The project in five facts.
Challenge, approach and results.
The diploma thesis addresses the automation of promotional label preparation at Jagros, d. o. o. (Trgovine Jager), where the aforementioned process was entirely manual before the development of the Oznacevalec system. As part of the diploma thesis, he developed the Oznacevalec system, an ExtendScript application for Adobe InDesign, which automates this process. Measurements showed that the system reduces preparation time by approximately 16.5 per cent on average. All test participants, including non-experts, successfully completed the task based solely on written user instructions, which confirms that the system is understandable even to users without technical background knowledge.
Problem
The diploma thesis addresses the automation of promotional label preparation at Jagros, d. o. o. (Trgovine Jager), where the aforementioned process was entirely manual before the development of the Oznacevalec system.
Solution and Method
As part of the diploma thesis, he developed the Oznacevalec system, an ExtendScript application for Adobe InDesign, which automates this process. The system operates via keyboard shortcuts in two steps: the user first activates the system and marks the elements of an article in the leaflet in a specific order (image, name, price and icons), then confirms the capture and selects the template format, and the system automatically generates the final files. The system supports twelve template formats and special logic for the Mali poličnik format.
During development, he faced technical limitations of the ExtendScript environment, which only supports the older ES3 standard and has no built-in mechanism for JSON data serialisation or persistent memory between script runs. He resolved these limitations with his own implementation of JSON serialisation and by storing the system state in an external state.json file. He tested the system on three levels: with functional testing on 25 test cases, by measuring preparation time in manual and automated procedures, and by testing user experience with eight participants, five non-experts without prior InDesign knowledge and three experienced graphic designers.
Results
Measurements showed that the system reduces preparation time by approximately 16.5 per cent on average. All test participants, including non-experts, successfully completed the task based solely on written user instructions, which confirms that the system is understandable even to users without technical background knowledge. The diploma thesis demonstrated that it is possible to build a reliable system through scripting in the Adobe InDesign ExtendScript environment, despite its technical limitations, which reduces the preparation time of promotional labels and is understandable to users without prior technical knowledge.
At the same time, it was shown that due to large differences between template formats, a unified architecture without code duplication could not be fully achieved, which remains an opportunity for further system development.
From the project.
Module, programme and stories.
Your diploma project for a real company.
A diploma thesis at Academia solves a challenge from a company – often the one where you do your 800 hours of placement. Read about the Programsko inženirstvo module or book a consultation.