Pimcore Pim + PDFreactor

A revolution in creating print catalogs!

Pimcore provides extended support for Cross-Media-Publishing and Web-to-Print initiatives. Pimcore stringently follows a single-source-publishing approach. The PIM module is the central data hub, which supplies enriched data to multiple output channels, such as websites, newsletters, online shop, and print catalogs. It provides highly structured master data including all corresponding multimedia assets to desktop publishing products like Adobe® Indesign® and Quark® Xpress®.

But Pimcore is not just an open-source PIM: It integrates customer experience management for the creation of full-featured product catalogs and price lists without using any desktop publishing software. Ready-to-print PDFs can be created in a user-friendly interface in Pimcore based on up-to-date product data, prices and high-quality images. They can even be created fully automated, based on a predefined layout.

The most efficient and flexible way to create ready-to-print documents like catalogues and price lists is to use Pimcore in combination with RealObjects PDFreactor. Together they build a solid stack for automated database publishing and Web-to-Print.

Flagship projects

Building Services Equipment Product Catalog

PDFreactor + Pimcore PIM facilitate making of high-quality 680+ page product catalog within B2B shop

Product Catalogue

Headquartered in Austria, the Walter Bösch GmbH & Co KG (about 650 employees and 100M EUR revenue p.a.) is a specialist manufacturer for heating, ventilation and air conditioning technology. A high-quality print catalog is an essential tool for hundreds of contractors and distributors selling the Bösch technology across various countries.

Initial situation
Several Bösch employees used to work months on the creation of the catalog, as product data had to be collected, verified and updated. An integral filling system for the thousands of product pictures did not exist and the overall process depended on normal desktop publishing programs.

Solution
The PIM system is the central data hub for all kind of product information (text, technical data, pictures, videos, links etc.) and delivers up-to-date data to various output channels. Updates of the product information have to be done only in the PIM system.

Realisation
The Bösch ERP system provides the basic product data and pricing information, which is automatically captured by the Pimcore PIM system using an ERP-PIM interface. The catalog editor enriches the product data in the Pimcore PIM system through additional information such as, text, pictures, links etc. The Bösch B2B shop as well as the catalog production uses this data.

For more info about the Bösch B2B shop and catalog see also the Pimcore case study.

The catalog is directly created in the Pimcore PIM system using a plugin. The catalog editor creates single chapters and adds content pages, which are directly filled with data from the PIM system. The Pimcore PIM plugin allows the PDF creation any time. Additional settings, e.g. the integration of printer marks, can be done optionally.

Bösch uses a printer‐friendly PDF (DIN A-4, 32MB) for downloads and electronic distribution. Within the PDF each product is directly linked to the Bösch B2B shop.

A print compliant PDF (extract, 12 MB) with a size of about 170 MB – including printer marks, high-resolution images and CMYK color space compatibility – went to a print shop for the production of hardcovers.

The 680+ page Bösch product catalog has become an Elements flagship project, deeply showing the strategic value of PDFreactor for the Web-to-Print process within the Pimcore PIM solution. The highlights of the PDFreactor implementation include:

Cross-reference
Table of contents
Multi-column layout
CSS transforms
Tables & floats
Printer marks
CMYK colors

Wood Flooring Price List

RealObjects PDFreactor + Pimcore enable print-ready price lists via B2B/B2C sales tool for global distribution network

mafi is an international natural wood flooring brand, standing for a family-owned business that was founded more than 100 years ago, producing innovative products for kitchens, baths, living rooms as well as commercial projects exclusively in Austria. mafi Naturholzboden GmbH also offers several additional solutions such as stairs, skirting, as well as care and installation materials. Their tailor-made products are sold in more than 50 countries, achieving a turnover of about 22 million EUR in 2017.

Achievements
All product, sales and marketing information is structured and consolidated from 3^rdparty systems. A central master data management process feeds all relevant IT systems, such as PIM, CMS, DAM and e-commerce and keeps track of all changes. The mafi B2B/B2C e-commerce portal and related price list production retrieves data for thousands of different product variants from those systems.

Using PDFreactor as plug-in within Pimcore enables mafi to easily and quickly update price lists, maintaining consistent layout standards without having design and typesetting costs. Cost reduction in the five-digit range, considerable time-savings as well as constant performance have been achieved.

Christian Hemetsberger, mafi Communications Manager & Project Manager for this project says: ”With the web-to-print solution of our price lists, based on our Pimcore system and PDFreactor, we have been able to almost eliminate annually occurring and recurring tasks. In addition, the data structure allows us to form new combinations of languages, currencies and units, which is becoming increasingly important for our B2B customers, especially in the individualization of our offers. The concept has also been kept open, which enables us to follow up different brochures and documents – all from a single source. In any case, most important for a web-to-print project is data quality, as it foundation for such technologies.”

Web-to-print
The fully automatic database publishing is done based on the consolidated master data. The generated print-ready price lists generated with PDFreactor serve as a basis for all mafi stores and distribution partners in more than 50 countries, covering: 17 different price lists, 9.000 product variants, 5 languages, 6 currencies, 10 different units.

Print-ready PDFs are created directly within the Pimcore system using PDFreactor as plug-in. When rendering, the print is first rendered to HTML and then rendered to PDF. PDF rendering itself is done by PDFreactor, which comes with an out-of-the box feature to add (technically done by an additional CSS-file) printer marks to the PDF.

mafi uses a compact PDFs (DIN A-4, 5.9 MB) for downloads and electronic distribution via website and e-mail. Print compliant PDFs (extract, 3.5 MB) including printer marks, high-resolution images and CMYK color space compatibility are sent to a print shop for the production of hardcopies.

The mafi 130+ page main price list demonstrates the PDFreactor capabilities within the Pimcore web-to-print process. Key PDFreactor features used are:

Multi-column layout
CSS transforms
Tables & floats
Printer marks
CMYK colors

Gardening Product Catalog

RealObjects PDFreactor + Pimcore simplifies typeset-quality gardening product catalog production

Windhager stands for competence, creative, market-oriented product innovations in the field of insect stops, pest control, gardening accessories as well as sun and privacy screens. Their products encourage the beauty and natural diversity of gardens and increase economic yields. Windhager products also contribute to a more comfortable life around the house and on the patio. Established in 1983 and headquartered in Thalgau, Austria, Windhager Groups’ 250+ employees assure 80+ million turnover p.a. within 25 European countries.

Realization
The leading system for article data is an ERP system (self-developed), which is connected via web services to the PIM system (Pimcore). Digital assets are stored in an external DAM database (CELUM). All marketing titles and texts are entered, translated and stored in Pimcore, pictures and videos in CELUM, but they are synchronized between CELUM and Pimcore so that every digital asset is available in Pimcore.

Every catalogue is realized with the Pimcore module “Web-to-Print”, which is integrated in the Pimcore suite and allows the marketing team to create a catalogue, every chapter and subchapter and add all relevant products to the catalogue. Windhager decided to add every product manually via a search menu and exclude every variant which is deprecated automatically. When creating new catalogues marketing can copy an old catalogue and needs to add only new items manually.

Catalogues are single language, so creating a new catalogue with a new language means to create a referenced copy to the original catalogue and make only the changes needed for this specific language. Changes in the original catalogue are automatically transferred to all referenced catalogues.
The template for each catalogue is programmed with HTML/CSS and PHP and can be developed by every web designer. The powerful PDFreactor plug-in allows Windhager to create the PDFs for print (high picture quality) and web download (low picture quality) with suitable margins, breaks, printer marks within seconds. It is not necessary to start an interface or synchronization job or wait for hours to see the work done before in Pimcore as a PDF, nor is it necessary to work in InDesign to make a printable PDF.

After few hours of work, the editorial staff is able to check the first chapters and correct mistakes or wrong data, the complete process of creating and error correction is done in one system which reduces cost & time and increases the process performance.

Stefan Windhager, Windhager Managing Director says: „Considering the lead time and cost reduction of the catalog production, we received the expected return on investment within the first year. Employees involved in the process can now focus on quality and improvement, knowing to get it done in time – every year“

More info about the Pimcore PIM Web-to-Print functionality can be found here.

Windhager utilizes a compact PDF (DIN A-4, 23 MB) for downloads within its websites and for electronic distribution via e-mail. A print compliant PDF (extract, 18.5 MB) with printer marks, high-resolution images and CMYK color space compatibility is sent to a printing house for the production of hardcopies.

The Windhager 160+ sophisticated gardening catalog shows PDFreactor’s features and capabilities as part of the Pimcore web-to-print functionality, among others:

Table of contents
Tables & floats
Printer marks
CMYK colors

Terrace Designer Report + Timber Inventory Catalog

PDFreactor + Pimcore PIM guarantees typeset-quality product catalogs, price lists and data sheets within multi-country B2B e-commerce platform

The JAF Group is the largest timber merchant in Europe, offering around 83,000 articles (including more than 20,000 permanently in stock) at 59 sites in 19 countries all over the continent. Founded in 1948 at the company’s headquarter in Stockerau (Austria), JAF Group has become central Europe’s leading wholesaler for wood and wooden materials. It has established itself as a strong partner for the wood processing industry, the construction sector and resale. Today the company is the market leader in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia.

Data management
Centerpiece for JAF Group’s e-commerce and digital strategy is a central platform in 12 languages and for 19 countries based on Pimcore PIM and Pimcore DAM. It is the foundation of an international B2B e-commerce platform with customer specific pricing and customer specific assortments for 83,000 articles where the customer experience is rendered in real-time. This platform features popular B2B e-commerce functionalities such as buying permissions and workflows, quotation requests, corporate accounts, and tight ERP integration.

Customer experience
The customized multi-country B2B e-commerce platform based on Pimcore eCommerce provides a multi-tenant shopping cart for price and order comparison as well as B2B features such as product quotation, order dashboards, and various product category specific checkout processes. The source of all data is Pimcore PIM. A product configurator, terrace designer, room studio (incl. real-time 3D construction) as well as printing automation using PDFreactor streamline the overall processes for JAF Group’s B2B customers.

Printing automation
Full printing automation creates print outputs/PDFs based on templates, data and rules. Foundation for this functionality is the interoperation between Pimcore PIM and RealObjects PDFreactor. No manual setup of content is required like it generally happens with product listings, product detail pages, etc. It comes quite handy for automating the creating of data sheets, price lists, and energy labels.

For more info about the JAF B2B e-commerce platform see also the Pimcore case study.

The terrace designer e.g. is a special component of Pimcore eCommerce and is tightly integrated with Pimcore PIM, which uses PDFreactor as plug-in. For B2B customers, the terrace designer calculates the optimal patterns for the desired terrace floor plans and generates the building instructions, including material lists, construction plans, sketches etc. PDFreactor then generates a PDF, presenting all the info in an attractive layout.

The JAF Group’s B2B customers receive clearly structured, compact PDFs (DIN A-4, 1 MB) for download. Typeset-quality compliant PDFs (extract, 1 MB) including printer marks, high-resolution images and CMYK color space compatibility are sent to a print shop for the production of hardcopies.

The 60+ page JAF inventory catalog or e.g. utilizes versatile PDFreactor features as part of the Pimcore PIM printing automation process, such as:

Table of contents
Tables & floats
Printer marks
CMYK colors

Metal Fittings Product Catalog

RealObjects PDFreactor + Pimcore streamline assembly of 240+ page metal fittings product catalog for web and print

Pollmann & Sohn is a 5th generation family owned business located in Kierspe, Germany. It manufactures high-quality fittings and connectors made of steel, stainless steel, nonferrous metals and aluminum, which are used in a wide range of industries. The core assortment is continuously adapted and extended to meet new market requirements. The company is well-known for its constant stock of inventory and fast delivery of products. Competent and experienced sales staff uses various tools to present the product portfolio to customers and prospective buyers. A very important sales tool is the annually published comprehensive product catalog, which features more than 3,000 building fittings and connectors.

Starting point

Because of the large product variety tremendous work and manpower was required to create, layout and publish the product catalog manually. Changes in product data easily led to inconsistencies in sales and marketing materials. Processes were slow, as external service providers were involved. Gathering the necessary data for the print material was also complicated. Proofreading the raw catalog print files took days.

After various back-and-forth feedback loops the raw catalog data was finally sent to a printing shop. Once the catalog was printed, even slight changes in product data caused a lot additional work. The overall approach was time-consuming and error-prone. Business processes were rather ineffective and had to be re-engineered. Pollmann needed a flexible and easy to use web-to-print solution, enabling a straightforward and automated production of the comprehensive product catalog, being available as web optimized and typeset quality PDFs.

Solution

Pimcore partner Basilicom (Berlin) advised Pollmann to create a Pimcore based web-to-print solution with a set of preconfigured templates, RealObjects PDFreactor as rendering engine and various configurable output formats.

Structured data from the Pimcore PIM is the foundation to create the Pollmann catalog nowadays. It is a single-source-publishing approach. The efforts required to produce the catalog decreased significantly. At the same time the catalog quality increased, as processes are now based on the latest, complete product data. With the new system the completeness of data records can be monitored as well.

For more info about the Pollmann & Sohn web-to-print solution see also the Pimcore case study.

Web-to-print

Within Pimcore a comprehensive set of templates and building blocks were developed. With these blocks, the catalog can now be configured using the Pimcore drag-and-drop interface. The output are web optimized and typeset quality PDFs, both rendered with RealObjects PDFreactor.

Single pages of the catalog were designed in a way that they can easily be used for flyers, product sheets, quotes, assembly instructions or price lists. All of these documents are also rendered both as web and print version using PDFreactor.

Pollmann & Sohn uses a compact PDF (DIN A-4, 111 MB) for downloads and electronic distribution via website and e-mail. A print compliant PDF (extract, 21 MB [Ausschnitt (max. 10-15 Seten) aus dem PDF, das an die Druckerei geht]) including printer marks, high-resolution images and CMYK color space compatibility is sent to a printing shop for the production of hardcopies.

The Pollmann & Sohn 240+ page metal fittings product catalog clearly demonstrates the RealObjects PDFreactor capabilities within the Pimcore web-to-print process. Key PDFreactor features used are:

Cross-references
Bookmarks
Table of contents
Multi-column layout
CSS transforms
Tables & floats
Printer marks
CMYK colors

PDFreactor Pricing and Deployment

The PDFreactor pricing tiers and Software License Agreements are applicable.

The PDFreactor Webservice and Docker-Image enables the smooth integration of a PDFreactor CPU License into the PIM module in order to streamline your web-based print processes. To receive a quotation directly from RealObjects or to securely purchase a PDFreactor license from our online reseller cleverbridge using a major credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Diners Club), wire transfer or Paypal, please contact support@realobjects.com

Integration and Usage

Documentation on how to create print-ready PDFs in general can be found on the Pimcore documentation web site in the chapter Print Documents. If you are looking how to directly create and return a PDF instead of HTML from your controller, please have a look at the Pimcore documentation web site, chapter Rendering PDFs. A fully working demo application can be found at https://pimcore.com/en/try

PDFreactor advantages compared to open source HTML-to-PDF solutions

Printer marks Out-of-the-box feature to add printer marks (incl. trim, bleed, registration, color bars) to the PDF, see also official Pimcore online demo.

Advanced PDF layouts Different page sizes/orientations in one document, repeating page structures, footnotes, complex headers/footers using CSS Paged Media.

Powerful output, perfect typography PDF/A (long-term archiving of electronic documents), PDF/X (facilitate graphics exchange), CMYK, baseline grids and spot colors, tagged PDFs (automatically) according to common accessibility guidelines, PDF annotations.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

For availability, documentation, technical support etc. please contact info@pimcore.com. RealObjects does not provide any support related to the integration of the PDFreactor into the Pimcore platform.

Strategic Partnership

Pimcore is an award-winning digital experience platform. It provides modules for Master Data Management (MDM), Product Information Management (PIM), Digital Asset Management (DAM), Digital Experience Management (CMS/WCM) and eCommerce.

The software is licensed open-source and available free of charge. The company specializes in business consulting, solution consulting, integration & implementation, professional services & support.

Automating business processes becomes easy with Pimcore’s APIs for connectivity to any external software or cloud infrastructure. Pimcore has been recognized as ‘Cool Vendor’ by IT analyst Gartner and is used worldwide with over 82,000 installations in 56 countries.

Pimcore partners with RealObjects, enabling its clients to utilize best-of-breed automated database publishing, variable data printing (VDP) and web-to-print functionality based on RealObjects PDFreactor.

Contact

For more information about Pimcore PIM + PDFreactor please contact:

pimcore GmbH
Gusswerk Halle 6
Söllheimerstraße 16
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Telephone: +43 662 876 60 62 30
Facsimile: +43 662 876606 – 99
E-Mail: info@pimcore.com