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User Guide
Version:2018.2
User Guide
Version 2018.2
Last Revision:2019-01-29
Objectif Lune, Inc.
2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500
Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8
+1 (514) 875-5863
www.objectiflune.com
All trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners.
© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2019. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be
reproduced, transmitted or distributed outside of Objectif Lune Inc. by any means whatsoever
without the express written permission of Objectif Lune Inc. Inc. Objectif Lune Inc. Inc. disclaims
responsibility for any errors and omissions in this documentation and accepts no responsibility
for damages arising from such inconsistencies or their further consequences of any kind.
Objectif Lune Inc. Inc reserves the right to alter the information contained in this documentation
without notice.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 4
Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow 2018.2 11
Notes in this guide 11
Installation and setup 13
System Requirements 13
Operating System (64-bit only) 13
Minimum Hardware Requirements 13
Environment considerations 14
Terminal Services 14
Virtual environments 14
32-bit or 64-bit? 15
Antivirus considerations 15
Backup considerations 16
Microsoft Office compatibility 17
Setting up the working environment 17
Network considerations 17
Local and network rights 17
Account requirements 18
Mapped drives 18
Network ports used by each service 19
Known Issues 21
Microsoft patch causing handling of XLS to fail 21
Other known issues 22
About PlanetPress Fax 24
About PlanetPress Image 25
Preferences 26
Basics 27
Related tools and resource files 27
Features 29
About Workflow Configurations 29
Creating a new configuration 30
Open a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file 31
Saving and sending a Workflow Configuration 31
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Exit PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program 34
Workflow Configuration resource files 35
Connect resources 35
PlanetPress Design documents 39
PrintShop Mail documents 44
About data 45
About documents and variable data 45
Job file 46
Job file names and output file names 47
Data selections 48
About data emulation 54
Sample Data 64
Metadata 69
Working with JSON 80
Data Repository 84
Structure 84
Accessing the Data Repository 85
Where to find the Data Repository 87
Debugging and error handling 87
About error handling 87
Using the On Error tab 88
Creating and using Error processes 89
Accessing the Logs 90
Resubmit backed up input files to a process 92
Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow process 94
About printing 98
OL Connect print jobs 98
PlanetPress Suite print jobs 99
PlanetPress Workflow printer queues 100
Shared printer queue properties 101
Windows Output printer queue 103
LPR Output Printer Queue 104
FTP Output Printer Queue 105
Send to Folder printer queue 107
Load balancing 108
Associating PlanetPress Design documents and PlanetPress printer queues 108
Triggers 110
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Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) 110
About processes and subprocesses 113
Processes 113
Startup processes 114
Subprocesses 115
Creating a process 115
Importing processes 117
Activating or deactivating a process 119
Process properties 119
About branches and conditions 124
Converting a branch to a subprocess 125
Running a process on desktop 126
Saving and sending a Workflow Configuration 126
Using Scripts 131
Run Script task 131
APIs 132
The Script Editor and XSLT Editor 132
SOAP Server API Reference 138
The Watch Object 145
Data Repository API 161
Stopping execution 181
Special workflow types 183
HTTP Server Workflow 184
PDF Workflow 191
PlanetPress Capture Workflow 194
Database considerations (ODBC) 201
Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 231
About Tasks 232
Adding tasks 233
Editing a task 234
Task properties 235
Input tasks 239
Action Tasks 291
Data Splitters 361
Process Logic tasks 382
Connector Tasks 399
PlanetPress Capture 439
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Metadata Tasks 462
OL Connect Send 480
OL Connect tasks 494
Output Tasks 539
Unknown tasks 556
About variables 556
Job Info variables 557
Standard variables 559
Local variables 564
Global variables 565
Variable task properties 567
Special workflow types 569
PlanetPress Capture 571
About PlanetPress Fax 599
About PlanetPress Image 600
Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 601
ZUGFeRD 602
About related programs and services 612
Available Input services 612
Available Output services 613
Start and stop PlanetPress Workflow Service 614
Users and configurations 615
Workflow Services 616
The user interface 619
Customizing the Workspace 620
Dock and undock areas of the Program Window 621
Show or hide areas of the program window 622
Combine and attach areas 622
Resize the program window areas 627
Change the Interface language 628
PlanetPress Workflow Button 629
Options 629
Configuration Components pane 630
Components Area Sections 630
Process properties 633
PlanetPress Design document properties 638
Moving and copying configuration components 640
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Renaming objects in the Configuration Components Pane 643
Reordering objects in the Configuration Components pane 644
Grouping Configuration Components 645
Expanding and collapsing categories and groups in the Configuration Components
pane
646
Deleting something from the Configuration Components pane 646
Dialogs 647
Access Manager 647
Activate a printer 653
Advanced SQL Statement Dialog 654
Data Repository Manager 655
The Data Selector 658
The File Viewer 663
Data Selector display preferences 663
PDF Viewer 666
Process properties 668
Update document 673
Virtual Drive Manager 673
Workflow Services 674
The Debug Information pane 676
The Message Area Pane 677
The Object Inspector pane 678
Editing properties 678
The Plug-in Bar 679
Categories 679
Settings & Customization 680
Preferences 681
Other Preferences and Settings 682
General appearance preferences 682
Object Inspector appearance preferences 683
Configuration Components pane appearance preferences 684
Default Configuration behavior preferences 685
Notification Messages behavior preferences 685
Sample Data behavior preferences 688
Network behavior preferences 688
PlanetPress Capture preferences 689
OL Connect preferences 698
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PDF text extraction tolerance factors 699
General and logging preferences 701
Messenger plugin preferences 702
HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 1 703
HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 2 707
LPD Input plugin preferences 708
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 1 709
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 2 711
NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 3 712
Serial Input plugin preferences 713
Telnet Input plugin preferences 714
PlanetPress Fax plugin preferences 715
FTP Output Service preferences 718
PlanetPress Image preferences 719
LPR Output preferences 722
PrintShop Web Connect Service preferences 723
Editor Options 724
The Process area 728
Cutting, copying and pasting tasks and branches 729
Highlight a task or branch 731
Disabling tasks and branches 731
Moving a task or branch using drag-and-drop 732
Redo a command 733
Removing tasks or branches 733
Replacing tasks, conditions or branches 734
Resizing the rows and columns of the Process area 735
Undo a command 735
Zoom in or out within Process Area 735
The Quick Access Toolbar 736
Adding buttons 736
Removing buttons 736
Moving the toolbar 736
The PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon 737
The Task Comments Pane 740
Additional Information 741
Copyright Information 742
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Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow
2018.2
This PDF documentation covers version 2018.2. To view the documentation of previous
versions please refer to the PDF files available in the Downloads section of our website:
http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/Download/DownloadCenter.
Workflow is the heart of all of our solutions. Working in conjunction with PlanetPress Connect,
PlanetPress Capture, CaptureOnTheGO, PlanetPress Imaging, PlanetPress Fax, and a variety
of plugins, it helps improve your communications processes. Processes such as
communication creation, interaction, distribution and even maintenance.
Workflow is the "super dispatcher". It caters for inputs from a huge variety of sources, such as
email, web pages, databases, individual files (PDF, csv, XML, etc), print streams, FTP, Telnet
and ERP systems. This data can then be analyzed, modified, stored, verified, routed and used
as triggers for other processes from entirely within Workflow. Finally it is passed to one of our
other products (or not) to be outputted in multiple ways (printed, emailed, posted, archived, sent
to third party solutions, etc..).
Consider Workflow as a set of buildings blocks that enable you to build your own customized
automated processes which will fit your environment and not the other way around. Create
processes that will save you time and money!
Notes in this guide
Notes are used throughout this guide to draw your attention to certain information.
Note
Important information that deserves your attention.
Tip
Information that may help you better use PlanetPress Workflow or suggests an easier method.
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Warning
Information that is potentially critical to using PlanetPress Workflow.
Technical
Background information.
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Installation and setup
This chapter describes the different considerations that are important in regards to the
installation and use of PlanetPress Workflow.
l "System Requirements" below
l "Environment considerations" on the facing page
l "Setting up the working environment" on page17
l "Known Issues" on page21
System Requirements
These are the system requirements for PlanetPress Workflow 2018.2.
Operating System (64-bit only)
l Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server
l Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Server
l Microsoft Windows 2016 Server
l Windows 7
l Microsoft Windows 8.1
l Microsoft Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise versions only)
Note
Windows Vista, Windows 8.0, Windows 2003 Server and earlier versions of Windows are
not supported by PlanetPress Workflow.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
l NTFS Filesystem (FAT32 is not supported)
l CPU Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell (4 Core)
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l 8GB RAM (16GB Recommended)
l Disk Space: At least 10GB (20GB recommended)
Environment considerations
This page is intended to provide technical information about the environment in which
PlanetPress Workflow is intended to run.
Terminal Services
PlanetPress Workflow does not support Terminal Services environment as possible under
Windows 2000, 2003 and 2008. This is to say, if Terminal Services is installed on the server
where PlanetPress Workflow is located, unexpected behaviors may occur and will not be
supported by our company. Furthermore, using PlanetPress Workflow in a Terminal Service
environment is probably an infringement of our End-User License Agreement.
Terminal Services may also be referred to as Terminal Server or Remote Administration Mode
(Windows Server 2003 and 2008).
Single-User Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) (where only one person can use RDP at a time)
is supported for PlanetPress Workflow version 6.2 and higher, however it is only supported in
Windows XP or Windows 2003. While later versions of Windows may not cause issues when
accessing PlanetPress Workflow through RDP, these combinations are no longer tested and
may not be functional.
Virtual environments
PlanetPress Workflow supports the following virtual environments:
l VMWare Environments. This includes VMWare Player, VMWare Workstation as well as
VMWare ESX Server.
l VMWare VMotion. This means the virtual machine hosting PlanetPress Workflow can be
automatically moved from one ESX server to another in a clustered installation.
l Microsoft Hyper-V/Azure infrastructure environments.
PlanetPress Workflow is not officially supported on any other virtual machines such as Virtual
PC, Parallels, Bochs, Xen, etc. While running PlanetPress Workflow on these virtual machines
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may work, and they are properly detected by PlanetPress Suite 7.5.1 and higher, we have not
tested them and cannot offer support for them.
Warning
The PlanetPress Workflow End-User License Agreement (EULA) specifies that a
PlanetPress Workflow software license may only be used on a single virtual or physical
PC at a time. While copying a virtual machine for backup purposes is acceptable, running
two instances of the same machine, using the same serial number, is strictly prohibited.
About PlanetPress Suite
In previous versions of PlanetPress Suite, not all virtual environments were supported:
l PlanetPress Suite 6 and higher support VMWare Environment.
l PlanetPress Suite 7.1 and higher also support VMotion.
l PlanetPress Suite 7.5.1 and higher started supporting Hyper-V virtualization in addition to
the previous environments.
32-bit or 64-bit?
PlanetPress Suite version 7.1.3 and higher, as well as PlanetPress Connect, support a 64-bit
operating system. However, PlanetPress Workflow remains 32-bits in this environment, which
means that for all intents and purposes there is no difference between those two environments
as far as PlanetPress Workflow is concerned.
Antivirus considerations
PlanetPress Workflow generates a very large amount of temporary data on your hard disk,
especially when manipulating or creating PDF files. This can sometimes cause issues when
any other software is trying to access the temporary files at the same time as PlanetPress
Workflow and its components are trying to read, write, create or delete those files.
If you experience these issues you may want to temporarily disable your antivirus "live", "daily"
or "deep" scans for the following folders and processes:
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Warning
Disabling any antivirus scanning permanently on any folder or program is not
recommended, and Objectif Lune cannot be held reliable for any consequence of
disabling your antivirus or whitelisting the folders or executables listed here, or any other
change in your antivirus protection setup!
l On Windows 7/2008:
l C:\ProgramData\Objectif Lune\PlanetPress Workflow 8\
l C:\Users\planetpress\AppData\Local\Temp\ (where planetpress is the user under
which Workflow is configured)
l C:\Users\planetpress\Connect (where planetpress is the user under which Workflow
is configured)
l On all systems:
l C:\Windows\Temp\
l Processes:
l PPAlambic.exe
l ServerService.exe
l PPWatchService.exe
l PPImageService.exe
l MessengerService.exe
Note
C:\Windows\Temp\ is used by multiple software which may cause risks on your computer.
However, PlanetPress Workflow may use this folder as temporary storage, especially in the case of
creating PDF files. We do not recommend disabling scan on this folder, unless you notice
performance issues when generating PDFs, and then only as a test.
Backup considerations
For similar reasons, it is important to know that backup software can also access files while
copying them to a remote backup location, so you should make sure that no PlanetPress
Workflow process is working during your backups.
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Microsoft Office compatibility
The Microsoft Office 2010 line of products, other than Pro and Enterprise, has not been certified
for use with PlanetPress Workflow. Some of its products may not be compatible with the
connectors included in the Suite.
Setting up the working environment
After installation, the working environment needs to be set up before you start using Workflow.
This involves:
l Configuring PlanetPress Workflow Services (see "Workflow Services" on page674).
l Setting up the Workflow Configuration tool. You can configure a variety of options, from
how the application itself looks or behaves, to plugin specific options. These are
accessible through the Preferences button under the PlanetPress Workflow Button (see
"Preferences" on page681).
l Activating the printer, in order to output PlanetPress Design documents (see "Activate a
printer" on page653 and "PlanetPress Design documents" on page39). This applies to
PlanetPress Suite only.
Network considerations
While PlanetPress Workflow is typically installed on a server machine that is only accessed by
one single user such as an IT person, multiple users logging on to that machine is a possibility
(except with terminal servers, see "Environment considerations" on page14). Because each
user may have different local and network rights, it may be important to consider the
implications in regards to PlanetPress Workflow. To change the service log on information, see
"Workflow Services" on page674.
Local and network rights
Programs, such as PlanetPress Workflows and all its services, must identify themselves in
order to be granted permission to perform operations on the computer on which they run as well
as on other computers accessible via a network connection. On a given workstation, you can
configure your PlanetPress Workflow to use either the local system account or any specific user
account. When you do this, you grant PlanetPress Workflow and all its services the same rights
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associated with the selected account (except for PlanetPress Messenger Service which always
runs on the Local System account).
When you are running PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program on a workstation, if it is
associated with an account that is different from your account, the following icon is displayed in
the lower right corner of PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program: . The icon reminds you
that the logon information is different for the PlanetPress Workflow services, and that some
network resources may not be accessibly by PlanetPress Workflow when running a live
configuration.
Account requirements
PlanetPress Workflow and its services require administrator rights to run on any given
computer and must therefore be associated with an account that has such rights.
We recommend creating a network or domain account specifically for the PlanetPress
Workflow services, which has administrator credentials on the machine where it is installed,
and is given proper rights for any network resources your configuration may request.
Mapped drives
Mapped drives (for example, drive X: leading to \\server\public\) are always user-specific and
are created at logon. This means that mapped drives are typically not available by the
PlanetPress Workflow services when running a live configuration. Furthermore, while the
mapped drives are not shared, they are still limited to one map per computer, meaning if one
user maps the X: drive, a different user (or a service) will not be able to map it again.
This creates a limitation in PlanetPress Workflow: if you create a mapped drive as a user, you
will not have access to this mapped drive while running as a service unless you log off, and
then have PlanetPress Workflow Tools map the drive using a Run Script action inside a Startup
Process.
We strongly recommended that instead of using mapped drives, you use full UNC paths for
your network drives. PlanetPress Workflow Tools can automatically convert mapped paths to
UNC paths. For more information, please see "Network behavior preferences" on page688.
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Network ports used by each service
The port configuration for each PlanetPress Workflow component is described in the following
table. The port number assignments comply with Internet standards. If PlanetPress Workflow
component is not active, the port is not used.
Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port
Email Input (POP3
mode)
TCP Default
1
110
Email Input (Outlook
mode)
TCP see Remote Port See Network Ports Used by Key
Microsoft Server Products
Folder Capture TCP/UDP Default
1
Standard Windows file and
printer sharing ports
2
:
l UDP 137, 138; TCP 139
(NetBIOS over TCP/IP
(NetBT))
l UDP 445; TCP 445 (SMB
over TCP/IP)
LPD Input TCP 515 (listening
port)
N/A
FTP Input TCP Default
1
21
Telnet Input TCP Default
1
9100 (configurable)
FTP Output TCP Default
1
21
Email Output (SMTP
mode)
TCP Default
1
25
Email Output (Outlook
mode)
TCP See Email Input
(Outlook mode)
See Email Input (Outlook mode)
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Component Protocol Local Port Remote Port
Send to Folder
Windows Queue
Output
TCP
Default
1
Standard Windows file and
printer sharing ports
2
:
l 137, 138 and/or 139
(NetBIOS over TCP/IP
(NetBT))
l 445 (SMB Over TCP/IP)
LPR Output TCP Default or 721 to
731
3
515
PlanetPress
Database
TCP or
UDP
Unknown
4
Unknown
4
SNMP Condition UDP Default
1
161
1
Value is greater than 1024 and is assigned by Windows XP. This is the default.
2
Windows NT 4.0 uses NetBIOS over TCP/IP for file and printer sharing, while Windows 2000,
Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 may be configured to use NetBIOS over TCP/IP or
SMB over TCP/IP. The operating system may use additional ports. Refer to the Windows
documentation for further information.
3
If the “No source port range restriction” option is checked (recommended), see footnote a. If
the option is unchecked, the local port will be chosen from a range going from 721 to 731.
4
Contact your DBMS vendor to determine which ports are used by the ODBC driver for
accessing a network database.
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