The JDF/JMF interface enables job submission to PRISMAdirect and provides job status feedback for JDF-enabled client applications. It does this by enabling one or more configurable JMF endpoints which listen for and react to JMF messages received over HTTP from the JDF Clients.
The JDF Clients can submit a job to PRISMAdirect by sending a specific JMF message and specifying the JDF ticket and the Data files to be attached. The following scenarios are supported for submission of a new job:
JMF message with link to JDF ticket
The JDF Client sends a JMF message that specifies a URL (HTTP, FILE) where the JDF ticket can be found. The JDF ticket must be available at the specified URL. The JDF ticket will contain URL(s) that refers to the Data Files that must be attached to the job. The Data Files must be available at the specified URL(s). The JMF Server must handle the download of the JDF ticket and the Data Files from the specified URL(s).
MIME with link(s) to Data Files
The JDF Client sends a MIME multipart message that contains the JMF message and the JDF ticket. The JMF message must contain a CID URL pointing to the body part of the MIME message that contains the JDF ticket. The JDF ticket contains URL(s) referencing the Data Files. The Data Files must be available at the location specified by the URL(s). The JMF Server must handle the download of the data files from the specified URL(s).
MIME that includes the Data Files
The JDF Client sends a MIME multipart message containing the JMF message together with the JDF ticket and the Data Files. The JMF message contains a CID URL pointing to the part of the message that specifies the JDF ticket. The JDF ticket must contain one or more CID URL(s) that point to the part(s) of the MIME message that contain the Data File(s).
For more details and examples related to the described scenarios, see SubmitQueueEntry (section 5.11.10) and JDF Packaging (section 8.3) in the JDF Specification 1.3.
The JMF Server must obtain the JDF ticket and the attached data files which will be used to create a new job in PRISMAdirect. Because internally PRISMAdirect works with a PD ticket, the JDF ticket must be “converted” and the values from it must be transferred to a PD ticket. For this the system will use a mapping table (JDF-to-PD) which specifies “what values to take from the JDF ticket and where to put them in the PD ticket”.
PRISMAdirect will also create an Order into the system as jobs in PRISMAdirect must belong to Orders. The ItemValues in the orderticket will also be mapped based on the same mapping table
When required by the JDF Client, the system will expose the status of the jobs. The values for the status are specific to PRISMAdirect. The system will offer the possibility to customize these values to Client specific job statuses. For this again a mapping table (PD-to-JDF) will be used. The table will map each value of the status attributes in PD to another value.
The interface can be configured from the PRISMAdirect Web Configuration workspace where the product administrator can add, remove and configure the JMF Endpoints.
Each JMF endpoint configured in the system must have one JDF-to-PD mapping table and one PD-to-JDF mapping table for job status assigned to it. The mapping tables will be XML files stored on disk. At installation, the system copies the default mapping files in a special location in the asset folder on the Central Server machine: “$(OCE_STORAGE)\Asset\JMF Endpoints”.
When the product administrator adds a new JMF endpoint from the MMC he can choose to use the default mappings or assign custom mappings for the JDF-to-PD mapping and/or for the PD-to-JDF mapping. To use custom mappings, the product administrator can select another file on disk. The selected files must have the .XML extension and it must be validated against a predefined xml schema.
At any moment in the lifecycle of a JMF endpoint the product administrator can reconfigure it and also change or assign other mapping files.