Pull Workflows in a JDF Environment

The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Pre-press, Press and Postpress Organization (CIP4) provides a technical standard for reliable interoperability between different hardware and software vendors in the print media industry. The standard is based on the Job Definition Format (JDF), an XML-based job ticket, and the Job Messaging Format (JMF), a job messaging protocol. This book covers the design and implementation of pull workflows in a JDF environment, based on the JDF Specification v1.3. Usually, controllers submit jobs to workers. In order to keep track of the workers, information about their statuses and capabilities has to be updated continuously. This can get time and network consuming in larger implementations. Pull workflows can help to tackle these prob-lems. As part of this book, Bambi has been developed. Bambi is a set of J2EE applications for simulating pull workflows. A library covering its core functionality is provided as well.