WinQueue Input

WinQueue input tasks capture print jobs received by a Windows printer queue.

Before you go through the following procedure, on the computer running PlanetPress Workflow you will need to create a local printer queue that will be used to receive data files in the form of print jobs. This queue can be shared, so as to be able to receive jobs sent from local as well as remote users.

To ensure that the spooled files created by PlanetPress Workflow queue remain in the spool folder, the printer queue must be paused.

Input

The WinQueue input regularly polls the selected printer queue for new jobs. When a new job is available, it is captured automatically by this task.

Processing

The print job, by default, is in EMF format. If this option is selected, no action is taken on the data file. However, if the RAW format is selected, the job is converted to RAW. Furthermore, if the Create PDF option is selected, the file is converted to a PDF, including metadata.

PDF Output is part of the PDF Tools group, which is only available in PlanetPress Office and PlanetPress Production.If it is used in PlanetPress Watch, a watermark will always appear in the PDF created by this task.

Output

Either one of 3 formats is output from this task:

An EMF job format
A RAW job format
A PDF with attached metadata.

WinQueue input task property is as follows:

General tab

Printer queue: Select the PlanetPress Workflow printer queue (the one to which data files are going to be sent).
Printer properties group
- Spool Print Job ins EMF Format (Advanced printing features): Select to create EMF files for Windows Print Converter action tasks (see Windows Print Converter). Note that this option must not be selected when capturing generic text type data.
- Spool Print Jobs in RAW Format: Select to output in RAW format, which is the exactly the data that the computer receives (and is not converted in any way).
  - Create PDF (With Metadata): Select to output a PDF which can be used by the Document Input (PDF Input) feature in PlanetPress Suite.
    - Optimize Resulting PDF: The resulting PDF is optimized for size and caching options are enabled. This reduces the size of the PDFs (depending on some factors), but may take more time to output the PDF.
Include empty files: Check to process empty incoming jobs. The output will be empty, the job is deleted from the print queue, and the job information is available in the process (sending computer and username, etc).

"Other" Tab

Job Information group
- Information elements: indicates what job infos are automatically created by the input task.
- Add lines before first data page: Using the arrows keys you can add any job information directly at the beginning of your data file.
Backup input files: Check this to save a copy of each data file that is captured by your input. These files are saved in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools working folders under the "Backup" folder.
Backup filename: Enter the filename that you wish the input data file backup to be saved under.
Delete Existing Metadata: Check to remove any metadata from memory. This option is disabled on initial input tasks, and is checked by default on secondary input tasks.

Job Information definitions

%1 - User name: Contains the user name of the user who sent the job to the printer, or the user un which a software sending the job was logged in under.
%2 - Host computer: Contains the name of the computer from which the job was sent.
%3 - Printer name: Contains the name of the printer in which the job was received. Is the same for all jobs received on any given printer.
%4 - Document name: Contains the name of the job as seen in the printer queue from which it is captured. This name is defined by the software that creates the print job.

On Error Tab

By default, any action task, branch, splitter or condition that generates an error will simply be ignored, and the task just under it (not within a branch) will be given control of the job file without any modification. Any initial input task that generates an error will stop the process from running as a whole, and output tasks will not generate output. The On Error tab can be used to overwrite the default behaviors.

Send to Process: Check this option to send the job file to an error management process.
Error Process drop-down: Enabled only when the Send to Process option is checked. Lists any process of which the initial input task is the Input Error Bin task.
Action Group: This group is disabled in the initial input tasks and defaults to Stop Process. In all other tasks where the On Error tab is present, the following options are available:
- Ignore: The task is ignored as if it did not exist, and the job file is passed on to the next task in the process.
- Stop Branch: If the task is in a branch of the process, the branch is stopped and the job file is returned to the process after the branch. The branch will not produce any output.
- Stop Process: The process is stopped and no more processing is done. No further output is produced.
Log Message: Check this option to enable logging a custom error message in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Message: Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that will be logged in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file. You can use any variables available in PlanetPress Workflow to customize the message.
Store the message in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the message content.
ID: Enter an error ID. This ID will be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the ID is not visible in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Store the ID in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the error ID.
Reset to defaults: Resets all options in this tab to their default values.

If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are overwritten.

Common Errors

Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.

Comments Tab

The Comments tab, added in PlanetPress Suite 7.5, is common to all tasks. It contains a single 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.