The “Pipeline 2” project
Purpose
The DAISY Pipeline is an open-source, cross-platform framework for the automated processing of digital content in and between various file formats. It facilitates the production and maintenance of accessible content for people with print disabilities. The current version of Pipeline, sometimes referred to as “Pipeline 2”, is a direct follow-on from the original Pipeline (sometimes referred to as “Pipeline 1”), taking into account new standards and technologies which have emerged in the meantime. Whilst it has meant a re-design of the framework, the overarching principles and purpose remain the same:
- To provide the functionality to produce, maintain, and validate accessible digital formats
- To embrace good practices for the creation of quality accessible content
- To support the single source master approach where applicable
- To minimize overlap and duplication, notably via the development of reusable components
The project is led and maintained by the DAISY Consortium but involves several member organizations. This reduces the duplication of effort and ensures maximum sharing of best practices among the user community.
Who is this for?
DAISY Pipeline can be used by anyone creating digital content for print disabled readers.
Status
The current version of DAISY Pipeline is feature complete and production grade software. The legacy version is not maintained and not recommended anymore. Users of the legacy version are advised to update to the current version if possible. Organisations that rely on legacy converters that are not available in the current version, are asked to let us know, and we will make sure these converters are ported.
The recommended way to use DAISY Pipeline is through the desktop application. DAISY Pipeline is also a web application, in which multiple users can work together in the same application, each through their own web browser, while the real work happens centrally on a server. The web application offers some features that are not available in the desktop application, and visa-versa. DAISY Pipeline can also be run as a service to which client programs can connect, through a web API. The DAISY Pipeline web application is an example of such a server-client configuration. There is also a command line tool. DAISY Pipeline is supported on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
Features
- Accessibility—the main interest of the tool. There are Pipeline transformations for migrating from one accessible format to another, enriching an input format with certain accessible features, and producing formats targeting a specific disability.
- Standards—accessibility goes hand in hand with standards. The file formats that the Pipeline primarily focuses on are EPUB 3, DAISY and PEF. Standards are also important under the hood. The system is based on standard XML processing technologies and these technologies are platform neutral, supported by active communities, and easy to maintain.
- Cross-platform—The application can be run on most common operating systems. It must be run in a Java runtime environment, but its platform neutral RESTful API (web service) allows it to be called from any programming language and makes it interoperable with heterogenous production workflows. In addition to the programming interface there is also a command-line interface and there are graphical user interfaces.
- Modular—The system was designed with a modular architecture, the key to better scalability and extensibility. Processing functionality is provided by cohesive and reusable software components—modules.
- Collaborative—The project is led and maintained by the DAISY Consortium but involves several member organizations. This reduces the duplication of effort and ensures maximum sharing of best practices among the user community.
- Open-source—All software products maintained by the DAISY Consortium are available under a business-friendly licence (LGPL), to stimulate collaboration between organizations and to maximize reuse and integration in other contexts, including commercial software.
By adopting modern standards (and off-the-shelf implementations of those standards), version 2 of the Pipeline project aims to:
- prepare for the future
- better integrate with the publishing mainstream
- minimize development and maintenance cost, allowing developers to ultimately focus more on actual transformations rather than the engine that drives the transformations.
- lower the framework learning curve
- increase interoperability with the heterogeneous production workflows
- increase the likelihood of re-use in both open source and commercial applications.