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User Guide
Version:1.8
User Guide
Version 1.8
Last Revision:2018-04-09
Objectif Lune, Inc.
2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500
Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8
+1 (514) 875-5863
www.objectiflune.com
All trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners.
© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2018. 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. 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. reserves
the right to alter the information contained in this documentation without notice.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 4
Welcome to PlanetPress Connect 1.8 14
Setup And Configuration 15
System and Hardware Considerations 15
Antivirus Exclusions 15
Database Considerations 17
Environment Considerations 22
Language and Encoding Considerations 24
Network Considerations 24
Performance Considerations 25
System Requirements 27
Installation and Activation 28
Where to obtain the installers 28
Installation - important information 29
Installation - "How to" guides 29
Activation 29
Installation Prerequisites 29
User accounts and security 31
The Importance of User Credentials on Installing and Running PlanetPress Connect 31
Installing PlanetPress Connect on Machines without Internet Access 33
Installation Wizard 35
Running connect installer in Silent Mode 41
Activating a License 49
Migrating to a new workstation 52
Information about PlanetPress Workflow 8 59
Upgrading from PlanetPress Suite 6/7 60
What do I gain by upgrading to PlanetPress Connect? 63
Known Issues 79
Issues with Microsoft Edge browser 79
Worklfow - "Execute Data Mapping" - Issues with mutliple PDFs 79
Installation Paths with Multi-Byte Characters 79
Switching Languages 79
GoDaddy Certificates 80
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MySQL Compatibility 80
PostScript Print Presets 80
Available Printer Models 81
External Resources in Connect 81
Using Capture After Installing Workflow 8 82
Capturing Spool Files After Installing Workflow 8 82
Colour Model in Stylesheets 82
Image Preview in Designer 82
Merge\Weaver Engines when Printing 82
REST Calls for Remote Services 83
Print Content and Email Content in PlanetPress Workflow 83
Print Limitations when the Output Server is located on a different machine 83
VIPP Output 83
Server Configuration Settings 84
Scheduling Preferences 85
Server Security Settings 90
Uninstalling 91
Important Note:Stop any active Anti-Virus software before uninstalling Connect. 91
Impacts upon other Applications and Services 91
Uninstallation Wizard 92
General information 93
Connect: a peek under the hood 93
The Workflow server 94
The Connect server 95
The Connect database 96
The File Store 96
The engines 97
The REST API 97
Connect File Types 98
The DataMapper Module 100
DataMapper basics 100
What's next? 101
Data mapping configurations 101
Creating a new data mapping configuration 102
Opening a data mapping configuration 105
Saving a data mapping configuration 106
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Using the wizard for CSV and Excel files 106
Using the wizard for databases 108
Using the wizard for PDF/VT and AFP files 111
Using the wizard for XML files 112
Data mapping workflow 113
Creating a data mapping workflow 113
Testing the extraction workflow 115
Data source settings 115
Extracting data 118
Steps 140
The Data Model 151
Creating a Data Model 152
Editing the Data Model 153
Using the Data Model 154
Fields 155
Detail tables 161
Data types 168
Data Model file structure 177
DataMapper User Interface 180
Keyboard shortcuts 181
Menus 186
Panes 190
Example 196
Settings for location-based fields in a Text file 221
Settings for location-based fields in a PDF File 221
Settings for location-based fields in CSV and Database files 222
Settings for location-based fields in an XML File 223
Text and PDF Files 226
CSV and Database Files 228
XMLFile 229
Text and PDF Files 233
CSV and Database Files 235
XMLFiles 237
Left operand, Right operand 241
Condition 243
Operators 243
Text file 244
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PDF File 245
CSV File 247
XML File 247
JavaScript 249
Toolbar 249
Welcome Screen 251
DataMapper Scripts API 252
Using scripts in the DataMapper 255
Setting boundaries using JavaScript 257
Objects 262
Example 266
Example 268
Examples 271
Example 273
Example 274
Example 276
Examples 279
Examples 282
Example 285
Example 286
Example 290
Text 291
XML 292
Functions 292
The Designer 302
Designer basics 302
Features 303
Templates 304
Contexts 320
Sections 321
Print 325
Copy Fit 327
Creating a Print template with a Wizard 327
Print context 332
Print sections 335
Pages 343
Master Pages 350
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Media 353
Email 359
Designing an Email template 361
Creating an Email template with a Wizard 364
Email context 368
Email templates 370
Email header settings 373
Email attachments 379
Web 381
Creating a Web template with a Wizard 382
Web Context 386
Web pages 387
Forms 393
Using Form elements 398
Using JavaScript 403
Capture OnTheGo 406
COTG Forms 406
Creating a COTG Form 407
Filling a COTG template 408
Testing the template 409
Sending the template to the Workflow tool 410
Using COTG data in a template 410
Designing a COTG Template 413
Capture OnTheGo template wizards 416
Using Foundation 420
COTG Elements 423
Using COTG Elements 431
Testing a Capture OnTheGo Template 436
Using the COTG plugin: cotg-2.0.0.js 442
Dynamically adding COTG widgets 445
Saving and restoring custom data and widgets 449
Capture OnTheGo API 453
Content elements 465
Element types 465
Editing HTML 466
Attributes 467
Inserting an element 468
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Selecting an element 469
Deleting an element 469
Styling and formatting an element 470
Barcode 470
Boxes 513
Business graphics 516
COTG Elements 519
Date 526
Forms 527
Form Elements 532
Hyperlink and mailto link 536
Images 537
Table 542
Text and special characters 546
Snippets 548
Adding a snippet to the Resources 549
Adding a snippet to a section 550
Creating a snippet 550
JSON Snippets 551
Styling and formatting 551
Local formatting versus style sheets 551
Layout properties 552
Styling templates with CSS files 553
Styling text and paragraphs 562
How to position elements 567
Rotating elements 570
Styling a table 571
Styling an image 576
Background color and/or image 579
Border 580
Colors 583
Fonts 587
Locale 590
Spacing 591
Personalizing Content 592
Variable data 592
Conditional content 593
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Dynamic images 593
Dynamic tables 593
Snippets 594
Scripts 594
Loading data 594
Variable Data 604
Formatting variable data 610
Showing content conditionally 613
Conditional Print sections 616
Dynamic Images 617
Dynamic table 618
Personalized URL 623
Writing your own scripts 624
Script types 624
Creating a new script 625
Writing a script 627
Managing scripts 629
Testing scripts 632
Optimizing scripts 636
Loading a snippet via a script 640
Loading content using a server's RESTful API 643
Control Scripts 645
The script flow: when scripts run 660
Selectors in Connect 660
Designer User Interface 666
Dialogs 666
Keyboard shortcuts 738
Menus 744
Panes 755
Toolbars 771
Welcome Screen 776
Print Options 777
Job Creation Presets 840
Output Creation Settings 850
Designer Script API 873
Designer Script API 874
Examples 882
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Examples 883
Examples 884
Examples 886
Examples 889
Examples 889
Examples 890
Examples 892
Examples 892
Examples 894
Examples 895
Examples 895
Examples 896
Example 897
Example 897
Example 898
Example 898
Example 899
Examples 900
Creating a table of contents 900
Example 902
Examples 902
Examples 905
Examples 906
Examples 906
Replace elements with a snippet 907
Replace elements with a set of snippets 907
Example 908
Example 908
Creating a Date object from a string 917
Control Script API 930
Examples 944
Generating output 953
Print output 953
Email output 953
Web output 954
Optimizing a template 954
Scripts 954
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Images 955
Generating Print output 956
Saving Printing options in Print Presets 957
Connect Printing options that cannot be changed from within the Printer Wizard 957
Print Using Standard Print Output Settings 958
Print Using Advanced Printer Wizard 959
Adding print output models to the Print Wizard 960
Splitting printing into more than one file 961
Print output variables 961
Generating Fax output 970
Generating Tags for Image Output 971
Generating Email output 973
Email output settings in the Email context and sections 974
Generating Email output from Connect Designer 974
Generating Email output from Workflow 976
Using an ESP with PlanetPress Connect 976
Generating Web output 981
Attaching Web output to an Email template 982
Generating Web output from Workflow 983
Web output settings in the Web context and sections 983
Overview 984
Connect 1.8 General Enhancements and Fixes 987
Connect 1.8 Performance Related Enhancements and Fixes 991
Connect 1.8 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 992
Connect 1.8 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 997
Connect 1.8 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1000
Capture OnTheGo (COTG) Enhancements and Fixes 1005
Workflow 8.8 Enhancements and Fixes 1006
Known Issues 1011
Previous Releases 1015
Overview 1015
Connect 1.7.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1018
Connect 1.7.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1023
Connect 1.7.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1031
Connect 1.7.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1034
Workflow 8.7 Enhancements and Fixes 1042
Known Issues 1045
Page 12
Overview 1049
OLConnect Send 1052
Connect 1.6.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1054
Connect 1.6.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1055
Connect 1.6.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1056
Connect 1.6.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1056
Connect Workflow 8.6 Enhancements and Fixes 1058
Known Issues 1060
Overview 1065
Connect 1.5 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1066
Connect 1.5 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1070
Connect 1.5 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1070
Connect 1.5 General Enhancements and Fixes 1072
Connect 8.5 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1073
Known Issues 1074
Overview 1078
Connect 1.4.2 Enhancements and Fixes 1080
Connect 1.4.1 New Features and Enhancements 1080
Connect 1.4.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1082
Connect 1.4.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1084
Connect 1.4.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1084
Connect 8.4.1 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1085
Known Issues 1085
Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 1090
Copyright Information 1096
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Welcome to PlanetPress Connect 1.8
Note
Since we are always looking for new ways to make your life easier, we welcome your
questions and comments about our products and documentation. Use the feedback tool
at the bottom of the page or shoot us an email at doc@ca.objectiflune.com.
PlanetPress Connect is a series of tools designed to optimize and automate customer
communications management. They work together to improve the creation, distribution,
interaction and maintenance of your communications.
The PlanetPress Connect Datamapper and Designer are designed to create output for print,
email and the web within a single template and from any data type, including formatted print
streams. Output presets applied outside the design phase make templates printing device
independent.
The Designer has an easy-to-use interface that makes it possible for almost anyone to create
multi-channel output. More advanced users may use native HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
PlanetPress Connect also includes a process automation server, called Workflow. It is capable
of servicing response form web pages and email to provide interactive business
communications.
PlanetPress Connect can create documents for tablets and mobile devices that run a free
CaptureOnTheGo App. Users with a CaptureOnTheGo subscription can then download
documents to their own devices, interact with them and send the captured data back to
PlanetPress for conversion into additional documents or workflows.
This online documentation covers PlanetPress Connect version 1.8.
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Setup And Configuration
This chapter describes the PlanetPress Connect installation and the different considerations
that are important in regards to the installation and use of PlanetPress Connect.
l "System and Hardware Considerations" below
l "Installation and Activation" on page28
l "Known Issues" on page79
l "Server Configuration Settings" on page84
l Uninstalling
System and Hardware Considerations
There are a variety of considerations to be aware of. These are documented in the following
pages:
l "Antivirus Exclusions" below
l "Database Considerations" on page17
l "Environment Considerations" on page22
l "Language and Encoding Considerations" on page24
l "Network Considerations" on page24
l "Performance Considerations" on page25
l "System Requirements" on page27
Antivirus Exclusions
The information on this page is designed to assist IT managers and IT professionals decide
what anti-virus strategy to follow with consideration to PlanetPress Connect and their internal
requirements and needs. This page describes the mode of operation and the files and folders
used by PlanetPress Connect as well as the files, folders and executables that are
recommended to be ignored for best possible performance and to avoid issues caused by
antivirus file locks.
Page 15
IT managers and IT professionals then may decide the anti-virus strategy to follow for their
internal requirements and needs depending on the statements outlined herein.
Directories and folders
Main installation folder
All Connect applications are installed under an arbitrarily selectable main folder. We will speak
of the "Installation Target" in the following. This installation target will hold the executables and
required files and folders for the operation of the whole product suite. All these files and folders
are static after their installation. It depends on the company virus protection strategy, if such
files and folders will be monitored or not. A virus protection on these files and folders should,
however, not have a big – if even any – impact on the performance of the Connect suite.
Working folders
Working folders for Connect are created and used on a per-user-basis under the respective
user's profile folder, accessible on Windows with the standardized system variable
%USERPROFILE% in the subfolder "Connect". Working folders are:
l
%USERPROFILE%\Connect\filestore: This folder will hold non-intermediate files for the
operation of Connect. Files in this folder will be used frequently, but not with a high
frequency. Supervising this folder with a virus protection system should not have too
much of an impact on the speed of the whole Connect suite.
l
%USERPROFILE%\Connect\logs: As the name implies, log files are created and
updated here. These log files are plain text files. Virus protection may have an impact on
the speed of the whole Connect suite.
l
%USERPROFILE%\Connect\temp: Storage folder for temporary data, usually
intermittent files in multiple folders. Virus protection on this folder and its subfolders may
have a serious impact on the performance of Connect.
l
%USERPROFILE%\Connect\workspace: Usually containing settings and helper files
and folders. Supervising this folder with a virus protection system should not have too
much of an impact on the speed of the whole Connect suite.
Database 1
Depending on the components installed, a database instance is created in the system temp
folder of Windows. This folder is accessible via the standardized system variable %TMP%.
Usually, folders holding such temporary files and folders should be excluded from a virus
protection, because this influences the overall performance of the whole system at all. However
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the responsible person for the computer protection has to decide about the monitoring of such
temporary folders following the company guidelines.
Database 2
Another database instance for Connect will be hold and used under the folder, which is
intended to hold data, accessible by and for all users. The path to this folder is stored in the
standardized system variable %PROGRAMDATA%. The Connect database instance is located
in the subfolder "Connect\MySQL".
As this database will be in extremely strong usage, virus protection on this folder and its
subfolders may have a serious impact on the performance of Connect.
Database Considerations
This page describes the different considerations and pre-requisites for the database back-end
used by PlanetPress Connect, whether using the MySQL instance provided by the installer, or
pre-existing (external) instance.
Using the MySQL Instance from the Installer
The MySQL Instance provided in the Installation Wizard is already pre-configured with options
to provide the most stable back-end setup.
These are the specific options that have been changed in our version of "my.ini":
l
max_connections = 200 : PlanetPress Connect uses a lot of database connections. This
number ensures that even in high volume environments, enough connections will be
available.
l
max_allowed_packet = 500M : In some implementations, especially when using Capture
OnTheGo, large packet sizes are required to allow transferring binary files. This
substantial packet size maximum setting ensures that the data received by PlanetPress
Connect will be able to be stored within the database.
l
character-set-server = utf8 , collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci , default-character-
set=utf8 : These indicate database support for UTF-8/Unicode.
Installing / Updating Connect Using an existing local MySQL instance
If MySQL Server is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into
consideration:
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l The MySQL account must have access to all permissions using the GRANT Command,
including creating databases.
l The database configuration must include the options detailed in the "Using the MySQL
Instance from the Installer" on the previous page topic above.
l The SQL instance must be open to access from other computers. This means the bind-
address option should not be set to 127.0.0.1 or localhost.
Warning
If you chose not to install the supplied MySQL database, and instead opt for using a pre-
existing (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is
accessible to Connect.
Objectif Lune Inc. will take no responsibility for database connections to any but the
supplied MySQL database.
Options available within the installer:
l The Configuration page for the local MySQL is displayed.
l MySQL settings are pre-filled with default values if no existing MySQL db configuration is
found.
l MySQL settings are pre-filled with existing db configuration settings, if they point to a
MySQL db type.
Installing Connect using an existing Microsoft SQL Server instance
If Microsoft SQLServer is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken
into consideration:
Warning
If you chose not to install the supplied MySQL database, and instead opt for using a pre-
existing (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is
accessible to Connect.
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Objectif Lune Inc. will take no responsibility for database connections to any but the
supplied MySQL database.
Note
Since PlanetPress Connect version 1.6 the minimum required version of the MS SQL
Server is SQLServer 2012.
l
When MS SQL is selected, the default values for root user are sa and 1433 for the port.
l If db settings from a previous installation are found, the pre-exising settings will be
displayed for the matching db type (for MS SQL settings, this will only work if they were
created with Server Config Tool 1.5.0 or later, or the Connect installer 1.6.0 or later). If the
db type is changed in the configuration page, the default values for this db type will be
displayed. If the pre-existing db settings are set to Hsqldb, the default db type selection
will be MySQL.
l Selected db settings are stored in the preferences as usual (C:\ProgramData\Objectif
Lune\Ol
Connect\.settings\ConnectHostScope\com.objectiflune.repository.eclipselink.generic.pref
s)
Updating With No Local MySQL Product
l When updating a Connect installation from 1.5.0 which contains a Server Product but no
local MySQL Product, the DB Configuration Page will detect which db type was set
before (especially if the db configuration was switched from MySQL to MS SQL using the
Server Configuration Tool), and default to those settings.
l On Update from 1.4.2 or earlier, the DB Configuration Page will always default to MySQL
connection settings, and if the installation was manually tweaked to connect to MS SQL
Server, the user has to switch to "Microsoft SQL Server" type and enter connection details
again.
When modifying Connect
l If local MySQL is removed from an installation, the DB Configuration page will offer
additionally the Microsoft SQL Server db type with respective default values.
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l If local MySQL is added to an installation, the usual MySQL Configuration page with
default values will be displayed.
If the user has installed the Installer Supplied MySQL and then switches to an external
Microsoft SQL by using the Server Configuration Tool, the supplied MySQL cannot be switched
off. By design the installer adds a service dependency between Connect Server and the
supplied MySQL service.
Note
The Microsoft SQL selection capability will be available only with 1.6 version and upwards.
To remove this dependency the user needs to do the following
1. Have a foreign Microsoft SQL running, ready for use with Connect Server.
2.
Use the Server Configuration Tool "Database Connection preferences" on page700 to
switch the database to Microsoft SQL.
3. Re-start the Connect Server Service, so that the modifications become active.
4. Counter check that everything is working properly with Microsoft SQL.
5. Open a command-line prompt with full administration rights.
6. Enter the command sc config OLConnect_Server depend= /. This removes the
dependency.
Please be aware: The key word depend must be followed immediately by the equal sign,
but between the equal sign and the forward slash there must be a space.
Additional information can be found here: http://serverfault.com/questions/24821/how-
to-add-dependency-on-a-windows-service-after-the-service-is-installed#228326.
7. After the dependency has been removed, it is possible to stop the supplied MySQL
service (OLConnect_MySQL).
Warning
If a Connect 1.5 user wants to use Microsoft SQL instead of MySQL for the Connect Server, there
are several points to be taken care of:
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