OL Connect Release Notes 1.4.2

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 1.4.n.

Installing OL Connect 1.4.n
  • 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 in the installer.
  • Note that the software comes with a 30 day trial license by default.

Connect 1.4.2 Enhancements and Fixes

Designer
  • A blank page is no longer added to beginning of templates that use scripting to add pages from PDF files. This problem only appeared when saving to a new file from within Preview mode, or when generating output from Preview mode. (SHARED-44564)
  • Image elements referencing a PDF image would multiply when switching back and forth between Live and Preview modes, in email context. This has now been fixed. (SHARED-44066)
Email Output
  • Elements whose style was set to display: none would be removed from HTML output, rather than just not being displayed. This error has been fixed. (SHARED-44151)

    Elements hidden via the Conditional Script wizard are removed from the output.

Print Manager

Connect 1.4.1 New Features and Enhancements

New Languages Added

The Connect user interface is now supported in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese (Simplified) as well as English, French, German, Japanese and Chinese (Traditional). The default language remains English. Further languages will be introduced in later releases.

The language can be selected during the installation of Connect or via the Language Setting options in the Preferences dialog (note that Connect needs to be restarted in order to apply the selected language).

At present only the Connect user interface has been translated. Error messages and warnings will be translated for a later release.

Welcome Screen Extended
  • The Printer Definition Configs and HCF files available on the OL Connect website are now grouped by manufacturer, to simplify selection.
  • Connect 1.4.1 also introduces Responsive Email Templates.
Virtualisation
  • Connect is now supported on the Microsoft Hyper-V and Hyper-V/Azure environments as well as the VMWare Workstation, Server, Player and ESX infrastructure environments.
Modifying Connect Installations
  • Connect 1.4.1 introduces the ability to Modify Connect installations, once Connect 1.4.1 has been installed.

Connect 1.4.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes

Email Context
  • Email context sections can be enabled or disabled based upon data value. (SHARED-33656)
  • Email port number can now be specified as part of the host name. (SHARED-38008)
  • New template wizard for Slate templates by Litmus. (SHARED-36843)
Print Context
  • Ability added to mirror margins on back pages of Duplex jobs, via Facing Pages selection added in Sheet Configuration dialog. (SHARED-40505)
  • Can now suppress Master Page on duplex back pages, if there are no contents.
Scripting
  • Result can now be written as a JSON string into an attribute or text (instead of the field value). Useful for web contexts where a front-end script can easily read the value.
  • User-defined formatting masks can now be used when outputting dates and numerical values.
  • Conditional script set to "Show if Condition is true" will hide the object by default.
  • Page range can be specified via scripting when setting PDF as background. (SHARED-36998)
  • Matched elements are highlighted when hovering over scripts. (SHARED-38293)
General
  • Numerous improvements to Designer GUI and user-experience. These include:
    • A new "Styles" pane that displays the styles applied to the selected object.
    • Image Selection Dialog now inserts from resources, files or URL.
    • Line number option now available from any source view.
    • View menu now has entries to switch between views within the Workspace.
  • Set any PDF as background for a Section. (SHARED-39880)
  • Specify a background image and control its size, position and repeat mode. (SHARED-14522)
  • Option to generate JSON string from data model fields to pass data record information to client side script. (SHARED-39337)
  • CSS Class name completion suggests CSS classes based upon the current section. (SHARED-36870)
  • CSS Style inspector allows full control over styles. (SHARED-22929)

Connect 1.4.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes

Print Output
  • Images, barcodes, OMRs and text can now all be added to the page at time of output generation.
  • Ability to add Metadata to any output type (previously only PDF and AFP), for use within output Presets.
  • Static strings can now be added to Metadata in job Presets.
  • The Output Path in the Output Preset can now be set dynamically.
  • New Color setting for the Add Text option. (SHARED-40830)
  • Monochrome and Dithering support added to PCL output. (SHARED-39937)
  • Dithering and B&W threshold values now supported in the Print Wizard. (SHARED-39520)
  • New option to control Compact Font Format settings within PostScript. (SHARED-39902)
  • Support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) queries added to Print Manager. (SHARED-39213)
Email Output
  • SMTP port can now be customized when sending email.

Known Issues

Installation Paths with Multi-Byte Characters

When installing the Traditional Chinese or Japanese versions of Connect, if the user specifies an alternative installation path containing multi-byte/wide-char characters it can break some of the links to the Connect-related shortcuts in the Start Menu and cause an error to appear at the end of the installer. The workaround for the moment is to use the default installation path. The problem will be addressed in a later release.

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:

  1. 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
  2. Change the language parameter to the required one under Duser.language=en | fr | de | ja | 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.

Online Help Links Point to Introductory Page

Context sensitivity for the online help is not yet enabled in Connect. All links and F1 calls point to the introductory page, where you can Search on keywords to bring up Help pages relating to the topic.

Context sensitivity will be introduced in a subsequent release of Connect.

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 shows 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.