OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Connect 2019.2 User guide

User Guide

Version:2019.2

User Guide

Version 2019.2

Last Revision:2019-12-20

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.

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 2019.2 20

Setup And Configuration 21

System and Hardware Considerations 21

Antivirus Exclusions 22

Database Considerations 24

Environment considerations 28

Language and Encoding Considerations 31

Network Considerations 32

Performance considerations 34

System requirements 36

Installation and Activation 39

Where to obtain the installers 39

Installation - important information 40

Installation - "How to" guides 40

Activation 40

Installation Prerequisites 40

User accounts and security 41

Installing PlanetPress Connect on Machines without Internet Access 42

Installation Wizard 44

Running Connect installer in Silent Mode 52

Activating a License 60

Migrating to a new workstation 63

Information about PlanetPress Workflow 71

Upgrading 72

Backup these folders 75

Backup your database 76

PlanetPress Suite Documents and Resources 86

Workflow Plug-ins 87

Preferences 94

General preferences 94

COTG Servers preferences 95

Clean-up Service preferences 95

Page 4

DataMapper preferences 99

Database Connection preferences 100

Editing preferences 103

Email preferences 106

Emmet preferences 107

Engines preferences 111

Hardware for Digital Signing preferences 111

Language preferences 112

Logging preferences 113

Parallel Processing preferences 115

Print preferences 115

Project Wizards preferences 117

Save preferences 117

Scripting preferences 118

Web preferences 119

Server Configuration Settings 121

Connection preferences 122

Engine configuration 123

Parallel Processing preferences 133

Security Settings 141

Connect: a peek under the hood 142

The Workflow server 143

The Connect server 144

The Connect database 145

The File Store 145

The engines 146

The REST API 146

Known Issues 147

Connect Updates failing due to Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable product. 147

Issues associating PDFfiles with Connect. 148

Issues when loading some Workflow plugins for the first time. 148

The OLConnect 2019.1 license update does not cater for existing AFPinput licenses 148

Page break changes in 2019.1 149

Issue after erroneous or incomplete update or re-installation 149

Backend database might require periodic maintenance 150

Windows 10 Search service impacting Connect 150

Job Creation Presets: External Sorting change introduced in 2018.2 151

Page 5

Engine Preferences: Backward Compatibility Issues introduced in 2018.2 151

Business Graphics: Backward Compatibility Issues introduced in 2018.1 151

Known Font issues 152

Minor differences in PCLoutput introduced in 2018.1 153

Windows Server 2016 issue 153

Limit of 100MB of image files within a single job 153

Print Output: Booklet Impositioning changes introduced in 2018.1 154

Issues with Microsoft Edge browser 154

Installation paths with multi-byte characters 154

Switching languages 154

GoDaddy certificates 155

MySQL Compatibility 155

PostScript print presets 155

Available Printer Models 155

External resources in Connect 156

Using Capture after installing Workflow 8 156

Capturing spool files after installing Workflow 8 157

Color Model in Style Sheets 157

Image preview in Designer 157

Merge/Weaver engines when printing 157

REST Calls for Remote Services 157

Print Content and Email Content in PlanetPress Workflow 158

Print Limitations when the Output Server is located on a different machine 158

VIPP Output 158

Magic Number changes when installing Docker 158

Uninstalling 159

Important Note:Stop any active Anti-Virus software before uninstalling Connect. 159

Impacts upon other Applications and Services 159

Uninstallation Wizard 160

General information 161

Connect: a peek under the hood 161

The Workflow server 162

The Connect server 163

The Connect database 164

The File Store 164

The engines 165

The REST API 165

Page 6

Log files 166

Location 166

Name 167

Format 167

Connect file types 168

OL Connect projects 170

Project Wizards 171

Project wizard: Basic Email 173

Project Wizard: COTG Timesheets 180

Project Wizard: Print Promotional Jobs 188

Project Wizard: Print Transactional Jobs 195

Project Wizard: Submitting Data with Web Forms 202

Project Wizard: Serving a Web Page 208

Workflow processes in OL Connect projects 213

About Workflow processes 213

Common OL Connect Workflow processes 214

OL Connect tasks 215

Capture OnTheGo Workflow processes 217

Email processes with OL Connect tasks 218

Print processes with OL Connect tasks 220

Web processes with OL Connect tasks 222

The DataMapper 225

DataMapper basics 225

What's next? 226

Data mapping configurations 226

Creating a new data mapping configuration 227

Opening a data mapping configuration 231

Saving a data mapping configuration 231

Using the wizard for CSV and Excel files 232

Using the wizard for databases 234

Using the wizard for PDF/VT or AFP files 237

Using the wizard for XML files 239

Advanced PCL to PDF options 240

Data mapping workflow 248

Creating a data mapping workflow 248

Testing the extraction workflow 250

Page 7

Data source settings 250

Extracting data 254

Steps 274

The Data Model 286

About records 286

Creating a Data Model 287

Editing the Data Model 288

Using the Data Model 289

Fields 291

Detail tables 297

Data types 304

Data Model file structure 314

DataMapper User Interface 316

Keyboard shortcuts 317

Menus 322

Panes 326

Example 335

Example 355

Settings for location-based fields in a Text file 363

Settings for location-based fields in a PDF File 364

Settings for location-based fields in CSV and Database files 365

Settings for location-based fields in an XML File 365

Text and PDF Files 369

CSV and Database Files 371

XMLFile 372

Text and PDF Files 377

CSV and Database Files 378

XMLFiles 380

Left operand, Right operand 385

Condition 386

Operators 386

Text file 388

PDF File 389

CSV File 390

XML File 391

JavaScript 392

Toolbar 392

Page 8

Welcome Screen 394

DataMapper Scripts API 396

Using scripts in the DataMapper 399

Setting boundaries using JavaScript 401

Objects 406

Example 410

Example 413

Examples 416

Example 418

Example 419

Example 420

Examples 423

Examples 426

Example 430

Example 434

Example 435

Text 436

XML 437

Functions 437

The Designer 449

Designer basics 449

What's next? 450

Features 450

Templates 451

Contexts 468

Sections 470

Print 474

Copy Fit 476

Creating a Print template with a Wizard 477

Print context 482

Print sections 487

Pages 497

Master Pages 505

Media 508

Email 515

Designing an Email template 517

Page 9

Creating an Email template with a Wizard 520

Email context 524

Email templates 526

Email header settings 530

Email attachments 537

Web 540

Creating a Web template with a Wizard 541

Web Context 545

Web pages 547

Forms 553

Using Form elements 558

Using JavaScript 564

Capture OnTheGo 569

COTG Forms 569

Creating a COTG Form 569

Filling a COTG template 570

Testing the template 572

Sending the template to the Workflow tool 572

Using COTG data in a template 573

Designing a COTG Template 575

Capture OnTheGo template wizards 579

Using Foundation 583

COTG Elements 586

Using COTG Elements 593

Testing a Capture OnTheGo Template 598

Using the COTG plugin: cotg-2.0.0.js 605

Dynamically adding COTG widgets 608

Saving and restoring custom data and widgets 611

Capture OnTheGo API 616

Content elements 628

Element types 628

Editing HTML 629

Attributes 630

Inserting an element 631

Selecting an element 632

Deleting an element 633

Styling and formatting an element 634

Page 10

Barcode 634

Boxes 692

Business graphics 696

COTG Elements 705

Date 712

Forms 713

Form Elements 718

Hyperlink and mailto link 721

Images 724

Table 731

Text and special characters 735

Snippets 737

Adding a snippet to the Resources 738

Adding a snippet to a section 739

Creating a snippet 740

Editing a snippet 740

Renaming a snippet 741

Translating a snippet 741

Styling and formatting 741

Local formatting versus style sheets 741

Layout properties 742

Styling templates with CSS files 743

Styling text and paragraphs 753

How to position elements 758

Rotating elements 762

Styling a table 762

Styling an image 767

Background color and/or image 770

Border 772

Colors 774

Fonts 779

Locale 782

Spacing 783

Using a Sass file 784

Personalizing content 786

Variable data 786

Conditional content 786

Page 11

Dynamic images and Print section backgrounds 787

Detail tables 787

Snippets 787

Scripts 787

Loading data 788

Variable Data 801

Formatting variable data 807

Showing content conditionally 810

Conditional Print sections 813

Dynamic images 814

Dynamic Print section backgrounds 816

Detail Table 818

Personalized URL 824

Preferences 826

General preferences 827

COTG Servers preferences 827

Clean-up Service preferences 828

DataMapper preferences 832

Database Connection preferences 833

Editing preferences 836

Email preferences 839

Emmet preferences 840

Engines preferences 843

Hardware for Digital Signing preferences 843

Language preferences 844

Logging preferences 845

Parallel Processing preferences 848

Print preferences 848

Project Wizards preferences 849

Save preferences 850

Scripting preferences 851

Web preferences 852

Writing your own scripts 853

Script types 853

Creating a new Standard Script 855

Writing a script 857

Managing scripts 859

Page 12

Testing scripts 862

Optimizing scripts 867

Loading a snippet via a script 872

Loading content using a server's API 875

The script flow: when scripts run 877

Selectors in Connect 878

Control Scripts 885

Post Pagination Scripts 900

Translating templates 907

Translating a template 908

Tagging elements for translation 909

Pluralization 912

Exporting and importing translation files 913

Designer User Interface 915

Dialogs 916

Keyboard shortcuts 1009

Menus 1016

Panes 1028

Toolbars 1052

Welcome Screen 1058

Print options 1059

Job Creation Presets Wizard 1159

Output Creation Presets Wizard 1173

Page breakdown 1195

Australia Post Settings 1202

Codabar Settings 1204

Code 39 Settings 1207

Code 128 Settings 1210

Data Matrix settings 1213

EAN-8 Settings 1216

EAN-13 Settings 1219

GS1-128 Settings 1222

Interleaved 2 of 5 Settings 1225

Japan Post Settings 1227

KIXCode (Dutch Post) Settings 1229

Page 13

PDF417 Settings 1232

QR Code Settings 1235

Royal Mail 2D Mailmark Settings 1239

Royal Mail 4 State (CBC) Settings 1242

Royal Mail 4 State Mailmark C Settings 1244

Royal Mail 4 State Mailmark L Settings 1247

UPC-A Settings 1250

UPC-E Settings 1253

USPostal Service IMbSettings 1256

USPostal Service IMpbSettings 1259

Designer Script API 1286

Standard Script API 1287

Examples 1296

Examples 1297

Examples 1298

Examples 1300

Examples 1303

Examples 1304

Examples 1306

Examples 1308

Examples 1309

Examples 1310

Example 1311

Example 1312

Example 1313

Examples 1315

Creating a table of contents 1317

Example 1318

Examples 1319

Examples 1321

Page 14

Examples 1323

Replace elements with a snippet 1324

Replace elements with a set of snippets 1324

Example 1325

Example 1326

Creating a Date object from a string 1336

Control Script API 1351

Examples 1356

Setting the margins of a Print section 1357

Setting the header and footer of a Master Page 1357

Examples 1376

Examples 1378

Post Pagination Script API 1385

Setting the margins of a Print section 1403

Setting the header and footer of a Master Page 1404

Generating output 1408

Print output 1408

Fax output 1409

Email output 1409

Web output 1410

Generating Print output 1410

Generating Print output from the Designer 1410

Generating Print output from Workflow 1412

Print settings in a template 1412

Aborting content creation 1413

Print Using Standard Print Output Settings 1413

Print Presets 1415

Print Using Advanced Printer Wizard 1422

Adding print output Models to the Print Wizard 1423

Splitting printing into more than one file 1425

Print output variables 1426

Generating Fax output 1435

Generating Tags for Image output 1436

Generating Email output 1438

Email output settings in the Email context and sections 1439

Page 15

Generating Email output from Connect Designer 1440

Generating Email output from Workflow 1441

Aborting content creation 1442

Using an ESP with PlanetPress Connect 1442

Generating Web output 1448

Web output settings in the Web context and sections 1449

Attaching Web output to an Email template 1450

Generating Web output from Workflow 1451

Aborting content creation 1451

Optimizing a template 1452

Scripts 1452

Images 1453

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2019.x 1454

Backup before Upgrading 1455

Overview 1456

OLConnect 2019.2 Enhancements 1457

Windows Server 2019 now officially supported 1457

Performance Scheduling settings simplified and improved 1457

Saving Connect files for different versions 1459

Improved PDFSigning 1459

Named parameters in Job Presets 1460

Performance Improvements 1460

Installer Improvements 1461

Barcode Improvements 1462

General Improvements 1462

Connect 2019.2 Designer Improvements 1463

Import resources from other Connect jobs 1463

Simplified use of dynamic background images 1464

Improved white-space behaviour 1464

Scripting Improvements 1465

Script Debugger Improvements 1465

General Designer Improvements 1466

Connect 2019.2 DataMapping Improvements 1468

Added option to "Stop data mapping" 1468

General DataMapper Improvements 1468

Connect 2019.2 Output Improvements 1469

Runtime parameters added to Job Creation 1469

Page 16

Add customized PostScript commands to Dynamic PPD PostScript output 1472

Added bin selection to PCL output 1472

Print Output Improvements 1473

Email Output Improvements 1475

General Output Improvements 1476

General Print Wizard Improvements 1476

Workflow 2019.2 Improvements 1477

New email plugins 1477

New Documentation Management plugin category 1478

New M-Files connector plugins 1478

New PDFto Bitmap plugin 1479

Updated PDF libraries 1479

Workflow display improvements 1480

CTRL-A now available 1480

Passing runtime parameters to Connect plugins 1481

General Workflow Improvements 1482

Known Issues 1483

Previous Releases 1483

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2019.1 1483

Overview 1484

OLConnect 2019.1 Enhancements 1486

Connect 2019.1 Designer Updates 1493

Connect 2019.1 DataMapping Updates 1497

Connect 2019.1 Output updates 1499

Print Wizard and Preset Wizard Improvements 1503

Workflow 2019.1 Updates 1506

Known Issues 1509

Overview 1510

Connect 2018.2.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1511

Connect 2019.2 Enhancements 1513

Connect 2019.2 Designer Updates 1519

Connect 2019.2 DataMapping Updates 1528

Connect 2019.2 Server Enhancements 1531

Connect 2019.2 Output updates 1532

Print Wizard and Preset Wizard Improvements 1537

Workflow 2019.2 Updates 1542

Known Issues 1547

Page 17

Overview 1547

Connect 2018.1.6 Enhancements/Fixes 1550

Connect 2018.1.5 Enhancements/Fixes 1550

Connect 2018.1.4 Enhancements/Fixes 1551

Connect 2018.1.3 Enhancements/Fixes 1551

Connect 2018.1.2 Enhancements/Fixes 1551

Connect 2018.1.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1552

Connect 2018.1 General Enhancements 1553

Connect 2018.1 Designer Enhancements/Fixes 1562

Connect 2018.1 DataMapping Enhancements/Fixes 1569

Connect 2018.1 Output Enhancements/Fixes 1572

Workflow 2018.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1575

Known Issues 1580

Overview 1580

Connect 1.8 General Enhancements and Fixes 1583

Connect 1.8 Performance Related Enhancements and Fixes 1587

Connect 1.8 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1588

Connect 1.8 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1593

Connect 1.8 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1596

Capture OnTheGo (COTG) Enhancements and Fixes 1601

Workflow 8.8 Enhancements and Fixes 1602

Known Issues 1607

Overview 1611

Connect 1.7.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1613

Connect 1.7.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1618

Connect 1.7.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1626

Connect 1.7.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1629

Workflow 8.7 Enhancements and Fixes 1637

Known Issues 1640

Overview 1644

OLConnect Send 1647

Connect 1.6.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1649

Connect 1.6.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1650

Connect 1.6.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1651

Connect 1.6.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1651

Connect Workflow 8.6 Enhancements and Fixes 1653

Known Issues 1655

Page 18

Overview 1660

Connect 1.5 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1661

Connect 1.5 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1665

Connect 1.5 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1665

Connect 1.5 General Enhancements and Fixes 1667

Connect 8.5 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1668

Known Issues 1669

Overview 1673

Connect 1.4.2 Enhancements and Fixes 1675

Connect 1.4.1 New Features and Enhancements 1675

Connect 1.4.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1677

Connect 1.4.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1679

Connect 1.4.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1679

Connect 8.4.1 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1680

Known Issues 1680

Knowledge Base 1685

Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 1686

Copyright Information 1691

Page 19

Welcome to PlanetPress Connect

2019.2

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. For the user guide of Workflow, see Workflow's Online Help.

PlanetPress Connect can create documents for tablets and mobile devices that run a free

Capture OnTheGo App. Users with a Capture OnTheGo 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.

For more information about the application refer to these websites: Capture OnTheGo and

Capture OnTheGo in the Resource Center.

This online documentation covers PlanetPress Connect version 2019.2.

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OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Connect 2019.2 User guide

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