Xinet (ex-Northplains) Features

Ingestion & storage

• Storage model: assets are ordinary files on server volumes. Xinet acts as the file server: users work directly on mounted AFP or SMB volumes from macOS or Windows, and Xinet watches the file system to build previews and database records S9 S8. SMB2 support arrived with Xinet 19 S60. 2026 releases ship Samba VFS modules for Samba 4.21–4.23 S32.
• Other ways in: upload through the Portal web UI and the Xinet Pilot desktop app. 19.2.1 added Upload Only Pilot users (e.g. photographers) who can drop files into an administrator-defined folder without browsing rights; this replaces the legacy Uploader Distributor S12. Other routes: input hot folders and print spoolers S8, and command-line import of file names, metadata and previews from delimited text files, including migration from a Cumulus database S22.
• Formats: still images, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Office, Apple Keynote, CAD (DWG/DXF/DGN etc.), audio (streamable AIFF/WAV/M4A, others), interactive HTML/SWF, and video including R3D (REDCODE) with streamable proxies for 3GP, AVI, DV, FLV, M4V, MKV and more S16. Office previews rely on LibreOffice S15. Recent releases fixed WEB previews for CMYK Illustrator/Photoshop files S33.
• Previews: colour-managed web previews and FPOs (For Placement Only low-res proxies), with ICC profile handling and watermarking options S8 S26.
• Versioning: Xinet Versioning keeps consistently named backup copies of files as they are edited, managed from a Version Management interface or the Portal media viewer. Triggers can create versions automatically, e.g. with the makeversion Action keyed on xmp:ModifyDate S87 S17. IgniteTech describes versioning as automatic on each save S2.
• File size limits: Not public. Scale claims: "millions of assets and thousands of users" S9.

Metadata & taxonomy

• Data fields (Venture database) of type text (up to a set maximum length), integer, floating point, date and boolean. Text fields can be free text or pop-up lists, and fields can be marked as facets S21.
• XMP write-back: a field can be set to "Save into an XMP Packet", so values edited in Xinet are embedded in the file and readable in Adobe applications S21. Xinet reads IPTC/NAA and XMP metadata from files and supports custom XMP namespaces S8. IgniteTech presents XMP integration as a way to avoid manual tagging S2.
• Data Field Sets and File Info Panels group fields for display. Templates and Permission Sets decide which fields each user or group can see and edit S8.
• Bulk edit: "Batch Keyword Apply" Collection plug-in S8.
• Controlled vocabularies or hierarchical thesaurus: Unknown (only pop-up value lists are documented S21).

Search & discovery

• Two engines: Solr powers Quick Search with facets, saved searches and top-level facets for Portal users. The native FullText engine powers Advanced Search (complex queries) S18. The 2026.07.09 release made search-engine selection fully automatic and shows an error when Solr is down S32.
• Advanced search operators include date operators such as "In the Next" and "Has Each" (both fixed in 2025–2026) S36 S32. Searches can match text inside archived assets while showing their previews S9.
• InDesign text: the Xinet Metadata plug-in embeds XMP into InDesign documents so Xinet can index their text and show full previews with linked images S77.
• Linked Files & Containing Documents: shows every layout that uses an asset and every asset placed in a layout S2 S8.
• Visual/similarity search and natural-language search: Not public (not documented).

AI capabilities

• Xinet CoPilot / "Xinet AI" (IgniteTech, on the product page since about 2023-10): analyses content, file names and existing metadata to suggest keywords, and adds tags automatically on upload S75 S1. In 2024 it was offered as a separately signed-up add-on S75.
• Which AI model or provider it uses, where processing happens (on-premise or cloud), languages, opt-out and governance: Not public. CoPilot is not mentioned in the 2025–2026 public release-note summaries S32 S35 Unverified.
• OCR / transcription / face recognition: Not public. The Video module extracts text from files for search S25.

Organization

• Volumes and folders on the server are the primary structure, mirrored in Portal and Pilot S8.
• Collections (historically "baskets") gather assets for download, custom image orders, PDF contact sheets and video reels. Collection plug-ins add functions S29 S87.
• Portal sites: separate branded sites (Marquee or Exhibit theme) for different audiences, each with its own configuration and filters S28 S11.
• Brand-guideline portal: not part of Xinet. Northplains sold it separately as On Brand (legacy) S64 S71.

Workflow & collaboration

• Trigger Sets and Actions: the workflow engine. Value Triggers fire when a data-field value changes (e.g. a status set to "OK"). Date Triggers fire relative to date fields (e.g. one hour before a due date). File Event Triggers fire on file-system or user events within an "Active Path": new file, upload, aggregated upload, delete, replace, move-into, high-res or FPO download, preview viewed, image order, image replacement. Portal Triggers can be fired by developers S17.
• Built-in Actions: compare, copy, email, inherit_parent_metadata, label, makeversion, move, movetree (archiving), pdfconvert, print, remove, setdatafield, transfer. Custom Actions can be written in any language executable on the server and run as root S17.
• Review: annotations and comments on previews in Portal and Pilot, version comparison, and a Gallery View for comparing images S87 S13. Approval steps are modelled with metadata fields plus Value Triggers S17. IgniteTech also mentions a project management dashboard S1 S2.
• Creative tools: edit-in-place via mounted drives (no check-in/check-out) S1. Picture Wrangler relinks FPO to high-res images in InDesign S77 S2. PDF Image Replacement swaps FPO for high-res images while keeping InDesign effects S8 S2. Interactive PDF links placed images back to the DAM S2 S77.
• Task management or briefs: Not public for Xinet. The legacy NEXT FLOW module covered these in the cloud S57.

Rights & governance

• Asset Timer: availability windows by date (down to the minute). Once expired, an asset can be watermarked, flagged or hidden, and cannot be downloaded or output without the owner's release S89 S2.
• Permissions: ACLs (users, IP addresses/subnets, hostnames, nested ACLs) on volumes, admin access and browser sites S23. User/group Permission Sets and Templates S8. Delegated sub-administrators S8.
• Business Rules filter: hides files and folders from client views across all Portal and Pilot sites based on criteria S88.
• Watermarks on FPOs and web previews (and on high-res files when Asset Timer applies) S26.
• Audit trail: Xinet logs file activity (uploads, downloads, previews, image replacement) into its database. File History is visible to users and admins S8 S17. Annotation deletions are also logged S14.
• Retention policies: Not public. Archiving to disk is possible with the movetree Action S17.

Distribution & delivery

• Downloads: high-res, FPO, JPEG/GIF conversions, multi-asset downloads through Collections, download options on shared links S47 S28.
• Custom Image Order / Batch Image Order: users create resized or converted renditions on demand without an image editor S2 S87.
• Sharing: "Share Asset" option (Xinet 19) S60. External links to Marquee, Exhibit or Pilot pages, and xwnb-view:// / com-xinet-… URL schemes that open assets in Pilot or the contextual-menu extension S27.
• Print production: output print queues, input spoolers, hot folders, OPI image replacement and ICC colour correction S8.
• DAM-as-a-CDN / dynamic renditions / public web delivery: Not public (no CDN feature documented; delivery happens from the customer's server).

Video & rich media

• Video module (Xinet Video Engine): scene-detection key frames, low-resolution proxies, streaming of originals and of alternative resolutions in Portal, previews for SWF, HTML, MP3 and 3D AutoCAD S25.
• Video Reel Generator: builds storyboard reels from Collection assets in the browser and tracks source usage S2 S9.
• Subtitles, transcription, 3D viewer: Not public.

Analytics & reporting

• Database statistics and logs (system, preview generation, web access, triggers, print queues) in the admin GUI S8. The database is MySQL and can be queried with external tools once an administrator creates a MySQL user; Northplains publishes schema diagrams (Xinet 17 and 2021.5.7) for that purpose S41 S42.
• IgniteTech mentions dashboards and production metrics S1 S2. A packaged asset-usage analytics module: Not public.

Administration

• Admin GUI (nativeadmin account plus delegated sub-administrators) for volumes, users, groups, styles, plug-ins, data fields, triggers, queues, licences and logs S8.
• Identity: local users, Active Directory / Open Directory / LDAP (PAM-based on RHEL 9), SAML 2.0 SSO S11 S19 S44. SCIM provisioning: Unknown.
• Multi-site: one production server can feed many Portal servers (one licence) S11. Split server/Portal deployments are supported S47.
• Localization: UI in 18 languages (vendor claim about 2015) Unverified S59; localization tags in Portal S28.
• Platform (2026): RHEL 9 64-bit, MySQL 8.0 (8.4 not certified), Samba 4.21–4.23. Clients: macOS 10.15+, Windows 10. Plug-ins for InDesign/Illustrator 2024–2025 S32 S38. Upgrades from 19.x to RHEL 9 need an extra pre-install step S32.
• Sandbox environments: the legacy Developer Program sold watermarked, time-limited SDK licences for test servers S68. Upgrade paths need staging licences (e.g. 17 → 18 → 19) S48.

Legacy: Telescope (Northplains enterprise DAM)

Telescope is no longer marketed (absent from IgniteTech's library S5), but a public support desk remains S49 S50. Northplains marketed it in 2021 for managing "millions of in-progress and approved assets", with programmable metadata schemas, renditions and logic triggers S62.

• Database-centric enterprise repository on Oracle or SQL Server (ODBC/JDBC) S54, with "I-Pieces" ingestion modules (Aspose, audio, Digimarc watermark detection, DNG, documents via Oracle Outside In, etc.) S90.
• Components: TSWeb (web client), TSAdmin, TSUploader, File Broker, Transformation Platform, QuickLinks, and a hosted variant "Telescope OnDemand" S51 S50.
• Releases: 9.4.0.17 (Dec 2018) → Executive 2019.1 (Dec 2019, Adobe CC 2019 integrations, workflow/ingestion/download) → 2020.x → 2021.3 (June 2021, last listed) S52 S50.