OBJECTIF LUNE PlanetPress Connect 2020.2 User manual

User Guide

Version 2020.2.1

Last Revision:2021-02-04

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 2020.2 15

Setup And Configuration 16

System and Hardware Considerations 16

Antivirus Exclusions 16

Database Considerations 19

Environment considerations 23

Language and Encoding Considerations 26

Network Considerations 26

Performance considerations 28

System requirements 31

Installation and Activation 34

Where to obtain the installers 34

Installation prerequisites 35

User accounts and security 36

Installing PlanetPress Connect on Machines without Internet Access 37

Installation Wizard 39

Running Connect installer in Silent Mode 47

Activating a License 57

Migrating to a new workstation 60

Information about PlanetPress Workflow 68

Upgrading 69

Server Configuration Settings 91

Connection preferences 92

Engine configuration 93

Language preferences 103

Parallel Processing preferences 103

Security and Users Settings 111

Known Issues 113

Uninstalling 124

General information 127

Connect: a peek under the hood 127

The Workflow server 128

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The Connect server 129

The Connect database 130

The File Store 130

The engines 131

The REST API 131

Log files 132

Location 132

Name 133

Format 133

Connect file types 134

OL Connect projects 136

Automation with Workflow 136

Using the REST API 137

Project Wizards 138

Project wizard: Basic Email 139

Project Wizard: COTG Timesheets 146

Project Wizard: Print Promotional Jobs 155

Project Wizard: Print Transactional Jobs 161

Project Wizard: Submitting Data with Web Forms 168

Project Wizard: Serving a Web Page 174

Workflow processes in OL Connect projects 180

About Workflow processes 180

Common OL Connect Workflow processes 180

OL Connect tasks 181

Capture OnTheGo Workflow processes 184

Email processes with OL Connect tasks 184

Print processes with OL Connect tasks 186

Web processes with OL Connect tasks 188

Batching and commingling 190

The DataMapper 196

DataMapper basics 196

Data mapping configurations 197

Creating a new data mapping configuration 198

Opening a data mapping configuration 202

Saving a data mapping configuration 203

Using the wizard for CSV and Excel files 203

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Using the wizard for databases 205

Using the wizard for PDF/VT or AFP files 209

Using the wizard for XML files 210

Advanced PCL to PDF options 212

Data mapping workflow 219

Creating a data mapping workflow 219

Testing the extraction workflow 221

Data source settings 222

Properties and runtime parameters 226

Extracting data 229

Steps 249

The Data Model 261

About records 262

Creating a Data Model 262

Editing the Data Model 263

Using the Data Model 264

Fields 266

Detail tables 272

Data types 279

Data Model file structure 288

DataMapper User Interface 291

Keyboard shortcuts 292

Menus 297

Panes 301

Toolbar 369

Welcome Screen 370

DataMapper Scripts API 372

Using scripts in the DataMapper 375

Setting boundaries using JavaScript 377

Objects 383

Example 404

Functions 415

The Designer 426

Designer basics 426

Features 427

Templates 428

Contexts 447

Page 6

Sections 449

Print 453

Creating a Print template with a Wizard 456

Print context 461

Print sections 466

Pages 477

Master Pages 485

Media 488

Email 495

Designing an Email template 497

Creating an Email template with a Wizard 500

Email context 504

Email templates 506

Email header settings 510

Email attachments 518

Web 522

Creating a Web template with a Wizard 523

Web Context 527

Web pages 528

Forms 534

Using Form elements 540

Using JavaScript 545

Capture OnTheGo 550

COTG Forms 550

Creating a COTG Form 551

Filling a COTG template 552

Sending the template to the Workflow tool 554

Using COTG data in a template 554

Designing a COTG Template 557

Capture OnTheGo template wizards 560

Using Foundation 564

COTG Elements 568

Using COTG Elements 574

Testing a Capture OnTheGo Template 580

Using the COTG plugin: cotg-2.0.0.js 587

Dynamically adding COTG widgets 589

Saving and restoring custom data and widgets 593

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Using submitted COTG data in a template 598

Capture OnTheGo API 600

Content elements 612

Element types 612

Editing HTML 613

Attributes 614

Inserting an element 615

Selecting an element 616

Deleting an element 617

Styling and formatting an element 618

Barcode 618

Boxes 676

Business graphics 680

COTG Elements 689

Date 695

Forms 697

Form Elements 702

Hyperlink and mailto link 705

Images 708

Table 715

Text and special characters 720

Snippets 722

Adding a snippet to the Resources 723

Adding a snippet to a section 724

Creating a snippet 724

Editing a snippet 724

Renaming a snippet 725

Translating a snippet 725

Styling and formatting 726

Local formatting versus style sheets 726

Layout properties 726

Styling templates with CSS files 727

Styling text and paragraphs 739

How to position elements 744

Rotating elements 748

Styling a table 748

Styling an image 753

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Background color and/or image 756

Border 757

Colors 760

Fonts 764

Locale 768

Spacing 769

Personalizing content 770

Variable data 771

Conditional content 771

Dynamic images and Print section backgrounds 771

Dynamic tables 772

Snippets 772

Scripts 772

Loading data 773

Variable Data 785

Formatting variable data 792

Showing content conditionally 795

Conditional Print sections 798

Dynamic images 799

Dynamic Table 801

Dynamic Print section backgrounds 820

Personalized URL 822

Preferences 825

General preferences 825

Clean-up Service preferences 826

DataMapper preferences 829

Database Connection preferences 830

Editing preferences 833

Email preferences 837

Emmet preferences 839

Engines preferences 842

Hardware for Digital Signing preferences 842

Language preferences 843

Logging preferences 844

Parallel Processing preferences 846

Print preferences 847

Project Wizards preferences 848

Page 9

Save preferences 848

Scripting preferences 849

Servers preferences 850

Web preferences 852

Writing your own scripts 853

Script types 854

Creating a new Standard Script 855

Writing a script 857

Setting the scope of a script 860

Managing scripts 860

Testing scripts 864

Optimizing scripts 869

The script flow: when scripts run 874

Selectors in Connect 875

Loading a snippet via a script 881

Loading content using a server's API 883

Using scripts in Dynamic Tables 886

Control Scripts 890

Post Pagination Scripts 906

Translating templates 913

Translating a template 914

Tagging elements for translation 915

Pluralization 918

Exporting and importing translation files 920

Designer User Interface 922

Dialogs 923

Keyboard shortcuts 1019

Menus 1026

Panes 1038

Toolbars 1062

Welcome Screen 1068

Print options 1070

Job Creation Presets Wizard 1151

Output Creation Presets Wizard 1168

Designer Script API 1265

Standard Script API 1267

Control Script API 1379

Page 10

Post Pagination Script API 1415

Generating output 1440

Print output 1440

Fax output 1441

Email output 1441

Web output 1442

Generating Print output 1442

Generating Print output from the Designer 1442

Generating Print output from Workflow 1444

Print settings in a template 1445

Aborting content creation 1445

Print using standard print output settings 1446

Print Presets 1447

Print using Advanced Printer Wizard 1455

Adding print output Models to the Print Wizard 1455

Splitting printing into more than one file 1457

Print output variables 1458

Generating Fax output 1467

Generating Tags for Image output 1468

Generating Email output 1470

Before generating Email output 1471

Testing Email output 1473

Generating Email output from Connect Designer 1473

Generating Email output from Workflow 1474

Aborting content creation 1475

Using an ESP with PlanetPress Connect 1475

Generating Web output 1481

Web output settings in the Web context and sections 1482

Attaching Web output to an Email template 1483

Generating Web output from Workflow 1484

Aborting content creation 1484

Optimizing a template 1485

Scripts 1485

Images 1486

Runtime parameters 1487

PlanetPress Connect Release Notes 1488

Page 11

OLPlanetPress ConnectRelease Notes 2020.2.1 1488

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2020.x 1488

Backup before Upgrading 1489

Overview 1489

OLConnect 2020.2.1 Enhancements 1491

OLConnect 2020.2 Enhancements 1492

Connect 2020.2 Designer Improvements 1497

Connect 2020.2 DataMapper Improvements 1501

Connect 2020.2 Output Improvements 1502

Workflow 2020.2 Improvements 1506

OL Connect Send Improvements 1509

Known Issues 1509

Previous Releases 1510

OLPlanetPress Connect Release Notes 2020.1 1510

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2019.x 1527

Backup before Upgrading 1527

Overview 1528

OLConnect 2019.2 Enhancements 1529

Connect 2019.2 Designer Improvements 1535

Connect 2019.2 DataMapping Improvements 1540

Connect 2019.2 Output Improvements 1541

Workflow 2019.2 Improvements 1549

Known Issues 1554

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2019.1 1555

Overview 1556

OLConnect 2019.1 Enhancements 1557

Connect 2019.1 Designer Updates 1564

Connect 2019.1 DataMapping Updates 1568

Connect 2019.1 Output updates 1570

Print Wizard and Preset Wizard Improvements 1574

Workflow 2019.1 Updates 1577

Known Issues 1580

Overview 1581

Connect 2018.2.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1582

Connect 2018.2 Enhancements 1584

Connect 2018.2 Designer Updates 1590

Connect 2018.2 DataMapping Updates 1599

Page 12

Connect 2018.2 Server Enhancements 1602

Connect 2018.2 Output updates 1603

Print Wizard and Preset Wizard Improvements 1608

Workflow 2018.2 Updates 1613

Known Issues 1618

Overview 1618

Connect 2018.1.6 Enhancements/Fixes 1621

Connect 2018.1.5 Enhancements/Fixes 1621

Connect 2018.1.4 Enhancements/Fixes 1622

Connect 2018.1.3 Enhancements/Fixes 1622

Connect 2018.1.2 Enhancements/Fixes 1622

Connect 2018.1.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1623

Connect 2018.1 General Enhancements 1624

Connect 2018.1 Designer Enhancements/Fixes 1633

Connect 2018.1 DataMapping Enhancements/Fixes 1640

Connect 2018.1 Output Enhancements/Fixes 1643

Workflow 2018.1 Enhancements/Fixes 1646

Known Issues 1651

Overview 1651

Connect 1.8 General Enhancements and Fixes 1654

Connect 1.8 Performance Related Enhancements and Fixes 1657

Connect 1.8 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1659

Connect 1.8 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1664

Connect 1.8 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1667

Capture OnTheGo (COTG) Enhancements and Fixes 1672

Workflow 8.8 Enhancements and Fixes 1673

Known Issues 1678

Overview 1682

Connect 1.7.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1684

Connect 1.7.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1688

Connect 1.7.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1697

Connect 1.7.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1700

Workflow 8.7 Enhancements and Fixes 1708

Known Issues 1711

Overview 1715

OLConnect Send 1718

Connect 1.6.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 1720

Page 13

Connect 1.6.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1721

Connect 1.6.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1722

Connect 1.6.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1722

Connect Workflow 8.6 Enhancements and Fixes 1724

Known Issues 1726

Overview 1731

Connect 1.5 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1732

Connect 1.5 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1736

Connect 1.5 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1736

Connect 1.5 General Enhancements and Fixes 1738

Connect 8.5 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1739

Known Issues 1740

Overview 1744

Connect 1.4.2 Enhancements and Fixes 1746

Connect 1.4.1 New Features and Enhancements 1746

Connect 1.4.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 1748

Connect 1.4.1 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes 1750

Connect 1.4.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 1750

Connect 8.4.1 Workflow Enhancements and Fixes 1751

Known Issues 1751

Knowledge Base 1756

Legal Notices and Acknowledgements 1757

Copyright Information 1763

Page 14

Welcome to PlanetPress Connect 2020.2

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 [email protected]ectiflune.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 2020.2.

Page 15

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34

l "Known Issues" on page113

l "Server Configuration Settings" on page91

l "Uninstalling" on page124

System and Hardware Considerations

There are a variety of considerations to be aware of. These are documented in the following

pages:

l "System requirements" on page31

l "Database Considerations" on page19

l "Environment considerations" on page23

l "Known Issues" on page113

l "Language and Encoding Considerations" on page26

l "Antivirus Exclusions" below

l "Performance considerations" on page28

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 and their internal

requirements and needs. This page describes the mode of operation and the files and folders

used by PlanetPress 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.

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.

Page 16

Directories and folders

All Connect applications are installed under an arbitrarily selectable main folder. If the default

installation folder options were used, this installation folder would be %PROGRAMFILES%\Objectif

Lune\OL Connect.

The installation folder will hold all the executable files and other files and folders required for

the operation of the whole product suite. All these files and folders remain static after

installation. It depends upon the company virus protection strategy, if such files and folders will

be monitored or not.

We do, however, recommend that the following file or folders be excluded from antivirus

protection.

Connect Service

The Connect Service is run via the executable file ServerService.exe. This file has been

reported as causing issues with some antivirus packages, so we recommend adding this file to

the antivirus exclusion list, if possible.

The executable will be installed to the installation target "Connect Server" sub-folder.The full

installation folder can be found by entering %PROGRAMFILES%\Objectif Lune\OL

Connect\Connect Server in Windows Explorer.

AFPInput

Performance issues have been reported with the AFPInput option under Windows Server

versions from Windows Server 2012 onwards. The issues have been specifically associated

with Windows Servers running Windows Defender, but the performance degradation might also

be encountered when using other Antivirus applications.

Consequently, we recommend that an exclusion be made for the afp2pdf.exe executable file in

your Antivirus application.

The afp2pdf.exe file is stored in a subfolder under the installation folder. If the exact installation

folder name is required, enter the standardized system variable %PROGRAMFILES% in Windows

Explorer and then search for afp2pdf.exe.

Page 17

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 a folder called

"connect.database" under the Windows system temp folder. 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 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 sub-

folders may have a serious impact on the performance of Connect.

Page 18

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" on page39is 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 MySQL instance

If MySQL Server is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into

consideration:

l The minimum supported MySQL version is MySQL5.6.

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" above topic.

l The database configuration must allow the use of mixed case table names.

This is particularly an issue on Linux MySQLinstallations.

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.

Page 19

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 database

configuration is found.

l MySQL settings are pre-filled with existing database configuration settings, if they point to

a MySQL database 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.

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

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