MEI Releases InPorter Utility for K4 Publishing System

By: E&P Staff Managing Editor Inc. in Jenkintown, Pa., has released InPorter, an add-on utility it developed for the K4 Publishing System from vjoon (formerly SoftCare), based near Hamburg, Germany. Designed to help unify cross-media environments, it automates tasks that previously required manual intervention.

InPorter is a server-side tool that streamlines the moving of external content into K4, which integrates Adobe InDesign and InCopy for use in production. InPorter handles any kind of object that can be managed in the K4 system, including InCopy documents, InDesign layouts, pictures, ads, multimedia and more.

Using InPorter's Web interface, an administrator can configure workflows for different types of content to be dropped in InPorter's watched folders. When content arrives -- from a digital asset management system, wire service, database, syndication partner, Web site or another K4 publication -- InPorter checks it into K4, applying the defined metadata for that type of content. Files immediately show up on to-do lists of users to whom they've been assigned.

InPorter also has specific processing capabilities for XML content, automatically turning it into a new InCopy article and checking it into the K4 workflow with its metadata. Additionally, InPorter can tap into scripting and automation built into InCopy and Adobe InDesign Server to perform various functions to articles and layouts being imported into a K4 publication.

MEI Enterprise Sales Vice President Linda Bruce called InPorter a "multipurpose tool that provides the flexibility to publish to and from multiple channels with minimal impact to production."