user actions.

Asset
Graphics, textdocuments, layoutdocuments … Everything you need to create the Ad Material to be published are regered as assets in Asset Management module DAM

Ad Material
PDF to be placed on page or HTML to go on site. Ad Materials come from customers or delivery services as “camera-ready” or they are produced in house in ADPOINT.

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