When developing a standard Windows application which runs on one PC, this figure describes the way to use the SDK.

As all cards in this architecture are managed by the CardDesigner, the SDK's usage in this architecture is named Managed mode.

Open

Administration of cards

The CardDesigner is a stand-alone executable with two main functions: The administration of card types and the design of card layouts which are assigned to these card types. A card type may also consist of further information like encoding rules or special printer settings. Card layouts may contain variable text or image data (photos, signatures and fingerprints).

When creating a layout, you can choose fields as "placeholder" for variable text objects. A simple text file dbfields.txt contains all available text fields. See heading "Retrieve Fields" under the heading "Define cards in Managed mode" for more information. Furthermore, you may use one photo, one signature and one fingerprint to be printed on a card.

Capture image and produce cards

The Capture component is an independent component to capture images at any time before production. Your application stores the pictures as file references or the binary data itself (for example, as BLOB). When producing the card, your application provides the image data to the production component, just as the textual data.

The Production component is used for card production. You create a card production job (in short card job) by using a card definition that was formerly defined by the CardDesigner. The card definition is enriched with values for variable text fields and images and sent as card job to the production component.

The SDK provides two examples demonstrating this kind of architecture. The examples are located in the folders named Java and Visual C# in the examples directory of the SDK installation.