Objectif Lune PlanetPress Workflow - 8.8 User Guide

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User Guide

Version:8.8

User Guide Version 8.8 Last Revision:4/9/2018

Objectif Lune, Inc. 2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500 Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8

+1 (514) 875-5863

www.objectiflune.com

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© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2018. 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 4

Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow 8.8 10

Icons used in this guide 10

System Requirements 12

Operating System (64-bit only) 12 Minimum Hardware Requirements 12 Known Issues 12

Basics 16

Setting Up the Working Environment 16 Setting Up Preferences 16 Create a New Process 16

Considerations 17

Send your Configuration 17

Features 20

The Nature of PlanetPress Workflow 20 About Branches and Conditions 20

Branches 21

Conditions 21 Configuration Components 21 Connect Resources 21

Available Resources 22

Resource Save Location 22

Resource Archives 23 About Data 23

Data File and Job File 24

Job File Names and Output File Names 25

Data selections 26

AboutData Emulation 35

Using the File Viewer 36

Sample Data 36

Metadata 38 Data Repository 51

Structure 52

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Accessing the Data Repository 53

Where to find the Data Repository 54 About Documents 54

Import Documents 54

Import PrintShop Mail Documents 55 Debugging and Error Handling 55

About Error Handling 55

Using the On Error tab 56

Creating and Using Error Processes 57

Accessing the Logs 58

Resubmit Backed Up Input Files to a Process 60

Knowing What to Resubmit 62

Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow Process 63 The Plug-in Bar 66

Categories 66

Settings & Customization 67 About Printing 68

PlanetPress Workflow Printer Queues 69

Shared Printer Queue Properties 70

Windows Output Printer Queue 72

LPR Output Printer Queue 73

FTP Output Printer Queue 74

Send to Folder Printer Queue 76

Triggers 77

Load Balancing 77

Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) 78 About Processes and Subprocesses 81

Processes 81

Subprocesses 81

Process Properties 82

Activate or Deactivate a Process 87

Convert a Branch to a Subprocess 87

Import Processes from Another Configuration File 88

Toggle the Run on Desktop Property 89 Using Scripts 91

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor 92

SOAP Server API Reference 98

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The Watch Object 105

Data Repository API 121

Stopping Execution 141 Special Workflow Types 142

Special Workflows 142

PlanetPress Capture Workflow 143

Database Considerations (ODBC) 150

HTTP Server Workflow 179

PDF Workflow 186

Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 189

The basic processes involved in the Capture OnTheGo Workflow 191 About Tasks 196

Task Properties 197

Variable Properties 197

Input Tasks 203

Action Tasks 268

Data Splitters 368

Process Logic Tasks 396

Connector Tasks 426

PlanetPress Capture 475

Metadata Tasks 509

OL Connect Send 538

OL Connect tasks 555

Output Tasks 619 Working With Variables 644

Types of Variables 644

Job Info Variables 645

Standard Variables 646

Manipulate Local Variables 650

Manipulate Global Variables 652 About Configurations 654

Create a New Configuration 654

Open a PlanetPress Workflow Configuration File 655

Saving and Sending 656

Exit PlanetPress Workflow Configuration Program 658 About related programs and services 658

Available Input services 659

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Available Output services 660

Start and Stop PlanetPress Workflow Service 660

The Interface 663

Customizing the Workspace 664

Dock and Undock Areas of the Program Window 664

Show or Hide Areas of the Program Window 666

Combine and Attach Areas 666

Resize the Program Window Areas 671

Change the Interface Language 671 PlanetPress Workflow Button 672

Options 672 The Configuration Components Pane 674

Components Area Sections 674

Processes and Subprocesses 677

Manipulate Global Variables 685

Connect Resources 687

PPS/PSM Documents 689

Associate Documents and PlanetPress Printer Queues 694

Using the Clipboard and Drag & Drop 695

Rename Objects in the Configuration Components Pane 698

Reorder Objects in the Configuration Components Pane 698

Grouping Configuration Components 699

Expand and Collapse Categories and Groups in the Configuration Components Pane 700

Delete Objects and Groups from the Configuration Components Pane 701 Other Dialogs 701

Activate Your Printers 701

Workflow Services 702

Process Properties 704

Advanced SQL Statement Dialog 709

Access Manager 709

PDF Viewer 717

The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console 719

Update document 721

Data Repository Manager 721

Virtual Drive Manager 724 The Debug Information Pane 725 The Message Area Pane 726

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The Object Inspector Pane 727 The Plug-in Bar 728

Categories 729

Settings & Customization 729 Preferences 730

Other Preferences and Settings 732

General appearance preferences 732

Object Inspector appearance preferences 733

Configuration Components Pane appearance preferences 733

Default Configuration behavior preferences 734

Notification Messages behavior preferences 735

Sample Data behavior preferences 737

Network behavior preferences 738

PlanetPress Capture preferences 739

OL Connect preferences 748

PDF Text Extraction Tolerance Factors 749

General and logging preferences 751

Messenger plugin preferences 752

HTTP Server Input 1 plugin preferences 753

HTTPServer Input 2 plugin preferences 756

LPD Input plugin preferences 757

Serial Input plugin preferences 758

Telnet Input plugin preferences 759

PlanetPress Fax plugin preferences 759

FTP Output Service preferences 763

PlanetPress Image preferences 764

LPR Output preferences 767

PrintShop Web Connect Service preferences 768

Editor Options 769 The Process Area 773

Zoom In or Out within Process Area 774

Adding Tasks 774

Adding Branches 775

Edit a Task 775

Replacing Tasks, Conditions or Branches 776

Remove Tasks or Branches 776

Task Properties Dialog 777

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Cutting, Copying and Pasting Tasks and Branches 778

Moving a Task or Branch Using Drag-and-Drop 781

Ignoring Tasks and Branches 782

Resize Rows and Columns of the Process Area 782

Selecting Documents in Tasks Links 783

Highlight a Task or Branch 784

Undo a Command 784

Redo a Command 784 The Quick Access Toolbar 785 The PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon 786 The Task Comments Pane 788

Additional Information 789

Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 791

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Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow

Note

Complementary information that is not critical, but may help you better use PlanetPress Workflow.

Tip

Information that is useful or suggests an easier method.

8.8

This PDF documentation covers version 8.8. 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 even ERP systems! This data can then be analysed, 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 customised automated processes which will fit your environment and not the other way around. Create processes that will save you time and money!

Icons used in this guide

Icons are used throughout this guide to point your attention to certain information.

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Technical

Information that may require specific knowledge to understand.

Warning

Information that is potentially critical to using PlanetPress Workflow. Pay close attention.

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System Requirements

Note

Windows XP, Windows 2003 and older versions of Windows are not supported by PlanetPress Workflow.

These are the system requirements for PlanetPress Workflow 8.8.

Operating System (64-bit only)

l Microsoft Windows 2008/2008 R2 Server

l Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Server

l Microsoft Windows Vista

l Microsoft 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)

l 8GB RAM (16GB Recommended)

l Disk Space: At least 10GB (20GB recommended)

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.

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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.

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.

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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 config 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.

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

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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.

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Basics

PlanetPress Workflow is a tool for the automation of the processing, the distribution and the printing of your business documents. Once installed on the server, it can be set up to automate all tasks related to document processing.

Setting Up the Working Environment

Setting up the working environment has to be done the first time you start PlanetPress Workflow.

1. Defining the printer (see Activate Your Printers).

2. Configure PlanetPress Workflow Services (see Workflow Services).

Setting Up Preferences

PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program lets you configure a variety of options, from how the application itself looks or behaves, to plugin specific options. For more information about preferences accessible through the Preferences button in the PlanetPress Workflow Button, please refer to Preferences.

Create a New Process

You can create a new process in a two different ways:

In the Ribbon, go to the Home tab and click the Process button in the Processes group.

In the Configuration Components pane, right-click on any process or the Processes folder and select Insert Process.

Regardless of the method, a new process is created with a default name (Process1, Process2, etc), Input Task and Output Task. The defaults are configurable in the "Default Configuration behavior preferences" on page734 screen. The same methods can be used to create a new Startup process.

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To add a PlanetPress Workflow startup process:

Note

You can only have one Startup Process in any given configuration and cannot add more.

In the Ribbon, go to the Home tab and click the Startup Process button in the Processes group.

In the Configuration Components pane, right-click on any process or the Processes folder and select Insert Startup Process.

Considerations

l While your configuration is limited to a maximum of 512 processes, any given process

can have as many tasks as necessary.

l A given process may include output tasks that generate files used by input tasks from

other processes.

l When you send a configuration to your PlanetPress Workflow service, all its active

processes are applied.

l Each process’ schedule determines when its initial input task can be performed.

l Other tasks included in the process are performed regardless of schedule, granted that

the previous task was performed.

Send your Configuration

PlanetPress Workflow Configuration saves entire configurations in the form of a single file. Like any other file, configuration files may be saved and reopened, as well as rename as desired. Simply saving a configuration has no effect on the configuration actually used by the PlanetPress Workflow when it is started. To change any currently active configuration, you must use the Send Configuration command.

When you use the Send command, the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program uses the currently opened configuration (Any_name.OL-workflow) to overwrite PlanetPress Workflow service's current configuration (ppwatch.cfg).

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Note

OL-workflow files are equivalent to .pp7 files made with older versions of PlanetPress Workflow. They contain the processes and such used by Workflow.

If PlanetPress Workflow service is running when you send a new configuration, it stops and

Note

If PlanetPress Workflow service is paused when you send a new configuration, it will not stop and restart. Since PlanetPress Workflow service reads its configuration file when it starts up, when you resume processing, PlanetPress Workflow service will continue

restarts automatically with the new configuration. If the service is stopped, it will not start automatically.

To send a Configuration to the local server:

1. Open the configuration you want to use as a new configuration.

2. Edit the configuration, if required.

When the configuration is ready to be used, from the PlanetPress Workflow button, choose Send Configuration, then Send Local.

To send a Configuration to a remote server:

1. Open the configuration you want to use as a new configuration.

2. Edit the configuration, if required.

When the configuration is ready to be used, from the PlanetPress Workflow button, choose Send Configuration, then Send Remote. Alist of available servers on the local network appears.

4. Put a checkmark next to each server where the configuration should be sent.

5. Click OK.

If a server is grayed out, this may mean you do not have access to send a configuration remotely to it. For more information, please see "Access Manager" on page709.

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using the old configuration.

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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.

The Nature of PlanetPress Workflow

PlanetPress Workflow 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 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 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.

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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.

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

For the list of operations you can perform on Branches and Conditions, please refer to The

Process Area.

Configuration Components

The Configuration Components items displayed in the pane are processes, subprocesses, variables, documents and printer queues. For more information on operations that you can perform on each component, please refer to The Configuration Components pane.

Connect Resources

Connect resources are visible in The Configuration Components pane and are added by using the Send to Workflow option from the PlanetPress 's File menu.

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Available Resources

l Data Mapping Configurations:Displays a list of data mapping configurations used with

the Execute Data Mapping task. Each of the templates have been sent from PlanetPress Connect using the Send to Workflow tool. For each template in the list, the following two items appear within them:

l Data Model:Displays the data model used in the data mapping configuration.

Double-click on the data model to view it in your default XMLviewer (generally, Internet Explorer).

l Sample Data File(s):Displays a list of sample files that are included in the data

mapping configuration. Double-click on a file to use it as a sample data file for the active process.

l Document Templates:Displays a list of templates that can be used in content creation

tasks:"Create Email Content" on page562, "Create Web Content" on page587 and "Create Print Content" on page582.

l Job Presets:Displays a list of Job Presets that can be used in the "Create Job" on

page567 task.

l Output Presets:Displays a list of Output Presets that can be used in the "Create Output"

on page570 task.

Resource Save Location

Any resource sent to PlanetPress Workflow from PlanetPress Connect is saved locally at the following location: %PROGRAMDATA%\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Workflow 8\PlanetPress Watch\OLConnect

Resources are saved in their appropriate folder:

l DataMapper contains the data mapping configurations (.OL-datamapper)

l JobCreation contains the Job Presets(.OL-jobpreset)

l OutputCreation contains the Output Presets (.OL-outputpreset)

l Template contains the templates (.OL-template)

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Note

Package Files are not saved anywhere. The individual resources contained within the package are extracted and placed in the folders noted above.

Resource Archives

From version 8.2, PlanetPress Workflow maintains an archive of previous versions of resources, in the following location:%PROGRAMDATA%\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Workflow 8\PlanetPress Watch\OLConnect\Archive , each in their own folder:

l datamapper contains archives of the data mapping configurations (.OL-datamapper)

l jobcreation contains archives of the Job Presets(.OL-jobpreset)

l outputcreation contains archives of the Output Presets (.OL-outputpreset)

l template contains archives of the templates (.OL-template)

l workflow contains archives of Workflow configurations received by the server.

The archives are saved using the template named followed by a timestamp. A maximum of 30 of each instance of a resource is kept (meaning if you have 10 different templates, a maximum of 300 files will be present in the archive\template folder). Older archives are deleted automatically as new archives are created.

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 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 PlanetPress Workflow or a PlanetPress Design Document that is being merged with the data (for example in a printed output).

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For more information about Data, please refer to "Sample Data" on page36.

Note

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

Data File and Job File

Whichever source it may come from, a serial port, an e-mail message, or an LPR request, for instance, and whatever its format, data entering a PlanetPress Workflow process via an input task is always referred to as a data file. Job file is a more general term, that can refer to data files as well as other types of files traveling through a process. Image files, for example, can be passed from task to task in order to be downloaded to a printer. So files traveling within a process are mostly referred to as job files.

By default, job file names are generated using the %f variable. You may change the wayPlanetPress Workflow names job files by using any combination of static characters, variables and Job info variables. You could for instance enter Process_%w_Job_%f in the File name box to add the process name in the name generated by the PlanetPress Workflow Tools.

A single job file can be the source of multiple job files. This is the case, for example, when a process includes multiple branches, as each branch is given a duplicate copy of the job file. This is also the case when a job file is split into multiple smaller files by a Splitter action task, for instance (See "Data Splitters" on page368).

It is important to note that job files may be used as a helpful debugging resource (See "Debugging and Error Handling" on page55).

Actual Data and Sample Data

The actual data is the dynamic data captured by PlanetPress Workflow at run-time. The sample data file is a static sampling of the run-time data.

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In the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program, you use sample data files to create and edit PlanetPress Workflow configurations.

Job File Names and Output File Names

When an input task sends a new data file down a process, it gives it an internal file name referred to as the job file name (associated with the %f variable). The new job file typically keeps the same name until the end of the process.

l If the job file comes to a branch in the process, PlanetPress Workflow makes a copy of the

job file and give the new file a new job file name.

l If the job file is processed by a splitter action task, the task typically creates a number of

new files which are all given new job file names.

Since these files are generated and managed by PlanetPress Workflow, you should not actually pay too much attention to their names.

Many output tasks, on the other hand, let you determine exactly how you want the files they generate to be named. In the case of Send to Folder output tasks, for example, output files are saved under their job file names by default (using the variable %f), but you may use a static (MyOutput.txt, for example) or variable name (%O_Invoices, for instance) of your choosing.

Variables such as %o (original file name) bring up the issue of file overwriting. If the process receives two source files with the same name, the second output file may overwrite the first one. This may be what you want, but otherwise you may consider using another variable, such as in %u (unique 13-character string).

When choosing naming schemes for output files, consider the following:

l For the benefit of users who must identify files, be it in a folder or on a printer queue,

consider using names that are as meaningful and precise as possible.

l Some devices or applications may use file name extensions to know what to do with

incoming files.

Since variable properties can be entered in the boxes where you specify the folder and file names, you can use variables, data selections and static text. You could, for example, use the following: ClientID_@(1,1,1,1,14,KeepCase,Trim)_StatMonth_%m.

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One last consideration regarding output file names has to do with standard JPEG and TIFF files

Note

You can change the name of a previously named file using a Rename action task (see "Rename" on page334).

Note

The Get (...) Value options will also open the Data Selector or the Data Repository Manager, but once selected, the value becomes static and does not change between each datapage and job file.

generated by PlanetPress Image. When an output job contains multiple pages, multiple JPEG or TIFF files are generated (one image per file), each one identified by a sequence number appended to its name (this is managed by your PlanetPress Workflow). A three page job to be called Invoice, for example, will generate three JPEGs or TIFFs called Invoice0, Invoice1 and Invoice2. Note that this does not apply to multiple TIFFs, which can include multiple images in a single file.

Data selections

A data selection could be compared to an address. It indicates a location within a data file or database (the job file, metadata file, or Data Repository). Data selections are always evaluated at run-time so they are always dynamic and depend on the job file that is currently being processed.

There are several types of data selections you can use, depending on which emulation you are using, whether or not Metadata have been created by a previous task in the process, and whether or not data have been entered in the Data Repository.

Adding a data selection

A data selection can be used in any task property that may contain a variable. These properties are recognizable by their colored field label (maroon, by default). Right-click the property field and choose Get Data Location or Get Metadata Location to open the Data Selector (see "The

Data Selector" on page31) or Get Repository Location to open the Data Repository Manager (see "Data Repository Manager" on page721).

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After opening a sample of the data and/or metadata, you can easily make a selection. It is also possible to manually enter a data selection, or to change it after making a selection with the mouse pointer.

Wild card parameter "?"

Data/metadata selection functions accept a wildcard parameter "?", indicating the function operates on allnodes (not just one) of a given level.

Examples

l In a PDF emulation, the format of a selected region could be:

region(?,0.59375,2.21875,1.85416,2.51041,KeepCase,NoTrim)

In this case “?” represents the current physical data page processed by the task.

l In the following rule, the Metadata selection function loops through all datapages in a job,

comparing their index in the document to a value:

(GetMeta(SelectedIndexInDocument[0], 11, Job.Group[?].Document

[?].Datapage[?]) Equal 0

l In the following rule, the question mark in the text-based data selection represents the

current page number:

(@(?,1,1,1,9,KeepCase,NoTrim) IS EQUAL TO Page 1 of)

Text-based data selections

Text-based selections are used for text data files such as Line Printer, ASCIIand Channel Skip emulations. The selection refers to a rectangular selection that may contain multiple lines, rows, columns on a given page.

Syntax

@(page number, from line, to line, from column, to column, case option, trim option)

Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all options are mandatory):

l @():Always surrounds a data selection.

l Page Number:The data page number from which you want the data selection to grab the

data. If you want to get data from each page individually, this has to be done after a splitter.

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l From Line:The starting line of the data selection.

l To Line:the last line of the data selection.

l From Column:the leftmost character position of the data selection.

l To Column:the rightmost character position of the data selection.

l Case Options:This can be one of three options:

KeepCase:Keeps the current uppercase and lowercase letters as they are.

UpperCase:Converts all letters to their uppercase equivalent.

LowerCase:Converts all letters to their lowercase equivalent.

l Trim Option:Can either be "Trim"if you want to trim empty spaces before and after the

data selection or "NoTrim"if you want to retain the extra spaces.

Database data selections

These selections are used for database-driven data files such as Database and CSVemulations. The selection refers to a specific field on any given data page.

Syntax

field(record set number, child number, field name, treatment of character case, treatment of empty trailing cells)

Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all options are mandatory):

l field():Always surrounds database field selections.

l Record Set Number: The data page (or "record") of the data selection.

l Child Number:Line Number in the record (if there are multiple lines returned for one

single record).

l Field Name: The name of the field you want to retrieve.

l Case Option: This can be one of three options:

l KeepCase:Keeps the current uppercase and lowercase letters as they are.

l UpperCase:Converts all letters to their uppercase equivalent.

l LowerCase:Converts all letters to their lowercase equivalent.

l Trim Option:Can either be "Trim"if you want to trim empty spaces before and after the

data selection or "NoTrim"if you want to retain the extra spaces.

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Data Repository lookups

The Data Repository selections are made through the lookup function. Selections are done from the data located in the "Data Repository Manager" on page721. The lookup function returns the value of a single key, which is always a string.

Syntax

lookup(group, return key, lookup key, lookup value)

Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all arguments are mandatory):

l group:The name of the group in which to retrieve the value. Does not need to be

surrounded by quotes.

l return key:The name of the key where the information you want to retrieve is located.

Does not need to be surrounded by quotes.

l lookup key:The name of the key in the group with which to look up the value. The return

key of the KeySet in which the lookup key's value matches the lookup value will be returned.

l lookup value: A string surrounded by quotes which will be used in the lookup.

PDF data selections

These selections are used for PDF data files. The selection refers to a specific area of any given page of the PDF by using precise region coordinates (in inches). Note that when adding a metadata field, if you perform a multi-line data selection on a PDF region, only the first line of that region will be set to the metadata field.

Syntax

region(page, left, top, right, bottom, case option, trim option)

Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all options are mandatory):

l region():Always surrounds PDFdata selections.

l Page:The page of the PDFfrom which to retrieve the data.

l Left:Exact horizontal position (in inches)that defines the left of the selection region.

l Top:Exact vertical position (in inches)that defines the top of the selection region.

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l Right:Exact horizontal position (in inches)that defines the right of the selection region.

Tip

To get a sample of the metadata file, debug your process and step through it until the option View Metadata gets enabled. This happens when metadata have been created by a task in the process. Open the metadata viewer and save the metadata file to use it as a metadata sample file in the Data Selector.

l Bottom:Exact vertical position (in inches)that defines the bottom of the selection region.

l Case Option: This can be one of three options:

l KeepCase:Keeps the current uppercase and lowercase letters as they are.

l UpperCase:Converts all letters to their uppercase equivalent.

l LowerCase:Converts all letters to their lowercase equivalent.

l Trim Option:Can either be "Trim"if you want to trim empty spaces before and after the

data selection or "NoTrim"if you want to retain the extra spaces.

Metadata selections

Metadata selections are used with any type of emulation, as long as a metadata file was created by a previous task in the process.

Syntax

GetMeta(Field Name [, Option Flags, Metadata Path])

Here is a breakdown of the syntax:

l GetMeta():Always surrounds metadata selections.

l Field/Attribute Name:specifies the name of the field (or attribute, if the GetAttribute

option flag is set) to retrieve (see "Metadata" on page38).

l Option Flag (optional):Sets the options for the selection (see table below).

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l Metadata Path (optional):Defines the precise path where the Metadata Field is located.

Note

Metadata Index/Count values are zero-based: the first element in any collection has an index of 0 and the last element's index corresponds to the collection's length minus 1.

Option flags

The flag value to enter should be the sum of all desired flags. So, a value of 11, which is 8+2+1, means that behavior 8, 2 and 1 are applied.

A value of 0 means 'no flag'.

Name Value Behavior

GetAttribute 1 Search for the name argument in the attribute collection

instead of the default field collection. See: "Metadata" on page38.

NoCascade 2 Search only the level specified by the path argument

(defaults to Page level when path argument is empty), instead of default behavior, going from the Page level to the Job level.

FailIfNotFound 4 Raise an error and crash the job is the specified name is

not found instead of returning an empty string.

SelectedNodesOnly 8 Returns values from the selected nodes only.

The Data Selector

The Data Selector is the tool you use to choose your sample data and metadata files, to select the appropriate emulation, to make data selections, and to stabilize your data.

To open it:

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Choose Debug > Select, on the menu.

l Right-click a task property that may contain variables (recognizable by the color of its field

label, which is maroon by default)and choose one of the Get Data ... or Get Metadata ... options.

Debug your configuration and step through it until the option Debug > View Metadata gets enabled. This happens when the metadata file has been created by a task in the process.

The Data Selector is divided in two tabs:Data and Metadata.

Data tab

The Data tab contains the Data Options, which let you select your emulation, and the Selector Options, which let you personalize the data selector's display options (see Data Selector

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Display Preferences).

The Data Selector uses the 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.

Depending on the chosen emulation and data file, the options in the Data Selector, the Sample data file section and the Data pane itself may change to accommodate your choice. The Line Printer, Ascii, Channel Skip and User-Defined emulations will display the default options (see the Emulation section)and a grid-like display of each character on each line. The following emulations however, will be slightly different.

Database Emulation

The Database emulation changes the Browse button( ) for the Database Emulation Configuration button ( ), which displays the Database Emulation Configuration (see Database Emulation).

Once a database has been opened and query entered, the Data pane displays the results of the SQLQuery in a grid format, which each line representing a single returned row from the database. Each column represents a field returned by the query, with its field name as a row header.

XMLEmulation

l XMLdata is represented in a tree structure which corresponds to the data in the XMLfile.

Each node of the XMLcan be expanded to see the nodes under it. See XML Data Emulations.

PDF Emulation

If you use a PDF emulation, the Data pane displays the data as you would see it in any PDFreader.

l A new zoom drop-down list is displayed to let you set the zoom in percentage or fit the

PDFto the window or the width of the window.

l A new status bar, displaying the (Left, Top) and (Right, Bottom) coordinate pairs, is shown

under the Data pane.

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Metadata tab

Tip

To get a sample of the metadata file, debug your process and step through it until the option Debug

> View Metadata gets enabled. This happens when metadata have been created by a task in the

process. Open the metadata viewer and save the metadata file to use it as a sample file. Click the

Open a meta data file button to open the sample in the metadata selector.

Tip

The wildcard parameter '?' indicates that the function operates on allnodes (not just one) of a given level; see "Wild card parameter "?" " on page27.

The Metadata tab allows to load a metadata file and make a selection from it.

The Sample metadata filename is the path to the metadata file describing the current sample data file. Buttons on the rightcan be usedto load metadata from a file or to save the current metadata to a file.

PlanetPress Design documents (unlike Connect Designer templates) are built to contain metadata. PlanetPress Design users may therefore generate a metadata file for their active sample data file, using a PlanetPress Design document:click the Create meta data file button.

The Generated PressTalk Expression shows the expression to retrieve the currently selected attribute or field. Metadata are retrieved with the GetMeta() function (see "Metadata selections" on page30). This expression is editable, which allows you to customize the string returned by the metadata selector.

The Enable search on multiple levels option is available when a metadata is selected under Production information or User defined information. If it is not selected, the option flag includes NoCascade (+2). For an explanation of option flags in the GetMeta() function, see "Option flags" on page31.

Metadata level is a tree view allowing users to select the metadata level from which to display or select metadata elements.

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The Production information list displays all metadata fields describing the current

Note

A number of the options in the Metadata Selector in PlanetPress Design 7 are no longer available in the user interface of PlanetPress Workflow . However, when these settings are made in PlanetPress Design 7, they will function as expected in PlanetPress Workflow 8.8.

metadatalevel,as selected in the Metadata Level tree view, for the current data page, as selected in theData page box.

The User defined information lists all metadata fields defined by the user on the current metadata level.

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 PlanetPress Workflow, the same emulation tools as PlanetPress Design are available throughout your process, using the Data Selector. One notable exception however is that UserDefined Emulation is not available because it uses PlanetPress Talk code, which is not available within PlanetPress Workflow 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 PlanetPress Workflow:

l Line Printer

l ASCII

l CSV

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l Channel Skip

Warning

PDFEmulation, also called Document Input, is only available in PlanetPress Workflow.

l Database

l XML

l PDF

For more information about each emulation and how to use them, please refer to PlanetPress

Design User Guide.

Using the File Viewer

The File Viewer is like a Data Selector without any data related options, such as emulation settings. It is displayed when doing a data selection from the Generic Splitter task (see "Generic Splitter" on page377) with the Use Emulation option unchecked. The only data formatting codes to which the File Viewer responds are line breaks.

For more information on the selecting data, see "The Data Selector" on page31.

Sample Data

PlanetPress Workflow is a versatile tool that can capture various types of data files and dispatch this data to various PlanetPress Design documents. To fully understand PlanetPress Workflow and how it treats data, you must understand how it is integrated into PlanetPress Design.

This section covers issues relating to the sample data used to create your PlanetPress Workflow configuration and to the actual data that PlanetPress Workflow will send to PlanetPress Design documents. It is an important section which you should fully understand before you start creating your configuration. Also included in this section are procedures that let you make data selections as well as get data from the sample data file.

Since many of the concepts and explanations included in this chapter are closely related to concepts and explanations found in the PlanetPress Design User Guide, we suggest that you review this document, especially the Selecting an Emulation section.

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Choosing a Database Type Sample Data File

Note

You can also use the PlanetPress Workflow Database action task to get data form a database, and output in multiple different formats such as CSV. See "Database Query" on page299.

The procedure for selecting a sample data file that is in fact a database is the same as doing so in PlanetPress Design. For more information, please see the relevant page in the PlanetPress

Design User Guide.

Choosing a Sample Data File

In order to create your PlanetPress Workflow Process, the sample data you are going to use has to correspond precisely to the job files that will be treated by that process, at least in terms of structure.

The sample data file should have a relatively small number of pages (generally less than a hundred)in order to be processed quickly, while your actual data may be much larger and take more time to process. The sample data file should also contain at least one of every exception you may want to detect, or data used for a specific condition. For example if you wanted to filter out any data for clients in Canada, you would want to use a data file that has at least one user from Canada, to test whether your condition removes it.

To choose a sample data file:

Click the Debug tab in the PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon.

2. Click on Select in the Data group.

3. Use the Data Selector to choose your sample data file and emulation options.

4. Click OK on the Data Selector.

PlanetPress Workflow also keeps the last 9 used data files in memory, which you can reopen to use in the same process, or a different one.

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To reopen a sample data file used previously:

Note

Applications or plugins created in PlanetPress Suite 6 and using metadata will need to be updated for use in version 8.8. No backward compatibility mode is available.

Warning

When a user-defined emulation is used with metadata, results and behavior are unknown and unsupported. For instance, refreshing the metadata file may cause the document to crash and/or corrupt. For this reason, it is strongly advised to create backup copies of your documents beforehand.

1. Click the Debug tab in the PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon.

2. Click on Reopen Data File in the Data group.

3. Click on one of the data files in the list.

4. Use the Data Selector to change the emulation options if necessary.

Click OK on the Data Selector.

Metadata

Metadata is a hierarchical structure describing a job. Simply put, metadata is data about data or, in other words, information tagged to data. Metadata includes information about the data file itself, the document, custom user fields and in some cases page properties and page counts. PlanetPress Workflow provides a whole series of plugins to create and edit Metadata within processes (see "Metadata Tasks" on page509).

Metadata structure

The hierarchical structure of the metadata is composed of a number of basic levels for adding information to the job. These levels are, from top to bottom:

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Job: a file that contains 1 or more groups.

Group: a logical and ordered group of documents (ex: all invoices for a specific customer number; all documents going to the same address, etc.).

Document: group of 1 or more ordered datapages intended to the same recipient from the same source (ex: invoice).

Datapage: 1 atomic unit of content that produces zero, one or more pages.

Page: 1 side of a physical paper sheet.

When metadata is produced for a given job, a hierarchical (i.e. tree-like) structure is created, composed of the above elements in the following order: Job > Group(s) > Document(s) > Datapage(s) > Page(s). Any operation that modifies the data with regards to the structure (ex: remove pages, alter the data, etc.) makes the metadata obsolete and so it must be recreated or refreshed.

Metadata in OL Connect tasks

Although the metadata file created and maintained by OL Connect tasks looks the same as the metadata file produced by other tasks, it is in fact different: it contains less information. Only the first three levels in the metadata hold information about the job: Job, Group and Document. A

Group has information about a record set and a Document about one record. Datapage and Page nodes are visible in the Metadata file, but in this case they don't contain any actual job related information. Taking this limitation into account, the Metadata related plugins (see "Metadata Tasks" on page509) can be used in conjunction with OL Connect tasks nonetheless.

PlanetPress Design example

As an example, consider the typical case of a PlanetPress Design document which uses a Line Printer data file of transactional data in order to generate PDF invoices for a series of clients. By using the Metadata tools available in PlanetPress Workflow, the following information can be added to the data file:

l The job contains only invoices for clients located in Montreal.

l Since more than one invoice can go to the same recipient, invoices are grouped by

customer.

l Each invoice is a document resulting from the execution of a PlanetPress Design

document over one or more datapages, which results in zero or more physical pages being output.

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A single JOB can be composed of GROUPS of DOCUMENTS, which themselves are composed of physical PAGES produced by executing a PlanetPress Design document on one or more DATAPAGES.

Metadata elements

Each metadata node (i.e. Job, Group, Document, etc.) is described with a series of elements, that is, system-defined attributes or user-defined fields holding static or dynamic information about the node they are attached to. Each element has a name and a value. More specifically, here is a definition of these 2 types of elements:

Attribute: A read-only, system-defined element which holds a certain information about a certain node in the Metadata structure. This information can be static (e.g. the size of a physical page) or evaluated on-the-fly (e.g. the number of documents in a group). Attributes are non-repetitive (i.e. name is unique) and do not persist through metadata recreation.

Field: A read-write, user-defined element which holds custom information about a certain node in the metadata structure. Fields are repetitive (i.e. the same field may appear multiple times) and persist through metadata recreation.

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In addition to attributes and fields, each node of type group, document or datapage has a

Note

The presence of some finishing attributes depends on the PlanetPress Design document and target device used when producing the job.

Note

Metadata Index/Count values are one-based when viewed in the user interface: the first element in any collection has an index of 1 and the last element's index corresponds to the collection's length.

However, in the API and in metadata selections, they are zero-based: the first element in any collection has an index of 0 and the last element's index corresponds to the collection's length minus

1. This means the zero-based value has to be used when retrieving metadata (see also: "Metadata selections" on page30 and Rule Interface).

Boolean property called 'selected' that indicates whether or not to produce the pages under that node. By default, this property is set to true for all nodes.

Metadata attributes reference

The Metadata attributes are categorized as either Production, Finishing or Index/Count.

Production attributes describe the production of the job and/or metadata (e.g. path and name

of the datafile, date at which metadata was created, etc.)

Finishing attributes describe the finishing intent (e.g. page dimensions, page orientation,

duplex mode, etc.).

Index/Count attributes are not part of the original metadata file. They are evaluated live based

on the content of the metadata.

In the following table, the last 5 columns indicate at which level the corresponding attribute is available. This also depends on the type of job, however. In the metadata file created for an OL Connect job, only three levels are filled with actual data about the job: Job, Group and Document.

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

DataEncoding (optional)

Name of the character encoding.

DataFile (optional) Path

and name of the data file used by the PlanetPress Design Document.

Date Date the

o b

ProductionX X X

ent

age

metadata was created in ISO format.

Time Time the

metadata was created in ISO format.

Title Title of the

source document.

Producer Name of the

software that created the metadata.

ProductionX X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

Creator Name of the

software that created the source of the metadata.

TargetDevice Name of the

device for which the metadata and associated data is intended.

o b

ProductionX X X

ent

age

Dimension Two floats

separated by a colon indicating the media size in typographical points (ex: 612:792).

Orientation "Rotate0",

"Rotate90", "Rotate180" or "Rotate270", indicating respectively portrait, landscape,

Finishin g

X X X X X

rotated portrait

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

and rotated landscape.

Side "Front" or

"Back"; indicates whether the page is on the front or the back of the paper sheet. This attribute is a "best effort" and is

Finishin g

o b

ent

age

devicedependent.

Duplex "None",

"DuplexTumbl e" or "DuplexNoTu mble"; indicates a change of the duplex status.

InputSlot Device-

dependent identifier of the media source.

Finishin g

X X X X X

OutputBin Device- Finishin X X X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

dependent identifier of the media destination.

Weight Device-

dependent weight of the media.

MediaColor Device-

depedent color of the media.

Finishin g

o b

X X X X X

ent

age

MediaType Device-

dependent type of the media.

Index Index/C

IndexInDocument Returns the

Absolute index of the node within all the nodes under the parent Document.

Finishin g

ount

Index/C ount

X X X X X

X X X X

X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

IndexInGroup Returns the

Absolute index of the node within all the nodes under the parent Group.

IndexInJob Returns the

Absolute index of the node within all the nodes under the

Index/C ount

o b

X X X X

ent

X X X

age

parent Job.

Count Index/C

ount

DocumentCount Index/C

ount

DatapageCount Index/C

ount

PageCount Index/C

ount

SelectedCount Index/C

ount

SelectedDocument Index/C X

X X X X

X X

X X X

X X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

Count ount

SelectedDatapage Count

SelectedPageCoun t

SelectedIndexInDo cument

Returns the Absolute index of the node within all the selected nodes under

Index/C ount

o b

X X

X X X

ent

age

X X

SelectedIndexInGr oup

SelectedIndexInJo b

the parent Document.

Returns the Absolute index of the node within all the selected nodes under the parent Group.

Returns the Absolute index of the node within all the selected

Index/C ount

X X X

X X X X

nodes under

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum

Datap

the parent Job.

NumCopies Indicates how

many times the job is set to execute, as set when printing using a Windows driver.

Author Name of the

user who

Index/C ount

ProductionX

o b

ent

age

printed the job initially, as available in the spool file, and as the first job info of the Windows capture input.

Metadata tasks

A set of special Workflow plugins allows to edit the metadata during a Workflow process. See "Metadata Tasks" on page509.

Metadata Tools in PlanetPress Design

PlanetPress Design includes a complete set of metadata-related functionality, which can be referred to as Metadata Tools. These tools can be used to generate metadata, retrieve or define metadata elements, and build the metadata structure.

Using PlanetPress Design, one can:

Page 48

l Generate metadata for any given sample datafile.

l Graphically retrieve the value of a metadata attribute or field for use in any design object.

l Define documents and groups using any condition.

l Define custom metadata fields.

l Manipulate Metadata with PlanetPress Talk commands.

Following is a description of the Metadata tools which allow to perform the above tasks:

Metadata Generation using Data Capture with PlanetPress Printer

The Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) allows end-users to print directly to PlanetPress Design from any Windows application, by using the familiar File|Print option. At the other end, PlanetPress Design can capture the incoming stream and convert it internally into a PDF file along with its metadata. By default, capturing a document input using a PlanetPress Printer will generate a PDF along with its metadata.

Metadata Generation and Refresh without using PlanetPressPrinter

It is possible to generate or refresh metadata for any given sample datafile by using the Refresh Metadata option available when right-clicking on the Metadata Fields folder found in the Document Structure Window. For example, metadata can be generated this way for a Line Printer sample datafile captured using an LPD Queue Input.

Metadata Selector

PlanetPress Design's Data Selector window allows to view and select metadata elements. It is accessible by double clicking inside the Sample Data window or by clicking on the Open Active Data button available in the ribbon. The Data Selector is equipped with a new tab labeled Metadata.

Firstly, two buttons at the top right corner of this tab allows to load or save a metadata file generated for the current sample datafile.

Secondly, the metadata tab graphically displays all elements (i.e. attributes and fields) available at the current level (i.e. Page, Datapage, Document, etc.). More importantly, these elements are graphically selectable, like any other part of the sample datafile when using the 'Select Data' option inside a Text object, for example.

Page 49

Metadata in document properties

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The Metadata tab in the properties of a PlanetPress Design document allows to easily define documents or groups.

Metadata fields

The Metadata Fields in the structure of a PlanetPress Design document allow to easily define documents or groups, by dragging and dropping data from the Sample Data directly onto the document's Metadata Fields.

Data Repository

The Data Repository is a permanent structure to store data that can then be reused, modified or augmented at a later time, by different processes. This feature was introduced in version 8.5.

The Data Repository is especially useful in situations where data needs to be kept in between processes. A few examples:

l An HTTP-based authentication process, once it has validated user credentials, could

store session information (unique ID, user name, session starting time) into the repository. All other related processes could then look into the repository to determine if a new

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request is received from an already authenticated user, if the session has expired, what the user name is, etc.

l Data comes in and is merged into a Capture OnTheGo template and stored in the Data

Repository. The end-user augments the data (using the COTG as a data-entry system). The process that receives the augmented data could look into the Data Repository to retrieve the original data (or the ID of the original data records) in order to augment, modify or delete it.

Structure

As can be seen in the "Data Repository Manager" on page721, the Data Repository consists of Groups, Keys and KeySets.

Feature Name Description Equivalent Database Terminology

Group A Group is defined by its Keys

(columns), and may contain 0 or more KeySets (rows)within it.

Key A Key is defined only by its name.

The Data Repository only supports STRING values and any data inserted into it is converted to string automatically. The maximum size of a single key is 1 billion bytes.

KeySet Agroup may contain as many

KeySets (rows), which contain variable data, as necessary. A KeySet is inserted using the "Push to Repository" on page331 task.

Table

Column/Field

Row/Record

Lookup A method of retrieving one or more

KeySets from a group in the data repository.

Query

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Accessing the Data Repository

Tip

The Data Repository Manager displays, at the bottom left, the syntax used for accessing a specific value.

Via plugins

Storing data in the Data Repository

Data can be stored in the Data Repository using the Push to Repository task (see "Push to Repository" on page331).

Retrieving data from the Data Repository

In any Workflow task where variable data is allowed (recognisable by the maroon field labels), information can be retrieved from the Data Repository using a Lookup function. Right-click a field with a maroon label and select Get Repository Location. This will bring up the "Data Repository Manager" on page721. Select a Group, Key and KeySet entry to determine which value or values should be retrieved at runtime; then click OK. The Lookup Function Syntax, displayed at the bottom left of the Data Repository Manager, will be copied into the field.

The syntax is of the Lookup function is:

Lookup(Group_Name, Key_To_Retrieve, Key_To_Match, Value_To_Match)

This function may also be used anywhere else where the contextual menu gives access to it. You could, for example, use it on the General tab of the Create File task, to fill in the value of a key/value pair in a JSON string.

Scripts

In a script you can access the Data Repository using the "Data Repository API" on page121.

For a quick start, turn to this How-to: Interacting with the Data Repository API.

Data Repository Manager

At design-time, the Data Repository Manager may be used to insert or remove Groups, Keys and KeySets; see "Data Repository Manager" on page721.

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Where to find the Data Repository

In case the Repository contains valuable information that must not be lost in case of a hardware failure, create a backup of the repository. The Data Repository is located in the following folder: %ProgramData%\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Workflow 8\PlanetPress Watch\Repository.

About Documents

A Document is a file sent to PlanetPress Workflow 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.

Import Documents

This procedure describes how to import variable content documents created in PlanetPress Design. Importing documents can be useful when transferring configurations between PlanetPress Workflow installations.

To import documents into PlanetPress Workflow:

Choose File | Import Documents. The Import PlanetPress Design Document dialog box appears.

In the File type box, select the desired file type.

Navigate to the document you want to import, select it and click Open.

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The document is imported and displayed in the Configuration Components pane. This physically installs the documents to the Documents folder relative to the install folder of PlanetPress Workflow.

Import PrintShop Mail Documents

This procedure describes how to import variable content documents created in PrintShop Mail. Importing documents can be useful when transferring configurations between PlanetPress Workflow installations.

To import documents into PlanetPress Workflow:

Click the PlanetPress Workflow button. The Import PrintShop Mail Document dialog box appears.

2. Choose Import, then PrintShop Mail Documents.

Navigate to the document you want to import, select it and click Open. The document is imported and displayed in the Configuration Components pane. This physically installs the documents to the Documents folder relative to the install folder of PlanetPress

Workflow.

Debugging and Error Handling

This chapter touches on two subjects that are intrinsically linked, though their use is different. 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.

Error Handling, on the other hand, occurs when your configuration has been sent to PlanetPress Workflow services, and are running in "production"mode. On one hand the manual task is critical when creating a process, on the other the automated handling of errors within your processes will have a large impact on recovering from errors as they happen during production.

About Error Handling

When your process is running, or during debugging, it may happen that the task that is currently running causes an error, and the task fails. For example, when trying to save to a folder that

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does not exist, or printing to a printer that cannot be found.

When such an error occurs, in most cases you would want to be aware of it and to take certain actions in order to correct or report the error. This is where our error handling features come in handy.

Most of the tasks, branches and conditions included in your process can have their own error handling behavior, with the exception of Comments, the Input Error bin task, and older legacy tasks from previous versions of PlanetPress Workflow that did not have error handling.

By default, when an error occurs, the task is skipped and the unmodified job file is passed on to the next task. You can overwrite this behavior by changing the options of the On Error tab of the task.

Using the On Error tab

Whenever an error is triggered either during debugging or when a process runs in production, the settings specified in the On Error tab of the task that generated the error will be used to determine a course of action.

On Error Tab

The On Error tab is common to all tasks. Details can be found in the" Task Properties Dialog" on page777.

By default, any action task, branch, splitter or condition that generates an error will simply be ignored, and the task just under it (not within a branch)will be given control of the job file without any modification. Any initial input task that generates an error will stop the process from running as a whole, and output tasks will not generate output. The On Error tab can be used to overwrite the default behaviors.

l Send to Process: Check this option to send the job file to an error management process.

Error Process drop-down:Enabled only when the Send to Process option is checked. Lists any process of which the initial input task is the Input Error Bin task.

l Action:In the initial input tasks, this group is disabled and defaults to Stop Process. In

all other tasks where the On Error tab is present, the following options are available:

l Default:By default, the task is ignored as if it did not exist and the error is logged

before continuing the branch or process; the job file is passed on to the next task in

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the process. When an error occurs in a loop (or in a plugin that acts like a loop), the loop may log the error, terminate the current iteration and proceed with the next iteration.

l Stop Branch:If the task is in a branch of the process, the branch is stopped and the

job file is returned to the process after the branch. The branch will not produce any output. If the task is not on a branch, the entire process will be stopped.

l Stop Process:The process is stopped and no more processing is done. No further

output is produced.

l Log Message:Check this option to enable logging a custom error message in the

PlanetPress Workflow log file and in the Windows Application Events.

Message:Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that will be logged in the PlanetPress Workflow log file. You can use any variables available in PlanetPress Workflow to customize the message.

Store the message in variable:Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the message content.

ID:Enter an error ID. This IDwill be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the IDis not visible in the PlanetPress Workflow log file.

Store the IDin variable:Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the error ID.

l Reset to defaults:Resets all options in this tab to their default values.

When storing the message or ID, if they are stored in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. If your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available to the rest of your process, or as long as they are not overwritten.

Common Errors

Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.

Creating and Using Error Processes

An Error Process is a special type of process that never runs on its own, and cannot be called using the GoSub or Send to Process tasks. It can only be used in the On Error tab of a task in

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your process, and will be triggered if the Send to Process option is checked in that tab and an

Note

Local variables in the process are not sent to error processes, even if the error process has a variable of the same name.

error process is selected in the drop-down list.

To create an error process, simply replace the initial input task by the InputErrorBin input task, and that process automatically becomes able to handle error jobs sent to it. It is up to you, however, to decide how that error job will be handled.

For example, you could place the job file in a specific folder, then send an email to a supervisor indicating that a job has failed. Or you could update a database with an error status so that it appears on a customer's online order. You could also zip the order up and send it to an administrator, while simultaneously advising the person that sent the job that it failed.

You can have as many error processes as you can normal processes - that is, you are limited to 512 processes, subprocesses, startup processes and error processes combined.

The following information is available from within your information process when it is

triggered:

l Job Information variables (%1 to %9)

l The data file as it was before starting the task

l Global variables (which are, of course, available anywhere)

l Aseries of variables containing information about the error, the task that triggered it and

the process that contained it. See "Standard Variables" on page646

Accessing the Logs

If your process is running live in PlanetPress Workflow service, you have two ways of seeing what is happening, now or in the past.

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To view what processes are running and processing data as it happens:

Note

The information that is displayed here is the same as in PlanetPress Workflow logs and depends on the logging level that you set in the "General and logging preferences" on page751.

In the PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon, click on the Tools tab, then select Service Console in the Services group. The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console opens.

2. Click on the service you want to check, including:

l PlanetPress Workflow

l LPDServer

l Telnet Capture

l Serial Capture

l HTTP/SOAP Server

l LPRClient

l FTPClient

l PlanetPress Image

l PlanetPress Fax

l PlanetPress Messenger

3. When any job or file is processed by the selected service, the processing logs will be displayed in the window on the right.

To view logs for jobs that have already processed

By default, the logs are available in the following folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress 7\PlanetPress Watch\Log

You can access this folder more quickly by using this procedure:

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1. From PlanetPress Workflow Configuration software, press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F4

Note

The PlanetPress Image and PlanetPress Fax logs are available in different folders. From the Watch folder, go up one level then go in either folders, under which you will find the Log folder for that specific software within the suite.

simultaneously. The PlanetPress Workflow working folders are opened.

2. Double-click on the folder called Log.

3. There are multiple logs displayed here, including:

l ppwYYYYMMDD.log - PlanetPress Workflow logs, including the year, month and

day of the log (from midnight to midnight).

l FTP, LPD, LPR, ??? (to be verified)

Resubmit Backed Up Input Files to a Process

Each input task includes an option that lets you back up input files. This options is not selected by default, since it has the potential to generate a very large number of back up files. To turn on the backup option of an input task, simply open its properties, go to the Other tab and check the

Backup input files option, then type in a unique file name for the backup file (this should be variable).

But if, for a given input task, you did select this option and something goes wrong and an original input file is lost or corrupted, you will have the option to use the Resubmit Job command to pull the backed up input file into the process.

Granted that you have back up copies of the files polled by an input task, you may resubmit them as required. The PlanetPress Workflow Configuration gives you the option to resubmit them as they were submitted originally (polled by the initial input task) or to submit them to those tasks located on the index you select.

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The numbers on the left indicate the task index, the folder capture being level 1 and the Text condition being on level 4.

To resubmit backed up input data files:

In the PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon, go to the Tools tab then click Resubmit Job in the Services group. The File Resubmission dialog box is displayed.

From the Process box, select the process for which you want to resubmit the backed up input files.

From the Task index box, select the index level to which you want the data to be sent. The index is the position in the process where you want to submit the job file.

4. In the list of backed up input files, select the file you want to resubmit.

Using the From page and To page boxes, select the data pages that you want to resubmit. If you want to resubmit all the data pages from the selected input file, enter 0 in both boxes.

Click Send to resubmit the data.

7. To resubmit backed up input files for the same process or for a different one, repeat step 2 to step 6.

To close the File Resubmission dialog box, click Close.

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Warning

The From page and To page boxes are only useful for printer queue (or printer capture)inputs. They will not function for other types of inputs. In these cases, the complete backup job is submitted.

Knowing What to Resubmit

When something goes wrong with an output job, a print job for instance, and printouts are lost, you usually need to know the following information in order to resubmit the input:

l The name of the job. This refers to the name used internally by PlanetPress Workflow.

This name is generated by the input task using parameters defined within the task. To simplify file identification, you should consider using names that include both the name of the original input file (if any) plus some details such as the current date and time.

l The number of each failed page. If a job contains 1000 pages and if pages 1 to 950 were

printed correctly, you need not resubmit the entire job, but only the 50 last pages.

But finding this information often poses a problem. A good way to find this information easily is to print it using small characters at the bottom of every page. To do this, you have to do the following.

In PlanetPress Design:

Use a Set Job Info action task and associate a variable with the job’s name.

2. In the output task, make sure to select the option that adds the job information to the document.

In PlanetPress Connect:

l Somewhere at the bottom of each document page, add a Data Selection object defined

as a custom data selection that contains a reference to the job info variable sent from PlanetPress Workflow and a current page marker. You can use, for example, =&watch.jobinfos[6]+'-'+intostr(¤t.datapage)'

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Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow Process

Debugging a process is separated in two parts. The first part is designing the process, which is to add the different tasks, branches and conditions to the process and configuring them. The second step is testing whether or not the process and configuration actually work.

Before debugging begins, the following prerequisites must be completed:

l There must not be any Unknown Tasks in the process.

l Asample data file must be selected.

To choose a sample data file, click the Select button in the PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon's Debug tab and browse to a valid sample data file.

Alternatively, if a document present in the configuration contains the necessary data file, it can be attached to the process easily. For example to use a sample data file included in a Connect data mapper configuration: select Connect Resources > Data Mapping

Configurations > [your data mapping configuration], right-click a data file and choose Set as sample data file.

How to do this with Planet Press Suite Design Documents is explained here: Use Data

and Metadata Files Attached to Documents.

When debugging your process, it is important to keep in mind that:

The Initial Input task is never executed. The sample data file is used instead of the initial run. This is to prevent "live"data from being retrieved by the initial input task while debugging is being done. If, however, the initial task is critical to the process, it can be executed by copying the initial input task and pasting it as a secondary input task (the first action task to actually run in the process). Do not forget, however, to remove this duplicate task before saving the configuration!

l Since the initial input task is not performed, there is no actual job information to be added

at the beginning of a data file. Note that you can use the Object Inspector on your process to enter sample job information as required.

l If any task makes an operation on the system (for example, capturing files, sending data,

printing, etc), it is actually executed, not simulated.

l Any task is executed with the permissions of the user that is currently running the

PlanetPress Workflow Configuration Tool. When running in service mode, the user configured in the Configure Services dialog is used instead and this may lead to unexpected behaviors. Please See "Workflow Services" on page702 for more details.

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Note

The sample job file should generally be the exact same format as the data that you will receive when PlanetPress Workflow is processing the job at run-time. For more information on how to capture your sample data file properly, please refer to the

PlanetPress Trigger and Data Capture Guide.

Debugging can be run in different ways:

From the Debug tab, click on Step. This executes only the first task in the process and waits for further action.

From the Debug tab, click on Run. This executes the complete process, step by step, until it is completed.

l Right-click on any task in the process and click Run from Here or Step from Here.

These actions are the same as using the debug Step and Run buttons, but will execute the process only starting from that task forward.

While stepping through a process (using Step, not Run):

l Double-click on any task to change its properties. If you change the properties of a task

before you step through it, those new properties will be used when the task is executed. Note that you cannot modify the process itself while in debug mode (you cannot add, delete or move tasks, change branches and conditions, etc).

l Click on Skip to ignore the next task or branch and go to the next one. The job file is not

modified in any way.

l Click on View as Text in the Data group of the Debug tab to view the current job file

using a text editor (Notepad by default).

l Click on View as PDFto view the current job file in Adobe Acrobat if it is present (this will

work only for PDFjob files).

l Click on View Metadata to open the data selector and see the current state of the

process' Metadata.

l Click on View as Hex to view the current job file in the internal Hex editor.

l Click on the Stop button to stop the debugging process. If you use Run, Step or Skip

after stopping the process, debugging starts over from the top.

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l Use the Set Breakpoint button to tag the currently selected task, branch or condition as a

breakpoint. When you click Run in your process, the process will execute every task until it reaches a breakpoint and will stop just before the task that is set as a breakpoint.

l Use the Ignore button to disable the task, branch or condition that is currently selected. If

you disable a branch or condition, all tasks inside that branch or condition are ignored including the output. Note that if you set a task, branch or condition to be ignored, it will also be ignored at run-time, providing you sent the configuration to the service.

Look at the Messages Area pane to see any message generated by the tasks that run (See " The Message Area Pane" on page726).

Use the Debug Information pane to see the current value of any variable in your process or globally, or to evaluate custom expression. See "The Debug Information Pane" on page725.

Debugging and Emulation changes

One of the most useful case where debugging is crucial is whenever the job file is converted to another type of emulation, or if a new data file of a different emulation is used within the process. For example, if a process starts with a Line Printer data file and the converts it into a PDF, it is not possible to do any data selection on the PDFbecause the Line Printer emulation is active by default. The debugging features can easily resolve this limitation.

The first method is used if your process has all the required tasks, but data selections after an emulation change are necessary.

l Step through the process until you have reached the point after the emulation or data

change.

l Any data selection used in task properties after this point will use the new emulation.

l Continue stepping through each task until the end of the process to debug it.

This method does not allow you to add, remove or move tasks, however. The second method can be used when that is required.

l Step through the process in debug mode until you reach the emulation or data change.

Click on View as Text (or View as PDFif your data is PDF at this point) in the Data group of the Debug tab.

l In the viewer that appears, save the file to a location on your hard drive.

l Stop the process, and select the file you saved as your process' data file.

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l If you need to continue debugging your process after the emulation change, you can still

do it by using Skip on all the tasks until the emulation change, inclusively. Then use Step or Run to continue debugging.

Lastly, PlanetPress Workflow 7.4 and higher also has an option that can be used in conjunction with the previous to avoid skipping through large processes:

l Step through the process until the emulation or data change, as in the first method.

l Save the data file locally and then select it as your sample data file, as with the second

method.

l Instead of skipping through each task, use the Run from here or Step from here options,

either from the Debug tab or by right-clicking on the task where you want to start the process.

Once you have created and fully debugged all your processes, you will be ready to send it to PlanetPress Workflow service. See "Saving and Sending" on page656.

The Plug-in Bar

PlanetPress Workflow offers a constantly increasing number of plugins, while always allowing third party plugins to be installed and set up to be used by PlanetPress Workflow. The PlanetPress Workflow Plug-in Bar lists all plugins available in PlanetPress Workflow, and is divided into categories, which users can customize at will.

Most of the PlanetPress plugins are installed by default, but other plugins may be added. Because the plugins are always expected to execute some sort of task, they are always referred to, in this documentation, as tasks, except in the specific case of importing a new plugin or customizing the Plug-in Bar.

Settings & Customization

The Plug-in Bar can be customized according to your needs and the plugins you most frequently used.

You can use the horizontal dark blue bar separating the plugin area and the list of categories to change how many plugin categories are displayed as the full-width bar with the title, and how much are displayed as icon only. Move the bar up to display more full-width categories, or down to display them more as icons.

Furthermore, the Plug-in Bar can be customized using the popup indicator control ( ). Customizing the Plug-in Bar is mostly used for third party or legacy plugins.

Using the contextual menu displayed by the popup indicator, you can:

l Insert, delete and rename custom categories.

l Move categories up or down.

l Import third party or legacy plugins.

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l Move plugins from one custom category to another (that you cannot move default plugins

from the default categories, you can only copy them)

l Copy plugins from one custom category to another by holding the CTRL key.

Delete plugins from any custom category by using the Delete key.

Revert to the default Plug-in Bar by selecting Reset to default.

To import a plugin:

Click on the popup control ( ).

2. Click on Import Plugin.

3. Browse to the location of the plugin DLLfile.

4. Click on Open.

5. New plugins appear in the Uncategorized category.

About Printing

To print a document using PlanetPress Workflow, 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 Workflow Configuration program.

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

l Local printing:

l Windows output queues let you send jobs to a local printer. See "Windows Output

Printer Queue" on page72.

l Send to Folder output queues let you save jobs to a local or network folder from

which they can be picked up and printed. See "Send to Folder Printer Queue" on page76.

l Remote printing:

l FTP output queues let you upload jobs to an FTP site from which they can be

picked up and printed. See "FTP Output Printer Queue" on page74.

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

LPR/LPD protocol. See "LPR Output Printer Queue" on page73.

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l Windows Driver Printing:

Technical

In PlanetPress Workflow 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" on page77).

l 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" on page629.

PlanetPress Workflow provides you with three main printing scenarios:

l Send output data to be printed as is: PlanetPress Workflow sends a file containing only

the data to the selected queue.

l Send output data to be merged with a document on the printer: PlanetPress

Workflow sends one of two things:

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

which the data must be merged must be present on the printer’s hard disk, otherwise printing will fail.

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

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

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

l Send output data already merged with a document:PlanetPress Workflow 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.

PlanetPress Workflow Printer Queues

The printer queues displayed in the Configuration Components pane of the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program are not to be confused with Windows printer queues. When you start building a PlanetPress Workflow configuration it contains no printer queues so you have to create queues and set each one’s properties.

The PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program lets you create four types of printer queues:

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l Windows Output printer queues are used to send print jobs to local or network printers.

See "Windows Output Printer Queue" on page72.

l LPR Output printer queues are used to send print jobs to printers via the LPR/LPD

protocol. See "LPR Output Printer Queue" on page73.

l FTP Output printer queues are typically used to send print jobs to FTP sites. See "FTP

Output Printer Queue" on page74.

l Send to Folder printer queues are typically used to send print jobs to local or network

folders. See "Send to Folder Printer Queue" on page76.

The properties associated with each queue will differ depending on the queue type. In the case of an FTP Output printer queue, for example, the properties include the IP address of the FTP server. In the case of a Windows Output printer queue, on the other hand, you will find the name of a local or shared Windows printer queue.

To send print jobs to any of those PlanetPress Workflow printer queues, you must use a Printer Queue output task. Note that with a single task, you can send print jobs to multiple printer queues, regardless queue types.

Shared Printer Queue Properties

A printer queue’s advanced properties includes the printer’s speed and any special pre- or post-job commands required for printer specific reasons. Pre-job commands are added right before the data in the data file, while post-job commands are placed at the end of the data file.

Properties

Advanced tab

Print speed: Enter the speed, in pages per minute (PPM), of the printer associated with the printer queue. This value is used to determine how to divide jobs when you use the Queue Balancing option for load balancing.

Commands: The list of available commands appears in this box. Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands in the Selected box, and double-click a command

from this list to add it to the appropriate list.

Selected: Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands to add new commands to the appropriate list and to see those commands that have already selected. Double-click a command to remove it from the selected list.

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Add: Click to add a new command to the list displayed in the Commands box. You must then edit the new command’s description and value. Note that new commands are shared by all printer queues.

Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box.

Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently selected in the Commands box.

Command value: Use this box to edit the code of the command currently selected in the Commands box. Use the right-click menu for a list of standard printer control characters.

Frequently Used Printer Control Characters

Character name: Character

Typical use in printing context:

code:

End-Of-Job \004 Indicates the end of a print job

Backspace \b Moves a character space backwards

Horizontal Tab \t Adds a horizontal tab

Line Feed \012 Moves to the next line

Form Feed \f Moves to the next page

Carriage Return \r Moves to the beginning of the current line

DOS End-Of-File \032 Indicates the end of a print job in a DOS

environment

Escape \033 Adds an escape character

New Line (CRLF)

\n Goes to a new line

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Windows Output Printer Queue

Windows output printer queues send print jobs to local or network printer queues set up in the Windows session in which PlanetPress Workflow is running. The corresponding Windows printer driver is used in the printing process.

This type of printer queue does not support the transparency and duo-tone features, so you should not use it with PlanetPress Design documents that use those features.

Properties

General tab

Printer queue: Select the Windows printer queue to which you want to send print jobs.

Job name: Enter the job’s file name. By default, the variable %f (Job File Name) is used. You may use a different variable, but you may not use a data selection. This information may be used for the printer’s banner page.

Job owner name: Enter the job owner name. You may use a PlanetPress Workflow variable.The field is empty by default, which is equivalent to use the default print job owner name, i.e. the current logged in user name.

Advanced tab

Commands: The list of available commands appears in this box. Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands in the Selected box, and double-click a command

from this list to add it to the appropriate list.

Add: Click to add a new command to the list displayed in the Commands box. You must then edit the new command’s description and value. Note that new commands are shared by all printer queues.

Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box.

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Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently selected in the Commands box.

Command value: Use this box to edit the code of the command currently selected in the Commands box. Use the right-click menu for a list of standard printer control characters.

LPR Output Printer Queue

LPR output printer queues send print jobs to LPD-compatible printers using the LPD/LPR protocol. Note that most of the settings associated with LPR output are configured via the PlanetPress Workflow user options (See "LPR Output preferences" on page767).

Properties

General tab

Printer address: Enter the IP address or host name of the printer receiving LPR jobs.

Queue name: Enter the printer queue name. Based on printer and network requirements, this property may not be required.

Data type: Select the proper data type. Select (l) Binary data if the job file is a standard binary file. Select (f) Formatted text to interpret the first character of each line of text as a standard FORTRAN carriage control character. Select (d) DVI file if the job file contains data in the TeX DVI format. Select (o) PostScript file if the job file is a PostScript file. Select (n) Ditroff format if the job file contains data in device independent troff. Select (t) Troff format if the job file contains data in troff. Select (v) Sun raster file if the job file contains raster images. This ensures that the printer uses the correct filter to interpret the data.

Job owner name: Enter the job owner name. You may use a PlanetPress Workflow variable.

Advanced tab

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Note

If you plan to use an LPR output printer queue to send PlanetPress Design documents generated using the Optimized PostScript Stream option, you should not enter data selections in the Printer address and Queue name variable property boxes. If you do need to use information stored in the data to configure the LPR output printer queue, you should first use Job info variables to store the information, and then use these variables in the Printer address and Queue name variable property boxes.

Commands: The list of available commands appears in this box. Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands in the Selected box, and double-click a command

from this list to add it to the appropriate list.

Add: Click to add a new command to the list displayed in the Commands box. You must then edit the new command’s description and value. Note that new commands are shared by all printer queues.

Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box.

Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently selected in the Commands box.

Command value: Use this box to edit the code of the command currently selected in the Commands box. Use the right-click menu for a list of standard printer control characters.

FTP Output Printer Queue

Unlike FTP output tasks, which are typically used to send data files to FTP sites, FTP output printer queues are mostly used to send print jobs to FTP sites.

FTP output printer queue properties are as follows:

General tab

FTP Server: Enter the IP address or host name of the FTP server.

User name: Enter an FTP server user name.

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Password: Enter a password associated with the FTP server user name entered above.

l Use FTPClient default port number:Forces the FTPconnection on port 21, the default

FTPport.

l FTP Port:Enter the FTPport to use. This option is disabled if Use FTPClient default port

number is checked. The port should always correspond with the server's port number.

Directory: Enter the directory to which the print jobs are to be uploaded. If you leave this box empty, the job files are sent to the root directory of the FTP server.

File name: Enter the name under which the print jobs will be saved. Consider using a dynamic name, since if you use a static name every new file will overwrite the previous one.

l Connection mode group

l Active: Select to prompt the ftp client to use the active mode when sending files to

the FTP server.

l Passive: Select to prompt the ftp client to use the passive mode when sending files

to the FTP server.

Advanced tab

Commands: The list of available commands appears in this box. Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands in the Selected box, and double-click a command

from this list to add it to the appropriate list.

Add: Click to add a new command to the list displayed in the Commands box. You must then edit the new command’s description and value. Note that new commands are shared by all printer queues.

Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box.

Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently selected in the Commands box.

Command value: Use this box to edit the code of the command currently selected in the Commands box. Use the right-click menu for a list of standard printer control characters.

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Send to Folder Printer Queue

Unlike Send to Folder output tasks, which are typically used to send data files to local or network folders, Send to Folder output printer queues are mostly used to send print jobs. The files generated will always be PostScript files.

Properties

General tab

Folder: Enter the path of the folder to which the print jobs are to be saved.

File name: Enter the name of the print jobs sent to this queue. To prevent each new file from overwriting the previous one, you should use variable names. This variable property box lets you use a combination of text, variables and data selections.

Concatenate files: If this option is selected, when PlanetPress Workflow tries to save the print job under an existing name, it appends the content of the new print job file to that of the existing file, instead of overwriting it.

Separator string: This option is used to add a separator string between the content of each file when the Concatenate files option is selected.

Advanced tab

Commands: The list of available commands appears in this box. Select either Pre-job commands or Post-job commands in the Selected box, and double-click a command

from this list to add it to the appropriate list.

Add: Click to add a new command to the list displayed in the Commands box. You must then edit the new command’s description and value. Note that new commands are shared by all printer queues.

Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box.

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Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently selected in the Commands box.

Command value: Use this box to edit the code of the command currently selected in the Commands box. Use the right-click menu for a list of standard printer control characters.

Triggers

In PlanetPress Workflow, a trigger is typically a two line piece of PostScript code placed just before the data. Triggers tell the printer to turn on PostScript mode and specify which document should be used in the merging process (PlanetPress Design document+data).

Triggers are used in two situations:

l When the server running PlanetPress Workflow sends a PlanetPress Design document

along with the data to the printer, it adds a trigger before the document (trigger+document+data).

l When the server running PlanetPress Workflow only sends the data to the printer,

because the document is already present on the printer, it adds a trigger before the data (trigger+data).

PlanetPress Workflow adds the trigger code automatically, but you may want to use custom triggers. You would do this, for example, to use special printer functions. For more on custom triggers, see the Data Capture and Trigger Implementation Guide as well as the PlanetPress Design User Guide.

Load Balancing

PlanetPress Workflow offers various load balancing options to distribute the printing load and to make the process faster and more efficient. Print jobs may, for example, be split equally among several printers, or they may be split according to each printer’s capacity and speed.

Load balancing can only be used for jobs sent to Printer Queue output tasks and it only applies when multiple queues are selected.

In the General tab of the Printer Queue Output Properties dialog box, you may select multiple printers, and in the Advanced tab, you can set the load balancing options for the selected printers.

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Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS)

Introduction

The Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) allows end-users to print directly to PlanetPress Workflow from any Windows application, by using the familiar File|Print option. At the other end, PlanetPress Workflow specifically can capture the incoming stream and convert it internally into a PDF file along with its metadata.

Although it is available with every PlanetPress Workflow, this feature becomes even more useful in environments where the Document Input emulation is available (with PlanetPress Workflow).

Install a Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS)

The Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) is automatically installed during the PlanetPress Workflow setup, along with a default Windows Printer Queue called PlanetPress Printer.

Install a Windows Printer Queue using the Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS)

A Windows Printer Queue using the Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) can be installed from PlanetPress Workflow WinQueue Input plugin properties.

Creating a new Windows printer queue from any PlanetPress Workflow:

1. Start your PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program.

2. Insert a WinQueue Input plugin.

3. In the WinQueue Input plugin properties, click New.

4. Enter a Name for the printer queue.

5. Click OK.

Every new Windows printer queue using the Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) is shared by default. Once such a shared queue is created, end-users can install it on their own computer by going through the same steps they would when installing a new remote printer in their Operating System. By default, connecting to a shared printer will automatically result in the Objectif Lune Printer Driver being downloaded to the connecting host.

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Printer Properties setup

PlanetPress Workflow WinQueue Input task can be configured to set a Windows printer queue using Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) to produce one of 3 different types of data files: EMF, PostScript, or PDF. Note that PlanetPress Workflow can only produce EMF or PostScript files.

Possible printer properties settings, along with the data file type it will produce:

Spool Print Jobs in EMF Format:

l This will create an EMF data file.

l This format is usually reserved for use with the Windows Print Converter action plugin.

l This format can be obtained using PlanetPress Workflow.

Spool Print Jobs in RAW Format:

l This will create a PostScript data file when the option Create Composed Document

Stream (with Medatada) is unchecked.

l This format can be obtained using PlanetPress Workflow.

l This will create a PDF data file when the option Create Composed Document Stream

(with Medatada) is checked.

l This format can be obtained using PlanetPress Workflow.

By default, the Create Composed Document Stream option is:

l Checked if the incoming stream has been produced with the Objectif Lune Printer Driver.

l Unchecked if the incoming stream comes from some other PostScript Driver.

l Grayed out and unchecked if the incoming stream is not PostScript.

Data Capture from PlanetPress Workflow

Once a shared Windows printer queue using Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) is installed on both the server and the client sides, data capture can be achieved the same way as with any other Windows printer queues.

1. Open your PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program.

2. Insert a new process.

3. Select WinQueue Input from the Plugin Bar and insert it in the new process.

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4. In the WinQueue Input properties, select a Windows print queue using the Objectif Lune

Note

Steps 6-8 can be performed at any time, even if PlanetPress Workflow is not yet started. This is because every Windows printer queue using Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) is paused by default. Once the service has started, it captures every queued job.

Printer Driver (PS) from the drop-down list.

5. Click OK.

6. Send the configuration and start your PlanetPress Workflow service.

7. Start the windows application from which you want to capture data.

8. Open your selected document.

9. Click File | Print.

10. Choose the same Windows print queue as in step 4.

PDF Creation Parameters

PDF files retrieved from a Windows print queue using Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS)

have the following properties:

l PDF 1.4

l Optimized PDF (subject to change)

l No down-sampling of images

These settings are pre-configured and cannot be changed by the user.

About Metadata

Metadata files are files containing information on the job itself rather than containing the job per se. A job sent to the Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) creates its own metadata, allowing users to retrieve relevant information, such as, for instance, the time and date the print request was sent. For more on this, see the Metadata documentation pages.

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About Processes and Subprocesses

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 Workflow Configuration are listed in the "The Configuration Components Pane" on page674. Processes in a configuration will always run concurrently. You can schedule processes to run only at certain times or intervals (see " Process Properties" on page704).

There are three types of processes available to you:

l A Normal process will run as soon as an input file is available through its input task or, if

it is scheduled not to run at that time, will start processing as soon as the schedule permits it.

l Startup processes are processes that run only once before every other process in a

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

l Subprocesses are processes which can be called by any other process from any action

task. They can be used to perform and reuse redundant operations that may need to be executed numerous times.

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 a PlanetPress Workflow Service.

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

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by sharing them to the whole configuration file. They can thus be used to perform redundant

Note

Subprocesses do not have the "General Tab" which is only used for scheduling, but they do have the Information Tab.

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 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.

Process Properties

To have access to the properties of a process or subprocess:

l Right-Click on the Process in the Configuration Components Area.

l Select Properties.

You can also double-click on the process to show its options.

Options

General tab

l Active: Select to make the process active. Clear to prevent this process from running

when you send the configuration to PlanetPress Workflow.

l Startup process: Select to make this process a startup process.

l Self-Replicating Process:Check this if you want the process to replicate itself in the

background when multiple input files are received simultaneously. When this is checked, the input task polls its source once, determines the number of files to process, then replicates itself up to the maximum allowed and treats the files simultaneously. The initial process runs again once it has completed itself and replicates again as necessary, until all files have been processed.

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l Max percentage of threading (%):Determines how many processes you may have

running at the same time. This is a percentage of the maximum number of threads specified in the "Messenger plugin preferences" on page752. For example if the maximum number of thread is 10 and you specify 50%here, a maximum of 5 replications will occur (the original process +4 copies).

l As soon as possible: Select to have the process run continuously. Clear to enable the

Time Grid to fine-tune the schedule of the process.

l Day(s) to keep backup: Indicate the number of days to keep backups of jobs processed

by input tasks. Note that backups will only be kept for those input tasks that have the Keep backup file option selected and that they are required to resubmit input files.

l Polling interval: Enter the frequency (in seconds)at which the process should verify if

there are new jobs to process. The polling interval also applies to scheduled tasks that only run on certain times. For example, if your process polls every 30 seconds on a task that's only scheduled to run one hour per week, it will capture the input 120 times during that period. Note that the polling interval is ignored when multiple files are present in the input and will be used only when there are no longer any files to process.

l Month: Select the month of the year when the process should be run or select All months

to have the process run all year long. This option is disabled when "As soon as possible"is checked.

l Week of month / by date: Select the desired option for the time grid. Note that any

selection you make in this box will be interpreted based on the selection made in the Month box. If you chose All months in the Month box and Last in the Week of month / by date box, then the process will run on the last week of every month. If you chose January in the Month box and First in the Week of month / by date box, then the process will run only on the first week of January.

l Select Date to display dates on the grid’s top ruler.

l Select any of the other options to display days on the top ruler.

l Select All weeks to have the process run every week.

l Select First, Second, Third or Fourth to have the process run on the first, second,

third or fourth week.

l Select Last to have the process run only on the last week.

l Time division: Select the duration of each daily segment in the time grid. If you select

00:15, each segment will represent only 15 minutes and each day will be made up of 96 blocks (4 blocks per hour times 24 hours). If you select 24:00, each segment will represent an entire day.

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l Poll once per activity period: Select to perform this process’ initial input task no more

than once for each set of contiguous blocks (blocks that are on the top of one another). Choosing this option overrides the polling interval option. By default since the Time Grid blocks are divided by hours, this option will make your polling happen once every hour.

The Time Grid

The PlanetPress Workflow Process Options dialog box includes a time grid that lets you set exactly when you want a process to run. The grid is composed of blocks that represent time periods on a given day. To activate the Time Grid, the "As soon as possible"option must be unchecked.

In the Time Grid, a blue block will indicate that the process is active within that time block. While blocks mean the process will not be active.

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l Click on any block to select / deselect it.

l Click and drag from one block to another to toggle all blocks between the two.

l Shift-click on any block to toggle all blocks from the top-left corner of the grid to the block

you click.

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l To select all of the time segments for a given day or date, click the day or date on the top

Note

"Toggle" means turn on when it's off and vice-versa, when selecting multiple blocks in one command. This means if you select a certain number of blocks in the Time Grid and then use the shift+click or drag method, blocks that are on will turn off.

Technical

Changes made to the system time can have adverse effects on the processes managed by PlanetPress Workflow. When changing from daylight saving time to standard time, for example, if PlanetPress Workflow starts a given process at 2:00 AM, and if the system time is then taken back to 1:00AM, the application will start a new instance of the same process when the system time reaches 2:00 AM for a second time. So, when you manually change the system time, be aware that it may have an effect on PlanetPress Workflow and its processes. And for those cases when you know the system time will change automatically, you may consider creating special schedules.

grid ruler. To deselect all of the time segments for a given day or date, CTRL+click the day or date on the top grid ruler.

l To select all the days or dates for a given time segment, click the time segment on the left

grid ruler. To deselect all the days or dates for a given time segment, CTRL+click the time segment on the left grid ruler.

l To select the entire grid, use the Select All button located below the grid. To deselect the

entire grid, use the Clear All button located below the grid.

Information Tab

The Information tab lets you enter information that is not critical to your process but may help others (or yourself in the future)to understand what the process does. It offers two boxes:

l Description: Aone-line box to give a title or short description to your process.

l Comments:A multi-line box to give more detailed information, for example the file format

expected, explanation of the system in general.

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Activate or Deactivate a Process

Note

If you try to send a configuration that contains only inactive processes, the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program will ask you to confirm the operation (this can be changed in the Notification User Options).

Note

The Branch tasks options Backup job file, Backup job information and Backup emulation, are also automatically passed to the subprocess, which means that, if the subprocess needs to use a different emulation than the calling process, a Change Emulation task is required.

All processes are Active by default, but you may make any PlanetPress Workflow process Inactive as required. Because making a process active or inactive is a change in the configuration, to make the change effective you will have to send the edited configuration to your PlanetPress Workflow service (See "Send your Configuration" on page17).

To activate or deactivate a process:

Right-click the process in question in the Configuration Components pane

2. Click Active to disable or enable the process.

3. Send your configuration.

Convert a Branch to a Subprocess

To allow for maximum flexibility and backward compatibility with the subprocess feature, the Convert to subprocess option lets users transform existing processes easily. This option is available whenever a Branch task is selected; right-clicking on it will display the contextual menu, which holds the Convert to subprocess option.

Selecting this option automatically creates a new subprocess, takes the branch and all of its children tasks and inserts it in the new subprocess, including the branch task itself. In the main process, the branch is removed and replaced with a GoSub action task referring to the newly created subprocess.

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If any task converted into a subprocess was previously using local variables, these variables must be removed or transferred to global variables or job information to be usable in the newly created subprocess.

Import Processes from Another Configuration File

You can import individual processes or groups of processes from a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file without having to import the contents of the entire configuration file. PlanetPress Workflow Configuration imports everything necessary to run the processes, including configured tasks and configuration components.

To import components from another configuration file:

From the PlanetPress Workflow Button, choose Import | Configuration Components. The Import dialog appears.

2. Navigate to the PlanetPress Workflow configuration file containing the processes or groups of processes you want to import.

Select the file, then click Open. The Import Configuration dialog appears displaying all the processes and/or process groups, as well as the Subprocesses, Global Variables, PlanetPress Design documents and Printer Queues in the selected configuration file.

4. In the list, select the components you want to import. The PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program lets you open and import any of the following:

l Complete PlanetPress Watch 4 to 6 configurations, as well as PlanetPress

Workflow 7 configurations.

l Specific processes from Version 6 and 7 configurations, including their local

variables.

l Specific subprocesses from any PlanetPress Workflow 7 Tools configurations.

l Specific global variables from PlanetPress Workflow 7 Tools configurations.

l Specific PlanetPress or PrintShop Mail documents.

l Specific Printer Queues.

5. Check "Overwrite existing components with same name" if you want processes with existing names to be overwritten by those in the imported configuration, or uncheck it to duplicate those processes under a new dynamic name.

6. Click OK to start the import. PlanetPress Workflow Configuration imports the selected objects and automatically renames duplicate items in the imported configuration. If the current and imported

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configurations both include a startup process, the one in the imported configuration will

Note

The term "Desktop"is defined as the desktop of the user logged on to the computer where PlanetPress Workflow is installed. These dialogs cannot be displayed on any other computer.

become a standard process.

Important considerations

l When importing a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file, your PlanetPress Design and

PrintShop Mail document are not physically imported as they are not part of the configuration file itself. In order for the documents to be available, you will need to send each document from PlanetPress Design and PrintShop Mail (see their respective documentation for details).

If you import a PlanetPress Workflow configuration that contains a PlanetPress Fax output task, you must update the task’s properties and refresh the host name. Otherwise, when PlanetPress Workflow will attempt to output the file, an error will be generated.

Toggle the Run on Desktop Property

Since PlanetPress Workflow configurations are typically meant to run without user interaction, all of their processes are set to run in the background by default. In some cases, such as when a dialog box must appear or user input is required, you may make any process run on your desktop instead of as a service.

Generally this will happen only when calling a third-party software using the Run External Program plugin, but is also valid if using a Script that generates a dialog that someone must click or interact with.

To toggle a process’ Run on Desktop property:

Select an active process in the Configuration Components pane.

In the Object Inspector Pane, change the Run on desktop property from False to True, or vice versa.

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Using Scripts

Warning

While this chapter provides some very useful and detailed information about scripting within PlanetPress Workflow, its focus is to inform you about the features, variables and functions unique to this environment. This chapter assumes that you have a working knowledge of the scripting language you wish to use and does not purport to teaching you anything about this language that you don't already know. Learning any of these language is beyond the scope of this documentation.

Note

While JavaScript and VBScript are natively available on Windows operating systems. Python and Perl require third-party tools to be functional. For Perl, ActivePerl can be installed. For Python ActivePython (version 2.7.13 ) can be installed.

Scripts can be used to perform various operations, such as to manipulate data, for example. PlanetPress Workflow can perform scripts written in four different scripting languages and also provides an interface for editing scripts.

Languages

There are four scripting languages available through the Run Script task: JavaScript, VBScript, Python and Perl. Each language has its own strengths and weaknesses which we will not cover in this documentation. While VBScript is the most used language at the moment, the examples provided in this chapter are presented in all supported languages.

By default, the Run Script task expects VBScript. You can select another language via the Language menu in the Script Editor that opens when you add the Run Script task to a process. You can also set another language as the default for the Run Script task, in the Workflow preferences (go to Behavior > Default Configuration).

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Condition or Action

When using the Run Script as a condition, you need a way to tell your process whether the result is true or false. The condition result is returned by the "Script.ReturnValue" on page119 variable. If the return value is zero (the default), the condition is false. Otherwise, it is true.

When using the Run Script as an action task, the job file going out of the Run Script action task will be the same as the one coming in, unless you have specifically changed it within your script by writing to the file that is the target of the "Watch.GetJobFileName" on page110 function. The same goes for any job info, local or global variables, unless you use the "Watch.SetJobInfo" on page114 or "Watch.SetVariable" on page116 functions to modify them.

APIs

Multiple APIs (methods of communicating with PlanetPress Workflow scripting tools) are available through the scripting engine, in all languages.

l The Watch object is used to communicate with your current process and configuration.

See "The Watch Object" on page105.

l The PlanetPress Connect REST API consists of many services that expose access to a

number of areas including Workflow, data entity management and file store operations. See PlanetPress Connect REST API Cookbook.

l You can manipulate PDFfiles using the PlanetPress Alambic API. See AlambicEdit

Library Reference. Note that the PlanetPress Alambic API is part of the PDFTools.

l You can manipulate the metadata in your process using the Metadata API. See Metadata

API Reference.

l You can communicate with a SOAPserver using the SOAPAPI. See "SOAP Server API

Reference" on page98.

l You can communicate with the PlanetPress Capture Database using the Capture API.

See Capture API Reference.

l You can communicate the with the Data Repository using the Data Repository API. See:

"Data Repository API" on page121.

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor

How can I edit scripts and XSLT code?

Scripts can be edited in the Script Editor and the XSLT Editor. Both editors are visually identical and share almost exactly the same commands. They let you import and export scripts,

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perform common editing function, such as search and replace, and feature syntax highlighting

Note

When you import a script, it replaces any script currently displayed in the editor.

and formatting.

You can use the Script Editor to edit scripts written in VBScript, JavaScript, Perl and Python (note that the corresponding interpreter must be locally available). You can use the XSLT Editor to edit scripts written in XSLT 1.0 and 2.0.

For information on how to use both editors, or for a complete description of the Script or XSLT Editor user options, refer to the Reference Help (English only).

Use the Editor

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor share most of the same commands and functions. You can open the Script Editor using the Open Editor button both from the Run Script Properties dialog box and from the Open XSLT Properties dialog box. When you do so, the script currently displayed in the dialog box is pasted to the editor’s scripting box.

For information on the available editor options, refer to "Editor Options" on page769.

Import and Export Scripts

Both the Script Editor and XSLT Editor let you import and export scripts.

To import a script:

In the editor, choose File | Import. The Open dialog box appears.

2. To import a script that uses a different scripting language or that was saved under a different file format, make a selection in the Files of type drop-down list.

3. Navigate to the script you want to import and select it.

Click OK. The script is imported, displayed and formatted according to the syntax of the language selected in the editor. If the imported file had the extension of a recognized scripting language (.vbs or .js, for example), the editor language is automatically changed.

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To export a script:

Note

If you only want to search a particular section of the script, you should select it before performing the following procedure.

In the editor, choose File | Export. The Save As dialog box appears.

2. To save the script using a different scripting language or under a different file format, make a selection in the Save as type drop-down list.

3. Navigate to the location where you want to save the exported script.

Enter the name of the script in the File name box.

5. To save the script using a different scripting language or under a different file format, make a selection in the Save as type drop-down list.

Click OK.

Find Strings in a Script

The Find Text dialog box allows you to search for text strings in the editor. The available options help you limit the search, making searches quicker and easier.

To find strings in a script:

Choose Search | Find, or press CTRL+F. The Find Text dialog box appears. The last used string is displayed in the Text to find drop-down list box.

2. Set the search settings and options.

Text to find: Enter a new search string or select a previous search from the dropdown list.

Case sensitive: Select to limit the search to instances of text with the same case as the text in the Text to find box.

Whole words only: Select to limit the search to complete words matching the text in the Text to find box. Whole words are defined as strings that have a space or punctuation before and after the word.

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Regular expressions: Select to treat the regular expressions of the scripting language as text to search. If you clear this option, the regular expressions of the language are not included in the search.

Global: Select to search the entire content of the script.

Selected text: Select to find matching text within the text block you select. A portion of text must be selected before you run the search.

Forward: Select to search the script forward, from the location of the cursor or from the beginning of the script, depending on what you choose as the origin (From cursor begins where the cursor is currently located in the script, Entire scope begins from the beginning of the script or beginning of script selection). If you limit the scope to selected text, you move forward only within the selection. When the search reaches the end of the script or script selection, the search finishes. It does not loop back to the beginning.

Backward: Select to search the script backward, from the location of the cursor or from the end of the script, depending on what you choose for the origin (From cursor begins where the cursor is currently located in the script, Entire scope begins from the beginning of the script or beginning of script selection). If you limit the scope to selected text, you move backward only within the script selection. When the search reaches the beginning of the script or script selection, the search finishes. It does not loop back to the beginning.

From cursor: Select to start the search from the position of the cursor.

Entire scope: Select to search the entire script or a script selection. The scope croplands to a script selection if you make a selection before executing the Find.

Click OK. The first matching string is highlighted in the script.

To find the next matching string, choose Search | Find Again or press F3.

Find and Replace Strings in a Script

The Replace With dialog box lets you search for and replace text strings in the editor. The available options help you limit the search, making replacements quicker and easier.

To find and replace strings in a script:

Choose Search | Replace, or press CTRL+R. The Replace With dialog box appears. The last used strings are displayed in the Text to find and Replace with boxes.

2. Set the replacement settings and options.

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Text to find: Enter a new search string or select a previous search from the dropdown list.

Replace with: Enter the string that will replace the string displayed in the Text to find box.

Case sensitive: Select to limit the search to instances of text with the same case as the text in the Text to find box.

Whole words only: Select to limit the search to complete words that match the text in the Text to find box. Whole words are defined as strings that have a space or punctuation before and after the word.

Regular expressions: Select to treat the regular expressions of the scripting language as text. If you clear this option, the regular expressions of the language are blocked from the search.

Prompt on replace: Select to have PlanetPress Workflow display a prompt before it replaces text. When you use the Replace All function, you are prompted each time matching text is found. The prompt includes an All button for replacing all matching text. This suppresses any further prompting.

Global: Select to search the entire content of the script.

Selected text: Select to find matching text only within a text block you select. The text must be selected before you run the search.

From cursor: Select to start the search from the position of the cursor.

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Entire scope: Select to search either the entire script, or a script selection. The scope corresponds to a script selection if you make a selection before executing the Find.

3. Do one of the following:

Click OK to replace the first string encountered. If you selected Prompt on replace, a dialog box opens to ask you whether to proceed with the replacement. You can OK to replace the first string only, or you can click All to replace that string as well as every other string that matches the replacement settings.

Click Replace All to replace all the strings that match the replacement settings.

To find and replace the next matching string, choose Search | Find Again or press F3. Once again, if you selected Prompt on replace, a dialog box opens to ask you whether to proceed with the replacement. You can OK to replace that string only, or you can click

All to replace that string as well as every other string that matches the replacement settings.

Go to a Line in a Script

The Go To Line dialog box lets you jump to a specific line within your script. It works whether or not the line number are displayed on the left side of the editor window (to know how to toggle the line number display settings, See "Editor Options" on page769).

To go to a line in a script:

Click anywhere in the Script Editor, then choose Search | Go To Line, or press Alt+G. The Go To Line dialog box appears. The last used line numbers are displayed in the Enter new line number drop-down list box.

Enter a new line number in the Enter new line number box or select one from drop-down list.

Click OK.

Toggle Bookmarks

Bookmarks help you identify and jump to specific places within your script (see "Jump to Bookmarks" on the next page).

Bookmarks are displayed in the editor’s gutter, so you will not be able to see them unless the gutter is both visible and sufficiently wide. If line numbers are also displayed in the gutter,

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bookmarks may be harder to see. To control line number and gutter display, see "Editor

Note

Bookmarks are not preserved when you close the editor.

Options" on page769.

To toggle bookmarks:

l Place the cursor on a line in your script and, from the editor’s pop-up menu, choose

Toggle Bookmark and a given bookmark number.

If the bookmark you selected was not displayed on any line, it is added to the line where you placed the cursor. If the bookmark you selected was displayed on the line where you placed the cursor, it is removed. If the bookmark you selected was displayed on a different line, it is moved to the line where you placed the cursor.

Jump to Bookmarks

Before you can jump to bookmarks, you must add bookmarks to specific lines in your script (See "Toggle Bookmarks" on the previous page).

To jump to a bookmark:

From the editor’s pop-up menu, choose Go To Bookmark and a given bookmark number.

If the bookmark you selected was displayed on a line, the cursor jumps to that line.

SOAP Server API Reference

PlanetPress Workflow offers a SOAP server API Reference allowing jobs to be submitted from third party application using the SOAP protocol. Remember that SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.

While there are multiple possibilities for solutions using a SOAP server implementation, the SOAP Server API Reference is specifically for submitting jobs from a SOAP client. It

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implements five methods that will allow SOAP clients to submit jobs and get information from

Note

PlanetPress Workflow already come with a SOAP Client plugin, which can be used as an input, action or output; this task was renamed Legacy SOAP Client.

PlanetPress Workflow executing them.

Since the SOAP Server API Reference is primarily targeted at programmers or systems engineers, it is rather technical.

SOAP API - SubmitJob

Syntax

SubmitJob (File, SubmitJobInfStruc , ReturnJobFile, user name, Password) : SubmitJobResult

Description

The SubmitJob method allows users to remotely submit files to their PlanetPress Workflow from a SOAP client. The SOAP client has the option to wait for a response file from PlanetPress Workflow SOAP server.

Arguments

File – base64Binary. This is an array of byte base64 encoded (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64).

SubmitJobInfStruc – Structure containing any required information to prepare the file for a valid insertion into a PlanetPress Workflow process.

ReturnJobFile – Boolean value. When true, PlanetPress Workflow SOAP server returns the job file. When false, there no file is returned to the SOAP client. (For example: when submitting a job for print, there is no need to return a file)

user name – String containing the user name.

Password – String containing the password. This value is case sensitive.

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Return Value

Note

The SubmitJob method only returns a file if the PlanetPress Workflow process contains a SOAP

Input task.

Note

If ReturnJobFile is set to true, the schedule options of the process should be set to a pooling lower than four seconds, so the client application gets a timely response.

Note

To return the file, the process must be completed before the timeout of the server occurs. The Timeout option can be set in your PlanetPress Workflow preferences.

SubmitJobResult - Structure containing the following information:

Success – Integer indicating the Success/Error level of the operation. A result of 0 means the operation was successful.

Message – String containing text information about the Success/Failure status.

SubmitJobInfStruc – See point SubmitJobInfStruc for details.

ResultFile – base64Binary. If Success is different than 0 or the ReturnJobFile was set to False in the initial call, no file is returned. Otherwise, ResultFile contains the job file, as it existed at the completion of the PlanetPress Workflow process (for instance, if the process creates a PDF and sets it as the current job file, the PDF is the file that gets returned to the calling SOAP client).

SOAP API - PostJob

Syntax

PostJob (File, PostJobInfStruc , user name, Password) : PostJobResult

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Objectif Lune PlanetPress Workflow - 8.8 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Icons used in this guide

System Requirements

Operating System (64-bit only)

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Known Issues

Basics

Setting Up the Working Environment

Setting Up Preferences

Create a New Process

Considerations

Send your Configuration

Features

The Nature of PlanetPress Workflow

About Branches and Conditions

Branches

Conditions

Configuration Components

Connect Resources

Available Resources

Resource Save Location

Resource Archives

About Data

Data File and Job File

Job File Names and Output File Names

Data selections

Using the File Viewer

Sample Data

Metadata

Data Repository

Structure

Accessing the Data Repository

Where to find the Data Repository

About Documents

Import Documents

Import PrintShop Mail Documents

Debugging and Error Handling

About Error Handling

Using the On Error tab

Creating and Using Error Processes

Accessing the Logs

Resubmit Backed Up Input Files to a Process

Knowing What to Resubmit

Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow Process

The Plug-in Bar

Categories

Settings & Customization

About Printing

PlanetPress Workflow Printer Queues

Shared Printer Queue Properties

Windows Output Printer Queue

LPR Output Printer Queue

FTP Output Printer Queue

Send to Folder Printer Queue

Triggers

Load Balancing

Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS)

About Processes and Subprocesses

Processes

Subprocesses

Process Properties

Activate or Deactivate a Process

Convert a Branch to a Subprocess

Import Processes from Another Configuration File

Toggle the Run on Desktop Property

Using Scripts

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor

SOAP Server API Reference