Using Asset Templates with AEM Assets and InDesign Server using-asset-templates-with-aem-assets-and-indesign-server

AEM Assets Template lets marketers create, manage and deliver digital assets for digital and print. Creating marking brochures, business cards, flyers, ads and post cards are much easier with Assets Templates when integrated with InDesign server.

NOTE
For steps on configuring InDesign Server please review Set up Assets Templates with InDesign Server.

Overview overview

This video walks through the concepts and steps for generating print-ready assets in AEM, using Adobe InDesign, Adobe InDesign Server and AEM Assets.

Transcript
Adobe Experience Manager can be used as a print file engine allowing content authors to generate print ready documents by adding content to an Adobe InDesign file template and saving out renditions designed for high resolution print output. This is made possible by running Adobe InDesign Server in conjunction with Adobe Experience Manager. InDesign Server is the rendering engine found in the Adobe InDesign CC desktop design application, now harnessed by Adobe Experience Manager. The InDesign file used in Adobe Experience Manager as a template is a typical InDesign file with one important difference. I’ve identified various elements of this file, some text blocks and images and made them tagged elements. Adobe Experience Manager can identify and operate on these tagged elements, swapping out content but not effecting any formatting, ensuring design intent. Here are a few examples of using a template to generate some derivative print files. I’ll create a customized brochure document designed for download as a print ready PDF by going to the template section in Adobe Experience Manager and choosing create brochure.
Select an InDesign template to base this custom brochure on. I’ve already uploaded one so I’ll choose it here. Now in design mode notice Adobe Experience Manager shows me the editable fields on the right side, the tagged elements that I created in the InDesign file.
Select any of these tagged elements and change the content from the default found in the template.
I’ll search for an image and drag this thumbnail over the image element on the right side. Click preview to preview the results. Similarly I can select any of these text fields and edit their contents in the editable text field and preview the results. Click done when you’re done.
Be sure to choose the save PDF option to create that print ready PDF file.
Now you can export this customized brochure document as a print ready PDF.
Adobe Experience Manager catalog producer can automate the creation of a multi-page print product catalog based on an Adobe InDesign template file and combining it with content from the Adobe Experience Manager e-commerce module, essentially a product database. In order to automate the creation of multiple product pages for a print PDF, we first create a new product page and select the product ID from those available in the e-commerce module and complete a one-time association of tagged fields in the template file with metadata fields from the product database.
Instead of filling the editable fields with any ad-hoc data or image choices, we choose a product from the e-commerce module which has all the appropriate data and images already assigned to it, and link the metadata fields together for use in any subsequent page generation.
The metadata association mapping dragging product metadata values onto the tagged fields in the template will make this an even more powerful template for use with other product choices later.
In this example I’ll associate six text fields and one image by dragging over the appropriate values from the product record to the correct template tagged fields.
Once completed and this page is saved, Adobe Experience Manager can create similar pages by choosing a list of other products you wish to have generated from the tagged and mapped contents of this starting catalog page.
This will create resulting individual product pages by merging the appropriate information, image and product metadata for each individual page.
When saving this collection of pages as a new catalog, choose save PDF to have a multi-page print ready PDF created, ready for download and distribution.
Easily add professional print output capabilities to your Adobe Experience Manager instance by combining AEM managed content into professional industry standard InDesign files with powerful output options driven by a seamless integration of Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe InDesign Server.

Technical overview technical-overview

This video provides a more technical overview of AEM Assets Assert Template functionality, and how AEM facilitates the composition of AEM Assets and contents by way of InDesign to create rich, compelling print experiences.

Transcript
Asset templates in AEM 6.3 is a one-stop solution for marketers to create, manage, and deliver rich print experiences, such as brochures, flyers and banners using the power of AEM and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Let’s get started and see some of the capabilities for AEM assets template.
Before we get started, make sure your AEM instance is up and running, and then open the AEM homepage in the browser window.
Currently, I’m logged in as a marketer.
From navigation, click on “AEM assets”, and then select the “Templates” option. As a we.retail marketer for the upcoming winter campaign, I would like to create digital printable content like brochures, flyers, and ads that I would like to share with our outlet stores globally.
It is much easier to create different printable materials based on a specific template. This will help us create a unified customer experience over different channels.
Designers can create the winter campaign template using InDesign and then upload the template to AEM assets for marketers to create brochures or other printable materials.
I would like to impersonate as a designer now, and upload an InDesign file that I created for the winter campaign under the AEM asset template.
Click on the “User” icon and then select the designer profile and then click “Okay”.
Click on the “Create” button and select the file upload option.
Select a we.retail template created for the winter campaign from your local machine and then click on “Upload”.
Your AEM instance should be integrated with the InDesign server for extracting data from the InDesign template and storing it in your AEM instance. Steps to integrate the InDesign server with an AEM can be found in a separate video.
Once the file is uploaded and processed, marketers can go ahead and create printable materials using this template.
Now, I’m logging back in as a marketer, and let’s create a brochure.
Click on the “Create” button and then select “Brochure”.
Select the template with InDesign recently uploaded and then click “Next”.
Provide a name for the brochure, and optionally provide a description and then click on “Create”.
You should be able to see a success message and then open the window brochure.
On the left side of the window, we have the asset finder and the text properties capability for content editing. On the right panel, we have the editable fields for customization.
Each customizable field is considered as a tag in Adobe InDesign.
Designers can mark certain objects in the InDesign file as editable or tag them, which later can be used for the marketers for editing or customization.
Click on one of the editable text fields, and you should be able to see the text properties on the left side panel.
The user can make changes to a text field by changing the color or font size. Let’s go ahead and make a change to the page one title.
Rename the existing title as Welcome Window 2017, and mark the text as board.
You can also navigate to a different page in the template by clicking on the left or right pagination arrows. This also lets you zoom in or zoom out.
We had made some changes in page one. Now, let’s move to page two and replace the existing image.
The user also has the option to replace images associated with the original template with new or more appealing images from your DAM content.
Let’s click on the asset finder and look for an image of a mountain to replace a core woman image.
Click on the selected image and drag and drop the image to the editable field. You can now notice that the editable field image icon has changed to our new image.
Let’s navigate to the next page. On page three, you can see that the editable fields has a list of images and text values.
Images in the editable fields have a missing icon. It is important to map all the images used in the template to an existing asset in AEM to be able to create a new template or preview them.
The user can search for an image under asset finder and map those images to the editable field images.
After mapping all the images, you should be able to see that the “Click to preview option” is enabled.
You second preview the template created by simply clicking on the “Preview” option. The user can preview the template by simply clicking on the “Preview” option.
Now, you should be able to see all of our changes before we complete creating the template.
Clickon “Done”, and you should be able to see an export option window. Select the PDF checkbox to create a PDF rendition for the template created and click on “Continue”.
Once a template is processed, click “Open the template” and check for different renditions available.
Click on the PDF rendition, and you should be able to download it.
Let’s open the downloaded PDF rendition to do a final preview of all our changes before we ship it to our stores globally.
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