Job file

Whichever source it may come from, a serial port, an e-mail message, or an LPR request, for instance, and whatever its format, data entering a OL Connect Workflow process via an Input task is always referred to as a data file. When a data file enters a process, it becomes the job file.
'Job file' however is a more general term, that can refer to data files as well as other types of files traveling through a process. Image files, for example, can be passed from task to task in order to be downloaded to a printer. So files traveling within a process are referred to as job files.

A single job file can be the source of multiple job files. This is the case, for example, when a process includes multiple branches, as each branch is given a duplicate copy of the job file (see About branches and conditions). This is also the case when a job file is split into multiple smaller files by a Splitter Action task, for instance (see Data splitters).

It is important to note that job files may be used as a helpful debugging resource (see Debugging and error handling).

Job file names are generated automatically and stored in the %f system variable (see Job file names and output file names).

Actual data and sample data

The actual data is the dynamic data captured by OL Connect Workflow at run-time. The sample data file is a static sampling of the run-time data (see Sample Data).
In the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program, you use sample data files to create, edit and debug OL Connect Workflow configurations (see Debugging your OL Connect Workflow process).