Adobe’s new nine-week development cycle has yielded a number of new enhancements and future plans for Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. It’s clear that this new development interval will better enable Adobe to develop releases that have more substance and scope. Today, Zeke Koch, Adobe’s Senior Director of Product Management, reviewed the latest release of DPS, Version 25, which includes several bug fixes and numerous new features. Here are the highlights:

HOT ITEMS

iOS 6.1 and Adobe Viewer Bug A critical issue was recently discovered that can cause app crashing while the iOS device is in Airplane mode. This has the potential to impact all previous versions of the viewer. A fix is due to be released today for v25 and also for v24.

New DPS Status Page To check on the status of DPS services to be sure that they are up if you are experiencing issues, you can now go to http://status.adobedps.com/.

Scalability and Reliability Such functionality will continue to improve over the next few releases while Adobe migrates distribution servers to Amazon and separate various services for performance improvements.

2013 DPS Mission

Enable publishers to create, publish, promote, and monetize their content on any screen.

Targeted areas for improvement are:

  • Improve scalability and reliability
  • Increase readership
  • Reduce multiple-device publishing costs
  • Build native viewers
  • Expand into dailies and catalogs

Library UI Improvements

If you are on Enterprise and have not yet taken advantage of what can be done with a custom library viewer, you are missing a substantial promotion, cross-promotion, and upsell opportunity, not to mention the ability to enhance and expand the interface. Several changes are included for the library viewer in this release:

  • Larger cover images
  • Simplified main page
  • Issue preview pane
  • Simplified folio view
  • Optional sign-in for Enterprise

In addition, the library navigation has been simplified, taking the Browse button from the upper right and merging it into the scrubber bar at the bottom. The left and right arrows have also been removed. There will also be an option that allows hiding of the top navigation bar in the folio view to create a  more kiosk-like experience, where navigation can be placed within the content.

Reader Conversion

In the interest of converting readers to subscribers in as many ways as possible, Adobe will start to increase entry points to content. Some options include:

  • The ability to make the latest issue available for free to first-time app users. Adobe will track the the process so that if the free issue is not downloaded at first view, it can notify user in the interest of engaging the potential customer with the free issue and upselling to a subscription. If the app is deleted and re-downloaded, the system will remember which issue was available for free.
  • Support for subscription purchases directly from a folio.
  • Automatically launch a newly downloaded issue.

Publishing Pain Points

Several improvements in this and subsequent planned releases aim to reduce the effort for building and testing apps. Specifically, these are:

  • Improving viewer in-app payment testing with the Amazon Store. See developer.amazon.com/sdk/in-app-purchasing/documentation/testing-iap.html for more detailed information.
  • The ability to change subscription offers dynamically, without having to update the app.
  • Enhanced APIs for publishing system vendors to integrate automated folio publishing and metadata updates for articles.

Content Aggregation (iOS only)

Content aggregation opens up opportunities for publishers to sell folio content through aggregators, allowing a single stream of content in both the original publication and the aggregator publication. It’s also a great opportunity for an original publisher to create compilation apps that combine folios, such as annuals, tearsheets, or “best of” types of publications. Downloads and analytics for aggregated publications would be managed via the agreggator’s account. Adobe will work with select publishers to implement the first phases of this functionality.

iOS6 Social Sharing

The sharing functions in iOS 6 for Facebook and Twitter have finally been enabled in DPS to allow direct interaction between the two without having to created the separate, DPS-specific sharing functions. This creates a more stable and seamless user experience.

Analytics Reporting

Downloads – New reports for Downloads Per Week and Downloads Balance will now be available in both the reports section as well as the main dashboard sidebar.

Video – Duration played, completion time, and completion status tracking will be new options available for tracking future published content.

Expected in Release 26

  • Greater scalability and reliability
  • Improved security mechanisms
  • Improved Newsstand downloads to allow for partial, resume, and background download while view starts
  • Improved download time, including the ability to stream video and audio
  • PDF support on both iOS and Android viewers
  • Enhancements to Web Viewer to allow embedding in publisher websites to track hits and also manage privacy at the publisher
  • Article Viewer on iPad/Safari with iOS Smart App Banner and paywall support, minus TOC and article navigation
  • Open access to new readers (iPhone 5, iPhone-only apps)
  • Beginnings of Voiceover accessibility support for 508c compliance (HTML only)
  • Expansion for China distribution
  • Ability to schedule by on-sale date
  • Preparations for CS7 support

Additional information has been posted by Adobe and can be found on its What’s New in This Release page.

If you’d like additional clarification about this latest release or need guidance on how to best implement it, you can contact us for assistance.

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Posted by: Margot Knorr Mancini

Margot Knorr Mancini
A thought leader in the publishing industry, Margot Knorr Mancini has helped numerous publishers redefine their missions to become nimble content generators with the ability to repurpose content easily and efficiently. As Founder & CEO of Technology for Publishing, her analytical mind allows her to remain a step ahead of the industry, recognizing early trends and developing pivotal best practices.
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