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Articles vs issue-based

New approach of how to publish your content.
Traditionally Twixl apps created in Adobe InDesign were
published as monolithic issues in a kiosk app.

While the traditional magazine approach allowed you to get up and running
quickly with your magazine the downside was that the reader needed to
download a complete issue first, before being able to start reading.
Also, making a change to a single article in your issue
required an update of the complete issue
(and required the reader to re-download that issue).

Twixl Publisher new article-based approach offers many advantages
(which by the way it is an option, not a requirement).

Content Items

Here's an overview of the different types of content items
that can be used in a Twixl Publisher article-based app:

• HTML article (to be uploaded in a zipped format with an index.html file at the root)
• Twixl .article exported from Adobe InDesign (also to be uploaded in zipped format)
• PDF file
• Image (JPG or PNG)
• Movie (H.264 encoded MP4)
• YouTube movie (links to online movie)
• Vimeo movie (links to online movie)
• Inline Web Viewer (will display web content in line)
• Embedded Web Viewer (will display uploaded web content in line)
• Placeholder (an empty content item, mainly used for a visual)



Several types of links are also available:

• Collection link (create a link to an existing collection)
• Collection & Link (create a new collection and a link to it at the same time)
• Content Item link (lets you link to the same content item from different locations)
• Web link (a link to a web page)

Content Sources

Content sources are designed to make automated publishing in your apps easier.

They allow to easily integrate different types of feeds in your apps.

The types of content sources are:

• RSS/Atom feed (content from just about any web site)
• YouTube Channel (a list of videos from a YouTube channel)
• YouTube User (a list of videos from a YouTube user)
• YouTube Playlist (a list of videos from a YouTube playlist)
• Vimeo Channel (a list of videos from a Vimeo channel)
• Vimeo User (a list of videos from a Vimeo user)
• Vimeo Group (a list of videos from a Vimeo group)

Alternate and liquid layout

Using Adobe InDesign's alternate and liquid layout features,
you can easily generate a portrait version if you started with a landscape version,
a 16:9 Android layout after you created a 4:3 iPad layout,
or even a special layout for phones.
Twixl Publisher allows you to generate the alternate layout for all articles
in your app with a single click.

Buttons and Hyperlinks

When you convert an Adobe InDesign object to a button
(using the Buttons and Forms panel),
you’re able to attach an action to it, such as:

• Go to first/last/previous/next page
• Play a sound/video
• Go to a slide in a slide show
• …

You can use the Adobe InDesign "Hyperlinks" panel to add a:

• Page link: a hyperlink that navigates to any page within your app.
• URL link: a hyperlink that links to an external URL.
  Tapping such a link will open a browser pop-up window for that URL within the app.
  Once finished, tapping the "Done" button of the browser pop-up
  will bring the app back to the foreground.
• Mail link: a hyperlink that links to an e-mail address with an optional subject.
  Tapping such a link will open a mail pop-up window from that email address
  with an optional subject line.
  Once the e-mail has been sent, the app returns to the foreground.

There is also a special "Web Overlay button" that lets you display an overlay
with web content and define its size.

Slide Shows

Slide shows are easily created with Twixl Publisher.

The slide show panel allows you to configure many options,
such as the transition style, whether or not to show a scroll viewer indicator,
whether to auto-play, allow full-screen view, etc.

Movies & Sound

Embedded video & audio

Video or audio files can be embedded in the app.
Movies need to be H.264-encoded mp4 files, sound files need to be in MP3 format.

From the Media palette, you can either select a particular frame
within the movie or a specific image as the poster frame.

A number of parameters let you define whether to play the movie automatically
when loading the page, whether to play it full-screen, etc.

Streaming video

It is also possible to add a link to an external movie using the option
“Place a video from a URL” from Adobe InDesign's Media palette.

YouTube or Vimeo video
You can also easily integrate a YouTube or Vimeo video;
no HTML knowledge required.

Scrollable Content

The 'Scrollable content' option allows you to add scrollable content to a container frame.

Optional zooming can be enabled for the scrollable content to allow
a user to use pinch to zoom, e.g. to see more details of an image.

Image Squence

The "Image Sequence" option lets you walk through a series of images while swiping.
The most frequent use case for this is to show a 360 degree view of an object.
You typically need a minimum of about 30 images for a fluid sequence.

Web viewer

Any rectangle on a page can be turned into a 'Web viewer',
which allows you to add dynamic web content to your application.
You can integrate live online content or run HTML5 applications within your app.

Select a rectangle, then use the 'Web viewer' panel to enter the URL
you want to display within its boundaries.

Embedded web content enables the use of web viewers even when a user is offline.
Typical applications would be HTML5-based animations or a shopping basket.
All local content, including assets, JavaScript, etc., is then placed in a
WebResources folder within the same folder as that of the document.

Animations

You can add any type of HTML5 animation to a Twixl app using a web viewer,
but you can also directly drag and drop .oam files, created with several specialized tools,
such as Adobe Animate or Tumult Hype.

Maps

Easily integrate an Apple map (iOS) or Google Map (Android)
based on the criteria you define in the Twixl Publisher "Maps" panel;
no HTML knowledge required.

Panorama VR

A panorama VR lets you view a complete environment
in 360 degrees and in 3 dimensions, but also lets you tilt so you can e.g.
also have a look at the sky and at the floor within that environment.

In order to use Panorama VR with Twixl Publisher,
you need a tool like Pano2VR.

Nested Interactivity

Certain interactive elements can be nested within slide shows or scrollable content areas:

• buttons & hyperlinks
• video
• audio
• web viewer
• panorama VR
• image sequence
• animations (in .oam format)

Horizontal and/or vertical orientation

When creating a new app, you can select whether to support
portrait only, landscape only or both orientations.

Navigating between different articles is done by horizontal swiping.

Navigation to the next page in the same article is done by vertical swiping.

Horizontal Swiping Only

When you use this option for an app,
it will place all pages,
independent of the number of separate articles (documents and pages),
horizontally one after the other.
In this case, there is no vertical navigation.

Table of Contents, Search & Bookmarks

Twixl Publisher-based apps automatically generate a
Table of Contents overview that will be accessible as a dropdown menu.
There's also a search and bookmarking capability.

Note that issue-based search and article-based search operate somewhat
differently because the content is not accessible in the same way.

In issue-based apps the complete app content is available on
the user’s device and a full text search is performed.

In article-based app possibly only a limited number of articles
will be available on the user’s device.
Here search is for all metadata (content item name, title, tag line, etc.)
in the complete app, and not only in a specific collection.
From the search results, one can quickly select the article to navigate to.

Hamburger Menu

You can now add a quick access menu in the top right corner of your article-based apps.
This menu is managed through a special collection called the “Hamburger menu”.
It can be managed like other collections, with its own grid and cell styles,
but is limited to the following types of content items:

• Placeholder
• Collection link
• Web link

Preview & share

The free Twixl Viewer Classic for iOS and Android allows a designer
to send a preview of an Adobe InDesign article or app to a
tablet or smart mobile phone on the local Wifi network.

Using Twixl Publisher's sharing feature, a designer can also share
an article or app with a client, a colleague; ideal for proofing purposes.

While Twixl Viewer Classic lets you preview Adobe InDesign content only,
the Twixl App Reviewer provides the ability to review the complete interface
of your app and the different browse pages, in addition to the InDesign,
HTML or PDF based articles in the app.

Extra “App Reviewer” users can be added to your Twixl Distribution Platform account,
so you can allow your clients, colleagues to provide feedback.

Present

Grid Styles

You can adjust a number of parameters for a collection in an article-based app,
such as the number of columns and type of scrolling (horizontal or vertical),
in the "Grid style" window.
You can set different parameters for tablet and phone content.

Cell Styles

The appearance of the cells on your browse pages can be changed
in the Cell Style options window.

Browse Pages - Customization options for article-based apps

"Browse pages" is a flexible way to present your content to readers.
While browse pages can still mimic the behaviour of the traditional kiosk
that contains different issues, the flexibiliy goes much further.

The layout of your browse pages will be defined using a grid-based approach.
First of all, define a number of columns for your pages, then based on that
your page will be divided into a number of equal squares.

Each "cell" on your layout will then span a number of squares.

Browse pages can be defined as either scrolling vertically or horizontally.

Customizable kiosk UI for issue-based apps

The look and feel of the kiosk can be adjusted when you build your app.
Here are some of the options that you can set:

• integrate an HTML-based banner (called 'infoCell')
  to promote your content
• select a specific issue to be put in the spotlight
• select the background colours to use
• define your own store background
• use custom URL schemes to e.g.
  integrate Entitlements login information in the infoCell
• etc.

Custom URL schemes

Custom URL schemes allow you to control navigation in a Twixl app.

You can use these schemes in:

• a web hyperlink
• a web viewer
• a web overlay button
• the kiosk banner (infoCell)
• the entitlements dialog
• the embedded web browser

Build

Supported platforms

Twixl Publisher allows you to publish on iOS and Android devices,
both on tablets and on smart phones.

You can also generate a "Web Reader" export for display in
a modern standard desktop or notebook browser.

Test build

While you are in a testing phase,
you can create test builds of your app for internal or external testers,
before you decide to make it available in the App Stores.

Apple also calls this "Ad Hoc" or "Testflight" distribution.

App Store build

When you are satisfied with the test builds,
you are ready to submit your apps to the app stores,
i.e. Apple's App Store, the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore for Kindle Fire.

Build your app in the Twixl Publisher application,
then submit it to the Apple, Google or Amazon portal.

Enterprise build

Whereas Apple's "Ad Hoc" testing procedure is limited to a specific number of devices,
iOS developers enrolled in the Apple iOS Developer Enterprise program can easily
distribute their application outside of the App Store without any device limit.

Typically this is used for wide-scale in-house distribution,
using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution,
such as e.g. Jamf Software or AirWatch.

Browser Client

For an article-based app, you can activate the browser client
that lets you publish your content to your web site.
Your complete app, both the browse pages and the article content is pre-rendered
as HTML and published on Twixl's servers making it accessible from browsers.

By default the content is served from a Twixl domain,
‘browserclient.twixlmedia.com', but an optional ‘custom domain’
let you serve it from something like ‘yourapp.company.com'.

Single-issue vs. multi-issue apps (for legacy issue-based apps)

Single-issue apps have all content embedded in the app.
Multi-issue apps will display a kiosk that can contain different issues.

There is an important difference in the distribution model of
single-issue apps vs. multi-issue apps:

• Single-issue apps are always downloaded through the App Stores, and
  these stores provide the infrastructure and bandwidth (at no extra cost),
  independent of the number of downloads.


• With multi-issue apps, also called "kiosk" apps,
  only the empty app is distributed via the App Store.
  The Twixl Distribution Platform lets you manage the content,
  the different issues within those apps.

Analytics options

Twixl Publisher allows you to gather analytics for your apps.

Analytics is integrated in Twixl Distribution Platform (for kiosk apps only)
with a dashboard overview of statistics following the MPA Standards
(The Association of Magazine Media Standards for Digital Magazine Metrics).

The following items will be tracked:

• Views per articles/collection/issue
• Dowloads per device type / OS
• Geographical distribution of downloads
• In-app purchases / subscriptions / installs
• Views per asset
• Average time spent per session per collection
• …

All interactive objects that you define using the Twixl Publisher plug-in
(slide shows, movies, etc.) can have their own analytics name to simplify
reading the analytics data afterwards.

It is also possible to integrate Google Analytics on issue-based apps.

Sharing on social media

An app can provide readers with an option to share information
via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

A custom sharing message can be defined when building your app.

Distribute

Automated Content Sources

”Automated Content Sources” let you pull content from
RSS feeds, YouTube channels and Vimeo Channels in your app.
This gives you the ability to enhance your app
in a very easy yet valuable way.

This pack is available as an extra paid option.

Adobe InDesign, HTML or PDF content

Twixl Publisher supports different content types.
Our own .article and .publication format created using
the Twixl Publisher plug-in in Adobe InDesign, HTML content and
also standard PDF files for non-interactive apps.
All of them can be combined in the same app.

In-app purchases & subscriptions

Twixl's multi-issue apps allow you to offer paid content to your readers.

You can offer apps to readers…

• as separate in-app purchases (one purchase for each publication)
• as a subscription
  (give a reader access to all new issues for a specific duration).

Full offline mode

Article-based apps can be published in a full offline mode.

If a publisher configures an app for offline access,
all content of all collections will be downloaded completely at first startup.
This is ideal for sales people and service teams who sometimes don’t have
an internet connection when they are on the road.
Every time a user returns to the app and he’s online,
a check will be performed to see whether new and/or
updated content needs to be downloaded.

Push notifications

Push notifications are short messages that appear on
a mobile device (even when the lock screen is on) or within the app itself.

You can send a push notification to all subscribers of your app
every time you publish a new issue.
They can be sent either manually or automatically when publishing a new issue.

Note: Only readers that have decided to opt in will be receiving your messages.

Built-in analytics reports

The Twixl Distribution Platform offers built-in reporting and analytics
for multi-issue apps, both on an app level and on a publication level.

Here are some app level reports that you will automatically have access to:

• Daily downloads per app
• Issue downloads per app
• Subscription purchases per app
• Geographical distribution of downloads
• Downloads by device type
• Downloads by OS



You also get detailed info on how readers are interacting with the app:

• Articles visited by readers
• Article pages visited by readers
• Interactive content play count
• Slide shows accessed
• Number of movie or sound playbacks started
• …

Google analytics

In addition to the built-in analytics support for all apps on
the Twixl Distribution Platform, it is also possible to integrate
Google Analytics within article- and issue-based apps.

Entitlement

It integrates 'Entitlements' and 'Categories' in your apps.

This feature provides the option to connect to a subscriber or user database.
It allows you to determine who gets access to which issues/publications in your app,
based on login information.

Entitlement is available as an extra paid option for
Twixl Publisher One, Four, and is included in Unlimited apps.

Entitlement in App Store apps

Frequently publishers may want to provide print subscribers of an
app publication with free access to otherwise paid content in an app.

Publishers can also offer their content to a specific audience and
so increase the value proposition and advertising value of their publication.

Other entitlement options allow the use of e.g. an access key or
a promo code to claim free access to a particular issue.

Entitlement in in-house apps

The special "Users & Groups" entitlement option is targeted at companies
that deploy apps in-house either by distributing an app internally using
Apple's Developer Enterprise Program, or by publishing an app on
the App Store with "restricted access".

Some content/issues are only meant to target a closed group,
e.g. medical publications, reseller information, etc.
Using entitlement allows a company to publish to specific target groups
without making the content available to the public.

Only entitled users that the company has defined will be allowed access.
Different groups can be defined so that each group may have
access to different issues and publications.





Integration API

Twixl Publisher lets you integrate with different solutions for
automated production flows and so lets you push content to
the Twixl Distribution Platform and into your app.

The “Integration API” option allows you to integrate with a number of solutions
that Twixl support out of the box, but using that same API, basically any type
of CMS could be setup to push content to the Twixl Distribution Platform.
Some custom development or help from your local integrator
may be required to achieve this.

The CMS solutions that Twixl supports,
out of the box via the optional Integration API pack, are:

• Canvasflow
• TruEdit
• vjoon K4
• WoodWing Inception

Integration with WoodWing Enterprise requires a special connector.

Integration API pack is available as an extra paid option.