Objectif Lune PlanetPress Production - 7.5 Instruction Manual

User Guide

www.objectiflune.com

Copyright Information

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Title PlanetPress Workflow User Guide Revision 2014-09-24

Table of Content

Table of Content 5

Overview 15

Icons used in this guide 15 Other Documentation 15

Getting Started 17

Environment Considerations 17

Terminal Services 17 Virtual Environments 17 32-Bit or 64-Bit? 17 Antivirus Considerations 18 Backup Considerations 18 Microsoft Office Compatibility 18

Network Considerations 18

Local and Network Rights 19 Account Requirements 19 Mapped Drives 19 Network Ports used by each service 19

Activate Your Printers 20 PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service Logon 21

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools 23

The Nature of PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools 23 The Three Flavors of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools 23 Terms and Definitions 23 About Configurations 24 About Processes 25 About Subprocesses 25 About Tasks 25 About Branches and Conditions 26 About Data 26 About Data Selections 27 AboutData Emulation 27

Emulations in the PlanetPress Workflow Tools: 27

About Related Programs and Services 28

Available Input Services 28 Available Output Services 28

About Documents 29 About Printing 29

The PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration Program 31

Start the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration Program 32 The PlanetPress Button 32

Table of Content

Create a New Configuration 33 Open a PlanetPress Suite Configuration File 33 Saving and Sending a Configuration 33 Save your Configuration 34 Send your Configuration 34 Import Processes from Another Configuration File 35 Import Documents 36 Import PrintShop Mail Documents 36 Change the Interface Language 36 Exit the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration Program 37

The Quick Access Toolbar 37 The PlanetPress Suite Ribbon 38

Start and Stop the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service 39

The Configuration Components Pane 40

Access Process Properties 41 Add a PlanetPress Suite Process 44 Manipulate Local Variables 45 Activate or Deactivate a Process 45 Convert a Branch to a Subprocess 46 Manipulate Global Variables 46 View Document Properties 47 Use Data and Metadata Files Attached to Documents 48 Use Attached Document Preview 49 Add Resident Documents in the Configuration Components Pane 49 Associate Documents and PlanetPress Watch Printer Queues 50 Using the Clipboard and Drag & Drop 50 Rename Objects in the Configuration Components Pane 52 Reorder Objects in the Configuration Components Pane 52 Grouping Configuration Components 53 Expand and Collapse Categories and Groups in the Configuration Components Pane 54 Delete Objects and Groups from the Configuration Components Pane 54

The Process Area 54

Zoom In or Out within Process Area 55 Adding Tasks 55 Adding Branches 55 Edit a Task 55 Replacing Tasks, Conditions or Branches 56 Remove Tasks or Branches 56 Task Properties Dialog 56 Cutting, Copying and Pasting Tasks and Branches 57 Moving a Task or Branch Using Drag-and-Drop 58 Ignoring Tasks and Branches 59 Resize Rows and Columns of the Process Area 59 Selecting Documents in Tasks 59 Highlight a Task or Branch 60 Undo a Command 60

Table of Content

Redo a Command 60

The Plug-in Bar 60 The Object Inspector Pane 61

Toggle the Run on Desktop Property 62

The Debug Information Pane 62 The Task Comments Pane 63 The Message Area Pane 63 Customizing the Program Window 64

Dock and Undock Areas of the Program Window 64 Show or Hide Areas of the Program Window 65 Combine and Attach Areas 65 Resize the Program Window Areas 69

Preferences 69

General User Options 70 Object Inspector User Options 70 Configuration Components Pane User Options 71 Default Configuration User Options 71 Notification Messages Preferences 71 Sample Data User Options 73 Network User Options 73 PlanetPress Capture User Options 74 PDF Text Extraction Tolerance Factors 79 Logging User Options 80 Messenger User Options 80 HTTP Server Input User Options 81 HTTPServer Input 2 User Options 81 LPD Input Preferences 82 Serial Input Service User Options 83 Telnet Input User Options 83 PlanetPress Fax User Options 84 FTP Output Service User Options 85 PlanetPress Image User Options 85 LPR Output User Options 87 PrintShop Web Connect Service User Options 88 Editor Options 88

Other Dialogs 91

Advanced SQL Statement dialog 91 Access Manager 92 SOAPAccess 94 PDF Viewer 95 The PlanetPress Suite Service Console 97 Add or Delete Document Instances 98 Virtual Drive Manager 99

Working With Variables 101

Types of Variables 101

Table of Content

Job Info Variables 101 Standard Variables 102

Available Standard Variables 102 The %i Loop Count Variable 103

Data in PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools 105

Choosing a Sample Data File 105 The Data Selector 105

Metadata tab 107

Metadata 108 Using the Metadata Data Selector 113 Using the File Viewer 114 Choosing a Database Type Sample Data File 114 Data Selections in PlanetPress Workflow Tools 114

Text-Based Data Selections 114 Database Data Selections 115 PDF Data Selections 115 Metadata Selections 116

Data File and Job File 116

Actual Data and Sample Data 117 Job File Names and Output File Names 117

Task Properties Reference 119

Input Tasks 121

Initial Input Tasks 121 Secondary Input Tasks 121 Merge PDF Files 122 Create File 124 Email Input 125 Folder Capture 127 Folder Listing 129 FTP Input 131 HTTP Client Input 132 HTTP Server Input 133 Input Error Bin 135 Input SOAP 137 LPD Input 138 Serial Input 139 PrintShop Web Connect 140 Telnet Input 142 WinQueue Input 143

Action Tasks 145

Add Document 145 Add/Remove Text 146 Advanced Search and Replace 147 Barcode Scan 149 Change Emulation 153

Table of Content

Create PDF 154 Decompress File(s) 156 Digital Action 157 Download to Printer 161 External Program 163 Load External File 164 Mathematical Operations 165 Open XSLT 166 PlanetPress Database 167 Rename 170 Run Script 171 Send Images to Printer 173 Search and Replace 174 Send to Folder 175 Set Job Infos and Variables 176 SOAP Client Plug-in 177 Standard Filter 179 Translator 180 Windows Print Converter 181

Data Splitters 183

About Using Emulations with Splitters 183 Database Splitter 184 Emulated Data Splitter 185 In-Stream Splitter 187 Generic Splitter 188 PDF Splitter 192 XML Splitter 194

Process Logic Tasks 197

Branch 197 Comment 198 File Name Condition 198 File Size Condition 199 Go Sub 200 Loop 200 Run Script 201 Send to Process 203 SNMP Condition 204 Text Condition 205 Time of Day Condition 207

Connector Tasks 208

Create MRDX 208 Input from SharePoint 209 Laserfiche Repository Output 211 Lookup in Microsoft® Excel® Documents 214 Microsoft® Word® Documents To PDF Conversion 216 Output to SharePoint 218

Table of Content

About PlanetPress Fax 221 PlanetPress Fax 221 Captaris RightFax Configuration 222 About PlanetPress Image 225 PlanetPress Image 225 Overview of the PDF/A and PDF/X Standards 231 PrintShop Mail 232

PlanetPress Capture 234

Capture Condition 234 Capture Fields Generator 237 Capture Fields Processor 239 Capture PGC Splitter 241 Find Capture Documents 242 Get Capture Document 245 PGC to PDF Converter 246 Extract ICRData 247

Metadata Tasks 249

Create Metadata 249 Embed/Extract PlanetPress Suite Metadata 250 Metadata Fields Management 251 Metadata File Management 253 Metadata Filter 254 Metadata Level Creation 255 Metadata Sequencer 256 Metadata Sorter 256 Metadata to PDI 257 Metadata-Based N-Up 258 Rule Interface 259 Sort Parameters 261 Pick Parameters 261 All In One 262

Output Tasks 265

Delete 265 FTP Output 266 Print Using a Windows Driver 267 Printer Queue Output 268 Send Email 270 Send to Folder 272 SOAP Client Plug-in 273

Variable Properties 275 Unknown Tasks 276 Masks 276

Date and Time Format 277

Special Workflow Types 279

Special Workflows 279

Table of Content

PDFWorkflow 279 PlanetPress Capture Workflow 279 HTTPServer workflow 279

PlanetPress Capture Workflow 279

The PlanetPress Capture workflow 280 The Examples 281 PlanetPress Capture Glossary 281 General Considerations 283 Security Considerations 284

20,000 Patterns 285

THE NUMBERS 285 EXAMPLE 286 EXTENDING 286 CONTAMINATION 287 SAFEGUARDS 288 CONCLUSION 288 Anoto penDirector 288 PlanetPress Mobile Application 289

PlanetPress Capture Implementation Restrictions 290

Printer limitations 290 Black ink close to patterns 290 Paper quality 291

Pattern sizes 291

Distance between patterns 292

PlanetPress Capture ICR 292 PlanetPress Capture ICR Best Practices 293

1- Using the most restrictive mask 293 2- Guidelines for Capture-ready fields 295 3- Writing in a legible way 296 4- Selecting the correct language when using the Capture Field processor task 296 5- Possibility of interpretation error in an automated process 297 Basic Functional Capture Workflow 298 Capture Post Processing Workflow 298

Capture Web Manager Workflow 300

Installation 301 Explanation 301 Considerations 301

HTTP Server Workflow 301

Important Configuration, Setup and Options 302 Request/Process/Response cycle 303 Example HTTPWorkflows 304

HTTP PDF Invoice Request 304

Breakdown of this URL: 304 Process Illustration 304 Task Breakdown 305

Table of Content

HTTP Brochure Request 305

Resources 305 Installation 305 Task Breakdown 305

PDF Workflow 306

Examples 307

Daily Sales Report from PDF Files 307

Resources 307 Task Breakdown 307

Printer Queues and Documents 309

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Printer Queues 309 Shared Printer Queue Properties 309 Windows Output Printer Queue 310 LPR Output Printer Queue 310 FTP Output Printer Queue 311 Send to Folder Printer Queue 312

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and PlanetPress Design Documents 313 Variable Content Document File Formats: PTZ, PTK and PS 313 PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and Printshop Mail Documents 314 Triggers 314 Load Balancing 315 Location of Documents and Resources 317

Debugging and Error Handling 319

Debugging your PlanetPress Suite Process 319

Debugging and Emulation changes 320

About Error Handling 321 Using the On Error tab 321 Creating and Using Error Processes 322 Accessing the Logs 322 Resubmit Backed Up Input Files to a Process 323 Knowing What to Resubmit 324

Using Scripts 327

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor 327 Use the Editor 328 Import and Export Scripts 328 Find Strings in a Script 328 Find and Replace Strings in a Script 329 Go to a Line in a Script 330 Toggle Bookmarks 330 Jump to Bookmarks 331

SOAP Server API Reference 331

SOAP API - SubmitJob 331 SOAP API - PostJob 332 SOAP API - GetProcessList 332

Table of Content

SOAP API - GetProcessTaskList 333 SOAP API - GetSOAPProcessList 334 SOAP API - PostJobInfoStruc 334 SOAP API - SubmitJobInfStruc 335

The Watch Object 335

Watch.ShowMessage 336 Watch.ExecuteExternalProgram 337 Watch.GetJobFileName 337 Watch.GetOriginalFileName 338 Watch.GetMetadataFilename 338 Watch.InputBox 339 Watch.GetJobInfo 340 Watch.SetJobInfo 340 Watch.GetVariable 341 Watch.SetVariable 341 Watch.ExpandString 342 Watch.Log 342 Watch.Sleep 343 Script.ReturnValue 344

Stopping Execution 345

Index 347

Overview

This PDF documentation covers version 7.5. To view the documentation of previous versions please refer to the PDF files available in the Downloads section of our website:

http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/Download/DownloadCenter.

Icons used in this guide

Some icons are used throughout this guide in order to catch your attention to certain particular information.

Notes: This icon shows you something that complements the information around it. Understanding notes is not critical but may be helpful when using PlanetPress Workflow.

Warnings: This icon shows information that may be critical when using PlanetPress Workflow. It is important to pay attention to these warnings.

Technical: This icon shows technical information that may require some technical knowledge to understand.

Getting Started

This chapter describes how to install the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and how to set up your working environment.

Environment Considerations

This page is intended to provide technical information about the environment in which PlanetPress Workflow is intended to run.

Terminal Services

PlanetPress Suite does not support Terminal Services environment as possible under Windows 2000, 2003 and 2008. This is to say, if Terminal Services is installed on the server where PlanetPress Suite is located, unexpected behaviors may occur and will not be supported by our company. Furthermore, using PlanetPress Suite in a Terminal Service environment is probably an infringementof our End-User License Agreement.

Terminal Services may also be referred to as Terminal Server or Remote Administration Mode (Windows Server 2003 and

2008).

Single-User Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)(where only one person can use RDPat a time) is supported for PlanetPress Suite version 6.2 and higher, however it is only supported in Windows XP or Windows 2003. While later versions of Windows may not cause issues when accessing PlanetPress Suite through RDP, these combinations are no longer tested and may not be functional.

Virtual Environments

Both PlanetPress Suite 6 and PlanetPress Suite 7 officially support VMWare Environment. This includes VMWare Player, VMWare Workstation as well as an ESXVMWare Installation.

PlanetPress Suite 7.1 and higher also support VMotion, which means the virtual machine hosting PlanetPress Suite can be automatically moved from one ESXserver to another in a clustered installation.

PlanetPressSuite 7.5.1 and higher started supporting Hyper-V virtualization in addition to the previous environments.

PlanetPress Suite is not officially supported on any other virtual machines such as Virtual PC, Parallels, Bochs, Xen, etc. While running PlanetPress on these virtual machines may work, and they are properly detected by PlanetPress Suite 7.5.1 and higher, we have not tested them and cannot offer support for them.

The PlanetPress Suite End-User License Agreement (EULA) specifies that a PlanetPress Suite software license may only be used on a single virtual or physical PC at a time. While copying a virtual machine for backup purposes is acceptable, running two instances of the same machine, using the same serial number, is strictly prohibited.

32-Bit or 64-Bit?

PlanetPress Suite version 7.1.3 and higher support 64-Bit operating system. However, our application remains 32-bits in this environment, which means that for all intents and purposes there is no difference between those two environments as far as PlanetPress Suite is concerned.

Getting Started

Antivirus Considerations

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools generates a very large amount of temporary data on your hard disk, especially when manipulating or creating PDF files. This can sometimes cause issues when any other software is trying to access the temporary files at the same time as PlanetPress Workflow and its components are trying to read, write, create or delete those files.

If you experience these issues you may want to temporarily disable your antivirus "live", "daily"or "deep"scans for the following folders and processes:

Disabling any antivirus scanning permanently on any folder or program is not recommended, and ObjectifLune cannot be held reliable for any consequence of disabling your antivirus or whitelisting the folders or executables listed here, or any other change in your antivirus protection setup!

l On Windows 2000/2003/XP:

l C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Suite 7\ l C:\Documents and Settings\planetpress\Local Settings\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under which

Watch is configured)

l On Windows Vista/7/2008:

l C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Suite 7\ l C:\Users\planetpress\AppData\Local\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under which Watch is configured)

l On all systems:

l C:\Windows\Temp\

l Processes:

l PPAlmbic.exe l PPWatchService.exe l PPImage.exe l PPMessenger.exe

Note: C:\Windows\Temp\ is used by multiple software which may cause risks on your computer. However, PlanetPress Workflow may use this folder as temporary storage, especially in the case of creating PDF files. We do not recommend disabling scan on this folder, unless you notice performance issues when generating PDFs, and then only as a test.

Backup Considerations

For similar reasons, it is important to know that backup software can also access files while copying them to a remote backup location, so you should make sure that no PlanetPress Workflow process is working during your backups.

Microsoft Office Compatibility

The Microsoft Office 2010 line of products has not been certified for use with PlanetPress Suite. Some of its products may not be compatible with the connectors included in the Suite.

Network Considerations

While PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools is typically installed on a server machine that is only accessed by one single user such as an ITperson, multiple users logging on to that machine is a possibility (except with terminal servers, see Environment Con-

siderations). Because each user may have different local and network rights, it may be important to consider the implications

in regards to the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools. To change the service logon information, see PlanetPress Suite Workflow

Tools Service Logon.

Getting Started

Local and Network Rights

Programs, such as PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and all its services, must identify themselves in order to be granted permission to perform operations on the computer on which they run as well as on other computers accessible via a network connection. On a given workstation, you can configure your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools to use either the local system account or any specific user account. When you do this, you grant the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and all its services the same rights associated with the selected account (except for PlanetPress Messenger Service which always runs on the Local System account).

When you are running the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program on a workstation, if it is associated with an account that is different from your account, the following icon is displayed in the lower rightcorner of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program: . The icon reminds you that the logon information is different for the PlanetPress Suite services, and that some network resources may not be accessibly by PlanetPress Suite when running a live configuration.

Account Requirements

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and its services require administrator rights to run on any given computer and must therefore be associated with an account that has such rights.

We recommend creating a network or domain account specifically for the PlanetPress Suite services (typically called "planetpress"or "ppress"), which has administrator credentials on the machine where it is installed, and is given proper rights for any network resources your configuration may request.

Mapped Drives

Mapped drives (for example, drive X: leading to \\server\public\)are always user-specific and are created at logon. This means that mapped drives are typically not available by the PlanetPress Suite services when running a live configuration. Furthermore, while the mapped drives are not shared, they are still limited to one map per computer, meaning if one user maps the X: drive, a different user (or a service)will not be able to map it again.

This creates a limitation in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools:if you create a mapped drive as a user, you will not have access to this mapped drive while running as a service unless you log off, and then have PlanetPress Workflow Tools map the drive using a Run Script action inside a Startup Process.

We strongly recommended that instead of using mapped drives, you use full UNCpaths for your network drives. PlanetPress Suite Worfklow Tools can automatically convert mapped paths to UNCpaths. For more information, please see Network User

Options.

Network Ports used by each service

The port configuration for each PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools component is described in the following table. The port number assignments comply with Internet standards. If the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools component is not active, the port is not used.

Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port Email Input (POP3 mode) TCP Default Email Input (Outlook mode) TCP see Remote Port See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 278339

Folder Capture TCP/UDP Default

110

Standard Windows file and printer sharing ports2:

l UDP 137, 138; TCP 139 (NetBIOS over

TCP/IP (NetBT))

Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port

l UDP 445; TCP 445 (SMB over TCP/IP)

LPD Input TCP 515 (listening port) N/A FTP Input TCP Default Telnet Input TCP Default FTP Output TCP Default Email Output (SMTP mode) TCP Default

Email Output (Outlook mode) TCP

See Email Input (Outlook mode)

21 9100 (configurable) 21 25

See Email Input (Outlook mode)

Standard Windows file and printer sharing ports2:

Send to Folder Windows Queue Output

TCP Default

LPR Output TCP Default or 721 to 731

PlanetPress Database

TCP or UDP

Unknown

SNMP Condition UDP Default

l 137, 138 and/or 139 (NetBIOS over TCP/IP

(NetBT))

l 445 (SMB Over TCP/IP)

515

Unknown

161

Getting Started

1. Value is greater than 1024 and is assigned by Windows XP. This is the default.

2. Windows NT 4.0 uses NetBIOS over TCP/IP for file and printer sharing, while Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 may be configured to use NetBIOS over TCP/IP or SMB over TCP/IP. The operating system may use additional ports. Refer to the Windows documentation for further information.

3. If the “No source port range restriction” option is checked (recommended), see footnote a. If the option is unchecked, the local port will be chosen from a range going from 721 to 731.

4. Contact your DBMS vendor to determine which ports are used by the ODBC driver for accessing a network database.

Activate Your Printers

The Activate a Printer dialog lists the existing activated printers on the system and lets you add new activations.

Printer activations are normally given to you by the activations department electronically, including a file that will automatically add all your printers in this dialog.

The printer list displays the following information

l License Number:Reference number of the activation, linked to your customer account. l Magic Number:The magic number generated by the printer. If the magic number is incorrect, your jobs will output

with a watermark on that printer.

l Activation Code:The activation code generated by your license number and magic number. If the activation code is

incorrect, your jobs will output with a watermark on that printer.

l Printer Name (Optional):Name and/or model of the printer. l Comments (Optional):Comments about the printer.

The following buttons are available in this dialog:

l Add:Brings up the Printer Activation dialog. This dialog lets you enter the information for the printer (see previous sec-

tion), then click OKto save the new activation.

l Delete:Removes the currently selected activation from the list. l Web Activation:Click to access the online activation manager on our website.

Getting Started

l OK:Save changes and exit. l Cancel:Exit without saving changes.

You can also double-click on any existing activation to edit it.

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service Logon

To be able to run and to have access to local files as well as to files available on other computers in your network, PlanetPress Suite applications and services must identify themselves using a local or network account.

The first time you start the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program, the application automatically asks you to choose an account (see procedure below).

You can also manually start this procedure from the PlanetPress SuiteWorkflow Tools by following this procedure:

1. Click on the Tools tab in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Ribbon, then click Configure Services.

2. Set the PlanetPress Suite applications permissions as required:

l Local System account: Select to run all the PlanetPress Suite Services (including PlanetPress Suite Workflow

Tools, PlanetPress Fax, and PlanetPress Image) under the Local System account. The Local System account is distinct from the Administrator account. It requires no username or password, and its privileges may exceed those of the user currently logged in. Running under this account rather than a user account prevents problems thatmay arise if the user lacks a permission the service requires. If a configuration relies on any resources mapped to a particular user, such as mapped network drives or shared printers, they are unavailable. It is recommended that you create a configuration for a particular user. Clear Local System account to run all the PlanetPress Suite Services under the account you specify. Use the options that become available when you clear Local System account to enter the accountinformation—you must enter a valid user name and password to use Microsoft Outlook as your email client for Email input and Send email output tasks.

l Display network domains and usernames: Select to have PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Con-

figuration search for existing domains and display the domains it find in the Domain box, and the usernames in those domains in the Username box. Although this is useful if you do not know the domain name and username of the account you wantto specify, it can also be very time-consuming if there are many domains.

l Domain: Select the domain in which the user account resides, or enter the name of the domain manually. l Username: Enter the name of the user account. l Password: Enter the password for the user account you specified in the Username box. l Confirm password: Enter the password you entered in the Password box. l Services start automatically: Select to start the required PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools automatically.

3. Click OK.. PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools applies the user account information to all the services (PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, PlanetPress Fax, PlanetPress Image, LPD input, Serial input, Telnet input, FTP output, LPR output), thatrun on this computer (with the exception of PlanetPress Suite Messenger, which always runs under the Local System account).

The PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program does not test usernames and passwords, but merely associates them with the services that require them. If you enter a bad username or password, these services will be denied access to the selected account.

The account you choose will be used by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and all its services, as well as by PlanetPress Fax and PlanetPress Image (only PlanetPress Suite Messenger is not affected, since it always uses the Local System account). If you install PlanetPress Fax or PlanetPress Image on the same computer after performing this procedure, you will have to perform it once again, so as to choose the same account for all the installed applications.

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools are input driven applications designed to output data in a variety of ways through diverse means to various applications and devices. PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools can be used as simple go betweens, passing along input data to output devices, but it can also perform various types of data processing.

This chapter explains how you can combine the various PlanetPress Workflow Tools services to set up versatile automated processes to print jobs as well as generate other types of output.

The Nature of PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

The PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools act as sorts of dispatchers. On the one hand, they retrieves data and controls plugins thatretrieve data from watched locations, and on the other hand they send data and controls plugins that send data to various devices, for printing or to generate documents that can then be emailed or faxed. PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools can also perform a variety of operations on the data using its action plugins.

In fact, the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools plugin based architecture enables almost limitless customization. You can create or purchase compatible plugins, drop them in any of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools plugin folder and use them to perform other operations. You can even find free unsupported plugins on the Objectif Lune Web site.

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools are service applications, or if you will, applications that continuously run on a given computer and that perform actions automatically. Those actions are defined in a PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools configuration. To create and manage PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools configurations, you use one of three possible applications called PlanetPress Watch Configuration, PlanetPress Office Configuration and PlanetPress Production Configuration. A given computer can only run one PlanetPress Suite configuration at a time. The PlanetPress Suite Service Console may be used to monitor the services running on a given computer.

The Three Flavors of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

The term Workflow Tools is a general name that includes all three flavors of the tools:

l PlanetPress Watch l PlanetPress Office l PlanetPress Production

To view an explanation of the Workflow Tools and their different flavors, please see the following PDFdocument:

http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/lib/en-CA/Documents/Brochure/OL-PPS-DSWORKFLOW.pdf

Throughout this document, unless we are referring to a specific version of the Workflow Tools, we will always use the term Workflow Tools.

Terms and Definitions

The following terms and definitions will be used throughout this help file. We invite you to get familiar with them to simplify the understanding of the documentation.

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

l PlanetPress Suite Workflow Configuration (or "Configuration"):The Configuration is a physical file opened by

the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and it contains all of the elements (tasks, processes, documents and printer queues)that drive your workflow.

l Process:A single workflow within the Configuration. Aprocess begins with a single input task, contains one or more

tasks and/or branches, and terminates with one or more output tasks.

l Task:A single block in a process (also known as a plugin). Tasks can be used for input, output or manipulation. Some

tasks gather data, others output data in different locations.

l Trunk:The main "branch"of a process. If a process does not have any branch or condition, that process contains one

initial input and one output on a single trunk.

l Branch:A branch in a process means your workflow will stop, follow the branch up until its output, and then return to

the main trunk to continue processing. Each additional branch in your process means you will need an additional output task also.

l Condition:Acondition is a type of branch where the workflow will only go one way - either in the branch, or in the

main trunk. If a condition is true, the branch is followed. If the condition is false, the main trunk is followed.

l Job Info:Alocal variable that is called by its numbered id, from 0 to 9. There are only 10 job infos. Job infos are nor-

mally used to communicate information from the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools to a PlanetPress Design document, either in printer outputs or connectors such as Image or Fax.

l Variables:A variable is a name that refers to specific information that is kept in the computer memory. Avariable can

be modified via programming or certain tasks, and are generally accessible anywhere in your process (except certain locations).

l Job:The processing of one or more job files, through one or more processes. l Job File:The physical file that is generated (or obtained)through a process' input task. The job file can be of multiple

formats including plain text, CSV, databases, XMLand PDFs.

l Sample File/Sample Data:Aphysical file that contains the data used to create your process, including examples of

any data that you need to rely on (such as texts for conditions, or data for variables). The sample file should be limited in size to speed up processing time while designing your process.

l Emulation:Afilter used to read the job file that is used in your process. Emulation lets you read different types of files

ranging from text-only line printer data to more complex PDFand XMLfiles, as well as database files.

About Configurations

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools configuration files are defined as a set of processes, subprocesses, variables, documents and printer queues, that work together within the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service.

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools cannot work without a valid configuration and a PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools session running on a given computer can only use one configuration at a time. Once you have created a configuration, you must “send” it to the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service. When you do this, your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool forgets its previous configuration and starts executing the tasks included in the new configuration.

A PlanetPress Suite configuration must be composed of at least one process, but it may include as many as 512.

For a configuration created in PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool Configuration to actually be executed by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool, it must be sent to its PlanetPress Suite service.

See the following pages for information on differentparts of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration:

l For information about Processes, see About Processes. l For information about Subprocesses, see About Subprocesses. l For information about Global Variables, see Working With Variables.

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

About Processes

Aprocess is a single workflow within the configuration. Aprocess begins with a single input task, contains one or more tasks and/or branches, and terminates with one or more output tasks. In its simplest form, a process can simply retrieve data from a given folder and save it in a different folder. In most cases, though, processes are more elaborate and configurations, which may include many processes, can be extremely complex.

The available processes in your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration are listed in the The Configuration Com-

ponents Pane. Processes in a configuration will always run concurrently. You can schedule processes to run only at certain

times or intervals (see Access Process Properties).

There are three types of processes available to you:

l A Normal process will run as soon as an input file is available through its input task or, if it is scheduled not to run at

thattime, will start processing as soon as the schedule permits it.

l Startup processes are processes that run only once before every other process in a given configuration. They can

be used to perform operations that need to be completed once before the configuration can actually be run, such as to map network drives. You may only have one single startup process in your configuration.

l Subprocesses are processes which can be called by any other process from any action task. They can be used to per-

form and reuse redundant operations that may need to be executed numerous times. For more information on subprocesses, see About Subprocesses.

Regular and startup processes can be set to be Active (process runs normally)or Inactive (process will not run at all). An inactive process will display in the Configuration components as red and strike-through. Inactive processes can be useful for designing new processes in a live configuration, since the process does not execute there is no danger is submitting it to the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service.

About Subprocesses

Subprocesses are special processes that can be called by any other process. These act exactly as subroutines in pro-

gramming languages, allowing users to reuse existing processes by sharing them to the whole configuration file. They can thus be used to perform redundant operations that may need to be executed numerous times; for instance, archiving a copy of a zipped file received as the input job file, then decompressing it before sending the unzipped version of it back to the calling process .

Whenever a PlanetPress Suite process calls a subprocess, the main process (the caller) will wait for the called subprocess to finish its execution before carrying on with its own. This means the subprocess feature is synchronous with the main process. This also means the calling process actually appends the subprocess to its own workflow.

About Tasks

A task is a plug-in or a block that is used to build PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools processes. Tasks can do multiple things depending on the type of task and where they are placed. You can add as many tasks as you like to your processes and order them in any way you can.

There are different types of tasks:

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

l Input Task:Will either capture data from a specific location, or wait for input from a service or other computer to

start processing.

l Action Task:Will manipulate the data in any number of ways. An action task is any task that is not an input or output

task or a branch or condition.

l Output Task:Will output data to a specific location or send to a different service or computer.

Some tasks have a multi purpose and can be used as either an input, action or output task or any combination. These multi purpose tasks are indicated as such in the task description and can be found in the most relevant section of the available tasks.

For more information on the tasks available to you in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, see the following pages:

l Input Tasks l Action Tasks l Process Logic Tasks l Metadata Tasks l Output Tasks l About PlanetPress Fax l About PlanetPress Image

About Branches and Conditions

While some processes can simply start with an input task, manipulate the data with a few action tasks and finish with an output task, in some cases you may want to have more control over the flow of your process. For example, you may want multiple outputs, such as printing to multiple printers as well as generating a PDFand emailing it. To do this, you will need branches. You may also want to detect certain criteria in your data and act differently depending on that data, such as sending a fax only when a fax number is found, or printing to a different printer depending on who send you a print job. To do this, Conditions are used.

Branches

A branch is effectively a doubling of your job file. As your job file goes down the process, when it encounters a branch it will go in that branch, process all tasks up to the output, and return to the main trunk to continue processes. You can have branches within branches, and all branches must have an output. For more information on branches, see Branch.

A branch is represented as a crossing .

Conditions

Acondition will either execute the branch it creates or the main trunk, but never both. As your job file goes down the process, when it encounters a condition it will verify whether that condition results in a "true"or "false"value. If the result is true, it goes in the branch, processes all tasks up to the output, and the process finishes. If the result is false, it goes down the main trunk and continues processing until the process finishes. For more information on conditions, see Conditions.

A conditional branch (or condition) is shown as a crossing with a red diamond over it

About Data

Data is what drives your business, and our software. We define data as anything that is obtained through an Input Task and used within the process itself. Once the data is obtained, it becomes the job file that is passed from one task to another and

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

generally used to generate output.

Data can be manipulated using the tasks in the process, used as comparison for conditions and loops, complemented with data from other sources, and used to generate your output. It originates from many different sources (as many as the Input Tasks support), parts of it can be stored in variables, and is always accessible by the task that currently handles it.

Data is referred to using Data Selections either from the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools or a PlanetPress Design Document thatis being merged with the data (for example in a printed output).

For more information about Data, please see the chapter Data in PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools.

Null characters present in the data may not be displayed properly when using the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program, and that they may also be printed differently by different printers. To ensure consistency, you should consider filtering out such characters.

About Data Selections

A data selection could be compared to an address. It indicates a location within a data file using coordinates. The PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program includes a tool called the Data Selector that helps you make data selections. The Data Selector does two things:

l It uses the current emulation (either the emulation chosen when the sample data file was selected, or the one chosen in

the last Change Emulation action task appearing above the current task) to format the data.

l It displays the formatted data to let you make selections easily using the mouse pointer.

The Data Selector is essentially the same as the one used in PlanetPress Design.

AboutData Emulation

Emulations are like filters that can be used to read the data. When you create a document in PlanetPress Design, you choose a sample data file and specify the emulation to use for the chosen data. The emulation setting you choose will typically always be associated with that document. If you choose a CSV (comma separated values) file and specify the corresponding emulation, for instance, commas encountered in the data will typically be considered as value separators.

Within the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, the same emulation tools as PlanetPress Design are available throughout your process, using the Data Selector. One notable exception however is that User-Defined Emulation is notavailable because it uses PlanetPress Talk code, which is not available within the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration Program.

The emulation that is used in your process can change during the process, and can be different than the one used in any PlanetPress Design document used in your process. PlanetPress Design documents use their own emulations, as defined in the document itself from PlanetPress Design.

Emulations in the PlanetPress Workflow Tools:

l Line Printer l ASCII l CSV l Channel Skip l Database

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

l XML l PDF

PDFEmulation, also called Document Input, is only available in PlanetPress Production and PlanetPress Office. If used in PlanetPress Watch, it will cause a watermark to appear in any output.

For more information about each emulation and how to use them, please consult the PlanetPress Design User Guide.

About Related Programs and Services

Services are programs that run in the background and automatically perform tasks that often do not require any user interaction. With the exception of PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration, all the programs used by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools are run as service applications. PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools can thus use them as required without the need for any user interaction.

Although you can manually start and stop any service running on your computer, most of the basic services used by the system are started and stopped automatically. In the case of PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and their related services, you typically use a command included in your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program to start and stop most services. Opening and closing your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program has no effect on these services.

Available Input Services

Input services are used to pull in data files. The input services used by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools are:

l LPD (Line Printer Daemon) Input service: Inputs data sent from an LPR client. The LPD/LPR printing protocol

is a common way to send print jobs that, in turn, use the TCP/IP protocol to communicate through the network.

l PrintShop Mail Web Capture service: Monitors print requests from a PrintShop Web server. l Serial Input service: Monitors a single serial port for incoming data. Note that all Serial input tasks use the same

serial port (set in the user options of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program).

l Telnet Input service: Monitors multiple telnet ports for incoming data. Note that each Telnet input task has its own

telnet port number (set in each task).

l HTTP/SOAP Server service: Monitors web pages and web sites as well as SOAP servers.

Available Output Services

Output services are used to output jobs. The output services used by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools are:

l FTP Output service: Places output jobs on a server via the FTP protocol. l LPR (Line Printer Requester) Output service: Sends jobs to an LPD server or LPD compatible printers. The

LPD/LPR printing protocol is a common way to send print jobs that, in turn, use the TCP/IP protocol to communicate through the network.

l PlanetPress Image: Outputs jobs as PDF files or in a variety of image formats. You can also use PlanetPress Image

to archive and/or email the files it creates. You can use PlanetPress Search to search the PDF files PlanetPress Image creates. You can install multiple instances of the PlanetPress Image service on your network, and have PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools send jobs to one or more of these instances. Each instance of PlanetPress Image can generate PDFs or images and dispatch them from the host on which it runs. See About PlanetPress Image.

l PlanetPress Fax: Outputs jobs as faxes. You use PlanetPress Fax as an interface to WinFax PRO or Windows Fax, to

send faxes you create from documents. You can install multiple instances of the PlanetPress Fax service on your network, and have PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools send jobs to one or more of these instances. Each instance of

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

PlanetPress Fax can generate faxes and dispatch them from the host on which it runs, using a local faxing program, such as WinFax PRO, Captaris RightFax or Windows Fax. See About PlanetPress Fax.

l PrintShop Mail:Used to generate documents using PrintShop Mail databases and documents. Communicate with it

through the PrintShop Mail and PrintShop Mail 7 Connector Tasks. See PrintShop Mail.

l Laserfiche:Used as a repository for electronic documents. Communicate with it through the Laserfiche Repository

Output Task. See Laserfiche Repository Output.

l PlanetPress Capture:Used to generate and process files using Anoto patterns. Communicate with it through the

PlanetPress Capture tasks such as the Anoto Ink Processor and the Anoto Pattern plugins.

Services must use an account to be granted the permission to use the system’s resources and objects. This information is included in the service's configuration and most services use the Local System Account, which is granted access to all the system’s resources. All input and output services used by PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools run under the same account. For more information on services and system permissions, refer to Windows documentation. For more information on how to configure the account used by the services, see PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service Logon.

The PlanetPress Suite Service Console, included in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program, can be used to monitor, start and stop PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools services (see About Processes, "Users and Configurations" (page

n) and "PlanetPress Suite Service Console" (page n)).

About Documents

A Document is a file sent to the PlanetPress Workflow Tools by PlanetPress Design and is used to produce an output when merged with data. ADocument can be an invoice, a report, a receipt or anything else, but by itself it is empty and without any variable data.

Document are typically selected in Output Tasks, but can also appear in other tasks that produce formatted data such as the Digital Action task and the Add Document task.

Documents contain static data such as logos, addresses and graphic formatting, as well as placeholders for data. Documents can also contain conditions and programming logic. For more information about PlanetPress Design documents, please see the

PlanetPress Design User Guide.

About Printing

To print a document using the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, you can either use the Print using a Windows Driver output task, or use a combination of a printer queue and a Printer Queue output task. These tasks are created and defined using Plan- etPress Suite Workflow Tool Configuration program.

The following types of printer outputs are available in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration program:

l Local printing:

l Windows output queues let you send jobs to a local printer. See Windows Output Printer Queue. l Send to Folder output queues let you save jobs to a local or network folder from which they can be picked up

and printed. See Send to Folder Printer Queue.

l Remote printing:

l FTP output queues let you upload jobs to an FTP site from which they can be picked up and printed. See FTP Out-

put Printer Queue.

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

l LPR output queues let you send print jobs to remote printers via TCP/IP using the LPR/LPD protocol. See LPR

Output Printer Queue.

l Windows Driver Printing:

l The Print using a Windows Driver output task lets you send a job to any printer installed on the com-

puter, using its own drivers. In this particular case, the printer does not need to be a PostScript printer. See Print

Using a Windows Driver.

PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools provides you with three main printing scenarios:

1. Send output data to be printed as is: PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools sends a file containing only the data to the selected queue.

2. Send output data to be merged with a document on the printer: PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools sends one of two things:

l A file that contains only the data to the selected printer queue. The document with which the data must be

merged must be presenton the printer’s hard disk, otherwise printing will fail.

l A file that contains the data and the document to the selected printer queue. Since the data and the document

with which it must be merged are both sent to the printer, printing should never fail.

l In both cases, the document+data merging process takes place inside the printer.

3. Send output data already merged with a document:PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools sends a file that contains the document already merged with the data to the selected printer queue. The document+data merging process therefore never takes place inside the printer.

In PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration, you may associate a single Printer Queue output task with multiple Printer Queues. If you do so, you have the option of using load balancing or not (see Load Balancing).

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