Profile of a Web-based imaging solution

SwiftView: A Web-based Imaging Solution
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Of course, not all SwiftView users have a store of ready-made PCL data files in place. For documents in other formats, the SwiftView's print-to-the-Web process is marked by its extreme simplicity. The user merely prints to a file using a standard LaserJet printer driver. Creating a web document takes no special training, requires no intermediary software or processes, and costs virtually nothing.

"When we found it, we were ecstatic," says Ken Wanek, DataTrac founder and CEO. "We'd been trying to solve this problem for years. By using a browser plug-into to take the paper out of the process we found we didn't even have to think about some of our earlier customer service problems."

Prior to using SwiftView, adds Wanek, DataTrak "had to maintain a separate database just to prove we did what said we'd done. Now, we get a lot fewer customer service complaints, since they can pull their own reports when they need them. We've entirely automated our process, giving customers a graphical window directly to our database using the net."

"I didn't have to change the output of the reports to display them," DeBack says. In DataTrac's case, SwiftView also allows easy archiving and viewing of historical data, again because it requires no changes in the database's native PCL report file.

Web-based document distribution

SwiftView and the Internet represent a fundamental change in the way DataTrac does business. Pierce notes, "We're now oriented to a pull focus, rather than push."

DeBack adds that the database can "pre-generate" a report, then archive it. "We have it sitting there, ready for subscribers to get it."

To retrieve reports via the web, users enter the subscriber area from the DataTrac home page. Access is immediate and information is available around the clock. After entering their account name and password, users see a screen displaying their subscribed reports in tabular format. (Visitors to the DataTrac web site can view sample files following the same steps.)

From there, DeBack says, "All they do is push a button." The resulting download automatically launches the SwiftView plug-in and displays the report requested. Users can then output the files to a laser printer for hard-copy distribution.

Web-based delivery is the clear winner for a company once reliant on expensive fax-based reports. Data on the Web means reduced customer service overhead.

"Faxing is inefficient," DeBack says, "and you never know if your fax gets there. [Now,] nobody calls up and says 'I lost that fax' or complains about readability. You get a much cleaner document - each [report file] is an 'original.'"

The PCL advantage

SwiftView, introduced by NDG in 1991, was developed to take advantage of the emerging de facto standard represented by the PCL file format. Though its developers never intended it that way, PCL became an early example of Metcalfe's Law, which says:

Achieve critical mass in the marketplace by distributing your product free.

PCL files are supported by many hardware and software vendors - a truly open technology. They can be produced instantly and at no cost from a large variety of applications in virtually every modern computing environment. NDG saw this flexibility as highly preferable to developing a proprietary file viewing format. Time has proven them correct. Of the four major developers of cross-platform document formats, only Portable Document Format (PDF) from Adobe Systems has survived. [Another format, Digital Paper, was used until recently by Hummingbird Communications Ltd. in its now-discontinued Common Ground Web Publisher. -Ed.]

NDG developers were also quick to adapt to the ways of the World Wide Web. Following Metcalfe's Law, they made the browser plug-in free. Users may download it from NDG's web site or from a licensed user's site (if that site chooses to make it available). The information owner - in this case, DataTrac - licenses SwiftView for their web site for one low price, enabling unlimited document access.

In addition to PCL, SwiftView also displays HPGL, PCX, TIFF, CALS and other file formats. Users can pan, zoom and rotate graphics freely, perform text searches, convert PCL files to TIFF, and perform cut-and-copy/paste text functions. A true multi-platform solution, the SwiftView Plug-in is available for Windows and major flavors of UNIX.

Web site developers can customize and control SwiftView using the Imaging Command Set (ICS), a simple text-based application programming interface (API). For example, customizing the SwiftView Plug-in toolbar for all users is as easy as placing a small text file on the web site.

Next steps

In the near future, DataTrac plans to take report delivery to the next level with a hybrid push-pull approach. When a report is ready, an email message will be automatically sent to the subscriber with the report's URL embedded in the body of the message. Subscribers will gain access to the information they need "hot off the presses," in even fewer steps.

NDG's future plans for SwiftView include live links to the Web from within SwiftView documents, enhanced markup functions, and new server-side capabilities. An ActiveX version is currently in development.

Dean DeBack sees SwiftView as a vital tool for managing database-generated reports, advocating its use as "a virtual filing cabinet ... for any document that changes." As he sees it, "As long as you've got a PCL print driver on your machine, you're good to go."

SwiftView is a registered trademark of NDG, Inc. Other trademarks are property of their respective holders.