Features

Twixl offers a number of built-in Entitlement scenarios that require almost no configuration:

• manage access to paid content for (print) subscribers and so provide them free access to in-app purchase content.
• for customers migrating from Adobe DPS/AEM, we support the Adobe DPS/AEM direct entitlement API to facilitate a super smooth transition to Twixl.
• publishing content to only entitled users, both for app store and in-house apps. You can define users and groups, and manage access to collections based on user/group criteria.
• use access codes or promo codes to enable privileged or specific users to get access to specific content.

If you have a scenario that falls outside the scope of these built-in options, a custom entitlement server can almost certainly provide the answer - as this is a ‘custom’ solution, it can be tailored 100% to your requirements.

Content segmentation is part of the Entitlement pack. It can be used to filter the content shown in the app, based on a custom set of business rules.

A typical use case would be sales apps where based on the geographical location or the language choice of a sales rep, only specific content will be shown.

Using the integration API you can also integrate your app with a marketing automation tool so you can feed the app with specific content based on a reader’s profile and reading behavior.

The “Integration API” option allows you to integrate with a number of solutions that we support out of the box, but using that same API, basically any type of CMS could be configured 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 offer out of the box integration are:

• Canvasflow
• vjoon K4
• WoodWing Aurora / Inception
• Caymland M4

A collection can be compared to an issue, but it is much more flexible in that you can organize it as a series of articles, but also link to sub-collections. You can provide certain collections for free and others as paid content.

An article is the foundation and from there you are free to define how and when you publish it. You can publish continuously, with a regular publication schedule or even have a combined approach.

When you publish a new article or an update to an existing article, only that one article needs to be uploaded to the platform. This makes it easier to publish, and also allows for faster downloads and optimal use of the bandwidth.

An app created with Twixl can contain a multitude of content items.

You can publish HTML-based content, InDesign-based content enriched with our awesome plugin, plain PDF content, images, and movies.

In addition, you can also easily include any type of web content, whether online or embedded. This is often used to integrate services in the app.

Content can be pushed from external content sources like a CMS or content can also be pulled from RSS feeds, so that every new article in the feed will automatically appear in the app.

You can easily make changes to your app on the fly, and new content will always be available to your users instantly.

When you create an account on the Twixl Distribution Platform, the storage location closest to you will automatically be selected.

Every Twixl subscription comes with a specific bandwidth volume every year. One app: 2 TB / Four apps: 8 TP / Unlimited apps: 20 TB.

If you prefer to setup your own content storage space you can do so on Amazon S3 or on Windows Azure. Note that in that case, you don’t et the benefit of the Akamai CDN.

This is ideal for sales apps or manuals that are often used in circumstances where the user does not always have an online connection, but must be able to access the content. We strongly advise against using this for magazine apps, as this is really intended for business apps.

That way you’ll immediately be able to preview the full app experience on your mobile device, with zero configuration, i.e. all the content, HTML, InDesign, PDF articles, etc., as well as the browse pages.

If you’re on a Mac, you can also use the iOS simulator to preview the same app. This makes the creation process even more convenient.

Twixl Push notifications allow for ‘deep linking’, which means they’ll bring your users directly to where you want them to arrive in your app.

You can also send push notifications by platform (iOS/Android) with the most obvious use case being to send a different web link or app store link to iOS and Android users.

It is also possible to track analytics by entitlement token and so to analyze the behavior of every entitled user.

Analytics data can also be exported as a .xls file or, using our API, you can even integrate it with your CRM solution and automatically extract analytics data.

Here’s an overview of the type of interactivity that is supported by the Twixl Publisher plug-in: action buttons, hyperlinks, slide shows, video & audio, scrollable content, image sequences, full screen image views, HTML web viewers, web overlays with external or embedded HTML, Animations, Apple or Google Maps, nested interactivity, Panorama VR...