Overview on all censhare client applications.


censhare provides several different client applications that allow users to connect to the server, find and manipulate data and execute tasks within the system. There are two clients for end users (censhare Client and censhare Web - depending on the technical infrastructure), one client for administrative tasks (censhare Admin Client) and two clients that remote control external processes by simulating user behaviour (censhare Render Client and censhare Service Client).

All censhare clients are language neutral, which means, that the user interface language is not built into the application, but loaded from the server upon user login.

censhare Client (aka Java)

The censhare Client is an all-purpose application for users to communicate with the censhare system. It contains modules for searching, displaying and filtering asset queries; editors for asset metadata and history/version management; content editors; the page planning (flatplan) application; translation editors; image editing features; the layout editor; editors for collections, addresses, time management (schedules & calendars); import and export features. The censhare Client is also able to directly communicate - via plugins and extensions - with external applications such as Adobe InDesign, InCopy, XPress and FrameMaker. The availability of these modules to single users is controlled by the user and privileges management.

The censhare Client is a proprietary client, developed in the Java programming language.

Communication between the censhare Client and the censhare Application Server is done via TCP/IP, typically using 4 customizable ports (one negotiation and 3 communication ports), either unencrypted or with SSL encryption. The censhare Client can be used in the local network and from all remote locations that allow TCP/IP traffic to the server. Network traffic might use built-in compression features for low-bandwidth connections.

Very large parts of the user interface of the censhare Client are defined in configuration files in the Extended Markup Language (XML). Customization options in these configuration files include the arrangement of the docking framework components, the declaration and modification of windows, dialogs and tableviews, the modification of icons, menu items and keyboard shortcuts. The user interface customization is role specific and can lead to a large variety of different looking clients within one environment. It is therefore often necessary to provide project specific user documentation based on screenshots of the actual user interface configuration. In a fresh install, the censhare Client is preconfigured to work out of the box with a maximum of functionality. There are also a couple of user interface configuration options that can be modified by the user in the running client, for example, table adjustments or switchable look and feel schemas.

censhare Admin Client

The censhare Admin Client is the administrator’s tool for maintaining the censhare system. It gives access to the master data, extensive monitoring features, server and module configuration settings. The censhare Admin Client complies to the user and privilege management, which means that administrators using the client might be restricted to certain administrative areas and domains. This allows for sub-administrators with arbitrary limitations.

Regarding the technical specifications and network communication the censhare Admin Client is identical to the censhare Client and will run in every environment that is supported by the censhare Client.

The user interface of the censhare Admin Client is described in the same XML-based GUI description language as the censhare Client, but in practice there is usually no need to modify the standards.

censhare Render Client

The censhare Rende -Client is used to remotely control layout applications such as Adobe InDesign (incl. InDesign server). It is usually run on a dedicated computer (the "Render-Server" in censhare’s terminology) together with the layout application(s) and supports multiple instances. The Client has to login to the application server (typically with a dedicated invisible user account), then scans for running layout applications on its host and registers the discovered layout applications with the Render-service of the censhare application server. No user interaction is required for this background client and an auto-login-feature is supported for self-recovering Render-Servers.

Regarding the technical specifications and network communication the censhare Render-Client is identical to the censhare Client and will run in every environment that is supported by the censhare Client. The censhare Render-Client requires appropriate plugins and/or extensions to communicate with the layout applications.

censhare Service Client

The censhare Service Client was introduced with version 4 of censhare. It is comparable to the censhare Render-Client, but instead of remote controlling layout applications it is used to govern arbitrary external processes that are transferred to dedicated hardware for performance reasons, typically image rendering processes like Imagemagick or Ghostscript. Just like the censhare Render-Client, is has to login to the application server (typically with a dedicated invisible user account) and then registers one or more processes with the Render-service of the censhare application server. No user interaction is required for this background client and an auto-login-feature is supported for self-recovering Render-Servers.

censhare Web

The censhare Web client offers a lot of functionality of the censhare Client in a web browser. The censhare Web Client is also an optimal choice for occasional external users and external customers.

The client is used by accessing a URL, so the censhare Web Client is actually a web-service that is either located on the application server or on a dedicated web server. This web-service is based on Ajax/Web 2.0 technologies, supports drag&drop and keyboard shortcuts and client-server communication is standard http- or encrypted https-protocol with customizable port numbers via TCP/IP. It is possible to run multiple web-services for load-balancing.

The censhare Web-Client’s user interface is highly customizable by XML-based configuration files and the syntax of these files is compatible with the customization files of the censhare Client. This allows to quickly apply modifications to the standard Java client to the Web client by simply copying the modified code to the customization files of the Web client.