Working in the InDesign Extension
These are the bare essentials for setting up Naviga Ad to send ads to InDesign. Please also see "Overview - Ad Production & Material Status Workflow" for more in depth discussion around how all these settings work together, including a demo video.
IN NAVIGA AD (Admin User):
Setup / Background Config needed
Master Stages
Production Workflow Stages (Product-level)
Rules are set on the product here:
Ideally, the Defaults should be set on the product BEFORE creating the issue dates, otherwise you will end up with nulls on the deadline and then they will need to be manually set on the Issue Configuration.
Sizes
Modular Sizes must have a size in Width and Depth defined
Non-Modular Size must have column layout maintenance complete and linked to Product and/or Sections (for ROP) and Categories for Classified.
Material Approval Templates
When an artist marks a material project as being completed, the system will alert either a sales rep or production controller (or both) that it is done and ready for proofing. This HTML template must be set up before and linked to the product.
SAMPLE HTML (replace XXX with your 3-character site code):
<p><span style="font-size: 14px;">Hi there. We have built an ad for #ADVERTISERNAME# that we think is really great. Please review and send to them for approval if you agree! </span></p>
<div style="width:100%;box-sizing: border-box; padding: 10px; background-color: #f1f1f1;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> #APPROVALCOMMENT# </span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14px;">
<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="#PREVIEWIMAGEURL#" style="max-width: 400px; max-height: 400px;" />
<br />
If you are having trouble viewing the above image, you may click <a href="#PREVIEWIMAGEURL#">here </a>to view in a browser window.
<br />
<br />
Click<a href="https://XXXtest.navigahub.com/EW/XXX/ad/pw/material.aspx?ID=#MATERIALID#"> here </a> to review this material. If you approve, please mark the Approval Status to Pending Customer Approval or Customer Approved if you do not wish to send to the customer.</span>
<p> </p>Product Setup
Material Handling (Product Setup, Material Handling node)
Set rule for what Production Status gets set when the artist marks a material as complete.
Template defined above is linked here
Who gets the email is set up here
Whether or not to preflight on output is flagged here.
if set to YES and if you have preflight setup – when you upload the finals, it attaches them as components, but does not mark a hi res final or JPG preview. It takes the PDF and drops it into the preflight FTP folder. From here – if it passes preflight you should get your hires final and preview from that process – if it fails, someone will have to do something manually
Default Artist (Optional)
If desired, on the product setup screen you can set a default artist for that product
Artist Setup
Name, email address and phone for the artist.
Optionally can add a product group
Product group, if defined, will filter the queue for the artist to only show that product group. Product Groups can be multi-select.
If left blank, the artist will see materials for ALL product groups
Artist workflow Status
At least one of these should be marked as “complete”
When the artist selects “complete” in Indesign, the INDD file, jpg Preview and the high-res PDF will automatically upload into the system and the material will be removed from the artist worklist
Material Approval Setup
If desired, can only send “approved” materials over to plan
“Allow Approval” will display the material in the Portal for the Client to approve it online.
End User in Naviga Ad:
Order Elements needed for Material to Come into InDesign:
Material & Material Status
On the line item of the campaign, the material must be linked
There must be a size (either modular or columns x depth)
The first run date that the material is to be used must be in the future
The Material Status on the line must be a Production Status that is flagged as Internal Artist Required in the background.
Inside the material itself, the Artwork Production Status must be set to a status that is NOT flagged internally as ‘completed.” Optionally, an artist can be assigned (or artists can pull from an unassigned queue)
Working with Components on the Material record
Local components are to be used with the material attached to the campaign. These components may be copied and used in a new ad for Pickups with Change
Global components are those components that may be used many times. Company logos, pictures, specific branding, etc. These components can be tied to a customer OR they can just be linked as an overall global component and tagged into categories for easy searching.
Local Components can currently only be added in Naviga Ad in material maintenance or on a campaign itself.
If an artist needs to EDIT a local component that was received, they may work on that component locally and use the edited image, however, we only store the embedded artwork in the INDD file. We do not store the links. If the INDD file does get copied to be use again, it will have the embedded image that was edited.
Global components can be edited and then the file can be replaced via the InDesign Extension Window. (This was new in version 2022.3)
IN INDESIGN:
Installing the Extension InDesign
The extension Zip file will be given to you by your implementation specialist
Close InDesign
Unzip and place the entire Naviga Ad folder in the location below
PC (x64): C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions
PC (x86): C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions
MAC: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions
Re-Open InDesign
Open the Extension from Window -> Extensions -> Naviga Ad Extensions
Logging into the Extension in InDesign:
API Connection Key
This will be given to you by your implementation specialist
Instance Path
https://XXXtest.navigahub.com/ew/XXX
Local Storage Path (PC)
~/desktop/NavigaAd_INDD
Local Storage Path (Mac)**
~/NavigaAd_INDD
**Newer Mac OS versions are fussy about applications putting stuff on the desktop, so best to just avoid that issue
It is really important to fill in all the above fields on the login screen
XXX should be replaced with YOUR 3-character site code
Remove the “test” from the URLs to point to the live database
Keep the above settings handy. When changes happen to the API, you may be logged out of the extension, and it will require you to fill in those settings again. Beginning with the 2021.3 Naviga Ad Release, you can save a json credentials file to connect rather than filling in the above details manually. Here is a sample json file. Open in a text editor and change the settings to your site-specific and user specific credentials. Save the file with .json file extension.
{
"ArtistId": "[email protected]",
"PromptOnFileDrop": false,
"ApiConnectionPath": "https://xxx.navigahub.com/elanwebplatform/xxx",
"ApiKey": "NCSElan123",
"InstancePath": "https://xxx.navigahub.com/ew/xxx",
"LocalStoragePath": "~/indesignfiles",
"HighlightColor": "#1B4F72"
}INDD Worklist
There are two sections in the worklist - "My Creative Projects" and "Unassigned Creatives Projects" - The top section will only be visible to the artist to whom the material is assigned.
Worklist auto sorts in order of items that need to be completed based on the product issue deadlines. (Note: if you didn't setup your product deadlines before creating your issue dates, you might need to go into Issue Configuration in Product Setup to update the config)
Clicking View allows the Artist to see what information is available to build the material
If it was opened from the Unassigned Queue, the artist can then Assign the Material to themselves. Once assigned to them, the material project can be worked.
Change the artwork status
Open/Create the InDesign File
Artwork Status in InDesign
This is how the artist can communicate back to the end users in Naviga Ad.
Workflow statuses flagged with “complete” in Setup will Complete the ad and release it from the artists Worklist
Artwork Workflow
Open/Create InDesign File / Download/Create InDesign File is what the Artist should do to start working on the ad
If it is a new build this will create the InDesign document
If this is a pickup with change this will download the indd file (must be named for the material id).
If the artist already started working on it and it coming back to it, it will open the local copy if it is still there. If the artist uploaded the local copy to the server when he stopped working on it, it will download the server copy
Get Latest from Server is for any InDesign file that may have already been started by another Artist
Save Copy of InDesign File to Server is when the artist is done working on the material, but it is not completed.
Release this Project releases everything, the Artist is unassigned – this could be because the artist cannot complete the file or another reason. Be mindful of the options to upload/delete.
Log Time - If managers wish to understand time spent on materials, they can do so in the Artwork Time Spent Report. The artist will need to click the button to Log Time here:
A screen will pop up with the time that the material has been opened in the current session.
Artist can make edits to the time and add comments prior to clicking the submit button.
Troubleshooting
(Generally this is not needed….but have seen it occasionally)
When logging in, if not all the fields get filled out or filled out correctly, the information does get cached and may need to be cleared.
This is the error (or similar)
May also see an error not related to logging in incorrectly, but if you see an “oh snap” error message when uploading artwork, clearing the CEP Cache below can also sometimes resolve that issue.
Clear the CEP Cache
To clear the CEP Cache (the InDesign Extension Cache) and then restart InDesign:
MAC
Close INDD
Select the Finder menu > Go > Go To Folder
Paste ~/Library/Caches/CSXS/cep_cache/
Move the cep_cache to the desktop (can delete later)
Re-Launch INDD
PC
Close INDD
Locate this folder
C:\Users\[youruser]\AppData\Local\Temp\CEP_CACHE
Move the whole cep_cache folder to your desktop (you may need permissions), can delete it from there later.
Re-Launch INDD
Are you a TownNews site?
If so, do not be logged into TownNews when working on ad design. TownNews plugin interrupts the upload/complete artwork process.
Issue with text files
There is a known issue with text files, especially where you have downloaded the latest version of the indesign document from the server to clear out any local files. If you then drag and drop (or place by double clicking on the text file in the component list), you might get an error that it cannot find the file or you don't have permissions to it. Try selecting it again - the second time should be successful. We are looking in the issue and will advise when we have a fix.
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