Seamless Integration of the CONTENTSERV Media Database in the Work Environment of Graphical Service Providers
As of release 5.3, image and layout data stored in the media database of the CONTENTSERV Enterprise Marketing Management solution can no longer only be adapted by authorized users via the webbased system or processed and uploaded externally.
The media database CS MAM-Suite now can be integrated into the Mac OS X operating system via a simple desktop program, the CSTP Receiver. The CONTENTSERV Transmission Protocol (CSTP) was specially designed for this purpose. It is thus possible to respond directly to operating system related functions and applications such as Adobe® InDesign® or Adobe® Photoshop® from the browser application.
In plain language this means that centrally managed assets, such as image data and InDesign® files open directly in the desktop programs of Mac users from the CS MAM-Suite web application and can be processed as usual. This takes place directly via the file system that is mounted on the workplace and managed by MAM. Time is no longer lost waiting for data to be downloaded, locally processed and then uploaded again. There is no danger that exactly the same data is being processed elsewhere at the same time by another user who then overwrites their own changes when they are saved.
Assets are checked out automatically from the media database before they are opened in the local application. As long as they are being processed no other user can access the file in the MAM-Suite. Assets are thus protected from parallel processing. As soon as a file is stored and closed, it can be checked into the media database again via a simple Mac OS X menu command.
This ought to be particularly interesting for agencies and media service providers which work mainly with Mac environments; their Photoshop® and InDesign® professional users can access all of their program functions and options without changing their usual method of working.
More information on CONTENTSERV Release 5.3 and its new features can be found under www.contentserv.com.