OL Connect Release Notes 2019.1

License Update Required for Upgrade to Connect 2019.1

From OL Connect 2019.1 onwards, only customers with a current OL Care subscription will be able to update Connect.

Every Connect license will now contain an end date that represents the last day of OL Care coverage for each customer. Upgrades and updates of Connect will be freely available up until that end date, but will not be available thereafter, unless the OL Care period is extended.

This new licensing model requires anyone upgrading to 2019.1 from earlier Connect versions to first update their OL Connect License.

A dialog box appears as part of the Connect upgrade process requesting you to do this.

It is heavily recommended that you first update the OL Update Client, as version 1.2.40 of the Update Client can update your OL License to the required version, then install Connect 2019.1.

For further details on how to upgrade the Update Client and update your Connect License see the Update Client 1.2.40 Upgrade Guide.

If issues arise, or if you need to renew your OL Care subscription, please contact your local Customer Care group.

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 2019.1, as well as some important installation information.

Installing OL Connect 2023.2

  • 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.

OL Connect 2019.1 Enhancements

Script Debugger

Connect 2019.1 introduces a new Script Debugger. This provides options to step through code (i.e. execute the code line by line) and to add breakpoints to pause execution at strategic points, as well as displaying the current state of variables, both local and global. (SHARED-66671)

The Script Debugger simulates an output run for all sections in the current context, including section clones. The output run is limited to running scripts and pagination for the current record. A print context will not generate actual output, and an email context will not generate attachments or send the email message.

The Scripts pane on the left hand side of the Script Debugger lists all scripts that are enabled to apply to the current context, in the order in which they are expected to be processed.

The Source Code pane shows the source of the suspended or selected script. Scripts based on a script wizard show the source of the expanded script. The current line in the script is highlighted, and the left margin of the source editor has a “pointer” marking the current line position within the greater script. You can ad breakpoints by clicking in the left margin of the source editor. The script will then pause at this line.

The Variables pane shows a hierarchical overview of the state of all local and global variables. It includes the special entry “(this)”, which represents the JavaScript “this” object.

Improved Data Model view

  • Ordering items
    Data Model fields can now be re-ordered to create a fully customized Data Model view. Multiple fields can be selected together and drag & dropped either higher or lower in the Data Model pane, regardless of the order in which the data is actually being extracted. This does not affect the data at all, just the display of the data.
  • Ordering selections made permanent
    Ordering information is saved. When one opens an OL Connect Template, the Data Model view will display the same Ordering information as was last saved.
  • Filtering the view
    Data Model pane now allows filtering the displayed database items via a new Filter box. This narrows the list of displayed items to just those tables or fields whose name contains the typed string.

New Translation feature

A multilingual Connect template can handle content and static text elements in more than one language. Traditionally this was done through creating a separate Template or Section for each of the language variants. A new Translation feature in Connect 2019.1 simplifies this process and introduces options to export translation strings in a standardized file format. (SHARED-21729)

OL Connect Designer lets you import translated string files and applies the translations based upon the current locale. The locale can be explicitly set for the template or dynamically defined by the value of a data field. The Translation feature even handles pluralization of strings.

The new translation workflow in a nutshell:

  • Tag page elements for translation (for example paragraphs, headings, table cells, buttons, labels etc.). This adds the respective strings to the Translations view.
  • Export the strings to a Portable Object Template (.pot) file. Send this file to translators.
  • Translators translate strings and send the results back as a Portable Object (.po) file.
  • Add the .po file to the Translations folder located in the Resources panel.
  • Set the desired locale for the template either to a specific locale or set it dynamically based upon a data field.

Installer Improvements

  • You can now modify your installation choices, when upgrading Connect from an earlier version. (SHARED-67956)
  • The Database Connection Check now displays a progress monitor, which is useful when attempting to connect to remote databases. (SHARED-23309)
  • DataMapper engines no longer get installed in PrintShop Mail Connect installations. (SHARED-63447)

Print Manager Improvements

  • Improved paging speeds when viewing/processing large print spool files. (SHARED-67984)
  • Fixed issues whereby some IPDS and PCL files not being displayed entirely correctly. (SHARED-54864)

Connect 2019.1 Designer Updates

Scripting Improvements

  • Regular JavaScript resources can now have Defer and Async properties set, as was already the case for remote JavaScript resources. (SHARED-67235)
  • Scripts created by the Make Conditional option previously just used the ID and class of an element by default for the selector, but this can now be changed as desired from within the Edit Script dialog. (SHARED-68412)
  • Text script wizards now validate whether fields exist in the active data model, and if they have the same types. The new Refresh Types button in the Edit Script dialog can be used to ensure that field types match the types in the active data model. (SHARED-65371)

Barcode Improvements

  • Added support for the Japan Post barcode. (SHARED-59708 / 59711)
  • Most barcodes except the 4 state barcodes (Australia Post, Japan Post, Kix and Royal Mail 4 State) and One Code now have an option to enable\disable Tilde Processing. (SHARED-68565)

    When this option is disabled, notations like "~d009" will no longer add a tab character to the barcode value. Rather the literal value "~d009" will be encoded.

    When this option is enabled you can escape a tilde by using another tilde (~~) for those data items which contain tildes that are meant to be used literally.
  • The KIX database of the Dutch Postal Service PostNL has been updated to the 2019 version. (SHARED-68210)
  • Fixed an issue whereby the barcode properties dialog would not appear for barcodes that didn't have an ID. (SHARED-50762)

General Designer Improvements and Fixes

  • Added ability to copy the location of snippets and images, so the locations can be pasted into scripts to simplify using those resources in scripts. (SHARED-33976)
  • We've added filter options to the Package dialog, to make it easier to locate the correct presets. (SHARED-68033)
  • The Package dialog now automatically adds the last modified Output Creation and Job Creation configurations to the package. (SHARED-68067)
  • The "Database Connection" password now only needs to be entered once on the preferences page. (SHARED-66660)
  • Added a Shared Content Editing option to the View menu with which you can disable/enable the editing of Shared Content in the template. (SHARED-60983)
  • Default section clone names weren't always made unique when creating multiple clones. This could lead to lost clones, when naming conflicts arose. This issue has now been fixed. (SHARED-64156)

Connect 2019.1 Output updates

Font handling

  • Further improvements have been made to font handling within Connect. This should permanently resolve several of the issues previously experienced with Adobe font formats (Type 1, CFF, OpenType containing CFF). (SHARED-66561)

  • Fixed problems with Type 3 font bounding boxes. (SHARED-62893)

Print Output Improvements

  • Improved processing of Softmask graphics, to better prevent the flattening of files (which could lead to some images disappearing in printed output). (SHARED-61466)
  • Enhanced print job summary in Server logs. A summary of print jobs will now be displayed in the Server logs when printing to the Server from Designer. (SHARED-66793)
  • Improved page breaking. This might impact upon some existing templates. (SHARED-68453)
  • Extended the range of allowable Media weights. Media weight now ranges from 25 to 1000 gsm. (SHARED-69065)
  • AFP output
    • An AFP Rules Editor has been introduced, to support dynamically created metadata in AFP output. (SHARED-65537)
    • Added support for creating and editing NOP and TLE records, in conjunction with the new Rules option. (SHARED-65545/65548)
    • Connect now supports the following types of Containers: (SHARED-67629)
      • PDF and PDF Transparent
      • PNG ( RGB only; supports Masks)
      • TIF-AFPC ( supports Masks )
      • TIF- OPAQUE
      • TIF-TRANSPARENT
  • AFP and IPDS output - Connect now defaults to "Scale to Fit" for both IPDS and AFP output. (SHARED-68389).
    NOTE: This may have an impact when printing pre-existing Connect jobs on older printer models that do not support "Scale to Fit".
  • PCL output - PCL uses a newer RIP mechanism that results in cleaner, sharper and improved alignment of characters at 300 DPI. (SHARED-33148)
  • PDF output
    • Added support for e-Invoice PDF (PDF/A-3b) output. (SHARED-68209)
    • Redesigned the Digital Signatures section of the PDF output options to use a tree display which better reflects the structure of digital signatures. (SHARED-68364)
    • Added support for internal hyperlinks within a PDF document. (SHARED-52674)
    • XMP data now output in Canonical format for PDF/VT output. (SHARED-68483)
    • It's now possible to control the metadata in PDF output. The values for the fields can be static values or dynamic values (such as values obtained from datamapping). The PDF metadata fields that can be configured are Author, Title, Description and Keywords, which are the metadata entries displayed in the Adobe Reader Document Properties dialog. (SHARED-67501/68369)

General Output Improvements

  • The PDF Preview function and PDF attachments created for Email messages now have the same producer name as standard Connect PDF output. (SHARED-56002)
  • Improved memory footprint of the output engine. (SHARED-67225)
  • Several improvements have been made to the output engine to ensure that output creation terminates even in exceptional circumstances. For example when handling faulty input files or in tight memory situations. Further, any exception that occurs in these circumstances will be reported immediately (improving feedback on what caused the error) and output creation will be terminated as soon as possible (fail fast). (SHARED-67401)

Print Wizard and Preset Wizard Improvements

Dynamic Print Control Improvements

Improvements have been made to the creation of Dynamic Print Controls.

  • When working with PPD files to dynamically drive PostScript printers, some printers have fragments called JobPatchFile in their PPD, which are required for the printer to function properly. These are now supported and automatically added to the output if the PPD includes such. (SHARED-68025)

  • Certain printers require some options to be in very specific locations in order for them to work properly. To support this, the Dynamic PPD rules now has two groups relating specifically to two of these locations: Prolog and Setup. These rather technical features allow us to support more PostScript printers than before. (SHARED-68025)
  • When adding Media in Dynamic PPD we now validate the user defined Printer Options against the Rule Details. If the rules matches a Media in the template or Presets, it is highlighted in green. (SHARED-68401)
  • An option has been added to rotate landscape pages. When this option is selected, any page detected as being in Landscape orientation will be rotated to match the standard PaperSizes (which are always in Portrait). (SHARED-65191)

Import multiple Presets

You can now import more than one preset at a time in the Job Preset and Output Preset wizards, as well as in the Print dialog. (SHARED-66727)

Improved Data Filtering Options

The Data Filtering page in the Print Wizard has been totally revamped. It has been enhanced with extra features, and the user interface overhauled. The user interface is now much more consistent with other rule builders available within the Print Wizard.

New functionality includes:

  • Filter content items by number of sheets (rather than pages). This is better suited for filtering what fits within an envelope or inserter machine than using the number of pages,
  • The use of content item Property Rules. This allows great flexibility because properties can be set during content creation, or from Workflow, or after data mapping has taken place.

General Print Wizard Improvements

  • The Additional Content dialog now uses the selected Designer language's decimal and thousand separators in entry boxes. (SHARED-60881)
  • Sample size preferences for standard and booklet imposition setups are now saved to the output preset. (SHARED-66484)
  • In addition to being able to create multiple print files based on the number of sheets per file ("Sheet Count Splitting"), it's now possible to create multiple print files based on either the number of documents, documents sets or job segments per file. (SHARED-61932)
  • Replaced the global timeout value (previously available for external sorting with a job preset specific timeout value. (SHARED-67982)

Known Issues

As of OL Connect 2018.1 the Known Issues have moved from the Release Notes to the Connect online Help.

They can be found here.