IOWA CITY, IA-October 8th, 2004 -- Today MetaCommunications, Inc. announced a new JDF Solutions Framework for Virtual Ticket 6.0. developed specifically for printing, packaging, and graphic arts vendors and suppliers.The JDF Solutions Framework positions Virtual Ticket as the first graphical user interface-based solution for building a front-end to JDF by creating customizable job tickets without requiring extensive programming skills orlong development cycles to implement. The JDF Solutions Framework enables Virtual Ticket to initiate JDF workflows and capture JDF generated output from JDF-enabled solutions, effectively driving the entire workflow process. "Virtual Ticket's core functionality enables users to create their own customizable electronic job tickets to meet their specific creative and production needs," says Robert Long, Executive Vice President of MetaCommunications. "The new JDF Solutions Framework brings these features to CTP, prepress, press, and post-press vendors, giving them an easy-to-use graphicalfront-end to creating JDF job tickets for use with their specific solutions." CREATING JDF JOB TICKETS Using Virtual Ticket, vendors may create, export, and distribute standard Electronic job tickets or job tickets tailored specifically to their own JDF-enabled hardware and software devices. For example, CTP manufacturers may create prepress tickets that write JDF to drive their own CTP process; press manufacturers may create press tickets that write JDF to drive a printing process; etc. all with the ability to define their own extensions toJDF and a custom user interface to ensure that the appropriate JDF specifications are included for their solutions. The JDF Solutions Framework also allows vendors to leverage Virtual Ticket's built-in digital asset management capabilities to specify and reference which files to use, further enhancing the JDF workflow process. VirtualTicket presents a unique approach to digital asset management by enabling digital assets to be treated as additional job-related data through automatic cataloging and associating of those digital assets with job tickets. When generating JDF job tickets, the JDF Solutions Framework ensures that references are written and relationships are maintained between the JDF and the targeted digital assets that will be processed. DRIVING THE JDF WORKFLOW The JDF Solutions Framework includes a JDF object model that is accessible in JavaScript, allowing Virtual Ticket to easily construct and deconstruct JDF. As a result, users can produce a JDF file that may be routed to the appropriate process in the JDF workflow. Results generated by the vendor's JDF system may also be retrieved and documented in Virtual Ticket through its built-in InterSync(tm) background services. "InterSync greatly simplifies the process of watching for changes to JDF files over the course of production," says Robert Long. "JDF files are linked to production information within Virtual Ticket, which allows InterSync to track the JDF files through production and capture the resulting changes."