Migrating the AI Layout Automation configuration in Studio

The AI Layout Automation feature in Studio makes the process of placing articles on a layout more efficient by analyzing the available space on the pages of a layout — based on preconfigured blueprints and article shapes and taking already placed advertisements into account — and providing suggestions on how and where the available articles and their images can best be placed to fill the pages.

Changes to these suggestions can subsequently be made, and when satisfied with the result, the command can be given to have the articles automatically placed.

The Layout Automation feature is in constant development and has been significantly improved and updated in June 2026: a large part of the functionality is now provided via a Server plug-in and configuration is now partly done on a page in Studio Server.

As a result, the process of installing and configuring the system has changed and these changes need to be implemented on systems that already made use of the Layout Automation feature.

This article describes how this is done.

Steps

The migration consists of the following steps:

1. Removing the manual installation from InDesign
2. Removing the options in Studio Server for enabling Layout Automation
3. Setting up the new environment

1. Removing the manual installation from InDesign

The new setup automatically distributes the InDesign plug-in that contains the Layout Automation functionality. The currently installed plug-in therefore needs to be removed.

Step 1. In InDesign, access the Scripts panel by choosing Window > Utilities > Scripts.

Step 2. Right-click the User folder and select Reveal in Finder (macOS) or Reveal in Explorer (Windows).

The User folder is opened.

Step 3. Open the folder named AilaInDesignPlugin.

Step 4. (Optional, only when Genres are used) Copy the following files to a temporary location (they are used in a later step).

• config.js
• config-local.js

Step 5. Delete the AilaInDesignPlugin folder from the Scripts folder.

2. Removing the options in Studio Server for enabling Layout Automation

Enabling or disabling the Layout Automation feature is now done by enabling or disabling a Server plug-in. The configuration options that previously made this possible therefore have to be removed.

Step 1. Remove the following configuration from the config_overrule.php file:

new Feature( 'LayoutAutomation')
new Feature( 'LayoutAutomationUrl', 'https://service.aila.woodwing.cloud/')

Step 2. Save the file.

3. Setting up the new environment

The environment is now ready to be set up with the new process.

Follow the steps in Setting up and configuring the AI Layout Automation feature in Studio.

• When Genres were configured in the config.js and config-local.js files, use these settings when filling out the options on the AI Layout Automation Management Console page.

The following table shows how the options in the configuration files correspond with the options on the Management Console page.

Configuration file option	Management Console page	Management Console option
aiCopyfitServiceUrl	System Settings > Integrations	AILA service URL
aiCopyfitServiceUrl	System Settings > Integrations	AI layout-fitting service URL
offlineFallback	-	This option is not used anymore.
genres	Genres > Brand
regenerateArticleShapesSettings	Regenerate Shapes > Brand	Filtering on Issue has been dropped. Configure the page as shown.
logger	-	This feature is hard-coded and always enabled.

• Because the previously installed scripts have been removed, any keyboard shortcuts that were assigned to the script actions also need to be re-set.