Objectif Lune PRes Workflow - 8.4 User Guide

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User Guide

Version:8.4.1

User Guide Version 8.4.1 Last Revision:2016-07-12

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© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2016. 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 PReS Workflow 8.4.1 7

Icons used in this guide 7

Basics 9

Setting Up the Working Environment 9

Setting Up Preferences 9

Create a New Process 9

Send your Configuration 10

Features 12

The Nature of PReS Workflow 12

About Branches and Conditions 12

Configuration Components 13

Connect Resources 13

About Data 15

About Documents 41

Debugging and Error Handling 42

The Plug-in Bar 53

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About Printing 55

About Processes and Subprocesses 66

Using Scripts 75

Special Workflow Types 103

About Tasks 148

Task Properties 149

Working With Variables 465

About Configurations 473

About Related Programs and Services 478

The Interface 482

Customizing the Workspace 483

PReS Workflow Button 492

The Configuration Components Pane 493

Other Dialogs 518

The Debug Information Pane 539

The Message Area Pane 540

The Object Inspector Pane 541

The Plug-in Bar 542

Preferences 544

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The Process Area 580

The Quick Access Toolbar 590

The PReS Workflow Ribbon 591

The Task Comments Pane 593

Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 596

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Welcome to PReS Workflow 8.4.1

Note

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

Tip

Information that is useful or suggests an easier method.

This PDF documentation covers version 8.4.1. To view the documentation of previous versions please refer to the PDF files available in the Downloads section of our website:

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

Workflow is the heart of all of our solutions. Working in conjunction with PReS Connect, PReS Capture, CaptureOnTheGO, PReS Imaging, PReS Fax, and a variety of plug-ins, 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 PReS Workflow. Pay close attention.

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Basics

PReS 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 PReS Workflow.

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

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

Setting Up Preferences

PReS 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 PReS 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 547 screen. The same methods can be used to create a new Startup process.

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To add a PReS 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 PReS 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

PReS 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 PReS 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 PReS Workflow Configuration program uses the currently opened configuration (Any_name.pw7) to overwrite PReS Workflow service's current configuration (ppwatch.cfg).

If PReS Workflow service is running when you send a new configuration, it stops and restarts automatically with the new configuration. If the service is stopped, it will not start automatically.

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To send a Configuration to the local server:

Note

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

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 PReS 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 PReS 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 525.

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Features

PReS Workflow are input driven applications designed to output data in a variety of ways through diverse means to various applications and devices. PReS 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 PReS Workflow services to set up versatile automated processes to print jobs as well as generate other types of output.

The Nature of PReS Workflow

PReS 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. PReS Workflow can also perform a variety of operations on the data using its action plugins.

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

PReS 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 PReS Workflow configuration. A given computer can only run one PReS Workflow configuration at a time. The PReS 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 PReS 's File menu.

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Available Resources

Note

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

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 PReS 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 Set" on page 414, "Create Web Content" on page 427 and "Create Print Content" on page 425.

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

417 task.

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

on page 420 task.

Resource Save Location

Any resource sent to PReS Workflow from PReS Connect is saved locally at the following location: %PROGRAMDATA%\Objectif Lune\PReS Workflow 8\PReS 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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Resource Archives

Note

Null characters present in the data may not be displayed properly when using PReS

From version 8.2, PReS Workflow maintains an archive of previous versions of resources, in the following location:%PROGRAMDATA%\Objectif Lune\PReS Workflow 8\PReS 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 PReS Workflow or a PReS Connect Document that is being merged with the data (for example in a printed output).

For more information about Data, please refer to "Sample Data" on page 26.

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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 PReS 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PReS 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 PReS 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 275).

It is important to note that job files may be used as a helpful debugging resource (See "Debugging and Error Handling" on page 42).

Actual Data and Sample Data

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

In the PReS Workflow Configuration program, you use sample data files to create and edit PReS 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

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keeps the same name until the end of the process.

l If the job file comes to a branch in the process, PReS 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 PReS 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.

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

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Note

You can change the name of a previously named file using a Rename action task (see "Rename" on page 249).

About Data Selections

Note

It is strongly recommended to use the automatic method, as it returns precisely the same selections but is generally more reliable

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

l It uses the current emulation (either the emulation chosen when the sample data file was

selected, or the one chosen in the last Change Emulation action task appearing above the current task) to format the data.

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

The Data Selector is essentially the same as the one used in PReS Connect.

Data Selections

A data selection is simply a reference to a given location within the job file or metadata file, using the current emulation. Data selections are always evaluated at run-time so they are always dynamic and depend on the job file that is currently being processed. When you make a data selection, the PReS Workflow Configuration program converts it to text form, using coordinates to reference the selected location.

There are three types of data selections you can use in PReS Workflow. The available type of data selection depends on which emulation you are using and whether or not you have created Metadata.

You can add data selections to variable properties of your tasks either automatically using the data selector (See "The Data Selector" on page 22) or manually by typing in the data selection.

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Text-Based Data Selections

These 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.

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.

Alternate Syntax

@(line number, from column, to column)

The alternate "quick"syntax lets you grab data from a single line from the first data page in the file. Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all options are mandatory):

l @():Always surrounds a data selection. l Line Number: The line from which to get the data. l From Column: the leftmost character position of the data selection. l To Column: the rightmost character position of the data selection.

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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.

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).

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

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

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

These selections are used with any type of file, as long as a metadata file was created by a previous task.

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.

l Option Flag (optional):Sets the options for the selection (see table below) l Metadata Path (optional):Defines the precise path where the Metadata Field is located.

Option Flags

Name Value Behavior

GetAttribute 1 Search for the name argument in the attribute collection

instead of the default field collection.

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.

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Name Value Behavior

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, make data selections, and to stabilize your data.

The Data Selector is divided in two tabs:Data and Metadata. The Data tab contains the Data Options, which let you select your emulation, and the Selector Options, which lets you personalize the data selector's display options (see Data Selector Display Preferences)

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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

The Metadata tab allows users to either generate the metadata file for their active sample data file, or to associate an existing metadata file to their document.

The Sample Metadata file name 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.

The Generated PressTalk Expression is a PlanetPress Talk command corresponding to the current attribute or field being selected. Its value is editable, which allows the user to customize the string returned by the metadata selector.

The Search options defines how to retrieve the value of a given metadata element (attribute or field) when it is not present at the current metadata level. The possible search options are:

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l Search from a specific location only. l Search from level X to Job, where X can be any metadata level (Job, Group, Document,

Datapage, Page). With this search option, if the selected metadata element does not exist at the specified level, then it will be searched for, starting at the lowest metadata level as specified in the search option, then one level up until the element is found.

The Raise an error if the field does not exist option allows to control what to do when a given metadata element is not found, regardless of the search option.

The Data page box lets the user choose which data page metadata elements to be displayed.

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

TheAttributes list displays all metadata attributes describing the current metadatalevel,as selected in the Metadata Level tree view, for the current data page, as selected in theData Page control.

The Production information list displays all metadata fields describing the current metadatalevel,as selected in the Metadata Level tree view, for the current data page, as selected in theData page box.

AboutData Emulation

Emulations are like filters that can be used to read the data. When you create a document in PReS Connect, 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 PReS Workflow, the same emulation tools as PReS Connect are available throughout your process, using the Data Selector. One notable exception however is that User-Defined Emulation is not available because it uses PReS Talk code, which is not available within PReS 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 PReS Connect document used in your process. PReS Connect documents use their own emulations, as defined in the document itself from PReS Connect.

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Emulations in PReS Workflow:

Warning

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

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

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

Connect 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 283) 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 22.

Sample Data

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

This section covers issues relating to the sample data used to create your PReS Workflow configuration and to the actual data that PReS Workflow will send to PReS Connect 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.

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Since many of the concepts and explanations included in this chapter are closely related to

Note

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

222.

concepts and explanations found in the PReS Connect User Guide, we suggest that you review this document, especially the Selecting an Emulation section.

Choosing a Database Type Sample Data File

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

User Guide.

Choosing a Sample Data File

In order to create your PReS 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 PReS 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.

PReS 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 plug-ins created in PlanetPress Suite 6 and using Metadata will need to be updated for use in version 8.4.1. 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 PReS 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.

5. Click OK on the Data Selector.

Metadata

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, page properties, page counts and custom user fields.

Metadata structure

Metadata in PReS Workflow introduces the following concepts for adding information to a job:

Page: 1 side of a physical paper sheet.

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

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

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

Job: file that contains 1 or more groups.

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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 this structure (ex: remove pages, alter the data, etc.) makes the metadata obsolete and so it must be recreated or refreshed.

As an example, consider the typical case of a PReS Connect document which uses a Line Printer datafile of transactional data in order to generate PDF invoices for a series of clients. By using the Metadata tools available in PReS Workflow, we can add the following information to the datafile:

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 PReS Connect 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 from the Metadata structure. This information can be static (e.g. the size of a

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physical page) or evaluated on-the-fly (e.g. the number of documents in a group).

Note

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

Attributes are non-repetitive (i.e. name is unique) and does not persist through metadata recreation.

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

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

Here is a description of the Metadata attributes. The 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.

Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

DataEncoding (optional) Producti X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

Name of the character encoding.

DataFile (optional) Path

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

Date Date the

metadata was created in ISO format.

ProductionX X X

Time Time the

metadata was created in ISO format.

Title Title of the

source document.

Producer Name of the

software that created the metadata.

Creator Name of the

software that

ProductionX X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

created the source of the metadata.

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

TargetDevice Name of the

device for which the metadata and associated data is intended.

Dimension Two floats

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

ProductionX X X

Finishin g

X X X X X

Orientation "Rotate0",

"Rotate90", "Rotate180" or "Rotate270", indicating respectively portrait, landscape, rotated portrait and rotated landscape.

Finishin g

X X X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

Side "Front" or

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

Duplex "None",

"DuplexTumbl e" or

Finishin g

X X X X X

"DuplexNoTu mble"; indicate a change of the duplex status.

InputSlot Device-

dependent identifier of the media source.

OutputBin Device-

dependent identifier of the media destination.

Finishin g

X X X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

Weight Device-

dependent weight of the media.

MediaColor Device-

depedent color of the media.

MediaType Device-

dependent type of the media.

Index Index/C

Finishin g

ount

X X X X X

X X X X

IndexInDocument Returns the

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

IndexInGroup Returns the

Absolute index of the node within all the node under the

Index/C ount

X X

X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

parent Group.

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

IndexInJob Returns the

Absolute index of the node within all the node under the parent Job.

Count Index/C

DocumentCount Index/C

DatapageCount Index/C

Index/C ount

ount

X X X X

X X

PageCount Index/C

ount

SelectedCount Index/C

ount

SelectedDocument Count

SelectedDatapage Count

SelectedPageCoun t

Index/C ount

X X X

X X X X

X X

X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

SelectedIndexInDo cument

SelectedIndexInGr oup

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

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

Index/C ount

X X

X X X

SelectedIndexInJo b

NumCopies Indicates how

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

many times the job is set to execute, as set when printing using

Index/C ount

X X X X

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Attribute Description CategoryJ

a Windows driver.

Gro

Docum ent

Datap age

Pa ge

Author Name of the

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

Metadata Tools

PReS Workflow 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.

Metadata Tools

Using PReS Workflow, one can:

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 allows to perform the above tasks:

Metadata Generation using Data Capture with PReS Printer

The Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) allows end-users to print directly to PReS Workflow from any Windows application, by using the familiar File|Print option. At the other end, PReS

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Workflow 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 PReS Printer will generate a PDF along with its metadata.

Metadata Generation and Refresh without using PReSPrinter

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

PReS Workflow's Data Selector window 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.

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The Metadata Selector allows to view and select metadata elements.

Metadata in Document Properties

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Metadata tab in the properties of a PReS Workflow document allows to easily define documents or groups.

Metadata Fields

Metadata Fields in the properties of a PReS Workflow document allows to easily define documents or groups.

About Documents

A Document is a file sent to PReS Workflow by PReS Connect 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 PReS Connect documents, please see the PReS Connect User Guide.

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Import Documents

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

To import documents into PReS Workflow:

Choose File | Import Documents. The Import PReS Connect Document dialog box appears.

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

3. 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 PReS 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 PReS Workflow installations.

To import documents into PReS Workflow:

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

2. Choose Import, then PrintShop Mail Documents.

3. 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 PReS 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

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from the PReS 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 PReS 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 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 PReS 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 on " Task Properties Dialog" on page 584.

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

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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. l 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 Group:This group is disabled in the initial input tasks and defaults to Stop

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

l Ignore:The task is ignored as if it did not exist, and the job file is passed on to the

next task in the process.

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.

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 PReS

Suite Workflow Tools' log file.

l Message:Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that

will be logged in the PReS Suite Workflow Tools' log file. You can use any variables available in PReS Workflow to customize the message.

l Store the message in variable:Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want

to store the message content.

l ID:Enter an error ID. This IDwill be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the

IDis not visible in the PReS Suite Workflow Tools' log file.

l 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.

If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are 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 PReS itself. Some examples

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would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any

Note

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

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 your process, and will be triggered if the Send to Process option is checked in that tab and an 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 467

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Accessing the Logs

Note

The information that is displayed here is the same as in PReS Workflow logs and depends on the logging level that you set in the "General Plug-In Preferences" on page

562.

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

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

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

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

l PReS Workflow l LPDServer l Telnet Capture l Serial Capture l HTTP/SOAP Server l LPRClient l FTPClient l PReS Image l PReS Fax l PReS 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 PReS Workflow Configuration software, press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F4

Note

The PReS Image and PReS 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 PReS Workflow working folders are opened.

2. Double-click on the folder called Log.

3. There are multiple logs displayed here, including:

l ppwYYYYMMDD.log - PReS 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 PReS 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 PReS 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 PReS 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 PReS Workflow:

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 PReS 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 PReS Workflow and a current page marker. You can use, for example, =&watch.jobinfos[6]+'-'+intostr(¤t.datapage)'

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Debugging your PReS Workflow Process

Note

The sample job file should generally be the exact same format as the data that you will receive when PReS Workflow is processing the job at run-time. For more information on

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 PReS 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. See 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 PReS

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 519 for more details.

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how to capture your sample data file properly, please refer to the PReS 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.

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.

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Look at the Messages Area pane to see any message generated by the tasks that run (See " The Message Area Pane" on page 540).

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 539.

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. 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, PReS Workflow 7.4 and higher also has a new 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.

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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 PReS Workflow service. See "Saving and Sending" on page 475.

The Plug-in Bar

PReS Workflow offer a constantly increasing number of plugins, while always allowing third party plug-ins to be installed and set up to be used by PReS Workflow. The PReS Workflow Plug-in Bar lists the available plugin in any of PReS Workflow, and is divided into categories, which users can customize at will.

A"Plug-In"is normally something that is added to a software and, while most of the PReS Plug-ins are installed by default, some may be added so the term is correct. However, because the plug-ins 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 plug-in or customizing the Plug-in bar.

About Printing

To print a document using PReS 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 PReS Workflow Configuration program.

The following types of printer outputs are available in PReS 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 58.

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 62.

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 61.

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 59.

l Windows Driver Printing:

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 453.

PReS Workflow provides you with three main printing scenarios:

l Send output data to be printed as is: PReS 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: PReS 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,

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printing should never fail.

Technical

In PReS 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 63).

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

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

PReS Workflow Printer Queues

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

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

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

See "Windows Output Printer Queue" on page 58.

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 59.

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

Output Printer Queue" on page 61.

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 62.

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 PReS 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.

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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

l 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.

l 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.

l 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. Doubleclick a command to remove it from the selected list.

l 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.

l Delete: Click to remove a command from the Commands box. l Command description: Use this box to edit the description of the command currently

selected in the Commands box.

l 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

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Character name: Character

Typical use in printing context:

code:

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

\n Goes to a new line

(CRLF)

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 PReS 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 PReS Connect documents that use those features.

Properties

General tab

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

l Job owner name: Enter the job owner name. You may use a PReS 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.

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