OL Connect tasks

In Workflow there is one set of plugins developed especially for OL Connect: the OL Connect tasks. These plugins are designed to communicate to the OL Connect Server and database, and work with components that are only available within OL Connect: templates, data mapping configurations, and Print Presets.

This topic describes the available OL Connect tasks, which are commonly used in Workflow processes in OL Connect projects (see Workflow processes in OL Connect projects).

Data extraction

The Execute Data Mapping task is likely to appear in a lot of OL Connect Workflow processes. It generates a record set in the OL Connect database by executing a data mapping configuration on a data source.

Output creation

Merging the records with a template is the job of one of the following tasks.

Email

The Create Email Content task creates email content items and sends them to the recipient. See Email processes with OL Connect tasks.

Web

The Create Web Content task can handle only one record at a time and returns a web page. See Web processes with OL Connect tasks.

Print

The Create Print Content task generates a set of Print content items in the OL Connect database, but it is not an Output task. Following this task, the Create Job task assembles Print content items into a Print job. The Create Output task turns the job into a print output file.

The All In One task combines the four tasks involved in a Print process. If a process's only goal is to create Print output, this task is often the better choice because it is faster and more efficient. (See Print processes with OL Connect tasks.)
However, sometimes using the separate tasks is inevitable.
For example when you want to merge jobs with the Merge Jobs task, or when Print content items created at different times should be put into the same job, or when the same extracted data should be used to create different kinds of output.

The Create Preview PDF task generates a PDF preview for a single record as fast as possible. This preview is typically used for PDF previews embedded in web pages.

PlanetPress Suite Documents

The Create PDF/VT task creates PDF/VT files from a PlanetPress Suite Document (created with PlanetPress Design). This PDF/VT is compatible with the Create Print Content task directly, without the use of an OL Connect template (PDF/VT mode).

OL Connect database

The following tasks let you act directly upon the OL Connect database:

  • The Set Properties task adds properties as tags to items/sets in the OL Connect database.

  • The Retrieve Items task retrieves items (records, or content items, etc.) or sets of items from the OL Connect database, by ID or by property.

    Note: Combined, the Set Properties and Retrieve Items tasks make it possible to batch and commingle Print content items.

The following two tasks use the Metadata (data about the current job, maintained in the Workflow process; see Metadata) to do something with records in the Connect database:

  • The Mark Connect Sets for Deletion task marks the sets found in the current Metadata as 'to be deleted' in the OL Connect database, so that they will be deleted the next time the database's Cleanup process runs.

  • The Update Data Records task updates records in the OL Connect database using values from the current Metadata.

File Store

The OL Connect Server has a File Store which it uses for transient files. This File Store is managed by the Cleanup service who takes care of removing obsolete files when those files are not marked as permanent.
You can make use of the File Store in your own Workflow processes. The Workflow configuration tool has three tasks to that end: the File Store - Upload File task, File Store - Download File task, and File Store - Delete File task.