Digital Publishing Platform

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With the rapidly transforming trends and requirements of the digital age, pens and papers are being replaced by digital publishing platforms. Good digital publishing platforms not only enable organizations to distribute their publications online, but also allow collaboration between multiple readers and/or reviewers who are stationed several miles apart. However, these platforms must be designed with adequate security features to make sure all the online publication data is safe from any unauthorized access.

iENGINEERING has designed and developed a digital publication fulfillment platform that enables secure and convenient delivery of digital content over the internet. The platform consists of a web portal with integrated e-commerce features for digital delivery of publications in secure Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and/or web-based Extensible Markup Language (XML)/Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) formats. iENGINEERING uses industry standard DocBook (http://docbook.org) schema maintained by the DocBook Technical Committee of OASIS for web-based publishing. OASIS is a nonprofit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. The platform supports multiple content licensing models including single-user, network multi-user, and subscription-based licenses. Additionally, it provides interactive content features to deliver a rich user experience. Following is a summary of capabilities and key features of the iENGINEERING digital publication fulfillment platform.

Responsive Web Design

  • Support for responsive web design (RWD) to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to tablets and mobile devices).
  • Intuitive content organization providing quick access to tables, figures, references, bibliography, and other material. Provides access to web-friendly Table of Contents for easy navigation.

Multiple Licensing and Subscription Models

  • Ability to provide access for single-user and multi-user licensing models.
  • Ability to provide content access through subscription-based licensing.
  • Ability to provide limited content preview capability allowing users to experience the PDF and/or web-based publications before licensing.

Revision Marking and Content Sharing

  • Ability to show/hide revision markings. This feature allows users to see changes in the content with respect to previous editions of the given web-based publication.
  • Ability to add user-specific bonus/additional content to the web-based publications. User bonus/additional content can be shared with other users in a multi-user licensing model.
  • Ability to add user-defined notes at section, paragraph, figure, and/or equation levels. User-defined notes can be shared with other users in a multi-user licensing model.
  • Ability to integrate with instant messaging and other web-based helpdesk systems allowing end-users to ask questions. User questions can be forwarded to subject matter experts for responses.
  • Ability to link-in external publicly available content with web-based publications.
  • Ability to link-out a web-based publication with external publicly available content.
  • Ability to bookmark a web-based publication. User-defined bookmarks can be shared with other users in a multi-user licensing model.

Print and Download

  • Print chapters and sections in a printer-friendly format. Printed content includes security stamp with end-user information and copyright notice on the page footer.
  • Download chapters and sections in Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Option to allow PDF download of entire publications can also be provided. PDF download includes Adobe standard encryption and a security stamp with end-user information and copyright notice on the page footer.
  • Option to display synchronized content in side-by-side views. Side-by-side view allows a given standard to be displayed on the left side of the web page and standard commentary or related information on the right side of the web page for easy reading and referencing.

Third-party System Integration Support

  • Integration with customer’s existing membership management system for user identity and single-sign-on (SSO).
  • Integration with third-party payment gateways for real-time credit card payments.
  • Integration with third-party print-on-demand service providers.
  • Integrated full-text search allowing users to search content without licensing the web-based publication. Access to content may require licensing and/or privileges granted.

The iENGINEERING digital publication fulfillment platform is already being used by some notable organizations including the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). All these projects have received remarkable feedback from clients for enabling them to expand their customer base across the world.

Feature customization based on customer requirements is also available. Additionally. iENGINEERING provides portal hosting on the Amazon Web Services platform along with ongoing infrastructure and application support and maintenance of the portal.