05/18/2006.
DOC1 and e2 v5.3 Release Announcement

.DOC1 and e2 v5.3 Release Announcement

This document contains the following information about the DOC1 and e2 v5.3 release:

* Release Schedule - DOC1 and e2
* Platform Notes - DOC1 and e2
* Advice to customers on converting to 5.3 - DOC1 and e2
* Important information about earlier versions of DOC1 and e2
* Information on how to obtain a compete copy of the release notes - DOC1 and e2
* Information on how to obtain DOC1 and e2 Software
* Description of DOC1 and e2 Enhancements in this release

Release Schedules

Release schedule for DOC1

Series 5 v5.3 English

DOC1 5.3 (English only version) is available to ship beginning Monday May 15, 2006.

Series 5 v5.3 International

DOC1 5.3 for the international market will be available to ship to the field for GUI translation validation purposes on May 22, 2006. It is expected that the software will be available for general delivery 2 - 3 weeks after this delivery.

This release will be functionally identical to the DOC1 5.3 English version. (See the enhancements information below for a list of languages supported)

Series 5 v5.3 M1, M2, M3

Maintenance releases of 5.3 are scheduled at intervals of 4 - 5 weeks starting from the initial DOC1 5.3 delivery date.

Schedule:

M1 delivery is targeted on or about June 19, 2006.

Further Maintenance releases will be delivered at intervals of 4 - 5 weeks

NOTE: There will only be PTF and SCR resolutions included into the ongoing maintenance releases.

No NEW features will be put into the 5.3 maintenance releases.

Release schedule for e2

e2 v5.3

e2 v5.3 is a Global Release, supporting both the English, EMEA and Asia-Pac markets and is available to ship beginning Monday May 22, 2006.

e2 v5.3 M1, etc

The M1 Maintenance release of v5.3 will be made available four to five weeks following the GA Release. Subsequent maintenance releases will be made available as deemed necessary and as required by customer activity.

Platform Notes

DOC1 v5.3
The following platforms are not supported in the initial release of DOC1 Series 5 v5.3.

* HP11 - Support for this platform will come with the 5.3m1 version of the software

* SUSE Linux support - We intend to introduce a new platform in either 5.3M1 or 5.3M2

e2 v5.3
The following additional platforms are supported in the Global release of e2 v5.3.

* Sun Solaris v9 - The e2 Vault, e2 Service, Mobile Vault and e2 Present are fully supported. Please consult e2 Development for support for older versions of Sun Solaris.

* SUSE Linux Support - The e2 Vault, Mobile Vault and e2 Service components have been tested on both releases of Debian using version 2.4 and version 2.6 kernels.

* RedHat Linux Support - The e2 Vault, Mobile Vault and e2 Service have been tested on both releases of Debian using version 2.4 and version 2.6 kernels.

* IBM AIX Support - Support for e2 Vault, Mobile Vault and e2 Service will be available in the upcoming e2 v5.4 Release scheduled for Q3.availability.

* e2 Present platform support for Linux will be available in the upcoming v5.4 Release scheduled for Q3 availability.

Advice for Customers looking to convert to 5.3
To determine whether you should upgrade to this release, please consider the following:

1. Evaluate the impact of the enhancements listed below. If a new feature or enhancement can significantly improve your DOC1 or e2 applications, you should consider upgrading. Note that many of the enhancements in DOC1 and e2 v5.3 involve performance upgrades, new functionality, and improvements/extensions to existing functionality.

2. Evaluate your requirements for software corrections. See instructions later in this notice to find out how to view a complete list of corrections in DOC1 5.3. and e2 v5.3

3. For e2 users only - For those customers who already have an existing Windows-based e2 Vault and e2 Service implementation, the migration to a Sun Solaris or Linux platform has been architected to be totally seamless and transparent. Please contact e2 Development for further information on this or on other e2 components.

Important information for Customers on earlier versions of DOC1 and e2

DOC1 v5.3

There will be no further releases of the 5.2 EA version and no PTF resolutions. PTF resolution will continue for the 5.1 version. Customers who have not used any version of Series 5 should move directly to DOC1 5.3.

e2 v5.3

Customers who have not used any version of e2 Vault, e2 Service v5.x should move directly to e2 v5.3. For existing users of e2/DOC1 Present v4.x and v5.0, v5.1, or v5.2, or for other e2 products, please contact e2 Development or e2 Professional Services.

How to access complete DOC1 or e2 v5.3 release notes
Release notes for DOC1 5.3 are available on the DOC1 Support Net web site at www.group1software.co.uk <http://www.group1software.co.uk>. From the home page, select the Documents option and then select DOC1 5.3 Release Notes.

How to get DOC1 or e2 v5.3 shipped
Getting the latest release of Series 5 is easy. All customers who are current on maintenance just need to contact DOC1 customer support:

* In the Americas dial toll free 877-DOC1TEC / +1 952-846-7148
Email DOC1Support@g1.com <mailto:DOC1Support@g1.com>
* In Europe & the rest of the world dial +44 (0)1923 216010
* Email Support@group1software.co.uk <mailto:Support@group1software.co.uk>

Additionally, you can email Fulfilment@group1software.co.uk <mailto:Fulfilment@group1software.co.uk>

Enhancements Highlighted in Doc1 5.3

One solution available worldwide
Series 5 is architected to be UNICODE compliant, with this release we added full double byte character support (DBCS), and fully localized the user interface and help files. Series 5 is now available in 7 additional languages including Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

Keyed document objects and images support
Release 5.3 provides the flexibility to incorporate images and other forms of content dynamically within a DOC1 application. Now anything that users need to access in their documents - be it business logic, an image that exists inside the DOC1 repository, or an image that is external to the DOC1 repository - can be selected by simply assigning a "key" to it and matching that key with a corresponding element in your variable data file. This functionality eliminates the need for DOC1 users to easily create and maintain complex conditions within the designer.

Keyed object types are as follows:

* Keyed business logic - Includes/excludes document content via a business logic object
* Keyed internal images - Includes/excludes images contained within the DOC1 repository
* Keyed external images - Includes/excludes images residing outside the DOC1 repository, such as images stored in third-party solutions (i.e., enterprise content management (ECM) systems).

Single Instance Editor / Edit in Context
Users who employ Series 5's business logic functionality when designing documents will enjoy the following productivity enhancements:

* The business logic editor can now be opened directly from the business logic reference in the parent document on logic map.
* The business logic being viewed inherits the data context from its parent document. This means that the business logic editor better depicts how the business logic looks in the document.
* When the business logic is edited, the parent document updates automatically. Saving and issuing business logic is no longer required. This allows users to see the effects of changes in the parent document without creating new and possibly redundant revisions of the business logic in the repository.

Enhancements to increase usability and productivity

Significantly Faster Load, Save and Issue Speeds
The time it takes to load, save and issue within DOC1 was significantly decreased in 5.3. This provides our users with an improved end-user experience and boosts their day-to-day productivity.

Data-Driven Character Styles
This "style" function in DOC1 allows users to employ conditional logic to change the presentation of text dynamically. These changes include font, point size and font decoration settings such as color, bold, or underline.

DOC1 users benefit from the ability to create content once and then present it in a variety of different ways to aid in branding, increase personalization or assist readers with impaired vision.

Inline Editing of Address Block
DOC1's productivity boosting address block has been further enhanced with fewer mouse-clicks required to edit properties. Users can now quickly and easily edit the font characteristics of the address block by simply highlighting the text and selecting the appropriate font - all while in document view.

Enhanced Insertion Rules
Now it's easier for new users to quickly design and manage documents with better control over the items to be added to the logic map and their location. This prevents users from putting objects where they might cause document creation errors from faulty logic or invalid use of objects.

Smart Purge
A number of users have reported that their DOC1 repositories were growing increasingly large, often due to non-essential content that was stored within it. In many cases, users didn't know what content could be eliminated without damaging their repositories. With Smart Purge functionality, non-essential content can be purged from the repository to reduce repository size.

Table Enhancement
User productivity is increased with new cell merging functionality. Now all the user has to do is highlight the two (or more) table cells and select merge - what could be easier?

Expanded Toolbar
To further increase DOC1 user productivity, the toolbar now includes the most commonly used functions. This enhancement increases end-user productivity by reducing the mouse-clicks required to access the most commonly used functions.

Additional highlights

Streaming Text for Message 1 Users
Message 1 users have gained the flexibility to identify whether messages are placed only on specific pages, or whether messages are placed inline with other content that is managed through DOC1 Designer.

This feature allows additional messages to flow from page to page until all messages - mandatory and/or optional - have been placed on the document. The ability to incorporate more messages into documents makes additional cross-selling opportunities possible.

RTF Driver
DOC1 now has the ability to output RTF from DOC1 Generate. This means that users can provide text for viewing and editing in an RTF editor such as Microsoft Word.

e-HTML Driver
New with the release of 5.3 we have added the ability for DOC1 Generate to output HTML that is suitable for email delivery. This means that organizations now can utilize DOC1 to create dynamic, personalized email campaigns which will further reduce your print and mail costs.

Enhancements Highlighted in e2 v5.3

One solution available worldwide
e2 v5.3 is architected to be fully UNICODE compliant; with this release we enhanced the full double byte character support (DBCS), and provided the capability to customize the various Web interfaces to provide localization support and localized searching/retrieval of documents.

Major Highlights:

* e2 Vault support for Sun Solaris and Linux
* e2 Service support for Sun Solaris and Linux
* Transparent Platform Migration (from Windows to Unix)
* Initial release of new e2 Present Turnkey
* e2 Present Role-based Interfaces/Functionality
* e2 Present Site Manager
* e2 Present Site Designer
* New XML-based Keycode Structure for all e2 Products
* Enhanced code page support (Asia-Pac)
* e2 Vault Support for AFP Mixed Mode
* Indexing Performance Improvements for Asia-Pac
* Support for Demand-load Fonts (Asia-Pac)
* Unicode Support for Mobile Vault
* Unicode Support for PDF Output
* Enhanced GOCA/IOCA Support
* Full 32-bit Colour Support in e2 Vault and e2 Service
* Standard PDF Background Template Support
* Mobile Vault Support on Sun Solaris/Linux
* e2 Service Report Hierarchy, User-Level Security and Unicode Support
* Unified Client - Single Windows-based Interface with Unicode Support
* iProof Security Enhancements and Group Hierarchies

Specific Product Enhancements

e2 Vault Support

e2 Vault and e2 Service Support for Sun Solaris and Linix

The e2 Vault and the e2 Service components are now available to operate on the Sun Solaris v9.0 platform using either the Suse or RedHat variants (2.4 and the 2.6 Kernels) of Linux.

Transparent Windows Platform Migration

For existing e2 Vault and e2 Service implementations on Windows platforms, the v5.3 Release of e2 has been architected such that the migration from Windows to Solaris or Linux is totally seamless and transparent - involves the copying of all data and index files from one platform to another following the installation of the e2 Software.

AFP Mixed Mode Support

The e2 Vault now supports the ingestion, and indexing of AFP mixed mode print streams.

Mobile Vault Support for Sun Solaris and Linux

The Mobile Vault is now available on Sun Solaris and Linux platforms. This support involves the creation of the Mobile Vault portable packages. This does not include the packaged Viewer which still has to be run on a Windows-based platform.

e2 Service Support

Unified User Interface

All of the e2 Windows-based products such as Query Client, Query Designer, Service Reprint Admin, Service Client, and the RealProof client are now consolidated under a new, multi-mode common client that configures its available options and functionality based on license information.

Output encoding

The Windows client has a new text export dialog that lets you choose the output encoding. The client interface provides options for default, Western (ISO-8859-1) and Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE).

Report Hierarchy

The new Unified UI now has the capability to categorize specific documents into a hierarchy. This enables the use of e2 Service in a Report Archiving environment and in other cases where documents are logically organized in a hierarchical navigation tree.

e2 Present Support

e2 Present Turnkey

The e2 Present application is now available as a fully self-contained turnkey application. This robust and fully scalable Enterprise EBPP application incorporates all of the scalability, performance, ease of use, quick implementation and feature-set rich capabilities of both the previous DOC1 Present and Pay application and the previous Pitney Bowes D3A application in a customizable Turnkey application. Please call your Professional Services contact for details.

e2 Present Browser-based UI Roles

The UI is no longer tied to Windows and is completely browser based. The UI has been given a complete facelift to drastically improve its functionality and appeal. Please see the User Guide for a full set of functionality provided for each of the roles.

Site Manager

New in this release - Site Manager manages and deploys the website within the application server. The UI has been updated for ease of use and provides the user lead through during the deployment. It also provides the ability to intelligently redeploy changes to existing sites, so only changes are released.

Java Based Site Designer

The new Java-based Site Designer (formally known as Web Designer), is no longer tied to a Windows platform. Users can now choose the menu location either horizontal or vertical. In addition, all text that appears on the web site can be modified with the Site Designer.

Some additional functionality includes:

Enhanced Search and Replace Capabilities

User can change styles (Colors, Fonts, Buttons, etc)

More user customizable branding areas

e2 Internationalization Support

Using Unicode fonts when exporting AFP to PDF

The e2 Vault now allows you to specify Unicode font substitutions that support non-European languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Refer to the e2 Reference Guide for more information.

Indexing Performance

The e2 Vault's indexing performance when processing Unicode/double byte-based print streams has been improved by a factor of three to eight times (depending on the contents of the print stream). Please contact e2 Development for specific performance tuning.

Demand Load Fonts

The e2 Vault has full support for Unicode/double byte print streams which utilize subsetted fonts in the page stream. This will result in noticeable display response time improvements as well as increased efficiency in the integration with other applications.

Mobile Vault

The e2 Mobile Vault is able to extract, process and create portable packages from Unicode/double byte print streams and the built-in viewer supports the display of the various DBCS language sets.

e2 Query Support

File types

This version of Query Designer enables you to run queries against all of the major print streams types (AFP, Metacode, DJDE, Postscript) as well as generic file types such as text files.

Dual interface

Query Designer includes a dual interface allowing the user to view the original (graphical) document as well as the text file view.

Web Query (Client)

The new Web Query application extends the powerful features/functions of the Query Client onto the Browser platform without the need for any proprietary plug-ins. End-users can run perform powerful queries on the Query Designer defined query sets and either view the reports on screen or export the data to a number of flexible standard formats such as comma delimited, or structured/unstructured XML.

iProof Support

iProof Groups

iProof has been enhanced to provide group support to allow for easy administration of document access and function privileges. The documents and functions a user has access to are administered by the groups they belong to.

iProof Removes Rejects

iProof can now remove documents from a print stream once they have been rejected. Once a print stream has been released from iProof, the rejected documents are removed before the run is sent to production.

Other Key Features

Full 32-bit Colour Support

The e2 Vault, along with e2 Service now provides support for the rendering of documents in full 32-bit colour. This greatly enhances the visual quality of the displayed documents providing support for full colour images, gradients and graphics in both the Unified Client and for Browser-based display.

Standard PDF Background Template Support

The e2 Vault and Rendering Engine now have the ability to use standard PDF-formatted "pre-printed stock" (either customer supplied or e2 Professional Services generated) as background images for the document page data being rendered and displayed on screen and/or printed on local laser printers.

MediaBuilder Support

MediaBuilder is a new browser-based user application that provides an easy to use and powerful GUI interface for the creation of Mobile Vaults. Multiple index range extractions and customizable output package sizes are available features as well as a customizable output package size (ie. CD, DVD, etc)

For more information on any of these capabilities or on how these products and others from Group 1 Software can help your organization, please contact your Group 1 Software Sales and/or Support team.

Full news listing