Standard Filter

Standard Filter action tasks can be used to remove HP Escape characters from data files, as well as to eliminate spacing problems caused by LF-CR end-of-line sequences.

HP escape characters are used in the Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language (HP PCL) to communicate basic page formatting and font selection information from print jobs to HP or HP-compatible printers.

These characters, like other printer control characters that control how printers interpret and print jobs, are not meant to be printed.

If your print job is bound for an HP compatible printer, it may include these characters even when printing to a PostScript printer that does not recognize them. PlanetPress Workflow provides an easy way to automatically filter these characters through its Standard Filter action.

Input

Text-based data files such as Line Printer Emulation and ASCII Emulation data files, which contain HP PCL control characters.

Processing

All HP PCL characters are removed from the data file. Note that these characters are not interpreted, only stripped out.

Output

The modified data file, with stripped characters, is output from this task. Metadata, job infos and variables are not modified.

Standard Filter action task properties are as follows:

General tab

Process job using ASCII emulation: Select to use the ASCII emulation to process the job file. This reverses LF-CR end-of-line sequences that may result in unwanted double-spacing.
Remove and convert HP escape characters: Select to filter HP escape character sequences from the job file.

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.