Objectif Lune PlanetPress Workflow - 2019.1 User Guide
User Guide
Version:2019.1
User Guide
Version 2019.1
Last Revision:2019-06-10
Objectif Lune, Inc.
2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500
Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8
+1 (514) 875-5863
www.objectiflune.com
All trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners.
© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2019. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be
reproduced, transmitted or distributed outside of Objectif Lune Inc. by any means whatsoever
without the express written permission of Objectif Lune Inc. Inc. Objectif Lune Inc. Inc. disclaims
responsibility for any errors and omissions in this documentation and accepts no responsibility
for damages arising from such inconsistencies or their further consequences of any kind.
Objectif Lune Inc. Inc reserves the right to alter the information contained in this documentation
without notice.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 4
Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow 2019.1 11
Notes in this guide 11
Installation and setup 13
System Requirements 13
Operating System (64-bit only) 13
Minimum Hardware Requirements 13
Environment considerations 14
Terminal Services 14
Virtual environments 14
32-bit or 64-bit? 15
Antivirus considerations 15
Backup considerations 16
Microsoft Office compatibility 17
Setting up the working environment 17
Network considerations 17
Local and network rights 17
Account requirements 18
Mapped drives 18
Network ports used by each service 19
Known Issues 21
Microsoft patch causing handling of XLS to fail 21
Other known issues 22
About PlanetPress Fax 24
About PlanetPress Image 25
Preferences 26
Basics 27
Related tools and resource files 27
Features 29
About Workflow Configurations 29
Creating a new configuration 30
Open a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file 31
Saving and sending a Workflow Configuration 31
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Exit PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program 34
Workflow Configuration resource files 35
Connect resources 35
PlanetPress Design documents 39
PrintShop Mail documents 44
About data 45
About documents and variable data 45
Job file 46
Job file names and output file names 47
Data selections 48
About data emulation 54
Sample Data 64
Metadata 69
Working with JSON 80
Data Repository 84
Structure 84
Accessing the Data Repository 85
Where to find the Data Repository 87
Debugging and error handling 87
About error handling 87
Using the On Error tab 88
Creating and using Error processes 89
Accessing the Logs 91
Resubmit backed up input files to a process 92
Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow process 95
About printing 98
OL Connect print jobs 99
PlanetPress Suite print jobs 100
PlanetPress Workflow printer queues 100
Shared printer queue properties 101
Windows Output printer queue 103
LPR Output Printer Queue 104
FTP Output Printer Queue 106
Send to Folder printer queue 107
Load balancing 108
Associating PlanetPress Design documents and PlanetPress printer queues 109
Triggers 110
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Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) 111
About processes and subprocesses 114
Processes 114
Startup processes 115
Subprocesses 115
Creating a process 116
Importing processes 118
Activating or deactivating a process 119
Process properties 120
About branches and conditions 125
Converting a branch to a subprocess 126
Running a process on desktop 127
Saving and sending a Workflow Configuration 127
Using Scripts 131
Run Script task 131
APIs 132
The Script Editor and XSLT Editor 132
SOAP Server API Reference 138
The Watch Object 145
Data Repository API 161
Stopping execution 181
Special workflow types 183
HTTP Server Workflow 184
PDF Workflow 191
PlanetPress Capture Workflow 195
Database considerations (ODBC) 201
Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 231
About Tasks 232
Adding tasks 233
Editing a task 234
Task properties 235
Input tasks 239
Action Tasks 301
Data Splitters 381
Process Logic tasks 404
Connector Tasks 423
PlanetPress Capture 464
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Metadata Tasks 489
OL Connect Send 510
OL Connect tasks 524
Output Tasks 574
Unknown tasks 595
About variables 596
Job Info variables 597
Standard variables 598
Local variables 603
Global variables 605
Variable task properties 607
Special workflow types 609
PlanetPress Capture 610
About PlanetPress Fax 638
About PlanetPress Image 639
Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 640
ZUGFeRD 641
About related programs and services 651
Available Input services 651
Available Output services 652
Start and stop PlanetPress Workflow Service 653
Users and configurations 654
Workflow Services 655
Preferences 658
Other preferences and settings 659
General appearance preferences 659
Object Inspector appearance preferences 660
Configuration Components pane appearance preferences 661
Colors 661
Options 661
Default configuration behavior preferences 662
Notification Messages behavior preferences 662
Preferences 663
Sample Data behavior preferences 665
Preferences 665
Network behavior preferences 666
Preferences 666
Page 7
PlanetPress Capture preferences 667
PlanetPress Capture Server/Client 668
PlanetPress Document Manager 668
PlanetPress Capture ODBC Settings 670
PlanetPress Capture Pen Management Tool 673
PlanetPress Capture License Management 675
OL Connect preferences 676
PDF text extraction tolerance factors 677
General and logging preferences 679
Messenger plugin preferences 680
Preferences 681
HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 1 681
Preferences 682
HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 2 685
LPD Input plugin preferences 687
Preferences 687
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 1 688
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 2 690
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 3 691
Serial Input plugin preferences 692
Preferences 692
Telnet Input plugin preferences 693
Preferences 693
PlanetPress Fax plugin preferences 694
Preferences 694
Captaris RightFax options 696
FTP Output Service preferences 697
Options 697
PlanetPress Image preferences 698
LPR Output preferences 701
Options 701
PrintShop Web Connect Service preferences 703
Editor Options 703
The user interface 708
Customizing the Workspace 709
Dock and undock areas of the Program Window 709
Show or hide areas of the program window 711
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Combine and attach areas 711
Resize the program window areas 716
Change the Interface language 717
PlanetPress Workflow Button 718
Options 718
Configuration Components pane 719
Components Area Sections 719
Process properties 722
PlanetPress Design document properties 727
Moving and copying configuration components 729
Renaming objects in the Configuration Components Pane 732
Reordering objects in the Configuration Components pane 733
Grouping Configuration Components 734
Expanding and collapsing categories and groups in the Configuration Components
pane
Deleting something from the Configuration Components pane 735
Dialogs 736
735
Access Manager 736
Activate a printer 742
Advanced SQL Statement Dialog 743
Data Repository Manager 744
The Data Selector 747
The File Viewer 751
Data Selector display preferences 752
PDF Viewer 754
Process properties 756
Update document 761
Virtual Drive Manager 761
Workflow Services 762
The Debug Information pane 764
The Message Area Pane 765
The Object Inspector pane 766
Editing properties 766
The Plug-in Bar 767
Categories 767
Settings & Customization 768
The Process area 769
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Cutting, copying and pasting tasks and branches 770
Highlight a task or branch 772
Disabling tasks and branches 772
Moving a task or branch using drag-and-drop 773
Redo a command 774
Removing tasks or branches 774
Replacing tasks, conditions or branches 775
Resizing the rows and columns of the Process area 775
Undo a command 776
Zoom in or out within Process Area 776
The Quick Access Toolbar 776
Adding buttons 777
Removing buttons 777
Moving the toolbar 777
The PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon 777
The Task Comments Pane 780
Knowledge Base 782
Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 783
Copyright Information 789
Page 10
Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow
Note
Important information that deserves your attention.
Tip
Information that may help you use PlanetPress Workflow better or that suggests an easier method.
2019.1
This PDF documentation covers version 2019.1. 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.
Workflow is the heart of all of our solutions. Working in conjunction with PlanetPress Connect,
PlanetPress Capture, CaptureOnTheGO, PlanetPress Imaging, PlanetPress Fax, and a variety
of plugins, it helps improve your communications processes. Processes such as
communication creation, interaction, distribution and even maintenance.
Workflow is the "super dispatcher". It caters for inputs from a huge variety of sources, such as
email, web pages, databases, individual files (PDF, csv, XML, etc), print streams, FTP, Telnet
and ERP systems. This data can then be analyzed, modified, stored, verified, routed and used
as triggers for other processes from entirely within Workflow. Finally it is passed to one of our
other products (or not) to be outputted in multiple ways (printed, emailed, posted, archived, sent
to third party solutions, etc..).
Consider Workflow as a set of buildings blocks that enable you to build your own customized
automated processes which will fit your environment and not the other way around. Create
processes that will save you time and money!
Notes in this guide
Notes are used throughout this guide to draw your attention to certain information.
Page 11
Warning
Information that is potentially critical to using PlanetPress Workflow.
Technical
Background information.
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Installation and setup
Note
Windows Vista, Windows 8.0, Windows 2003 Server and earlier versions of Windows are
not supported by PlanetPress Workflow.
This chapter describes the different considerations that are important in regards to the
installation and use of PlanetPress Workflow.
l "System Requirements" below
l "Environment considerations" on the facing page
l "Setting up the working environment" on page17
l "Known Issues" on page21
System Requirements
These are the system requirements for PlanetPress Workflow 2019.1.
Operating System (64-bit only)
l Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server
l Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Server
l Microsoft Windows 2016 Server
l Windows 7
l Microsoft Windows 8.1
l Microsoft Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise versions only)
Minimum Hardware Requirements
l NTFS Filesystem (FAT32 is not supported)
l CPU Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell (4 Core)
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l 8GB RAM (16GB Recommended)
l Disk Space: At least 10GB (20GB recommended)
Environment considerations
This page is intended to provide technical information about the environment in which
PlanetPress Workflow is intended to run.
Terminal Services
PlanetPress Workflow 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 Workflow is located, unexpected behaviors may occur and will not be
supported by our company. Furthermore, using PlanetPress Workflow 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 Workflow 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 Workflow through RDP, these combinations are no longer tested and
may not be functional.
Virtual environments
PlanetPress Workflow supports the following virtual environments:
l VMWare Environments. This includes VMWare Player, VMWare Workstation as well as
VMWare ESX Server.
l VMWare VMotion. This means the virtual machine hosting PlanetPress Workflow can be
automatically moved from one ESX server to another in a clustered installation.
l Microsoft Hyper-V/Azure infrastructure environments.
PlanetPress Workflow is not officially supported on any other virtual machines such as Virtual
PC, Parallels, Bochs, Xen, etc. While running PlanetPress Workflow on these virtual machines
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may work, and they are properly detected by PlanetPress Suite 7.5.1 and higher, we have not
Warning
The PlanetPress Workflow End-User License Agreement (EULA) specifies that a
PlanetPress Workflow 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.
tested them and cannot offer support for them.
About PlanetPress Suite
In previous versions of PlanetPress Suite, not all virtual environments were supported:
l PlanetPress Suite 6 and higher support VMWare Environment.
l PlanetPress Suite 7.1 and higher also support VMotion.
l PlanetPress Suite 7.5.1 and higher started supporting Hyper-V virtualization in addition to
the previous environments.
32-bit or 64-bit?
PlanetPress Suite version 7.1.3 and higher, as well as PlanetPress Connect, support a 64-bit
operating system. However, PlanetPress Workflow 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 Workflow is concerned.
Antivirus considerations
PlanetPress Workflow 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:
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Warning
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 7/2008:
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.
l C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Workflow 8\
l C:\Users\planetpress\AppData\Local\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under
which Workflow is configured)
l C:\Users\planetpress\Connect (where planetpress is the user under which Workflow
is configured)
l On all systems:
l C:\Windows\Temp\
l Processes:
l PPAlambic.exe
l ServerService.exe
l PPWatchService.exe
l PPImageService.exe
l MessengerService.exe
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.
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Microsoft Office compatibility
The Microsoft Office 2010 line of products, other than Pro and Enterprise, has not been certified
for use with PlanetPress Workflow. Some of its products may not be compatible with the
connectors included in the Suite.
Setting up the working environment
After installation, the working environment needs to be set up before you start using Workflow.
This involves:
l Configuring PlanetPress Workflow Services (see "Workflow Services" on page762).
l Setting up the Workflow Configuration tool. You can configure a variety of options, from
how the application itself looks or behaves, to plugin specific options. These are
accessible through the Preferences button under the PlanetPress Workflow Button, or via
the key combination Ctrl+Alt+P. (see "Preferences" on page658).
l Activating the printer, in order to output PlanetPress Design documents (see "Activate a
printer" on page742 and "PlanetPress Design documents" on page39). This applies to
PlanetPress Suite only.
Network considerations
While PlanetPress Workflow 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 considerations" on page14). Because each
user may have different local and network rights, it may be important to consider the
implications in regards to PlanetPress Workflow. To change the service log on information, see
"Workflow Services" on page762.
Local and network rights
Programs, such as PlanetPress Workflows 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 Workflow to use either the local system account or any specific user
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account. When you do this, you grant PlanetPress Workflow and all its services the same rights
associated with the selected account.
When you are running PlanetPress Workflow 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 PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program: . The icon reminds you
that the logon information is different for the PlanetPress Workflow services, and that some
network resources may not be accessibly by PlanetPress Workflow when running a live
configuration.
Account requirements
PlanetPress Workflow 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
Workflow services, 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 Workflow 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 PlanetPress Workflow: 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 Workflow Tools can automatically convert mapped paths to
UNC paths. For more information, please see "Network behavior preferences" on page666.
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Network ports used by each service
The port configuration for each PlanetPress Workflow component is described in the following
table. The port number assignments comply with Internet standards. If PlanetPress Workflow
component is not active, the port is not used.
Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port
Email Input (POP3
TCP Default
1
mode)
Email Input (Outlook
TCP see Remote Port See Network Ports Used by Key
mode)
Folder Capture TCP/UDP Default
1
LPD Input TCP 515 (listening
port)
110
Microsoft Server Products
Standard Windows file and
printer sharing ports2:
l UDP 137, 138; TCP 139
(NetBIOS over TCP/IP
(NetBT))
l UDP 445; TCP 445 (SMB
over TCP/IP)
N/A
FTP Input TCP Default
Telnet Input TCP Default
FTP Output TCP Default
Email Output (SMTP
TCP Default
mode)
Email Output (Outlook
mode)
TCP See Email Input
(Outlook mode)
1
1
1
1
21
9100 (configurable)
21
25
See Email Input (Outlook mode)
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Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port
Send to Folder
Windows Queue
TCP
Default
1
Standard Windows file and
printer sharing ports2:
Output
l 137, 138 and/or 139
(NetBIOS over TCP/IP
(NetBT))
l 445 (SMB Over TCP/IP)
LPR Output TCP Default or 721 to
3
731
PlanetPress
Database
TCP or
UDP
Unknown
SNMP Condition UDP Default
1
Value is greater than 1024 and is assigned by Windows XP. This is the default.
4
1
515
Unknown
161
4
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.
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Known Issues
Microsoft patch causing handling of XLS to fail
Some recent Windows updates from Microsoft have impacted the handling of XLS sources in
PReS\PlanetPress Workflow 8.
The Microsoft updates concerned are as follows:
l KB4041693 for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
l KB4041681 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
l KB4041690 for Windows Server 2012 (no service pack)
Installing these updates may cause the application to fail when attempting to open or load XLS
files via a plugin or in a script. The following error message may appear: “Unexpected error
from external database driver (1). (Microsoft JET Database Engine)".
Suggested resolution
Uninstall the Microsoft patches and wait for the issue to be fixed in a subsequent Microsoft
patch.
Workarounds
l For the Lookup in Microsoft Excel Documents plugin (found in the Connectors tab of the
plugin bar): Open the original .xls file and save it with the .xlsx format. That will force the
Excel Lookup plugin to switch drivers.
l For the Database Query plugin (found in the Actions tab of the plugin bar) and when
using Excel/Access in PlanetPress Design: Change the ODBC driver used for Excel files
from JET to ACE (change the Data Source). As an example: in Windows 10: Change the
Excel File ODBC driver from ODBCJT32.dll to ACEODBC.dll. (Naming may vary from
versions of the OS but the basics stay the same.) Important: Before switching from JET to
ACE, install the latest MS Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable
(https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920). Otherwise, using
ACE in one or more self-replicating processes in a Workflow configuration can cause
Workflow to crash.
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In the meantime Objectif Lune would like to apologize to any customers affected by this
problem and for any inconvenience caused. For more information, please contact your local
support team.
Other known issues
l Anoto Pen Director 2.8 is not supported on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 10.
l 22356: Using the PT-PT setting to perform ICR on AlphaNumeric fields may not work
properly. If you encounter the issue, use the PT-BR setting instead, or use another
PlanetPess Field in your document design.
l 21962: Barcode scanner task may have issues reading 2-D barcodes printed/scanned
with low resolution. Make sure the scans and the original printed output are at least
300DPI (600 or better recommended)
l 21405: When printing through a Windows printer driver on Windows Server 2008 or
Windows Server 2008 R2, the Job Owner setting is ignored. This is caused by a
documented issue in those two Operating Systems. Microsoft has provided no reason nor
workaround for the problem, therefore PlanetPress Workflow cannot circumvent the issue.
l Under Windows 2000, the SharePoint output task does not work with SharePoint 2010.
Under the same OS, the PlanetPress Capture ICR does not work due to the .NET 3.5
requirement.
l
21465: The SharePoint Output task does not validate the field contents. That's
Sharepoint's responsibility.
l
20143: The Metadata to PDI task encodes the XML using the default system encoding,
not the document's. In addition, it does not discriminate between index names written in
different cases (e.g. Name vs. name).
l Printing PDF files in passthrough mode using a Windows Printer Driver task causes jobs
to be processed sequentially rather than in parallel. This is caused by a 3rd party library
used in the printing process. Possible workarounds are to use a PlanetPress document to
call the PDF files as dynamic images, or to use the PDF file as the Data File for a
PlanetPress Document.
l
JobInfo #4 in the Windows Input Queue task (the original document name set by the
printing application) replaces any non-alphanumeric character with underscores in order
to filter out any invalid characters. Consequently, if the path contains slashes or colons,
those will be replaced with underscores.
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l
When the PlanetPress Capture database is set to MS Access, it is considered good
practice to have a single process generate Patterns for documents because the Access
engine may lock the other process out of the database as the first process updates it.
l After the initial installation, the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration tool may display an
error message the first time you launch it if you had already sent a PlanetPress Workflow
Document to it. You can safely ignore this message, you will simply have to manually
start the PlanetPress Messenger service from the Workflow console for this one time only.
To avoid getting the error altogether, make sure you launch the PlanetPress Workflow
tool once before sending any document to it.
l
13554: In the LaserFiche connector, when selecting a different template after filling up
the fields and then going back to the first template, the values entered in the fields are
lost. They have to be entered again.
l When loading a Workflow configuration that includes references to Windows printers, the
output task may fail to recognize the printer if the printer driver has changed between the
moment the configuration was set up and the moment it was loaded. This is unlikely to
occur, but it could, for instance, happen when importing a Version 7 configuration file into
Version 8. To circumvent the issue, open the output task's properties, make sure you
reselect the proper printer, close the task and send the configuration again.
l
The HTTP/SOAP service may fail when both it and the Workflow service are logged on
using 2 non-local users or 2 local users with different privileges. To resolve the issue,
make sure both services use the same logon credentials.
l
13559: The WordToPDF task, when run under the LocalSystem account, may seem to
hang if the installation of MS-Word wasn't properly completed for the LocalSystem
account. If the task seems to take longer than it does when run in Debug mode, this may
be the case. You can confirm this behavior by opening up the Windows Task Manager
and checking whether the MSIExec application is running. In order to complete the
installation of MS-Word for the LocalSystem account, follow these steps:
1. Open a command-line window (CMD.exe)
2. Type "AT 10:56 /INTERACTIVE CMD.EXE" (replace 10:56 with the next upcoming
minute on your system)
3. At the specified time, a new command-line window opens. In it, navigate to Word
Installation folder, then type Winword Follow the instructions to complete the
installation
4. Re-start PlanetPress Workflow and test your process.
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l
The WordToPDF task relies on MS-Word to perform its functions. However, MS-Word
sometimes displays confirmation dialogs when it encounters a situation requiring user
input. Such dialog windows cannot be displayed when PlanetPress Workflow runs as a
service. As a result, the process may seem to hang because it is awaiting user input on a
window that isn't displayed. The only way to resolve this situation is to kill the
PlanetPress Workflow service. To avoid these types of issues from occurring, it is
imperative that the configuration for the WordToPDF task be tested thoroughly in Debug
mode prior to sending it into production. In particular, the connection to the database must
be validated.
l
The WordToPDF task requires the default system printer to be set to a queue that uses
the PlanetPress printer driver. If you change the default system printer or if you import a
PlanetPress Workflow configuration file from another PC that includes an instance of the
WordToPDF task, you must review the properties of each instance of the task and click
OK to validate its contents. A new printer queue will be created if required and the default
printer will be reset properly. If you do not perform these steps, running the configuration
will result in several error messages being logged and the task failing.
l The preferences for the PrintShop Mail Web connector may not be saved properly if you
set them and close the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration tool without first sending the
configuration to the service. Make sure you send the configuration before exiting from the
Configuration tool.
l
13009: With Outlook 2010, the Send Email functionality requires that the service be run
with administrative credentials in the domain. In addition, both Outlook and the
PlanetPress Workflow Configuration tool must *not* be running while the service is.
l The Microsoft Office 2010/2013/2016 and 365 line of products has not been certified for
use with PlanetPress Workflow. Some of its products may not be compatible with the
connectors included.
l
Barcodes produced in printer-centric mode may have a slightly different aspect from
those produced in Optimized PostScript mode. This is due to the different types of 3rd
party libraries being used to generate the barcodes. However, all barcodes scan correctly.
About PlanetPress Fax
PlanetPress Fax is a service that can be used to output data and documents via a faxing
software, such as Windows Fax (available with Windows 2000, XP, and Microsoft Windows
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Server™ 2003) or Symantec WinFax PRO, as well as via a faxing server, such as Captaris
Note
Because of technical limitations, the minimum time required to generate a PlanetPress Fax
document is approximately 10 times longer on Windows 2000 than on Windows XP/2003.
RightFax. Note that it is these applications that do the actual faxing.
l
Windows 2000: PlanetPress Fax Output tasks set to use Windows Fax under Windows
2000 may fail when no one is logged on to the system running PlanetPress Fax.
l
Windows XP: Windows Fax may not work properly after the Windows XP Service Pack 2
(SP2) has been installed (refer to Microsoft Customer service for more information on this
issue). Also note that Windows Fax may take as much as three times more time to send
faxes under Windows XP.
PlanetPress Fax can be installed on any computer on your network and process all requests
coming from tasks performed by PlanetPress Workflow on other workstations. You may choose
to run it on every computer where PlanetPress Workflow is running, but you may also choose to
run it on computers more or less dedicated to PlanetPress Fax.
Since the faxing program must always be running and ready to receive requests from
PlanetPress Workflow, it should be included in the Windows Startup group.
PlanetPress Fax can associate a different fax number with each page it sends via the faxing
software. For this to happen, two things are required: each record must have a fax number
specified in the job file and that fax number must be tagged as such in PlanetPress Design (in
the PlanetPress Design User Guide, refer to the section documenting Data Selections, which
includes explanations on the available PlanetPress Fax options). When the data and the
document are merged, the fax number associated with each record becomes available to
PlanetPress Fax that can then pass it on to the faxing software.
About PlanetPress Image
PlanetPress Image is a multi-threaded service that can generate image files in PDF, JPEG and
TIFF format. As PlanetPress Workflow and PlanetPress Image are compliant with AutoStore,
DocAccel and KYOcapture, these formats can also be used.
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The generated files can be archived and, depending on whether you use a PlanetPress Image
Note
All raster images, such as GIFs or JPEGs, generated by PlanetPress Image are portrait
oriented.
Note
The minimum time required to generate a PlanetPress Image document is approximately 10 times
longer on Windows 2000 than on Windows XP/2003.
Output task or a Digital Action task, sent via email. Note that you can use PlanetPress Search,
another program included in PlanetPress Workflow, to search through archived PDF files.
PlanetPress Image can be installed on any computer on your network and can process
requests coming from tasks performed by PlanetPress Workflow on other workstations. You
may choose to run it on every computer where PlanetPress Workflow is running, but you may
also choose to run it on computers more or less dedicated to PlanetPress Image. Note that in
the case of Digital Action tasks, PlanetPress Workflow and the PlanetPress Image service
must be running on the same computer.
Preferences
In addition to the job-specific PlanetPress Image properties that you configure in the task’s
Properties dialog box, there are configurable options common to all PlanetPress Image
Outputs processed by a given computer; see "PlanetPress Image preferences" on page698.
Note that those options are specific to each PlanetPress Image installation and that they are
immediately applied.
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Basics
PlanetPress Workflow is a tool to automate the processing, distribution and printing of your
business documents. Once installed on the server, it can be set up to automate all tasks related
to document processing (see "Setting up the working environment" on page17).
When you're all set up, you can start using the Workflow Configuration tool, assuming that you
have already done research on the processes that need to be automated.
Working with Workflow implies the following basic steps:
1.
Creating a Workflow configuration
A Workflow configuration consists of a number of processes, of which each has an input
task, output task and possibly a number of tasks in between. See: "About Workflow
Configurations" on page29.
2.
Debugging the configuration
Debugging is the act of running through your process, either step by step or as a whole,
directly from the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration Tool, in order to detect and resolve
issues with your process. Debugging a process requires providing a sample data file.
See: "Debugging and error handling" on page87.
3.
Sending it to the Server (and testing it again)
As you are working on your configuration, you can save that configuration file as a file on
your local hard drive. Saving a configuration file never replaces the current PlanetPress
Workflow service configuration. To do this, you must use the Send Configuration
command; see "Sending a configuration" on page128.
Related tools and resource files
Workflow serves as automation tool in a number of distinct products. Some of the tasks that can
be used in a Workflow configuration only work with product-specific files. The tools that you
need in order to produce those files depend on the product that you are using:
l
PlanetPress Connect users will use the other Connect modules - Designer and
DataMapper - to create the templates, data mapping configurations and print presets
used by OL Connect tasks. The user guides of these modules can be found here:
http://help.objectiflune.com/en/PlanetPress-connect-user-guide/2019.1/.
l
PlanetPress Suite users may use documents made with PlanetPRess Design. For the
user guide, see http://help.objectiflune.com/en/planetpress-design-user-guide/.
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The product-specific files need to be sent to, or imported into, Workflow before they can be
used in conjunction with a task (see "Workflow Configuration resource files" on page35). They
become visible in the "Configuration Components pane" on page719.
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Features
PlanetPress Workflow are input driven applications designed to output data in a variety of ways
through diverse means to various applications and devices. PlanetPress Workflowcan be used
as simple go between, passing along input data to output devices, but it can also perform
various types of data processing. You can combine the various PlanetPress Workflow services
to set up versatile automated processes to print jobs as well as generate other types of output.
PlanetPress Workflow processes act as sorts of dispatchers. On the one hand, they retrieve
data and control plugins that retrieve data from watched locations, and on the other hand they
send data and control plugins that send data to various devices, for printing or to generate
documents that can then be emailed or faxed. PlanetPress Workflow can also perform a variety
of operations on the data using its action plugins.
In fact, the PlanetPress Workflow plugin based architecture enables almost limitless
customization. You can create or purchase compatible plugins, drop them in any of
PlanetPress Workflow plugin folder and use them to perform other operations. You can even
find free unsupported plugins on the Objectif Lune Web site.
PlanetPress Workflow 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 Workflow configuration. A given computer can only run one PlanetPress Workflow
configuration at a time. The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console may be used to monitor the
services running on a given computer.
About Workflow Configurations
PlanetPress Workflow Configurations are service applications, or if you will, input driven
applications that continuously run on a given computer and perform actions automatically.
Those actions are defined in a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file. A configuration file
consists of a set of processes, subprocesses, variables, (optional) documents and printer
queues, that work together within the PlanetPress Workflow Service. A process can be used as
simple go between, passing along input data to an output device or folder, but it can also
perform various types of data processing.
You can combine the various PlanetPress Workflow input, action and output tasks to set up
versatile automated processes to print jobs as well as generate other types of output (emails,
web pages, files...).
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Note
A PlanetPress Workflow configuration must be composed of at least one process, but it
may include as many as 512.
PlanetPress Workflow cannot work without a valid configuration, and a PlanetPress Workflow
session running on a given computer can only use one configuration at a time.
For a configuration created in the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration tool to actually be
executed by PlanetPress Workflow, it must be sent to the PlanetPress Workflow Service. When
you do this, your PlanetPress Workflow forgets its previous configuration and starts executing
the tasks included in the new configuration.
When you start the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration tool, it either opens the configuration
file that is active on the PlanetPress Workflow service, or starts with no configuration at all,
depending on your preferences (see "Configuration Components pane appearance
preferences" on page661).
You can always create a new configuration or open an existing one (see "Creating a new
configuration" below and "Open a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file" on the next page).
The following pages provide information on different parts of a PlanetPress Workflow
configuration:
l "About processes and subprocesses" on page114
l "About Tasks" on page232
l "About data" on page45
l "About variables" on page596
l "Workflow Configuration resource files" on page35
Creating a new configuration
To create a new configuration, choose New from the PlanetPress Workflow Button.
By default, when you create a new configuration, PlanetPress Workflow automatically creates a
process that includes a "Folder Capture" on page248 initial input task and a "Send to Folder"
on page594 output task by default. You can then edit and save your new configuration.
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