Overview

AFP Visual Environment lets you enhance AFP files without changing the applications that create the AFP files. For example, you can use AFP Visual Environment to index AFP files and to add bar codes in AFP files. The AFP files that you enhance must contain data in Mixed Object Document Content Architecture for Presentation (MO:DCA-P) format.

You can enhance AFP files that contain MO:DCA-P data in different ways depending on which components of AFP Visual Environment are installed:

  • The AFP Indexer component lets you create AFP page groups and indexes, and define supplemental pages.
  • The AFP Editor component lets you create bar codes and text, and hide areas that contain unwanted content, such as obsolete bar codes.
  • The Whitespace Manager component lets you define available areas of white space in AFP files and then fill the white space with content, such as images and text, during the print production process.
  • The Pipeline Manager component lets you configure and run a set of filters, in a specific order, to process large AFP files quickly and efficiently.

AFP Visual Environment can make the same enhancements on the same pages in all page groups in the AFP file. Page groups are AFP structures that organize AFP files into smaller, uniquely identifiable units. For example, if an AFP file contains several bank statements that all have the same format, each statement can be a page group.

In this section:

  1. System overview
    AFP Visual Environment has a preparation phase and a production phase.
  2. System requirements
    The AFP Visual Environment user interface and the AFP Visual Environment commands can run on the same system or on different systems.
  3. User interface
    You use the AFP Visual Environment user interface to display and enhance sample AFP files.
  4. Control files
    AFP Visual Environment control files contain information about the enhancements made to sample AFP files. AFP Visual Environment commands use control files to make the same enhancements to production AFP files.
  5. Commands
    The AFP Visual Environment commands use the information in the control file to make the same enhancements to a production AFP file that the administrator made to the sample AFP file. The commands create new AFP files with the enhancements; they do not update the production AFP files.
  6. Document index files
    The IndexAFP command and the PluginMgr command can create a document index file that contains all the index tags in a production AFP file. The index tags can be defined in the AFP file itself or in the AFP Visual Environment control file.
  7. AFP Indexer
    AFP Indexer lets you create page groups, define supplemental pages, and create indexes in AFP files. When you view an AFP file that contains page groups and indexes, you can navigate in the file to find pages containing specific index values.
  8. AFP Editor
    AFP Editor lets you create barcodes, text, and hidden areas in documents.
  9. Whitespace Manager
    With Whitespace Manager, you can add marketing or educational messages to documents without recomposing them. Whitespace Manager lets you define available areas of white space in AFP files and then fill the white space with content, such as images and text, during the print production process.
  10. Pipeline Manager
    Pipeline Manager mode of AFP Visual Environment lets you configure and run a set of filters, in a specific order, to process large AFP files quickly and efficiently.
Parent topic: AFP Visual Environment User's Guide