[xep-support] ANNOUNCEMENT - RenderX moves to the Cloud

For those that don't like announcements, I apologize in advance for using
this venue but in reality this is an opportunity for those who wish to test
something very new from RenderX.

On Monday, RenderX will remove the wraps on something completely different.
We have completed some initial testing over the past six months with several
organizations and we'll be putting some RenderX engines up in the Cloud for
everyone to use. Since this is a technical list, I'll limit this to a mostly
technical discussion about what this means.

We have created a starting point API in C# and some sample applications for
Windows users that enable you to use RenderX without even having it
installed on the computer. Merely an internet connection suffices. The
client-side, very small footprint application/API for RenderX CloudFormatter
accepts either XML+XSL or XSL FO. It performs the transform for you if
needed (uses XSLTCompiledTransform and/or MVP) and also walks the entire
document finding all images and inserts them into the document as base64
encoded images. It then streams the resulting XSL FO with images to a copy
of RenderX running in the Cloud, returning to you PDF in a stream. The API
is stream-in, stream-out so you have the freedom to do what you wish with
the result -- write it to disk, copy to browser window, etc. CloudFormatter
client-side basically sends a SOAP message to our servers and returns the
formatted result. Since the rendering is all on our servers, no local copy
of RenderX is required for you to use the software. This does mean that we
need to flush out things required server-side, like fonts and hyphenation
tables and we will do so over time as needed.

Currently we implemented a PDF CloudFormatter, but we will add others as
needed and likely next will release an SVG CloudFormatter that allows you to
deliver live, SVG documentation to an HTML5 browser.

The installation on Windows also adds a Send To...RenderX CloudFormatter so
that you can simply select one or more XMLs and an XSL, or one or more XSL
FOs and send them to be formatted, writing the result to the same folder
with a ".pdf" extension. It also provides a simple ".exe" which does the
same, allowing easy integration as a formatter in oXygen, Altova or Stylus
Studio.

So, on Monday we enter a 60-day evaluation and testing open to the world. We
of course wanted to let all of you know first (hence you will not even see
any announcements starting until later this weekend and at next week's trade
show Info360).

Anyone interested in getting involved and helping us out, we would be happy
to get you started right away. Just drop me an email and we'll get you your
very own CloudFormatter. We hope that you are our user community will do so
and help us to evolve this into a new, exciting offering by RenderX.

Thanks for allowing me some "marketing time", or course comments are welcome
and testers are encouraged.

Kevin Brown
RenderX
kevin@renderx.com

_______________________________________________
(*) To unsubscribe, please visit http://lists.renderx.com/mailman/options/xep-support
(*) By using the Service, you expressly agree to these Terms of Service http://w
ww.renderx.com/terms-of-service.html
Received on Thu Jun 7 14:49:03 2012