OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Workflow 2020.2 User manual

User Guide

Version 2020.2

Last Revision:2020-12-08

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.

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 2020.2 13

Notes in this guide 13

Installation and setup 15

System requirements 15

Operating System 15

Virtual environments 16

Minimum hardware requirements 16

Recommended hardware requirements 17

Requirements for individual Connect modules 17

Environment considerations 18

Terminal Services 18

Virtual environments 18

32-bit or 64-bit? 19

Antivirus considerations 19

Backup software 21

Microsoft Office compatibility 21

Setting up the working environment 21

Network considerations 21

Local and network rights 22

Account requirements 22

Mapped drives 22

Network ports used by each service 23

Known Issues 25

Issues with Secure Email tasks in multi-byte languages 25

Microsoft patch causing handling of XLS to fail 25

Data Repository error 26

Other known issues 26

Basics 30

Related tools and resource files 30

Features 32

About Workflow Configurations 32

Creating a new configuration 33

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Open a PlanetPress Workflow configuration file 34

Saving and sending a Workflow Configuration 35

Exit PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program 37

Workflow Configuration resource files 38

Connect resources 38

PlanetPress Design documents 43

PrintShop Mail documents 48

About data 49

About documents and variable data 50

Job file 50

Job file names and output file names 51

Data selections 52

About data emulation 59

Sample Data 69

Metadata 74

Working with JSON 89

Data Repository 93

Structure 94

Accessing the Data Repository 95

Where to find the Data Repository 96

Debugging and error handling 96

About error handling 97

Using the On Error tab 97

Creating and using Error processes 99

Accessing the Logs 101

Resubmit backed up input files to a process 102

Debugging your PlanetPress Workflow process 104

About printing 108

OL Connect print jobs 108

PlanetPress Suite print jobs 109

PlanetPress Workflow printer queues 110

Shared printer queue properties 111

Windows Output printer queue 113

LPR Output Printer Queue 114

FTP Output Printer Queue 116

Send to Folder printer queue 117

Load balancing 118

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Associating PlanetPress Design documents and PlanetPress printer queues 119

Triggers 120

Objectif Lune Printer Driver (PS) 121

About processes and subprocesses 124

Processes 124

Startup processes 125

Subprocesses 125

Creating a process 126

Importing processes 128

Activating or deactivating a process 129

Process properties 130

About branches and conditions 135

Converting a branch to a subprocess 137

Running a process on desktop 137

Using Scripts 139

Run Script task 139

APIs 140

The Script Editor and XSLT Editor 141

SOAP Server API Reference 147

The Watch Object 154

Data Repository API 172

Metadata API 194

Attributes 214

Count 214

Fields 214

Index 214

NodeType 215

Parent 215

Selected 215

SelectedCount 216

SelectedState 216

Add(Integer Index) 217

AttributeByIndex(Integer Index) 217

AttributeByName(const String Name) 218

Clear() 218

Copy() 218

Cut() 218

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DatapageCount() 219

Delete() 219

DocumentCount() 219

FieldByIndex(Integer Index) 220

FieldByName(const String Name) 220

FieldByNameIndex(const String Name, Integer Index) 221

IndexInDocument() 221

IndexInGroup() 221

IndexInJob() 222

Item(Integer Index) 222

PageCount() 223

Paste() 223

PasteAt(Integer Index) 223

Select(TSelectWhat SelectWhat) 224

SelectedDatapageCount() 224

SelectedDocumentCount() 225

SelectedIndexInDocument() 225

SelectedIndexInGroup() 225

SelectedIndexInJob() 226

SelectedPageCount() 226

Sort(const String Name, optional TSortFlags Flags, optional const String Name2,

optional TSortFlags Flags2, optional const String Name3, optional TSortFlags Flags3)

226

Parameters 231

Exceptions 232

Parameters 232

Exceptions 233

Parameters 233

Returns 233

Parameters 233

Exceptions 234

Parameters 234

Returns 234

Exceptions 234

Parameters 234

Returns 234

Parameters 235

Returns 235

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Exceptions 235

Parameters 235

Returns 235

Exceptions 236

AlambicEdit API reference 239

Stopping execution 272

Special workflow types 274

HTTP Server workflow 275

PDF Workflow 283

PlanetPress Capture Workflow 285

Workflow processes in a Connect Send solution 294

About Tasks 296

Adding tasks 297

Editing a task 298

Task properties 298

Masks 302

Selecting a resource file in task properties 303

Input tasks 305

Action tasks 373

Data splitters 444

Process logic tasks 464

Connector tasks 482

PlanetPress Capture 529

Metadata tasks 551

OL Connect Send 568

OL Connect tasks 582

Output tasks 643

Document Management tasks 669

Connection tab 671

Download tab 673

Connection tab 676

Upload tab 678

Advanced properties 686

Advanced properties 689

Email Services 695

Unknown tasks 702

About variables 703

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Job Info variables 704

System variables 705

Local variables 710

Global variables 712

Variable task properties 714

Workflow add-ons 716

PlanetPress Capture 716

Capture OnTheGo (COTG) 745

About PlanetPress Fax 745

About PlanetPress Image 746

OL Connect Send 747

ZUGFeRD 748

About related programs and services 749

Available Input services 750

Available Output services 750

Start and stop PlanetPress Workflow Service 751

Users and configurations 752

Workflow Services 753

Preferences 756

Other preferences and settings 757

General appearance preferences 757

Object Inspector appearance preferences 758

Configuration Components pane appearance preferences 759

Colors 759

Options 759

Default configuration behavior preferences 760

Notification Messages behavior preferences 761

Preferences 761

Sample Data behavior preferences 764

Preferences 764

Network behavior preferences 764

Preferences 764

PlanetPress Capture preferences 765

PlanetPress Capture Server/Client 766

PlanetPress Document Manager 767

PlanetPress Capture ODBC Settings 769

PlanetPress Capture Pen Management Tool 771

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PlanetPress Capture License Management 773

OL Connect preferences 774

PDF text extraction tolerance factors 775

General and logging preferences 777

Messenger plugin preferences 778

Preferences 779

HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 1 779

Preferences 780

HTTP Server Input plugin preferences 2 784

LPD Input plugin preferences 785

Preferences 786

NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 1 786

NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 2 788

NodeJS Server Input plugin preferences 3 789

Testing the server 790

Changing the Log in page 790

Setting the duration of the authentication 791

Serial Input plugin preferences 791

Preferences 791

Telnet Input plugin preferences 792

Preferences 792

PlanetPress Fax plugin preferences 793

Preferences 793

Captaris RightFax options 795

FTP Output Service preferences 796

Options 796

PlanetPress Image preferences 797

LPR Output preferences 800

Options 800

PrintShop Web Connect Service preferences 802

Editor Options 802

The user interface 807

Customizing the Workspace 808

Dock and undock areas of the Program Window 808

Show or hide areas of the program window 810

Combine and attach areas 810

Resize the program window areas 815

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Change the Interface language 816

PlanetPress Workflow Button 817

Options 817

Configuration Components pane 818

Components Area Sections 818

PlanetPress Design document properties 821

Moving and copying configuration components 824

Renaming objects in the Configuration Components Pane 827

Reordering objects in the Configuration Components pane 827

Grouping Configuration Components 828

Expanding and collapsing categories and groups in the Configuration Components

pane

830

Deleting something from the Configuration Components pane 830

Dialogs 831

Access Manager 831

Activate a printer 837

Advanced SQL Statement Dialog 838

Data Repository Manager 839

The Data Selector 842

The File Viewer 846

Data Selector display preferences 847

PDF Viewer 849

Printer utilities 851

Process properties 854

Rule Interface 859

Task Properties dialog 862

Update document 863

Virtual Drive Manager 864

The Debug Information pane 864

The Message Area Pane 865

The Object Inspector pane 866

Editing properties 867

The Plug-in Bar 867

Categories 868

Settings and customization 869

The Process area 870

Cutting, copying and pasting tasks and branches 871

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Highlight a task or branch 872

Disabling tasks and branches 873

Moving a task or branch using drag-and-drop 874

Redo a command 875

Removing tasks or branches 875

Replacing tasks, conditions or branches 876

Resize the rows and columns of the Process area 876

Collapse and expand branches and conditions 877

Undo a command 877

Zoom in or out within the Process Area 878

The Quick Access Toolbar 878

Adding buttons 878

Removing buttons 878

Moving the toolbar 879

The PlanetPress Workflow Ribbon 879

The Task Comments Pane 882

The PlanetPress Workflow Service Console 882

Controlling Services 883

Viewing log files 884

Knowledge Base 886

Legal Notices and Acknowledgments 887

Copyright Information 893

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Welcome to PlanetPress Workflow

2020.2

This PDF documentation covers version 2020.2. 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.

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Tip

Information that may help you use PlanetPress Workflow better or that suggests an easier

method.

Warning

Information that is potentially critical to using PlanetPress Workflow.

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Installation and setup

The installation procedure for Workflow is described in the topic Installing Workflow.

The following topics describe the different considerations that are important in regards to the

installation and use of PlanetPress Workflow.

l "System requirements" below

l "Environment considerations" on page18

l "Setting up the working environment" on page21

l "Known Issues" on page25

System requirements

These are the recommended system requirements for PlanetPress Workflow 2020.2.

Operating System

l Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Server

l Microsoft Windows 2016 Server

l Microsoft Windows 2019 Server

l Microsoft Windows 8.1

l Microsoft Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise versions only)

Note

PlanetPress Workflow2020.2 is expected to run on some older operating systems, but

just as Microsoft no longer supports these older operating systems, Objectif Lune Inc. will

not provide support for Objectif Lune Inc. products running on them.

The historic operating systems that it is expectedPlanetPress Workflow2020.2 will

continue to run on include: Microsoft Windows 7; Microsoft Windows 2003 Server; and

Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2.

Page 15

Note

The NodeJS Server installed with Workflow is not supported in an x86 environment.

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.

l Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

may work fine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.

Minimum hardware requirements

As with any software application, minimum hardware requirements represent the basic

hardware on which the software will run. Note however that settling for the minimum

specification is unlikely to produce the performance you expect from the system. It can be used

when configuring a trial or a development system, however.

l File system: NTFS (FAT32 is not supported)

l CPU:multi-core

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l RAM: 6GB

l Disk Space:At least 10GB*

1

*

1

: Requirements will depend upon the amount of data you process through PlanetPress

Workflow. For instance, a PostScript file containing several thousands of documents could

easily take up several GBs.

Recommended hardware requirements

Due to its versatility, OL Connect is used for a wide variety of applications. Consequently, it is

difficult to determine which hardware configuration will produce the best results for any given

implementation. The following specs should therefore be viewed as a general guideline that is

most likely to produce expected results for most implementations. You should, however, keep

in mind that it may not represent the optimal setup for your particular application.

l File system: NTFS (FAT32 is not supported)

l CPU:Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell or equivalent

l RAM: 16GB

l Disk Space: 20GB*

l Storage Type: Solid State Drive (SSD)

l Networking: 10Gb Ethernet

*: Requirements will depend upon the amount of data you process through PlanetPress

Workflow. For instance, a PostScript file containing several thousands of documents could

easily take up several GBs.

Requirements for individual Connect modules

OL Connect Products comprises multiple modules that can be operated separately on multiple

PCs. Each module has its own set of requirements that may differ from the other modules.

While the hardware requirements described above are relatively generic when installing all

Connect modules on a single server, they should not be interpreted literally for each individual

module.

When installing on multiple PCs, keep the following rules of thumb in mind:

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l The Connect Workflow module requires less RAM but fast hard drive access. It also

benefits from fast multi-core CPUs, in order to run processes in parallel.

l The Connect Server module requires more RAM and benefits from fast multi-core CPUs.

Disk access speed is less of a concern.

l The Connect Designer module requires more RAM and fast disk access to provide a

responsive user-experience.

l The back-end database (MySQL by default) benefits from more RAM, speedy disk access

and fast networking as it will be solicited by all modules simultaneously.

Environment considerations

This page provides 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.

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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.

l Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

may work fine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.

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:

Warning

Disabling any antivirus scanning permanently on any folder or program is not

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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\[user]\AppData\Local\Temp\ (where [user] is the user under which

Workflow is configured)

l C:\Users\[user]\Connect (where [user] is the user under which Workflow is

configured)

l On all systems:

l C:\Windows\Temp\

Note

C:\Windows\Temp\ is used by multiple software which may cause risks on

your computer. However, PlanetPress Workflow may use this folder as

temporary storage, especially in the case of creating PDF files. We do not

recommend disabling scan on this folder, unless you notice performance

issues when generating PDFs, and then only as a test.

l Processes:

l FTPPutService.exe

l HTTPService.exe

l LPDService.exe

l LPRService.exe

l PPWatchService.exe

l PSWService.exe

l SerialService.exe

l SMTPService.exe

l TelnetService.exe

l ppNode.exe

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OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Workflow 2020.2 User manual

OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Workflow 2020.2 User manual

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