OL Connect Release Notes 1.8
Overview
This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 1.8, as well as some important installation information.
Upgrading from OL Connect 1.7
It is highly recommended that you update the Objectif Lune Update Client before upgrading OL Connect from version 1.7 to version 1.8.
If you do not update the Update Client, an unexpected error might occur whilst updating Connect. This error does not prevent the successful upgrade of Connect to 1.8, even though it appears as if it might have. To avoid potential confusion, we recommend that you first update the Objectif Lune Update Client before attempting to upgrade Connect from version 1.7 to version 1.8.
The Update Client will show that there is an update available for itself. Simply click on the download button in the dialog to install the new version of the Update Client. Note that it is no problem in running the update while the Client itself is still open. It will automatically update itself.
Installing OL Connect 1.8
- OL Connect is released as a 64 Bit version only.
- Full details on installing and licensing OL Connect can be found in the online help, which can be accessed from the software and the installer.
- Note that the software comes with a 30 day trial license by default.
Connect 1.8 General Enhancements and Fixes
Native support for Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files
OL Connect can now handle Microsoft Excel files natively. The CSV data type has been enhanced to automatically recognize *.XLS and *.XLSX files and use them directly without any additional steps. Both the CSV Wizard and the Add Data options now allow you to pick these file types. (SHARED-58610)
Conditional Print Sections Wizard
A wizard has been created to simplify the process of creating conditional print sections. Simply right mouse click a print section in the Resource panel and choose Make Conditional…
The wizard allows you to enter a basic condition based on a data field value and either skip or print the section. When the specified condition is true the selected Action is applied (which can be Print or Skip) otherwise the opposite is in effect. The icon of the section in the Resources panel identifies if the section is printed or skipped. Use the Expand option to reveal the underlying Control Script. (SHARED-47661)
Simplified Web Font support
Online font resources (such as Google Fonts) allow you to use their fonts for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Using these online fonts in your documents is a matter of linking to the Stylesheet file hosted by these services. Simply create a Remote Stylesheet entry and paste the location of Stylesheet file in the URL field. This will make the font available to the application. It will be added to the Fonts menu and can be used in your custom CSS Stylesheets, via the font-family property. (SHARED-56637).
Dynamically set Media Background Images
Support has been added for dynamically setting the path of media backgrounds at run time (aka Virtual Stationery). This is achieved via the Control Script API. The path can be set to an image in the Images folder but also to a file on disk (the http:// and https:// protocols are not currently supported). This greatly simplifies template management in situations where a design is shared between different brands. This technique can also be used to dynamically set the stationery image for the preview template in Connect Send environments. (SHARED-53522)
var myMedia = merge.template.media["Media 1"];
myMedia.stationery.front.enabled = true;
myMedia.stationery.front.url = "file://C:/letterhead.pdf";
Page Breaks inside Lists
Support has been added to allow the splitting of lists across pages. This includes Widows and Orphans control for ordered (<ol>) and unordered (<ul>) lists.
The Orphans CSS property specifies the minimum number of lines at the bottom of a page and the Widows property specifies the minimum number of lines after the page break. To prevent page breaks inside these elements simply add page-break-inside: avoid; to your stylesheets. A formatting dialog for these elements will be added in a future version. (SHARED-14092)
Installer improvements
Improved error capture, handling and messaging. (SHARED-40209)
Korean Language Support
OL Connect 1.8 is now available in Korean, in addition to the other languages already supported. (SHARED-40161)
Context Sensitive Help
Context Sensitive Help has been added to OL Connect. Selecting Help (via button, or F1) in dialog boxes or screens will now generally take you to the Help page most closely associated with the calling dialog box or screen. Context sensitivity will continue to be incrementally introduced and improved hereafter. (SHARED-45766)
Database connection deadlocks resolved
We have added a timeout period to all Connect back-end database connectors, as well as increasing the amount of database connection threads to better match the capabilities of the hardware. This greatly reduces the chances of database deadlocks or bottlenecks when processing jobs. (SHARED-57252)
Improved error handling of Merge Engine errors
In some rare circumstances XPCOM initializations would fail in Merge Engines. Thereafter the Merge Engine would continue to run but would be unable to process any further requests. Additional Merge engines would then be launched but the originals did not shut down, eventually leading to resource shortages and subsequent job failures. This issue has been addressed and XPCOM initialization errors in Merge Engines now cause the Merge engine to terminate and restart cleanly. (SHARED-57270)
Anchored positioned boxes losing style attributes
Absolute positioned (Anchored) elements would lose some style attributes under certain circumstances. These issues would only occur when the absolute positioned element had multiple style attributes that ended with the text "top" or "left". Such as is the case with "padding-top" and "top". If both those attributes were set, then only one of the attributes would be retained. (SHARED-57361)
- Customers upgrading from 1.6.1 to 1.8 will not experience any issues with their templates.
- Customers upgrading from 1.7.1 or 1.7.2 to 1.8 will experience problems only if they have saved their templates within 1.7.1. or 1.7.2, and only if those templates contained absolute positioned objects with specific inline CSS styles that end with top or left, such as padding-top, padding-left, border-top etc.
In that case those specific styles will be gone and they will either need to restore a backup from before 1.7.x of those templates or manually set the styles again in 1.8 and save the templates.
IPDS Data exception
In some instances IPDS output would fail, due to data records exceeding maximum limits and continuing in the subsequent record. This scenario is now catered for and the error is no longer encountered. (SHARED-57723)
Issues with 2D Barcodes on Nipson N7000 printers
2D Barcodes (such as DataMatrix) were corrupted when printing on Nipson N7000 printers. This error has been fixed. (SHARED-57767)
Changes made to Output Speeds in Connect 1.8
A speed throttling issue was discovered that allowed some users to exceed license limitations. This issue has been corrected, and output speeds will now more accurately reflect license speeds.
Connect 1.8 Performance Related Enhancements and Fixes
Faster printing in PrintShop Mail Connect
For PrintShop Mail Connect, the speed limit in the license will be applied differently, resulting in faster printing. Instead of applying the licensed speed only to the final step of the print process (the Output Creation), the speed limit is now applied to the entire print process. Thus the time required for Data Mapping, Content Creation and Job Creation are now taken into consideration as well. The final Output Creation step will now run as fast as required to have the entire print process completed at the licensed speed.
For example, if a 1000 page job needs 40 seconds for content creation, output creation (Weaver engine) is allowed to run at 3000 pages per minute to have the entire print process finish in 1 minute (assuming a licensed speed of 1000 pages per minute). Previously Output Creation would be limited to the licensed speed and cause the whole process to take 1 minute 40 seconds.
PrintShop Mail Connect now also shows a post printing report with details on job size and time spent. (SHARED-56386).
Connect 1.8 Designer Enhancements and Fixes
Automatically Fit Text to Container (Copy Fit)
The Designer can now automatically scale text content to fit the boundaries of a box (inline or absolute positioned <div> ). Scaling text to fit a container is a very popular feature when creating personalized post cards and the like.
The option is found in the Content tab of the Box properties dialog and can be set to scale all text or a specific element in that box by entering a CSS selector. (SHARED-37702)
Rotate Print Sections individually
An option has been added to rotate individual Print Section orientations via the Sheet Configuration dialog (SHARED-46086)
Snap Guidelines to Ruler
Dragging a guide whilst holding the Shift key will snap the guideline to the closest mark on the ruler. (SHARED-54465)
Toggle Comments On/Off via Shortcut Keys
Toggle comments off or on in HTML, CSS and JavaScript editors via a keyboard combination. Use Ctrl + / to comment out a single line and Ctrl + Shift + / to comment out multiple lines. (SHARED-56440)
Refresh View button added
You can now refresh the contents of both Design and Preview views via the new Refresh button or new Refresh selection in the Menu. (SHARED-55616)
Specify Page Range for Preflight
You can now optionally perform Preflights on a range of records. (SHARED-35076)
Select and adjust multiple Box elements simultaneously
Multiple Box elements can now be selected at the same time.
Once selected you can either move or resize the selected boxes as a group. You can move them either via the mouse, or by nudging them around a single pixel at a time with the arrow keys. When nudging, the boxes will not snap to guides. Otherwise, when moving or resizing multiple boxes, the box that was originally clicked (the reference box) will snap to guides if Snap to Guides is enabled. (SHARED-55636)
Specify/change name of Email Attachments
Ability added to overwrite the file name for email attachments through scripting. (SHARED-57120)
Set Template Locale
Previously Connect always assigned the System Locale to new templates. A new option has been added to the preferences to allow the selection of a specific locale. This selection will then apply to all new templates thereafter. It applies to Date and Time fields plus numeric and currency data fields. For example, a monetary data value in France (locale fr-FR) would apply the € (Euro) currency symbol and use the ',' (comma) as the decimal separator, whilst the same monetary data value in the US locale would apply the $ (Dollar) symbol, and use the '.' (full stop) as the decimal separator. (SHARED-56791)
Locales can still be changed in individual templates by the Edit > Locale ... option.
General Designer improvements
- GS1 Datamatrix barcode now supported. (SHARED-55999)
- Section, Media, and Master resources can now be duplicated by copy-pasting. (SHARED-52261)
- Reopening a template will put the focus on the section that was active when the template was closed. (SHARED-53199)
- Keyboard shortcuts to increase (
Ctrl + Shift + >) or decrease (Ctrl + Shift + <) text size now work as expected. (SHARED-11660) - "Problem" view renamed more accurately as "Preflight Result". (SHARED-56343)
- Added "folding" support for CSS editors and source editors for standalone HTML files. (SHARED-10717)
- Multiple values now allowed in the Make Conditional script wizard. (SHARED-57029)
- Default colour swatches can now be edited or overwritten. (SHARED-53670)
- Minor Designer interface inconsistencies fixed. (SHARED-54114)
Connect 1.8 Output Enhancements and Fixes
Dynamic Finishing
Print Output Finishing has been improved considerably, and is now much more powerful and flexible. In Templates, you could already set finishing for documents and sections. Job Creation would allow you to specify a different kind of Finishing for your documents and Templates. This has been extended to allow Finishing settings on all levels of Job Creation: Document Sets, Job Segments and Jobs. (SHARED-53277)
So now you can staple document sets and punch holes in your segments. You can also have multiple finishing settings at the same level.
The reason we call this feature dynamic finishing, is that it includes a brand new rules editor to allow you to choose when to apply a finishing setting:
PDF Pass-through
Connect’s output creation (Weaver engine) tries to write content the best way possible, depending on the chosen output format and optimization settings. However, there are cases when this might not be desired, such as when the graphics have already been optimized for the device and you do not want the software to change them.
It is now possible to instruct output creation to include PDF resources in the output file as-is. When used, it guarantees that the fidelity of PDF graphics used in a template is retained in the output. The resulting output will be less optimized, typically producing somewhat larger files. This option can also be useful when the output is showing unexpected results or to prevent rasterization of PDF output. Will this feature trigger visible differences in the output? No, in most cases not, but when printing highly optimized graphics, expect to see a slight difference in the printed output. This is only possible when PDF content is allowed in the output, meaning it can be used with PDF
For AFP and IPDS with PDF containers, this option needs to be set via a Printer Definition file. Printer Definition files for AFP and IPDS that have PDF pass-through enabled will be made available for download, and will be accessible from the Connect Welcome page.
Please note that when using a PDF from a Data Mapping in combination with Virtual Stationery, the PDF is not passed through when selecting this option in Connect 1.8. This is a known issue and will be addressed in a later release of OL Connect.
A second issue when using a PDF background via the Datamapper is that the resultant PDF output file may contain invalid font resources. Whilst the output can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader without issue and will print correctly on many printers, it will prompt warnings in Adobe Acrobat Professional's Preflight report and it should not be used as input for Connect Data Mapping. We recommend testing the output on your specific printer(s) to best determine whether this will be an issue on your specific printer(s) or not. This issue will also be addressed in a later release.
Overprint for Spot Colours
Overprinting certain content on top of other content is sometimes required. (SHARED-56743) For example:
- To deal with special print applications, such as applying special (invisible) inks that are intended to go on top of coloured areas, for instance printing UV ink or applying varnish to a certain area.
- To avoid mis-registration when printing black on top of coloured areas.
To support scenarios like these, Connect now supports Overprint for Spot Colours.
Note: Overprinting does not show on-screen in the Designer.
Print Output
- Mixplex support added
An option has been introduced to omit empty back sides for the Single and Last sheet positions when Duplex is enabled, resulting in mixplex output. This helps in reducing costs in printing environments where page count or click-charging is applied. (SHARED-46965\55459) - Improved logging of output generation. (SHARED-53367)
- Continuous Printing on IPDS printers now supported
Option added to the Add/Edit Printer dialog, to provide support for continuous printing on IPDS printers.
For further details, please see Continuous Printing on IPDS Printers.
Connect 1.8 Print Manager Enhancements and Fixes
Continuous Printing on IPDS Printers
When printing on high volume IPDS printers, it is best if the printer does not pause often. On continuous feed printers in particular, a pause can lead to malfunctions as well as cause delays. It's not just the pause itself, but also the additional time spent whilst the printer slows down and then speeds up again after the pause. The faster the printer, the bigger an issue this becomes.
The Connect Print Manager itself was increasing the pause time as it had to make sure that the currently printing job was completed before sending a new job.
To reduce the need for such pauses, support for IPDS output incorporating multipage PDF containers was added in Connect 1.8. Most (if not all) modern IPDS printers support Multipage PDF containers, which can be used in such a way to as remove pauses between print jobs. This means high-end printers can now be prevented from pausing.
To cater for IPDS output with Multipage PDF containers, the Print Manager has been significantly updated.
For further information about this, please see the Print Manager section in the online Help. (SHARED-56881)
General Print Manager improvements and fixes
- The entire row is now highlighted when selected in the SNMP printer status view of the Print Manager. (SHARED-41114)
- Can now drag print jobs back and forth between the Printer Queue and the Job Queue.
- A multitude of small GUI improvements were made, including catering for new continuous IPDS printing.
Known Issues
Installation Paths with Multi-Byte Characters
When installing the
Switching Languages
Changing the language using the Window>Preferences > Language Setting menu option does not currently change all of the strings in the application to the selected language. This is a known issue and will be fixed in a later release.
In the meantime we offer the following workaround for anyone who needs to change the language:
- Go to the .ini files for the Designer and Server Config:
- C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Designer\Designer.ini
- C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Server Configuration\ServerConfig.ini
- Change the language parameter to the required one under Duser.language=en | es | de | fr | it | ja | ko | pt | tw | zh
Only one of the above language tags should be selected. Once saved, Connect will appear in the selected language at next start-up.
GoDaddy Certificates
When installing Connect offline, dialogs allow installing the GoDaddy certificates. Most users should use the default settings and click Next. In some cases, however, this may not work correctly. For this reason those users should activate Place all certificates in the following store and then select the Trusted Root Certification Authorities as the target certificate store.
Available Printer Models
Note that only the single Printer Model (Generic PDF) will appear on the Advanced page of the Print Wizard by default.
To add additional printer models click on the settings 
button next to the Model selection entry box.
Colour Model in Stylesheets
The colour model of colours defined in a stylesheet can sometimes change after editing the stylesheet. This is a known issue and will be addressed in a subsequent release.
Image Preview in Designer
If in the Windows Internet settings (Connection Settings > LAN configuration) a proxy is enabled, but "Bypass proxy settings for local addresses" is not checked, the image preview service, conversion service and live preview tab in the Designer will not work and exhibit the following issues:
- Images will be shown as 0 size boxes (no red 'X' is displayed)
- Live preview does not progress, and when re-activated reports "browsers is busy"
To fix the issue you must check the "Bypass proxy settings for local addresses" option.
VIPP Output
Some templates set up with landscape orientation are being produced as portrait in VIPP. It can also sometimes be the case that text and images can be slightly displaced. These are known issues and will be addressed in a later release of Connect.