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Expressroom IC FAQ
Frequently asked questions about the Expressroom IC product. If you don't find the answers you need, please don't hesitate to contact us.
What functional areas does Expressroom IC cover?
Expressroom IC is a fully featured, end-to-end digital media production and dissemination system and provides rich features in the following functional areas: Presentation
Content Generation
Workflow Management
Business Logic
Search and Retrieval
Data Integration
Content Management
Media Asset Management
Dissemination Management
Data Management
Data Interchange
Integration and Development
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How does Expressroom IC present information?
Out of the box, Expressroom IC gives you the ability to present content in several formats, including: HTML, that complies with the Intelligence Community Core Metadata Standard - An HTML Implementation for Intelink standard.
IC Metadata Standard for Publications (ICMSP)
Department of Defense Metadata Discovery Standard (DDMS)
Intelligence Information Sharing Standards (IISS), proposed in response to Executive Order 13356
RSS, XML-based syndication
PDF
RTF Also, through the use of Expressroom’s Layout Templates or via Java Server Page (JSP) templates, additional layout formats can be easily implemented and deployed. And, because Expressroom IC keeps content separate from its presentation, new and modified formats can be rolled out and applied to all existing content instantly.
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What sort of content generation capabilities exist in Expressroom IC?
Expressroom IC offers several methods for entering content, with the Expressroom Document Assistant being the most popular. Document Assistant allows content authors and editors to enter and manage content in Expressroom using common desktop applications, such as MS Word, PowerPoint, and Photoshop, eliminating the learning curve often encountered when new applications are introduced.Expressroom IC content contributors can also use the Content Controller application that provides a forms-based XML editing environment. The Asset Manager (the content repository) can be accessed via FTP, as well. And finally, the Expressroom API offers the ultimate flexibility for integrating with other content generating applications.
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How does Expressroom IC help manage workflow?
Expressroom IC uses Expressroom’s powerful Workflow Engine to enforce business process rules. Administrators can graphically define the workflows that reflect the business processes of their organization and enforce these workflows in Expressroom IC. This ensures that the content that is present has followed the appropriate approval cycle.Authors, editors, and administrators can keep track of the active and completed workflows via the Worklist Manager, available as both a desktop application and a web-based application. Generally, the Worklist Manager serves as an inbox for users as new tasks are assigned by the Workflow Engine.
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What sort of search and retrieval capabilities does Expressroom IC offer?
Expressroom IC is bundles with two different search engines. One provides users of Expressroom IC with the ability to search the repository for documents that meet certain criteria. The other is an integrated, web-based search engine that allows visitors to Expressroom IC-powered sites to search the site for specific documents. Because the web-based search engine is tightly integrated with the underlying data repository, it takes advantage of the fact that it access to the different elements (or fields) of the content documents and administrators can configure which elements should be indexed. This results in higher-fidelity searches than can normally be achieved through basic site-crawling search engines.Additionally, Expressroom IC generated HTML conforms to the Intelligence Community Core Metadata Standard - An HTML Implementation for Intelink standard, which allows it to be easily indexed by third party search engines.
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How does Expressroom IC facilitate data integration (or interchange)?
Expressroom IC complies with the IC Metadata Standard for Publications (ICMSP), the proposed Intelligence Information Sharing Standards (in response to Executive Order 13356), the Department of Defense Metadata Discovery standard (DDMS, and Industrial Medium is committed to following this and other standards from the IC MWG and associated agencies.The advantage of Expressroom IC in this area is two-fold. First, Expressroom IC is XML-based, and all textual content is stored as XML. Although we ship the product we several pre-defined schemas, you are free to modify and enhance these definitions to meet your specific requirements. If all the necessary information is captured in your documents, it is a straightforward exercise to build an XSLT transformation that will present your content in a standards-compliant format. Second, Expressroom IC has a rich, event-drive API that allows for integration at several levels. Therefore, you can easily build a connector to other data sources or sinks as your requirements dictate.
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What sort of content management features does Expressroom IC offer?
Expressroom IC is built on the Expressroom content management system and offers many powerful content management features. Some of the highlights are listed below: Versioning
Check-in/check-out
Authentication via users/groups
Access control lists
Distributed API
Event-driven listener model API
Inline filter API
Transactional publish engine
Content format neutral
Workflow Engine
Automation
Secure comms via SSL
Snapshot and rollback
Code stored as content
Platform agnostic
Embargo
Export/Import
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Can Expressroom IC handle multimedia assets?
Yes. Expressroom IC can manage and deploy both XML and binary assets. Many Expressroom implementations make use of a sibling metadata document. In other words, each binary document will have a corresponding XML document that describes the attributes of the binary item. This opens the door for all sorts of possibilities when rendering and indexing the binary content.
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In what ways does Expressroom IC help me manage dissemination?
There are several features of Expressroom IC that assist in dissemination management. Each of these features is described briefly below: Workflow – The Expressroom Workflow Engine ensures that only approved content that has been through appropriate set of checks and balances is made available to your constituents.
Automation – The Expressroom Automation Framework gives you the power to automate specific tasks of your production process, such as expiring content, archiving content, and placing content on your site. In addition, automation rules can be established to automatically stage content for a collateral network, depending on the classification of the content.
Exporting and Importing – Expressroom IC provides the ability to export an entire site, including all the content, images, and code that make up the site, to a single, compressed file. This file can then be moved to another server, perhaps on a different network, and then imported into another Expressroom IC installation. The imported site will be an exact duplicate of the site that was exported.
Expressroom – The core features of Expressroom, when used in conjunction with the Automation framework, give you the ability to build a completely content driven digital media and production system. As content is submitted and updated, the system responds according, delivering products to your customers faster and with less work for you.
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How easy is it to integrate Expressroom IC with other applications and technologies?
Expressroom IC is built with Java and comes with an extensive, well-documented API. There are many interfaces into the system that offer integration at many levels.
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What about other functions, such as entity extraction or visualization?
Although Expressroom IC does not provide these functions out-of-the-box, additional technologies can be integrated at several levels through the extensive and well-documented API. This flexibility and extensibility allows organizations to refine their system to meet their specific requirements using the technologies they prefer.
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I need to produce products at different levels of classification. How does Expressroom IC help me?
Expressroom IC has several unique features that support the dissemination of products at different levels. Independent itembases allow for the staging of products destined for a particular network and Expressroom’s “export” feature easily supports sneaker-netting products to other networks for dissemination. In addition, the integrated “dirty word document filter”, discourages inadvertent disclosure by preventing inappropriate documents from being processed.
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What else do I need?
Expressroom IC provides a complete out-of-the-box solution for IC analysts who need to get their information out in a quick, yet controlled manner. The seamless interface with desktop applications, along with the powerful Expressroom Workflow Engine, deliver unparalleled ease-of-use along with business process enforcement, ensuring that properly authorized intelligence is disseminated to the appropriate consumers.
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