Basic questions on InDesign server

Hi All,
I'm studying InDesign server and have some basic doubts which are given below:
(1) I've already developed using JS/VB.net, can I directly use those tools directly in InDesign server without modifying anything?
(2) How to practice with InDesign server, since I didn't find any trial version of InDesign server?
(3) Since InDesign server not having any UI, how we an run, any basic ideas?
Thanks,
Praveen

1. That depends on what you have developed... User interface elements are no good in server code, for example.
2. I guess the best way would be to become an Adobe partner http://partners.adobe.com/.
But: there is a trial version if InDesign Server: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=indesign_server
3. InDesign server and desktop are essentially the same. Primarily I would suggest developing on the desktop version.
Logging to file, and starting InDesign Server with a console open are two ways of debugging on the server.
Message was edited by: Andreas Jansson. Adding info since I just noticed that there is a trial version of InDesign Server.

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http://toddmcdermid.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/quick-reference-ssis-in-32-and-64-bits.html
Why do I get "product level is insufficient..." error when I run my SSIS package?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michen/archive/2006/11/11/ssis-product-level-is-insufficient.aspx
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Thanks Shiven:) If Answer is Helpful, Please Vote

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Mike Yin
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I have successfully created a js based datamerge using the soap example
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Option Explicit Off
Partial Class vbcreate
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Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
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End Sub
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Thanks for the reply!
I cross posted deliberately as no one had even read the entry in the server forum, you'll see that it is days older, mea culpa for not including the relevant link/hightlighting the cross post.
To answer your other questions
I am refering to Indesign COM objects; as you'll see from the code excerpt I have instantiated an app object (app = CreateObject("IndesignServer.Application")) successfully added a template file (doc = app.Open("C:/Adobe InDesign CS5.5 Server SDK/samples/sampleclient-aspnet-soap/files/template2.indd")) assigned the data merge data source (doc.DataMergeProperties.SelectDataSource(ds)) but it then falls down when the actual datamerge is called.
FYI, I have tried this in C#, vb.net and even classic ASP (vbscript) because of the typeing issues with c# and they all fall down at the same point.
I have a JSX version of this; this works fine if I pass it Indesign Server using SOAP (I am using the bundled sample soap script at the moment which is in Adobe InDesign CS5.5 Server SDK\samples\sampleclient-aspnet-soap), the datamerge works and the files are created fine.
I am using 7.5.1 (the trial was downloaded last week).
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Thanks for all of the replies.
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> Hello all,
> I have some basic questions on XI and File Adapter
> and hope you can help me. Any answer is appreciated.
>
>
> 1. Can I use NFS transport protocol to poll a file
> from a machine in the network, which is not the XI?
yes
> Or do I have to use FTP instead?
>
also you can do it
> 2. If I understand it correctly - when using the
> FTP-File Adapter, XI has the role of a ftp client. I
> have to run a ftp server on my distant machine. XI
> connects to FTP-Server and polls the file.
> Can it also be configured the other way round? The
> scenario I think of would be: FTP client installed on
> distant machine, which connects to FTP-Server(XI) and
> loads up a file. So XI would act as FTP Server.
> I know this works, if I install a ftp Server on the
> computer my XI runs on, and use the NFS-File Adapter
> to observe the folder. But I want to know, if I need
> a second, independant ftp server for this.
>
XI cannot act as FTP server, but it is always a client. When XI is reading (File sender adpater) when XIis writing than it is File Receiver adapter
> 3. And last but not least: When do I need the active
> ftp mode instead of passive?
>
It depends on your firewall configuration. The best and the fastests is active mode but not always available.
> Thanx a lot for your answers!
> Ilona

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After I stumbled upon this post javascript - InDesign Script: export to IDML - Stack Overflow I found the option dataMergeProperties.selectDataSource(csv file).
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var myDocument = app.open(File("C:\\inetpub\\wwwroot\\indesign\\test.indd"));
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Thanks in advance for all the answers.

Hi, JP43.
For what it's worth, your question is on the boundary between the scripting forum and the general forum.
So from what I've learned thus far, to be complient with most suppliers, I must use some file format like postscript or eps,
This seems a bit peculiar. The obvious format for your document output would be PDF. PostScript and EPS seem weird choices, though certainly conceivable (well, I don't think you can have multi-page EPS files, but you can certainly have 20 EPS files and you can have multi-page PostScript files, but they tend to be output-device specific, though they need not really be).
What is your supplier doing with the file? Are they a printer? A specialty industry auditor? Or something else? If they're a printer, they should be asking for a PDF, I think.
Though it's also possible what they want is a less final output format that humans can deal with in other applications, such as Microsoft Word. A lot depends on the workflow. Anyhow, back to the main question:
and to do this, it looks like InDesign Server might be what I'm looking for.
Note that it's not a requirement that you use InDesign Server, and at $22,000/license, depending on your volumes, it may make sense to just use InDesign Desktop. The standard InDesign EULA doesn't let you drive its automation remotely, but if you have a human being walk up to a computer and start a script that reads 500,000 input files and produces 500,000 output files, I think that is in compliance.
Replacing your bullets with numbers:
1. Create a kind of IDML template using InDesign on a desktop computer2. in our .net application, modify the IDML for each participant to personalize it (a lot of conditional code to remove sections of text, and inject numbers, etc).
3. Send each (or a batch is feasable) to the InDesign Server to prepare for publishing into postscript/eps files
4. and if feasable, also create a PDF of each because we need to keep a digital version of the document on the client's corporate SharePoint (for legal reasons).
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Indesign server web service - where is the support to upload a file with the script and download the result?

Hi,
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What do you mean with POC?
InDesign Server is too precious (i.e. license cost) to waste its time with file transfers.
For a smaller scale, let a separate process (some http or smb server) on the same server hardware handle the files - so that the InDesign Server can access them on the fastest local volume.
If you plan for bigger, use a dedicated server for file sharing (your choice of SMB, NFS or whatever), where the input files are prepared by the client process, so that your load balancer can immediately point the next free instance of the InDesign server farm to the file. In that case be prepared for some try and error - high speed file sharing can be tricky with files written from one side not yet visible or incomplete to the other side, locking problems, Unicode file name trouble, unexpected time stamps and so forth.
Btw, there is also an InDesign Server forum which would be more appropriate for such discussions.
Dirk

Developer Update for InDesign Server Developers

Hello all,
If you are creating plug-ins for the Creative Suite of Adobe applications, you'll want to attend this ninety minute session for an update on developing plug-ins for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Bridge, Version Cue, and XMP.
Topics include the C and C++ APIs, Extendscript and other developer details. Dan Brotsky, Chief Architect for the Creative Suite, will discuss highlights of the Version Cue SDK, and the Creative Suite Activation Software. This presentation is not for the technically faint of heart expect high technology at high speed!
This session will be recorded for later review, and a summary document made available for reference.
Who should attend? Any developer that is interested in creating plug-ins for any products in the Creative Suite.
May 3rd. 9:00 am to 10:30 am PST
Free
Online via Acrobat Connect - watch from your desktop - no special software require to participate.
Register at:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=883099&loc=en_us
MNR

I have spent some time geting Java automation to work with InDesign, it's not my favorite language but I learned some things that may help and put them into some course content that Adobe should put out shortly; will post here when it is available online.
Our company, Silicon Publishing, provides general InDesign Server automation training, though we don't have a current offering that specifically targets Java we teach some of the basics of working with Java (many unique techniques!) and could arrange a limited form of training.
The documentation and samples with the SDK should take you part of the way there: for specific scripts, it has been helpful to us to get things working in an easier-to-write (i.e. JavaScript) script first, then translate such a script to Java, taking into account the unique characteristics of the language and various tactics (outlined in the SDK documentation) to address these.
Max
Max Dunn
Silicon Publishing
www.siliconpublishing.com
[email protected]

Basic questions on InDesign server

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