Clients often struggle with adding simple annotation capabilities to Documentum or Alfresco. Brava, PDF Annotation Services, Snowbound and Annodoc are all solutions we see regularly at clients. Issues with these solutions include:
- Price – per user licensing can be difficult to justify for casual or external users.
- Support – most tools require a client side component that can be difficult to deploy or support.
Based on client requests, TSG has developed a dramatically different solution.. OpenAnnotate is a free thin client tool that allows users to review and annotate PDF documents directly within their web browser.
Summary of OpenAnnotate Key Features:
- No Client Machine Dependencies
Thin Client viewer allows users to view and annotate documents directly in their browsers without dependencies on Adobe Reader or other viewing applications.
- Leverages Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Systems
TSG’s OpenContent Web Services are utilized to store and retrieve annotations from an Enterprise Content Management system of your choice (i.e. Documentum, Alfresco, SharePoint, etc.)
- Secures Document Distribution
Users only have access to image renditions of individual document pages preventing them from downloading an entire document and distributing it outside of the managing application.
- Powered by Adobe LiveCycle Transformation Engine
TSG’s OpenContent Web Services are utilized to request document image renditions from either Adobe LiveCycle or an Open Source transformation engine.
- Integrates with Documentum Webtop – View Demo
A Documentum Webtop Connector is available allowing users to review documents directly from Webtop. OpenAnnotate will even display annotations originally generated using Documentum PDF Annotation Services.
OpenAnnotate also has the ability to integrate with TSG’s High Performance Interface (HPI) designed to run on an Enterprise Content Management system of your choice.
TSG does not charge a licensing fee to use OpenAnnotate.
Under the Hood:
OpenAnnotate leverages Adobe LiveCycle or other Open Source software to transform PDF documents into image files that can be viewed within a web browser. Google Web Toolkit is utilized to provide an interactive user interface for annotating. Additionally, OpenAnnotate integrates with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems through TSG’s OpenContent Web Services, allowing OpenAnnotate to store and retrieve annotations without being tied to one specific ECM platform. OpenAnnotate reads and saves annotations in Adobe’s standard XFDF format, so annotations are compatible with all other tools leveraging XFDF, including Documentum’s PDF Annotation Services.