How often have you heard promise of an automated workflow with seamless integration?

What do automated and seamless really mean, anyway?

In a perfect world, they would mean that you could take pages of editorial along with advertisements, drop them into a digital funnel and find them all fully composed on the right page in the right section of the right edition as they roll off the presses. The same original content would simultaneously reflow into a Web page layout.

Every color would match every proof, every time, regardless of which brand you use. Hardware and software from Agfa, alfaQuest, Anitec and countless other vendors would work together harmoniously in a single workflow.

Meantime, different databases would commingle, not just merely import each other’s files. But both databases would understand the same set of instructions and automatically execute them.

Now how close is anyone to fulfilling such a promise? Closer than you might think.

XML: What it is

First and foremost, XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, is the key to a truly seamless, automated workflow. The brainchild of the W3 (World Wide Web) Consortium, XML is the descendant of HTML, or HyperText Markup Language. Both were developed to enable and facilitate online communications.

While related, the difference between the two is similar to having two Lamborghinis - one without an engine and one with an engine and a satellite GPS system.

They both look just as awesome. But one includes real-time navigation and can get you from point A to point B very swiftly and without any detours.

Both HTML and XML are markup languages. A markup is a tag or a code that identifies information. For example, if I wrote, “Bush (president) is burning,” the parenthesis, or “tag” would tell you I was referring to George W., not Moses. 

HTML tags, however, only describe how a page looks. It would indicate that Bush is boldfaced, for example. XML goes much further. It would let me know that Bush is a person, a president and must always be handled a certain way.

XML is extensible. That means that unlike HTML tags, which are fixed, XML tags are unlimited. You can add as many descriptors as you like. In addition, XML can be supplemented with other files, which further define and extend the instructions.

This is why you can apply the same content to a template for a Web page and for print. Both will look different but the elements of the content will go into their proper places. XML understands the difference between text and graphics and treats them accordingly.

In summary, HTML tells how to display content. XML explains how to display it, what to do with it and how to deliver it.

The beauty of it

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about XML is that no one owns it, not even Bill Gates. Everyone has access to it and everyone wins from using it. It is completely open. Although it was developed primarily to automate e-commerce transactions, it works just as powerfully within a manufacturing enterprise to drive and automate systems.

And not just systems from the same vendor or manufacturer. With XML, users can mesh rival systems and software. Thanks to XML, Agfa’s Arkitex workflow software can instruct a Creo Trendsetter computer-to-plate system. Conversely, Creo’s IntelliNet modules can be integrated with Arkitex.

Because XML allows competing products to talk to each other, they can be integrated seamlessly.  That applies to hardware as well, because today all equipment is software driven. The CIP4 (www.cip4.org) refers repeatedly to “interoperability” between systems in multivendor environments.

Interoperability is made possible by XML-based standards.

XML will allow organizations to save the enormous cost of translating information from one form to another. It will enable transmission of data from one print site to another without having to re-enter or rework content.

By describing how the elements of a page or the imposition of a plate should be executed, XML will automate planning and process execution. 

Online transactions and data transmission are becoming core to the newspaper enterprise. XML automates this process while eliminating redundancies.

The caveat

Charles Hoffman, an author of “The XML Files,” describes XML as an “information-understanding” standard. It “allows people and computers to easily search, sort, move, display, personalize, adapt and otherwise manipulate information while maintaining its context and internal relationships,” he explains.

The benefits are clear for the newspaper enterprise; however, the operative word here is  ”standard.” XML is able to integrate and automate within a specific industry because it uses standard descriptors or “tags.”

That means that every industry must agree upon standards and provide users with formats for creating those standards in an XML document. This is key to interoperability across systems, sites and organizations. It is the thinking behind standards such as those defined by CIP4 in the JDF standard for commercial printing or AdsML  (www.adsml.org) for the delivery of advertising across print, Internet and broadcast media.

I am confident that creating standards will not be an issue for the newspaper industry. Ifra and the Newspaper Association of America are already involved.  In addition, XML-based data exchange between formats such as print and Web are already in place at major newspapers. The “enter once publish many” rule already lives.

The conclusion

A seamless, automated workflow is right around the corner. XML has already permeated a number of industries - such as banking, which relies heavily on online transactions.

In the news business, XML is already playing a role in online transactions and Web content delivery. It is beginning to take its place in print production in workflow software. When it becomes mainstream, it will allow end-to-end automation - from content creation and planning to press settings and packaging - even shipping.

Rosemarie Monaco is president of Group M Inc., a marketing communications and consulting firm specializing in the graphic arts. Send comments and questions to rmonaco@groupm.org.