TSG is happy to announce our new Documentum D2 plugin that allows Documentum D2 users to leverage OpenAnnotate for their PDF annotation needs. OpenAnnotate is a next generation web based annotation tool (no client side components) that allows users to quickly create rich annotations on a PDF document or rendition.
Documentum PDF Annotation Services End of Life
As mentioned previously, Documentum’s PDF Annotation Services (PAS) is no longer supported, and many clients are looking for alternative interfaces for annotating documents during review and approval. TSG’s open source OpenAnnotate provides a drop in replacement for users looking for a seamless transition.
Look for an update here soon, but OpenAnnotate can also be installed as a drop-in replacement for CSC AnnoDoc, another product that is going out of support.
OpenAnnotate as an Enhanced Replacement
For users that are familiar with Documentum PDF Annotation Services (PAS), OpenAnnotate serves as a drop-in replacement for more than just the simple “Review and Approve” annotation tool. We have had many clients see the additional value of using OpenAnnotate as a collaboration tool to shorten and streamline the authoring and editing process. We have also started to see users leverage OpenAnnotate as a viewer. Using OpenAnnotate as a viewer allows users to quickly view the document, but also lets users see the annotations on the document at the same time without having to launch a separate interface. We have also started to see OpenAnnotate be deployed in a Digital Asset Management use case, which lets users annotation on top of Images (jpeg, png, gif, tiff) in addition to just documents.
Documentum D2-Config and OpenAnnotate
For users unfamiliar with D2, the earliest versions (D2 3.1) took a “Configuration Only” approach, which can limit what users are able customize with the interface. This was a different approach than previous Documentum interfaces where extensive “customizability” in Webtop and its WDK framework allowed. For our D2 integration, we were able to use the out of the box ‘launchIE’ method to launch OpenAnnotate. By default, this method includes all of the parameters needed, like the objectId, the repository to connect to, and a ticket for the user.
As of the 4.1 release of D2, there is a documented API for adding plugins that allow for adding more robust actions. Using the “IPluginAction” interface, we were able to develop a rich integration that allows us to make use of the dm_server_config object for configuring the location of OpenAnnotate. Once the plugin has been developed and installed, it is easy to add it as an action and configure any conditions that dictate when the action should appear.
Let us know your thoughts on your current annotation solution in the comments below!