Houston (January 21, 2003) - Objective Advantage, Inc., a Houston-based software business development company, has released the first version of its JDF Development Platform (JDP), a comprehensive software programming toolkit that is designed to help print industry software and equipment providers to integrate true Job Definition Format (JDF) and Job Messaging Format (JMF) capabilities into print workflow products. In addition, JDP will enable printers to update their custom software to support JDF and JMF. A demo version is available from Objective Advantage at http://www.oai.cc. JDF is the standard advocated by CIP4, the international standards body for the print industry, to simplify print workflow information exchange between different applications and systems. "JDF capabilities will improve print workflow integration and ultimately leave systems and equipment choices in the hands of the printer," said Gareth O'Brien, vice president of Objective Advantage. "We expect the JDF Development Platform to play a major role in the adoption of JDF industry-wide by helping software developers and equipment manufacturers across the industry add JDF and JMF capability to their products." The JDP is a comprehensive toolkit that goes beyond current JDF development tools and enables developers to rapidly integrate JDF and JMF into web and client/server applications. Rapid integration is possible with JDP because it is a visual developer tool that conceals the complex details of JDF code wherever possible, saving programmers from having to re-invent the wheel in order to develop fully JDF-compliant systems. "There is every indication that JDF is no longer on the horizon, it's here," said O'Brien. "The Objective Advantage JDP provides an effective means to gain a large leap forward in integrating JDF capabilities into their systems." The JDP is designed around a layered architecture giving developers the flexibility to work at whatever level they choose. Layers in the core JDP product include a simple JDF API, SOAP Bubbles for JMF, a messaging hub and router, device and controller registry, and a JDF object model.  Lower level layers offer JDF format object mapping, a platform specific database I/O, and an XML parser and DOM. The JDP will offer a database and foreign file format object mapping capability as an add-on feature in the future. The initial version of the JDP is written in C# on Microsoft's .Net Framework. A Java version is planned to follow during the first quarter of 2003. JDP will be supported with ongoing releases that will ensure continued JDF compliance as the standard evolves.