Anyone out there using XMPie?

Just curious what people think about the Xerox purchase. Will it be good for users? Does it make it more or less appealing to potential buyers?

I have a question for anyone using xmpie with DocuSP. We are attempting to not embed the resources in the dbf file. I am having trouble finding an answer to what folder the resource files should be placed in DocuSP. Is anyone out there using this option and how does it work for you.

My review of XMPie PersonalEffect.

I'm ambivalent about Xerox purchasing them. On one hand, I think it's much more advanced than VIPP, so Xerox offering their clients a more user-friendly and maintainable choice for VDP is a good thing. On the other hand, Xerox tends to bundle up their apps and their hardware and their financing... I'm afraid many clients will end up with XMPie even if it isn't the best solution for their particular workflow.

Very nice writeup. You hit on a lot of the same issues I have with Darwin as well. Which is targeted more to the designer then the coder... It would be nice to do a side by side comparison of VI applications out there at some point.

I don't think it's possible. It's hard to compare for example PrintShop Mail, designed for Promotional VDP documents, with PlanetPress, designed for Transactional VDP, with other applications that are plugins to Acrobat or Photoshop or InDesign.

Then too you have applications that are designed for print providers vs. products that really are for end-users... the market is a mess right now.

I, personally, in a high-volume data-driven, document production environment, would avoid anything that used a page layout program as it's engine. There are plenty of complete VDP applications on the market not to have to use a workflow that is slapped together from other applications.

No secret here: I didn't like XMPie when I used it, and the price is horrendous.