Objectif Lune PlanetPress Production - 7.6 User Guide

User Guide

www.objectiflune.com

Copyright Information

Copyright Information

Copyright © 1994-2011 Objectif Lune Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any other language or computer language in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, whether it be electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, manual or otherwise, without prior written consent of Objectif Lune Inc.

Objectif Lune Inc.disclaims all warranties as to this software, whether expressed or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, functionality, data integrity or protection.

PlanetPress and PrintShop Mail are registered trademarks of Objectif Lune Inc.

PostScript and Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc.

Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Adobe, Adobe PDF Library, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Distiller, Adobe Reader, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Optimized Postcript Stream, the Adobe logo, the Adobe PDF logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

Trademarks of other companies mentioned in this documentation appear for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective companies.

Title

PlanetPress Workflow Tools User Guide

Revision 2012-05-03

Table of Content

Table of Content

Copyright Information	3
Table of Content	5
Overview	15
Icons used in this guide	15
Other Documentation	15
Getting Started	17
Environment Considerations	17
Terminal Services	17
VMWare/ESX	17
32-Bit or 64-Bit?	17
Antivirus Considerations	17
Backup Considerations	18
Microsoft Office Compatibility	18
Network Considerations	18
Local and Network Rights	18
Account Requirements	19
Mapped Drives	19
Network Ports used by each service	19
Activate Your Printers	20
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service Logon	20
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 Suite Button	32

Table of Content

Create a New Configuration	33
Open a PlanetPress Suite Configuration File	33
Saving and Sending a Configuration	34
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 Message Area Pane	63
Customizing the Program Window	63
Dock and Undock Areas of the Program Window	64
Show or Hide Areas of the Program Window	64
Combine and Attach Areas	65
Resize the Program Window Areas	68
Preferences	68
General User Options	69
Object Inspector User Options	69
Configuration Components Pane User Options	70
Default Configuration User Options	70
Notification Messages Preferences	70
Sample Data User Options	72
Network User Options	72
PlanetPress Capture User Options	73
PDF Text Extraction Tolerance Factors	77
Logging User Options	78
Messenger User Options	79
HTTP Server Input User Options	79
HTTP Server Input 2 User Options	80
LPD Input Preferences	80
Serial Input Service User Options	81
Telnet Input User Options	82
PlanetPress Fax User Options	82
FTP Output Service User Options	84
PlanetPress Image User Options	84
LPR Output User Options	86
PrintShop Web Connect Service User Options	87
Editor Options	87
Other Dialogs	90
Advanced SQL Statement dialog	90
Access Manager	90
SOAP Access	92
PDF Viewer	93
The PlanetPress Suite Service Console	95
Add or Delete Document Instances	96
Virtual Drive Manager	97
Working With Variables	99
Types of Variables	99
Job Info Variables	99

Table of Content

Standard Variables	100
Available Standard Variables	100
The %i Loop Count Variable	101
Data in PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools	103
Choosing a Sample Data File	103
The Data Selector	103
Metadata tab	105
Metadata	106
Using the Metadata Data Selector	111
Using the File Viewer	112
Choosing a Database Type Sample Data File	112
Data Selections in PlanetPress Workflow Tools	112
Text-Based Data Selections	112
Database Data Selections	113
PDF Data Selections	113
Metadata Selections	114
Data File and Job File	114
Actual Data and Sample Data	115
Job File Names and Output File Names	115
Task Properties Reference	117
Input Tasks	119
Initial Input Tasks	119
Secondary Input Tasks	119
Concatenate PDF Files	120
Create File	122
Email Input	123
Folder Capture	125
Folder Listing	126
FTP Input	127
HTTP Client Input	128
HTTP Server Input	129
Input Error Bin	131
Input SOAP	132
LPD Input	133
Serial Input	134
PrintShop Web Connect	135
Telnet Input	136
WinQueue Input	137
Action Tasks	139
Add Document	139
Add/Remove Text	140
Advanced Search and Replace	141
Barcode Scan	143
Change Emulation	146
Create PDF	147

Table of Content

Decompress File(s)	148
Digital Action	149
Download to Printer	149
External Program	150
Load External File	152
Mathematical Operations	152
Open XSLT	153
PlanetPress Database	154
Rename	157
Run Script	158
Send Images to Printer	160
Search and Replace	161
Send to Folder	162
Set Job Infos and Variables	162
SOAP Client Plug-in	163
Standard Filter	165
Translator	165
Windows Print Converter	166
Data Splitters	168
About Using Emulations with Splitters	169
Database Splitter	169
Emulated Data Splitter	171
In-Stream Splitter	172
Generic Splitter	173
PDF Splitter	176
XML Splitter	178
Process Logic Tasks	181
Branch	181
Comment	182
File Name Condition	182
File Size Condition	182
Go Sub	183
Loop	184
Run Script	184
Send to Process	186
SNMP Condition	186
Text Condition	188
Time of Day Condition	189
Connector Tasks	190
Create MRDX	190
Input from SharePoint	190
Laserfiche Repository Output	192
Lookup in Microsoft® Excel® Documents	195
Microsoft® Word® Documents To PDF Conversion	197
Output to SharePoint	198
About PlanetPress Fax	201

Table of Content

PlanetPress Fax	201
Captaris RightFax Configuration	202
About PlanetPress Image	205
PlanetPress Image	205
Overview of the PDF/A and PDF/X Standards	213
PrintShop Mail	213
PlanetPress Capture	215
Capture Condition	215
Capture Fields Generator	218
Capture Fields Processor	219
Capture PGC Splitter	221
Find Capture Documents	222
Get Capture Document	224
PGC to PDF Converter	225
Metadata Tasks	227
Create Metadata	227
Embed/Extract PlanetPress Suite Metadata	228
Metadata Fields Management	228
Metadata File Management	230
Metadata Filter	231
Metadata Level Creation	232
Metadata Sequencer	232
Metadata Sorter	233
Metadata to PDI	234
Metadata-Based N-Up	235
Rule Interface	235
Output Tasks	239
Delete	239
FTP Output	240
Print Using a Windows Driver	241
Printer Queue Output	242
Send Email	243
Send to Folder	245
SOAP Client Plug-in	246
Variable Properties	247
Unknown Tasks	248
Masks	249
Date and Time Format	249
Special Workflow Types	251
Special Workflows	251
PDF Workflow	251
PlanetPress Capture Workflow	251
HTTP Server workflow	251
PlanetPress Capture Workflow	251

The PlanetPress Capture workflow

252

Table of Content

The Examples	253
PlanetPress Capture Glossary	253
General Considerations	255
Security Considerations	256
10,000 Patterns	257
THE NUMBERS	257
EXAMPLE	258
EXTENDING	258
CONTAMINATION	259
SAFEGUARDS	260
CONCLUSION	260
Anoto penDirector	260
PlanetPress Mobile Application	261
PlanetPress Capture Implementation Restrictions	266
Printer limitations	266
Black ink close to patterns	266
Paper quality	267
Pattern sizes	267
Distance between patterns	268
Basic Functional Capture Workflow	269
Capture Post Processing Workflow	269
Capture Web Manager Workflow	271
Installation	272
Explanation	272
Considerations	272
HTTP Server Workflow	272
Important Configuration, Setup and Options	273
Request/Process/Response cycle	274
Example HTTP Workflows	275
HTTP PDF Invoice Request	275
Breakdown of this URL:	275
Process Illustration	275
Task Breakdown	276
HTTP Brochure Request	276
Resources	276
Installation	276
Task Breakdown	276
PDF Workflow	277
Examples	278
Daily Sales Report from PDF Files	278
Resources	278
Task Breakdown	278
Printer Queues and Documents	279
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Printer Queues	279
Shared Printer Queue Properties	279

Table of Content

Windows Output Printer Queue	280
LPR Output Printer Queue	280
FTP Output Printer Queue	281
Send to Folder Printer Queue	282
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and PlanetPress Design Documents	283
Variable Content Document File Formats: PTZ, PTK and PS	283
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and Printshop Mail Documents	284
Triggers	284
Load Balancing	285
Location of Documents and Resources	287
Debugging and Error Handling	289
Debugging your PlanetPress Suite Process	289
Debugging and Emulation changes	290
About Error Handling	291
Using the On Error tab	291
Creating and Using Error Processes	291
Accessing the Logs	292
Resubmit Backed Up Input Files to a Process	293
Knowing What to Resubmit	294
Using Scripts	295
The Script Editor and XSLT Editor	295
Use the Editor	296
Import and Export Scripts	296
Find Strings in a Script	296
Find and Replace Strings in a Script	297
Go to a Line in a Script	298
Toggle Bookmarks	298
Jump to Bookmarks	299
SOAP Server API Reference	299
SOAP API - SubmitJob	299
SOAP API - PostJob	300
SOAP API - GetProcessList	300
SOAP API - GetProcessTaskList	301
SOAP API - GetSOAPProcessList	302
SOAP API - PostJobInfoStruc	302
SOAP API - SubmitJobInfStruc	303
The Watch Object	303
Watch.ShowMessage	304
Watch.ExecuteExternalProgram	305
Watch.GetJobFileName	306
Watch.GetOriginalFileName	306
Watch.GetMetadataFilename	306
Watch.InputBox	307
Watch.GetJobInfo	308

Table of Content

Watch.SetJobInfo	308
Watch.GetVariable	309
Watch.SetVariable	309
Watch.ExpandString	310
Watch.Log	310
Watch.Sleep	311
Script.ReturnValue	312
Stopping Execution	313
Index	315

Overview

Overview

This PDF documentation covers version 7.4. 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 Tools.

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

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

Other Documentation

For other related documentation , please see the drop-down menu at the top-right corner of this page.

Getting Started

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 infringement of 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.

VMWare/ESX

PlanetPress Suite supports VMWare Workstation, VMWare Server, VMWare Player and VMWare ESX infrastructure environments as software installed on the Guest operating system. However, note that only PlanetPress version 7.1.3 and higher support VMotion under ESX. Also note that copying (duplicating) your VMWare Guest Machine and using it simultaneously constitutes an infringement of our End-User License Agreement.

Furthermore, if your backup solution includes the use of virtual machine snapshots, please keep in mind that if a snapshot is taken during a time when PlanetPress Workflow Tool is processing a job, this job may process again if the snapshot is restored. It is thus recommended that you take your snapshots outside of processing hours, whenever that may be.

Note that while VMWare ESX, Workstation, Server and Player (from VMWare, Inc.) are supported, other virtual environments (such as Microsoft Virtual PC, Parallels, Xen and others) are not supported at this time.

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.

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.

Getting Started

In this respect, any antivirus software installed on the machine should ignore the following folders in it's live scans as well as daily "deep" or "complete" scans:

• On Windows 2000/2003/XP:

•C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Suite 7\

•C:\Documents and Settings\planetpress\Local Settings\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under which

Watch is configured) • On Windows Vista/7/2008:

•C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Suite 7\

•C:\Users\planetpress\AppData\Local\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under which Watch is configured) • On all systems:

•C:\Windows\Temp\

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.

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 right corner 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.

Getting Started

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	Default1	110
	Email Input (Outlook mode)	TCP	see Remote Port	See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 278339
				Standard Windows file and printer sharing ports2:
	Folder Capture	TCP/UDP	Default1	• UDP 137, 138; TCP 139 (NetBIOS over
				TCP/IP (NetBT))
				• UDP 445; TCP 445 (SMB over TCP/IP)
	LPD Input	TCP	515 (listening port)	N/A
	FTP Input	TCP	Default1	21
	Telnet Input	TCP	Default1	9100 (configurable)
	FTP Output	TCP	Default1	21
	Email Output (SMTP mode)	TCP	Default1	25
	Email Output (Outlook mode)	TCP	See Email Input (Outlook	See Email Input (Outlook mode)
			mode)
				Standard Windows file and printer sharing ports2:
	Send to Folder Windows Queue	TCP	Default1	• 137, 138 and/or 139 (NetBIOS over TCP/IP
	Output
				(NetBT))
				• 445 (SMB Over TCP/IP)
	LPR Output	TCP	Default or 721 to 7313	515

Getting Started

	Component	Protocol	Local Port	Remote Port
	PlanetPress Database	TCP or	Unknown4	Unknown4
		UDP
	SNMP Condition	UDP	Default1	161

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

•License Number: Reference number of the activation, linked to your customer account.

•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.

•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.

•Printer Name (Optional): Name and/or model of the printer.

•Comments (Optional): Comments about the printer.

The following buttons are available in this dialog:

•Add: Brings up the Printer Activation dialog. This dialog lets you enter the information for the printer (see previous section), then click OK to save the new activation.

•Delete: Removes the currently selected activation from the list.

•Web Activation: Click to access the online activation manager on our website.

•OK: Save changes and exit.

•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:

Getting Started

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:

•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 that may 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 account information—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.

•Display network domains and usernames: Select to have PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration 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 want to specify, it can also be very time-consuming if there are many domains.

•Domain: Select the domain in which the user account resides, or enter the name of the domain manually.

•Username: Enter the name of the user account.

•Password: Enter the password for the user account you specified in the Username box.

•Confirm password: Enter the password you entered in the Password box.

•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), that run 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

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 that retrieve 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:

•PlanetPress Watch

•PlanetPress Office

•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

•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.

•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.

•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.

•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.

•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.

•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.

•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 normally 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.

•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).

•Job: The processing of one or more job files, through one or more processes.

•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.

•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.

•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 different parts of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration:

•For information about Processes, see About Processes.

•For information about Subprocesses, see About Subprocesses.

•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:

•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 that time, will start processing as soon as the schedule permits it.

•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.

•Subprocesses are processes which can be called by any other process from any action task. They can be used to perform 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 programming 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

•Input Task: Will either capture data from a specific location, or wait for input from a service or other computer to start processing.

•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.

•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:

•Input Tasks

•Action Tasks

•Process Logic Tasks

•Metadata Tasks

•Output Tasks

•About PlanetPress Fax

•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 that is 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:

•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.

•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 not available 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:

•Line Printer

•ASCII

•CSV

•Channel Skip

•Database

Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools

•XML

•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:

•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.

•PrintShop Mail Web Capture service: Monitors print requests from a PrintShop Web server.

•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).

•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).

•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:

•FTP Output service: Places output jobs on a server via the FTP protocol.

•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.

•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.

•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.

•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.

•Laserfiche: Used as a repository for electronic documents. Communicate with it through the Laserfiche Repository Output Task. See Laserfiche Repository Output.

•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 PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool Configuration program.

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

• Local printing:

•Windows output queues let you send jobs to a local printer. See Windows Output Printer Queue.

•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. • Remote printing:

•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

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

• Windows Driver Printing:

•The Print using a Windows Driver output task lets you send a job to any printer installed on the computer, 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:

•A file that contains only the data to the selected printer queue. The document with which the data must be merged must be present on the printer’s hard disk, otherwise printing will fail.

•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.

•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).