Change Emulation

Change Emulation action tasks are used to tell the tasks that follow them to use a different emulation to format the data they receive (see: About data emulation). These tasks do not perform any operation as such on the data, but rather they modify the way subsequent tasks process the data they receive.

Change Emulation action tasks are typically used when a secondary input task brings new data that is not structured like the initial data into the process. By default, every task included in a process uses the emulation associated with the sample data file to structure the data before processing it. Any task that must use a different emulation must be preceded by a Change Emulation action task. All the tasks that follow on the same branch will use the emulation chosen in the Change Emulation task.

Input

Any data file.

Processing

The emulation for the following tasks is changed to the selected emulation.

Output

The original data file, metadata and job infos are not modified. Only the emulation is changed.

Task properties

Note to PlanetPress Suite users: The options of this task are basically the same as the Data Selector in PlanetPress Design; see PlanetPress Design User Guide.

General Tab

Add/remove characters: Enter the number of characters to add to, or remove from, the head of the data stream, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value. Positive values add characters; negative values remove characters. This is useful when one or more characters of input data precede the start of the first data page. Note that certain control characters can be problematic. For example, the NUL character (hexadecimal 00) cannot be removed from the head of the data stream, and a backspace (hexadecimal 08) can cause unpredictable behavior. The Hex Viewer can be useful in helping determine the control characters that appear at the head of the data stream. (To open the Hex Viewer, select Debug > View as Hex, in the menu.)
Note that you cannot add characters in a CSV. Further note that if you remove characters in a CSV emulation, you should ensure that you do not inadvertently remove field or text delimiters.

Add/remove lines: Enter the number of lines to add to, or remove from, the head of the data stream, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value. Positive values add lines; negative values remove lines. This is useful when one or more lines of input data precede the start of the first data page. Note that you cannot add lines in either a CSV or user defined emulation.

Lines per page: Enter the number of lines each data page contains, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value.

Pages in buffer: Enter the number of data pages you want the data page buffer to contain, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value.

Read in binary mode (ASCII emulation only): Select to read the data file in binary mode. You select this if you intend to run a PlanetPress Design document on a printer queue that is set to binary mode. In binary mode, the printer reads the end of line characters (CR, LF, and CRLF) as they appear in the data stream and does not perform any substitution. A printer that does not support binary mode or is not running in binary mode replaces any CR, LF, or CRLF that appears at the end of a line of data with a LF. Note, however, that it replaces a line feed followed by a carriage return (LFCR) with two LFs. Binary mode is the recommended printer mode when you use an ASCII emulation.

Cut on FF character: Select to have a new data page when a form feed character is encountered in the data stream. If you select Cut on FF character, you have two conditions that signal the end of a data page: the form feed character and the number of lines set in the Lines per page box.

>View Selector: Click to go to the Data Selector to set the properties of this task.

Emulation. The available emulations are:

  • Line printer. (Nothing to configure.)
  • ASCII.
    • Tab on CR: Select to have the document insert a tab after each carriage return character it encounters. Set the number of spaces in the tab using the Number of spaces in the tab box. This option is available only if you selected the Read in binary mode option. If you cleared Read in binary mode, the printer replaces any end of line characters (CR, LF, or CRLF) it encounters with a LF.
    • Number of spaces per tab: Enter the number of spaces you want the document to use for a tab, or use the spin buttons to adjust the value.
    • Remove HP PCL escapes: Select to have the document remove any Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language (HP PCL) escape sequences it encounters.
  • CSV (comma separated values).
    • Text delimiter: Enter the character that starts and ends the data in each field of the record. If you do not set a text delimiter and the data in a field contains the character you set as the delimiter, the document splits that data into two fields. If you want to use a backslash character (\) as a delimiter, you must precede it with another backslash character (thus you would enter \\). You can also specify an ASCII character using its octal value preceded by a backslash (for example, \041 is the exclamation mark character [!]).
    • Force one record per page: Select to force a single record per data page. If you clear the selection, the document fills the data page completely, splitting a record across data pages if necessary. If you want to avoid splitting a record across data pages, yet have several records in the buffer, select Force one record per page, and, when you stabilize your data, set Pages in buffer to the number of records you want the buffer to hold.
    • Delimiter: Enter the character that separates the fields of each record in the input data. If you want to use a tab as a delimiter, select Set tab as field delimiter. If you want to use a backslash character (\) as a delimiter, you must precede it with another backslash character (thus you would enter \\). You can also specify an ASCII character using its octal value preceded by a backslash (for example, \041 is the exclamation mark character [!]).
    • Set tab as field delimiter: Select to define a tab as the character that separates the fields of each record in the input data. Clear to use the Delimiter box to define that character.
  • Channel skip.
    • Skip page: Enter the channel skip code that, in your data, signals the start of a new data page. In standard channel skip emulation, a 1 (one) signals the start of a new data page. If a 1 appears in the first column of your data, it is likely the channel skip codes are standard, and that only minor adjustments to the other codes, if any, will be necessary.
    • No line feed: Enter the channel skip code that tells the document to ignore any line feed character (LF) that appears at the end of the line. This causes the next line to print over the current line, and is a technique impact printers use to print a line, or elements of a line, in bold or with underlining. For example, the input data for an impact printer might underline text by placing the text to underline on one line, and the underscore characters of the underline on the following line. The first character of the line with the text is a code that tells the printer to ignore the LF at the end of that line. The result is underlined text.
      It is important to understand what happens when you tell the channel skip emulation in PlanetPress Design to ignore the LF at the end of a line. Recall that the emulation stores each line of data in the data page buffer, and that each cell of the data page buffer can contain at most a single character. If the emulation ignores the LF at the end of a line, it must determine whether to overwrite the cells of the last line of data it stored. In this case, it compares the character in each cell in the line with the one in the new line destined for that cell. If the character in the cell is a space or an underscore, it overwrites that character with the one from the new line. If the character in the cell is not a space or an underscore, it leaves it intact.
    • Skip x lines: Use these boxes to enter any channel skip codes in your data that tell the document to skip a specific number of lines. If you want to enter a backslash character (\) as a code, you must precede it with another backslash character (thus you would enter \\). You can also specify an ASCII character as a code using its octal value preceded by a backslash (for example, \041 is the exclamation mark character [!]).
    • Char, Skip to line: Use these boxes to enter any channel skip codes in your data that tell the document to skip to a specific line. Enter the code in the Char box; enter the line number in the Skip to line box or use the spin buttons to adjust its value. If you want to use a backslash character (\) as a code, you must precede it with another backslash character (thus you would enter \\). You can also specify an ASCII character as a code using its octal value preceded by a backslash (for example, \041 is the exclamation mark character [!]).
    • Go to column: Use this to enter the channel skip code in your data that tells the document to advance to a specific column. Enter the code in the Char box to the left of the Go to column label, and use the box on the right of the Go to column label to set the column number. This is useful when your data contains redundant lines that were originally created to bold a line on a line printer. By entering a Go to column value that is greater than the width of the data page, you can remove the second line by shifting the contents of the second line outside the data page.
  • Database. (Nothing to configure.)
  • XML.
    • Cache XML data: When this option is selected, the data is only reloaded if the size or modified date of the XML file changes. When this option is not selected, the XML data will be reloaded into memory every time that a plugin works on the data file. Caching the XML data will make subsequent tasks run faster (as loading an XML file can take a long time) but will also use up more memory since that memory isn't released in between tasks. For single runs the performance gain is less noticeable than in loops (either through a splitter, a Loop task or a metadata filter) where the XML file would be loaded repeatedly.
  • PDF. (Nothing to configure.)

On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.