OL Connect Release Notes 1.5

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in OL Connect 1.5.

Installing OL Connect 1.5
  • 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 1.5 Designer Enhancements and Fixes

General Designer improvements
  • A color selection eyedropper has been added, to allow the selection of a color from elsewhere on screen. (SHARED-33561/33646/36293)
  • Improved responsiveness within the Designer, particularly when dealing with large and complex documents. (SHARED-44309)
  • A configurable Auto Save functionality has been added for templates. (SHARED-40942/42085)
  • Improvements made to image file selection functionality. (SHARED-42231/42451/42503/42556//43778)
Simplified creation of templates based on existing PDFs
  • Option added to allow the creation of a new print document based on an existing PDF. (SHARED-19220)
  • Improved support for adding PDF files as Section backgrounds. Files can now be referenced from disk or imported into Template. (SHARED-42496)
  • Added support for drag and dropping Data Fields directly onto the page as absolutely positioned textboxes. (SHARED-43311)
Print Layout improvements
  • Page Number formatting options (start/stop page numbering for sections, set numbering notation) improved in Print Section Properties dialog. (SHARED-39048)
  • Added repeating background images support for print documents. (SHARED-43201)
  • Option added to allow the insertion of absolute positioned tables on a master page. (SHARED-21967)
Email enhancements
  • User-definable SMTP settings. New defaults are added for Sendgrid and Mailgun (in addition to Mandrill). (SHARED-43897)
  • The standard New email wizard has been replaced with the new Basic Email template wizard. The new wizard has improved HTML structure. (SHARED-43338)
  • Sending a test email no longer requires data. (SHARED-41889)
  • Tighter compression for PDF attachments that are based on a print section. (SHARED-38575)
  • Colour picker support added to the Email template wizards. (SHARED-33561)
  • Added support for PNG barcode images in email messages. (SHARED-43787)
Barcode enhancements
  • Improved Barcode creation with improved dialogs, better data validation and better error messaging. (SHARED-39295/42879)
  • Font controls added to the Barcode Properties dialogs. (SHARED-22722/43659)
  • Barcode improvements made in Preview mode. Support added for resizing and dragging of absolute positioned barcode objects, as well as resizing of inline barcode objects. (SHARED-43641)
  • Barcodes can now have transparent backgrounds. (SHARED-43659)
Scripting improvements
  • New closest() command added to the Scripting API, to locate closest matching element above it in the Document Object Model (DOM) tree. (SHARED-41789)
  • Script editing improved. Line numbering now available within the editor, support for code completion and syntax highlighting added, as well as support for various ECMA6 commands. (SHARED-42768/43696)
  • Support added for cloning Sections in a Control Script to allow a document to have a dynamic number of Sections. (SHARED-43683)
  • Improved Scripts tool tip warning and error messaging. (SHARED-42550/43758) Improvements include:
    • Better tailored error messages and warnings.
    • Icons added representing script type as well as showing the issue severity.
    • Duplicated problems now filtered out.
    • Several other minor improvements.
  • Improved support for raw HTML within Designer scripting API commands. (SHARED-43075)

Connect 1.5 Output Enhancements and Fixes

General
  • Improved content creation processing speed for templates featuring PDF backgrounds. (SHARED-44350)
Email Output
  • Basic Email Action wizard now made the default for new Email templates. (SHARED-43338)
  • Support added for user defined SMTP/Email Service Provider (ESP) settings. (SHARED-43897)
Print Output
  • New option added, allowing printing to Windows Printer Driver. (SHARED-35536)
  • Improvements made to external sort option in Job presets. Support added for using input/output file placeholders. (SHARED-40944)
  • New HCF file added that supports “top down wrap around sequence marks”. (SHARED-42326)
  • Use PostScript Media name values in the PostScript DSC comments, to improve subsequent searches. (SHARED-42826)
  • Option added to allow storing of job resources on PostScript printer’s own storage medium. (SHARED-43467)
  • OMR marks improved, with support added for Match Numbers (Match Code, MC). (SHARED-43589)
  • A Proof preview function has been added to the Output Wizard, to display onscreen how the current print job would appear when printed. (SHARED-43885)
  • Imposition improvement. Can now set specific starting position via new Offset option. (SHARED-44022)
  • Minor glitches in Booklet and Imposition output addressed. (SHARED-44340/44430)
  • IPDS output: Added support for levels and metadata. Future versions of the Print Manager will be able to search and restart based upon these values. (SHARED-44173)

Connect 1.5 General Enhancements and Fixes

Installer improvements
  • Improvements made to installation robustness. The installer now copes better when encountered permissions issues during installation. (SHARED-43732/43737)

  • The Update Client has been updated to 1.1.9 and has been included in the Connect 1.5 installation. (SHARED-47065)

Print Manager improvements
  • Removing all finished jobs for a specific printer with a single step. (SHARED-42984)
  • Retry counters added to interface. (SHARED-44772)
  • Minor dialog updates and improvements throughout the Print Manager. (SHARED-30040/41975/42189/42804/43890/44113/44214)

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 | es | de | fr | it | ja | 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.

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.