PlanetPress Connect Release Notes 1.8

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in PlanetPress Connect 1.8 and PlanetPress Workflow 8.8, as well as some important installation information.

Upgrading from PlanetPress Connect 1.7

It is highly recommended that you update the Objectif Lune Update Client before upgrading PlanetPress Connect from version 1.7 to version 1.8.

If you do not update the Update Client, an unexpected error might occur whilst updating Connect. This error does not prevent the successful upgrade of Connect to 1.8, even though it appears as if it might have. To avoid potential confusion, we recommend that you first update the Objectif Lune Update Client before attempting to upgrade Connect from version 1.7 to version 1.8.

The Update Client will show that there is an update available for itself. Simply click on the download button in the dialog to install the new version of the Update Client. Note that it is no problem in running the update while the Client itself is still open. It will automatically update itself.

Upgrading from PlanetPress Connect 1.1

In order to upgrade from Connect Version 1.1 to Version 1.8 via the Update Manager, it is necessary to install a newer version of the Objectif Lune Update Client. The next time you run your current Update Client it will show that there is an update available for itself. Simply click on the download button in the dialog to install the new version of the Update Client. Note that it is no problem in running the update while the Client itself is still open. It will automatically update itself.

Once you have done this, PlanetPress Connect 1.8 will become available for download.

From Connect Version 1.2 onwards, the newer version of the Update Client was included with the Connect installation by default.

Installing PlanetPress Connect 1.8 and PlanetPress Workflow 8.8

• PlanetPress Connect is released as a 64 Bit version only (with the exception of the Workflow, Fax, Search and Imaging modules).
• Full details on installing and licensing PlanetPress Connect and PlanetPress Workflow can be found in the online help, which can be accessed from the software and the installer.
• Note that both PlanetPress Connect and PlanetPress Workflow come with 30 day trial license by default.

Updating stand-alone Workflow Messenger installations

If Workflow Messenger was installed stand alone with no other Workflow components installed, the Update Client will be unable to find the Messenger component and thus it will not automatically update to the Workflow 8.8 version. To get around this, download and run the Workflow 8.8 installer manually.

Print Only Version

A Print Only license is available with version 1.8 of PlanetPress Connect which allows legacy PlanetPress Suite 7 customers on OL Care to upgrade to Connect for a minimal fee. The license allows regular printing via the Print Wizard but runs Email and Web output in demo mode. For more information, please contact your local OL Customer Care or Sales team.

Templates Used in Workflow

For improved performance we recommend re-saving Workflow templates set up in the previous versions to run with PlanetPress Connect 1.8\Workflow 8.8.

Reduced Memory Version

It is possible to install PlanetPress Connect on a machine with a minimum of 2 GB of RAM. The PlanetPress Connect Designer will automatically detect whether it has been installed on a machine with less than 4 GB of RAM and default to only using one internal Weaver and one internal merge engine on that system. The Server will also run using internal engines.

NOTE: This is not recommended for production.

Connect 1.8 General Enhancements and Fixes

Native support for Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files

The Connect DataMapper can now handle Microsoft Excel files natively. The CSV data type has been enhanced to automatically recognize *.XLS and *.XLSX files and use them directly without any additional steps. Both the CSV Wizard and the Add Data options now allow you to pick these file types. You can even use different types of sample files regardless of their extension, as long as their formats match the data mapper configuration. (SHARED-58610)

Conditional Print Sections Wizard

A wizard has been created to simplify the process of creating conditional print sections. Simply right mouse click a print section in the Resource panel and choose Make Conditional…
The wizard allows you to enter a basic condition based on a data field value and either skip or print the section. When the specified condition is true the selected Action is applied (which can be Print or Skip) otherwise the opposite is in effect. The icon of the section in the Resources panel identifies if the section is printed or skipped. Use the Expand option to reveal the underlying Control Script. (SHARED-47661)

Simplified Web Font support

Online font resources (such as Google Fonts) allow you to use their fonts for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Using these online fonts in your documents is a matter of linking to the Stylesheet file hosted by these services. Simply create a Remote Stylesheet entry and paste the location of Stylesheet file in the URL field. This will make the font available to the application. It will be added to the Fonts menu and can be used in your custom CSS Stylesheets, via the font-family property. (SHARED-56637).

Dynamically set Media Background Images

Support has been added for dynamically setting the path of media backgrounds at run time (aka Virtual Stationery). This is achieved via the Control Script API. The path can be set to an image in the Images folder but also to a file on disk (the http:// and https:// protocols are not currently supported). This greatly simplifies template management in situations where a design is shared between different brands. This technique can also be used to dynamically set the stationery image for the preview template in Connect Send environments. (SHARED-53522)

var myMedia = merge.template.media["Media 1"];
myMedia.stationery.front.enabled = true;
myMedia.stationery.front.url = "file://C:/letterhead.pdf";

Page Breaks inside Lists

Support has been added to allow the splitting of lists across pages. This includes Widows and Orphans control for ordered (<ol>) and unordered (<ul>) lists.
The Orphans CSS property specifies the minimum number of lines at the bottom of a page and the Widows property specifies the minimum number of lines after the page break. To prevent page breaks inside these elements simply add page-break-inside: avoid; to your stylesheets. A formatting dialog for these elements will be added in a future version. (SHARED-14092)

Installer improvements

• Improved error capture, handling and messaging. (SHARED-40209)
• Significantly improved logging of Server Service installation. (SHARED-50796)
  

Korean Language Support

PlanetPress Connect 1.8 is now available in Korean, in addition to the other languages already supported. Korean is not yet available in PlanetPress Workflow, however. (SHARED-40161)

Context Sensitive Help

Context Sensitive Help has been added to PlanetPress Connect. Selecting Help (via button, or F1) in dialog boxes or screens will now generally take you to the Help page most closely associated with the calling dialog box or screen. Context sensitivity will continue to be incrementally introduced and improved hereafter. (SHARED-45766)

Database connection deadlocks resolved

We have added a timeout period to all Connect back-end database connectors, as well as increasing the amount of database connection threads to better match the capabilities of the hardware. This greatly reduces the chances of database deadlocks or bottlenecks when processing jobs through either Connect directly or through Workflow. (SHARED-57240/57252)

Improved error handling of Merge Engine errors

In some rare circumstances XPCOM initializations would fail in Merge Engines. Thereafter the Merge Engine would continue to run but would be unable to process any further requests. Additional Merge engines would then be launched but the originals did not shut down, eventually leading to resource shortages and subsequent job failures. This issue has been addressed and XPCOM initialization errors in Merge Engines now cause the Merge engine to terminate and restart cleanly. (SHARED-57270)

Anchored positioned boxes losing style attributes

Absolute positioned (Anchored) elements would lose some style attributes under certain circumstances. These issues would only occur when the absolute positioned element had multiple style attributes that ended with the text "top" or "left". Such as is the case with "padding-top" and "top". If both those attributes were set, then only one of the attributes would be retained. (SHARED-57361)

• Customers upgrading from 1.6.1 to 1.8 will not experience any issues with their templates.
• Customers upgrading from 1.7.1 or 1.7.2 to 1.8 will experience problems only if they have saved their templates within 1.7.1. or 1.7.2, and only if those templates contained absolute positioned objects with specific inline CSS styles that end with top or left, such as padding-top, padding-left, border-top etc.
  In that case those specific styles will be gone and they will either need to restore a backup from before 1.7.x of those templates or manually set the styles again in 1.8 and save the templates.

Changes made to Output Speeds in Connect 1.8

A speed throttling issue was discovered that allowed some users to exceed license limitations. This issue has been corrected, and output speeds will now more accurately reflect license speeds.

Connect 1.8 Performance Related Enhancements and Fixes

Faster Performance Tweaking in Server Configuration

When tweaking performance it can be hard to figure out the right settings for the number of Merge engines, Weaver engines, dividing speed units, etc. Having to restart the Connect Server to apply the changes every time a setting was changed also made tweaking performance harder than it should have been. So we've made some improvements in order that changing scheduling settings no longer requires a Server restart.

When you hit Apply or OK, the Connect Server will pick up your new settings. Engines are only stopped or started as needed, so the impact is minimal. Changes can even be made while jobs are running, without the jobs being interrupted.

This greatly reduces the time and effort required for optimizing performance. (SHARED-53222)

Connect 1.8 Designer Enhancements and Fixes

Automatically Fit Text to Container (Copy Fit)

The Designer can now automatically scale text content to fit the boundaries of a box (inline or absolute positioned <div> ). Scaling text to fit a container is a very popular feature when creating personalized post cards and the like.

The option is found in the Content tab of the Box properties dialog and can be set to scale all text or a specific element in that box by entering a CSS selector. (SHARED-37702)

Rotate Print Sections individually

An option has been added to rotate individual Print Section orientations via the Sheet Configuration dialog (SHARED-46086)

Snap Guidelines to Ruler

Dragging a guide whilst holding the Shift key will snap the guideline to the closest mark on the ruler. (SHARED-54465)

Toggle Comments On/Off via Shortcut Keys

Toggle comments off or on in HTML, CSS and JavaScript editors via a keyboard combination. Use Ctrl + / to comment out a single line and Ctrl + Shift + / to comment out multiple lines. (SHARED-56440)

Refresh View button added

You can now refresh the contents of both Design and Preview views via the new Refresh button or new Refresh selection in the Menu. (SHARED-55616)

Specify Page Range for Preflight

You can now optionally perform Preflights on a range of records. (SHARED-35076)

Select and adjust multiple Box elements simultaneously

Multiple Box elements can now be selected at the same time.

Once selected you can either move or resize the selected boxes as a group. You can move them either via the mouse, or by nudging them around a single pixel at a time with the arrow keys. When nudging, the boxes will not snap to guides. Otherwise, when moving or resizing multiple boxes, the box that was originally clicked (the reference box) will snap to guides if Snap to Guides is enabled. (SHARED-55636)

Specify/change name of Email Attachments

Ability added to overwrite the file name for email attachments through scripting. (SHARED-57120)

Set Template Locale

Previously Connect always assigned the System Locale to new templates. A new option has been added to the preferences to allow the selection of a specific locale. This selection will then apply to all new templates thereafter. It applies to Date and Time fields plus numeric and currency data fields. For example, a monetary data value in France (locale fr-FR) would apply the € (Euro) currency symbol and use the ',' (comma) as the decimal separator, whilst the same monetary data value in the US locale would apply the $ (Dollar) symbol, and use the '.' (full stop) as the decimal separator. (SHARED-56791)

Locales can still be changed in individual templates by the Edit > Locale ... option.

General Designer improvements

• GS1 Datamatrix barcode now supported. (SHARED-55999)
• Section, Media, and Master resources can now be duplicated by copy-pasting. (SHARED-52261)
• Reopening a template will put the focus on the section that was active when the template was closed. (SHARED-53199)
• Keyboard shortcuts to increase (Ctrl + Shift + >) or decrease (Ctrl + Shift + <) text size now work as expected. (SHARED-11660)
• "Problem" view renamed more accurately as "Preflight Result". (SHARED-56343)
• Added "folding" support for CSS editors and source editors for standalone HTML files. (SHARED-10717)
• Multiple values now allowed in the Make Conditional script wizard. (SHARED-57029)
• Default colour swatches can now be edited or overwritten. (SHARED-53670)
• Minor Designer interface inconsistencies fixed. (SHARED-54114)

Connect 1.8 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes

Extracting Variables without using JavaScript

Variables are frequently used in data mapping configurations as counters or as a way to concatenate values before extracting the final result to a data model field. Until Connect 1.8, the only way to extract those variables would be to create a Javascript-mode field and to use the appropriate API syntax (e.g. automation.jobinfo.jobinfo1, or sourceRecord.properties.MyVariable). We’ve now made it much easier by providing a pick list of all available properties in the Extract Step. No JavaScript required!. (SHARED-54139)

"Extract all from here" feature added

In TXT mode, we’ve often had the request to be able to extract everything after a specific location, regardless of the record length. This would be useful, for instance, when extracting the body of an email which is never fixed-length. Until PlanetPress Connect 1.8, the customary way of proceeding would be to use a Loop step that stores all lines in a variable and an Extract step after the loop to store that variable into a field. Not the most elegant method! A new feature allows you to specify that a field should extract everything from the current location down to the end of the current record. No loops, no variables required. (SHARED-54137)

Improved Management of Sample Data

Support added for copy-and-pasting files from Windows Explorer to the Data Samples list, and vice-versa. This allows the quick exporting of those files without having to open the data mapping configuration. It also allows you to quickly add files to the configuration without having to use the Browse button.

In addition, you can now multi-select files in the Data Samples list and delete them at once, which saves you time when you want to remove all these test files from the configuration before sending it to production. (SHARED-43317/51800)

Improvements made for Transactional Style Datafiles.

• The DataMapper and Output have both been enhanced to better cater for extremely large data records (where thousands of details might be associated with a single record). (SHARED-51691).
• The Designer has been updated to allow a limit to the maximum number of records to display in preview.
  
• Tooltip now displays a warning if detail table exceeds the preview limit. (SHARED-58212)

Minor DataMapper Enhancements and Fixes

• Several other small improvements made to DataMapper interface. (SHARED-57347/33912)

Connect 1.8 Output Enhancements and Fixes

Dynamic Finishing

Print Output Finishing has been improved considerably, and is now much more powerful and flexible. In Templates, you could already set finishing for documents and sections. Job Creation would allow you to specify a different kind of Finishing for your documents and Templates. This has been extended to allow Finishing settings on all levels of Job Creation: Document Sets, Job Segments and Jobs. (SHARED-53277)

So now you can staple document sets and punch holes in your segments. You can also have multiple finishing settings at the same level.

The reason we call this feature dynamic finishing, is that it includes a brand new rules editor to allow you to choose when to apply a finishing setting:

PDF Pass-through

Connect’s output creation (Weaver engine) tries to write content the best way possible, depending on the chosen output format and optimization settings. However, there are cases when this might not be desired, such as when the graphics have already been optimized for the device and you do not want the software to change them.

It is now possible to instruct output creation to include PDF resources in the output file as-is. When used, it guarantees that the fidelity of PDF graphics used in a template is retained in the output. The resulting output will be less optimized, typically producing somewhat larger files. This option can also be useful when the output is showing unexpected results or to prevent rasterization of PDF output. Will this feature trigger visible differences in the output? No, in most cases not, but when printing highly optimized graphics, expect to see a slight difference in the printed output. This is only possible when PDF content is allowed in the output, meaning it can be used with PDF. For PDF output, this feature can be found in the Output Preset or Print Wizard page under PDF Options. (SHARED-56412)

Please note that when using a PDF from a Data Mapping in combination with Virtual Stationery, the PDF is not passed through when selecting this option in Connect 1.8. This is a known issue and will be addressed in a later release of OL Connect.

A second issue when using a PDF background via the Datamapper is that the resultant PDF output file may contain invalid font resources. Whilst the output can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader without issue and will print correctly on many printers, it will prompt warnings in Adobe Acrobat Professional's Preflight report and it should not be used as input for Connect Data Mapping. We recommend testing the output on your specific printer(s) to best determine whether this will be an issue on your specific printer(s) or not. This issue will also be addressed in a later release.

Overprint for Spot Colours

Overprinting certain content on top of other content is sometimes required. (SHARED-56743) For example:

• To deal with special print applications, such as applying special (invisible) inks that are intended to go on top of coloured areas, for instance printing UV ink or applying varnish to a certain area.
• To avoid mis-registration when printing black on top of coloured areas.

To support scenarios like these, Connect now supports Overprint for Spot Colours.

Note: Overprinting does not show on-screen in the Designer.

Print Output

• Mixplex support added
  An option has been introduced to omit empty back sides for the Single and Last sheet positions when Duplex is enabled, resulting in mixplex output. This helps in reducing costs in printing environments where page count or click-charging is applied. (SHARED-46965\55459)
• Improved logging of output generation. (SHARED-53367)

Known Issues

Issues with Microsoft Edge browser

The Microsoft Edge browser fails to display web pages when the Workflow's CORS option (in the HTTP Server Input 2 section) is set to "*". This issue will be resolved in a future release.

Worklfow - "Execute Data Mapping" - Issues with mutliple PDFs

If a process has a Folder Capture step (but not the first input step) to capture multiple PDFs within a folder, followed by a Execute Data Mapping step to extract XML files for each PDF, only the first PDF file will be processed. The workaround is to put the Extract Datamapper in a Branch, just after the Folder Input. This issue will be fixed in a later release. (SHARED-59752)

Installation Paths with Multi-Byte Characters

When installing the Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) or Japanese versions of Connect, if the user specifies an alternative installation path containing multi-byte/wide-char characters it can break some of the links to the Connect-related shortcuts in the Start Menu and cause an error to appear at the end of the installer. The workaround for the moment is to use the default installation path. The problem will be addressed in a later release.

Switching Languages

Changing the language using the Window>Preferences>Language Setting menu option does not currently change all of the strings in the application to the selected language. This is a known issue and will be fixed in a later release.

In the meantime we offer the following workaround for anyone who needs to change the language:

1. Go to the .ini files for the Designer and Server Config:
   • C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Designer\Designer.ini
   • C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Server Configuration\ServerConfig.ini
2. Change the language parameter to the required one under Duser.language=en | es | de | fr | it | ja | ko | pt | tw | zh

Only one of the above language tags should be selected. Once saved, Connect will appear in the selected language at next start-up.

GoDaddy Certificates

When installing Connect offline, dialogs allow installing the GoDaddy certificates. Most users should use the default settings and click Next. In some cases, however, this may not work correctly. For this reason those users should activate Place all certificates in the following store and then select the Trusted Root Certification Authorities as the target certificate store.

MySQL Compatibility

After installing Connect 1.8 a downgrade to a Connect version earlier than Connect 1.3 or to a MySQL version earlier than 5.6.25 is not seamlessly possible. This is because the database model used in Connect 1.3 and later (MySQL 5.6) is different to that used in earlier versions. If you need to switch to an older version of Connect / MySQL, it is first necessary to remove the Connect MySQL Database folder from "%ProgramData%\Connect\MySQL\data" before installing the older version.

PostScript Print Presets

The print presets for PostScript were changed from Version 1.1 onwards meaning that some presets created in Version 1.0 or 1.0.1 may no longer work.

Any PostScript print preset from Version 1.0 that contains the following will not work in Version 1.8: *.all[0].*

Any preset containing this code will need to be recreated in Version 1.8.

Available Printer Models

Note that only the single Printer Model (Generic PDF) will appear on the Advanced page of the Print Wizard by default.

To add additional printer models click on the settings button next to the Model selection entry box.

Note that the descriptions of some of the printers were updated in version 1.2 meaning that if you had version 1.n installed, you may find that the same printer style appears twice in the list, but with slightly different descriptions.

For example the following printer types are actually identical:

• Generic PS LEVEL2 (DSC compliant)
• Generic PS LEVEL2 (DSC)

External Resources in Connect

There are certain limitations on how external resources can be used in Connect. For example if you want to link a file (e.g., CSS, image, JavaScript etc.) from a location on the network but you do not want to have a copy of the file saved with the template you need to do the following:

1. The resource must be located where it can be accessed by all Servers/Slaves run as users. Failure to do this will cause the image to appear as a Red X in the output for all documents which were merged by engines which could not access the file. The job will terminate normally and the error will be logged.
2. The file must be referenced via a UNC path e.g.,

   file://///w2k8r2envan/z%20images/Picture/Supported/JPG/AB004763.jpg

   • UNC paths are required because the services will be unable to access mapped network drives (Windows security feature).
   • The engine processing the job will look on the local file system for the direct file path leading to the “resource not found” issue mentioned above.

Using Capture After Installing Workflow 8

If PlanetPress Connect Workflow 8 is installed alongside PlanetPress Suite Workflow 7, Capture can no longer be used within Workflow 7. The plugins are now registered uniquely to Workflow 8 and the Messenger for Workflow 7 is taken offline. It is only possible to use Capture from PlanetPress Connect Workflow 8 thereafter.

Capturing Spool Files After Installing Workflow 8

If PlanetPress Connect Workflow 8 is installed alongside PlanetPress Suite Workflow 7, the PlanetPress Suite 7 option to capture spool files from printer queues will no longer function. The solution is to use PlanetPress Connect Workflow 8 to capture spool files from printer queues.

Colour Model in Stylesheets

The colour model of colours defined in a stylesheet can sometimes change after editing the stylesheet. This is a known issue and will be addressed in a subsequent release.

Image Preview in Designer

If in the Windows Internet settings (Connection Settings > LAN configuration) a proxy is enabled, but "Bypass proxy settings for local addresses" is not checked, the image preview service, conversion service and live preview tab in the Designer will not work and exhibit the following issues:

• Images will be shown as 0 size boxes (no red 'X' is displayed)
• Live preview does not progress, and when re-activated reports "browsers is busy"

To fix the issue you must check the "Bypass proxy settings for local addresses" option.

Merge\Weaver Engines when Printing

The print operation in the Designer will automatically detect whether the Merge\Weaver engines are available and display a message for the user to retry or cancel if not. Once the Merge\Weaver engine becomes available and the user presses retry the print operation will proceed as normal. This message can also occur in the following circumstances:

• If the server is offline and you are not using Proof Print
• On some occasions before the Print Wizard opens

REST Calls for Remote Services

The Server will now accept REST calls for all remote services and will make commands wait indefinitely until the required engines become available. The Server will log when it is waiting for an engine and when it becomes available. Note that there is no way to cancel any commands other than stopping the Server.

Print Content and Email Content in PlanetPress Workflow

In PlanetPress Workflow’s Print Content and Email Content tasks, the option to Update Records from Metadata will only work for fields whose data type is set to String in the data model. Fields of other types will not be updated in the database and no error will be raised. This will be fixed in a later release.

Print Limitations when the Output Server is located on a different machine

The following limitation may occur when using the Print options from a Designer located on a different machine to the Output Server:

• The file path for the prompt and directory output modes is evaluated on both the client AND server side. When printing to a network share it must be available to BOTH the Designer and Server for the job to terminate successfully.
• The Windows printer must be installed on both the Server and Designer machines.
• When printing via the Server from a remote Designer, the output file remains on the Server machine. This is remedied by selecting “Output Local” in the Output Creation configuration.

VIPP Output

Some templates set up with landscape orientation are being produced as portrait in VIPP. It can also sometimes be the case that text and images can be slightly displaced. These are known issues and will be addressed in a later release of Connect.