PReS Connect Release Notes 1.5

Overview

This document provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in PReS Connect 1.5 and PReS Workflow 8.5.

Installing PReS Connect 1.5 and PReS Workflow 8.5

• PReS 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 PReS Connect and PReS Workflow can be found in the online help in the installer.
• Note that both PReS and PReS Connect Workflow come with 30 day trial licenses by default.

Updating from PReS Connect 1.1

In order to upgrade from Connect Version 1.1 to Version 1.5 via the Update Manager it is necessary to install a new 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 to run the update while the Client is open. It will automatically update itself.

Once you have done this, PReS Connect 1.5 will become available for download.

From Connect Version 1.2.0 onwards, the newer version of the Update Client was included with the Connect installation.

Updating stand-alone Workflow Messenger installations

If Workflow Messenger were installed stand alone, with no other Workflow components installed, the Update Client cannot find the Messenger component and thus it will not automatically update the component to the Workflow 8.5 version of Messenger. To get around this, download and run the Workflow 8.5 installer manually.

Templates Used in Workflow

For improved performance we recommend re-saving Workflow templates set up in the previous versions to run with PReS Connect 1.5\Workflow 8.5.

Reduced Memory Version

It is now possible to install PReS Connect on a machine with a minimum of 2 GB of RAM. The PReS 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.

Connect 1.5 Designer Enhancements and Fixes

General Designer improvements

• A color selection eyedropper has been added, to allow the selection of a color from elsewhere on screen. (SHARED-33561/33646/36293)
• Improved responsiveness within the Designer, particularly when dealing with large and complex documents. (SHARED-44309)
• A configurable Auto Save functionality has been added for both templates and DataMapping configurations. (SHARED-40942/42085)
• Improvements made to image file selection functionality. (SHARED-42231/42451/42503/42556//43778)

Simplified creation of templates based on existing PDFs

• Option added to allow the creation of a new print document based on an existing PDF. (SHARED-19220)
• Improved support for adding PDF files as Section backgrounds. Files can now be referenced from disk or imported into Template. (SHARED-42496)
• Added support for drag and dropping Data Fields directly onto the page as absolutely positioned textboxes. (SHARED-43311)

Print Layout improvements

• Page Number formatting options (start/stop page numbering for sections, set numbering notation) improved in Print Section Properties dialog. (SHARED-39048)
• Added repeating background images support for print documents. (SHARED-43201)
• Option added to allow the insertion of absolute positioned tables on a master page. (SHARED-21967)

Email enhancements

• User-definable SMTP settings. New defaults are added for Sendgrid and Mailgun (in addition to Mandrill). (SHARED-43897)
• The standard New email wizard has been replaced with the new Basic Email template wizard. The new wizard has improved HTML structure. (SHARED-43338)
• Sending a test email no longer requires data. (SHARED-41889)
• Tighter compression for PDF attachments that are based on a print section. (SHARED-38575)
• Colour picker support added to the Email template wizards. (SHARED-33561)
• Added support for PNG barcode images in email messages. (SHARED-43787)

Barcode enhancements

• Improved Barcode creation with improved dialogs, better data validation and better error messaging. (SHARED-39295/42879)
• Font controls added to the Barcode Properties dialogs. (SHARED-22722/43659)
• Barcode improvements made in Preview mode. Support added for resizing and dragging of absolute positioned barcode objects, as well as resizing of inline barcode objects. (SHARED-43641)
• Barcodes can now have transparent backgrounds. (SHARED-43659)

Scripting improvements

• New closest() command added to the Scripting API, to locate closest matching element above it in the Document Object Model (DOM) tree. (SHARED-41789)
• Script editing improved. Line numbering now available within the editor, support for code completion and syntax highlighting added, as well as support for various ECMA6 commands. (SHARED-42768/43696)
• Support added for cloning Sections in a Control Script to allow a document to have a dynamic number of Sections. (SHARED-43683)
• Improved Scripts tool tip warning and error messaging. (SHARED-42550/43758) Improvements include:
  • Better tailored error messages and warnings.
  • Icons added representing script type as well as showing the issue severity.
  • Duplicated problems now filtered out.
  • Several other minor improvements.
• Improved support for raw HTML within Designer scripting API commands. (SHARED-43075)

Capture On The Go (COTG) and Web form improvements

• Input fields residing in a Field Table or Dynamic table are submitted using an array notation (requires Workflow 8.5). This results in a nested XML structure (grouped fields) in the job data file, simplifying the Workflow process and extracting data in the DataMapper. (SHARED-45577)
• COTG/Web-Form: Option introduced to retrieve the jobdata XML file from within the Designer. An icon has been added to the toolbar that intercepts the Submit action in Live view and then submits the form to a local or remote Workflow engine. A dialog also allows for saving the data file. (SHARED-44899)
• Deploying a COTG Test form no longer requires data. (SHARED-41889)
• New scripting options have been added to the COTG.js library to register custom functions for save and restore. (SHARED-40670)
• Colour picker support has been added to the COTG Starter Template wizards. (SHARED-33561)
• Improved speed/size of COTG Camera objects. Rather than embedding images in output PDFs, Connect now supports embedding data URLs in COTG templates. (SHARED-38575)
• Documents from the Library now automatically deleted upon successful submission. (COTG-367)

Connect 1.5 DataMapping Enhancements and Fixes

• Multiple Conditions step can now evaluate several conditions and branch out accordingly. (SHARED-14329/44435)
• Performance improvements made when extracting text from PDFs and spool files. (SHARED-43056)
• Improved default formatting when extracting Date, Float or Currency data fields. (SHARED-43415)
• An extra field is now appended to every Document record and to every Detail table inside that record. This allows other processes to add data on the fly. This provides enormous flexibility. For example, adding a JSON object (which could contain several additional fields) to the new field value extends the data structure almost infinitely. (SHARED-43518)
• The JavaScript API now displays detailed hints for every command, object and method available. (SHARED-44838)

Connect 1.5 Output Enhancements and Fixes

General

• Improved content creation processing speed for templates featuring PDF backgrounds. (SHARED-44350)

Email Output

• Basic Email Action wizard now made the default for new Email templates. (SHARED-43338)
• Support added for user defined SMTP/Email Service Provider (ESP) settings. (SHARED-43897)

Print Output

• New option added, allowing printing to Windows Printer Driver. (SHARED-35536)
• Improvements made to external sort option in Job presets. Support added for using input/output file placeholders. (SHARED-40944)
• New HCF file added that supports “top down wrap around sequence marks”. (SHARED-42326)
• Use PostScript Media name values in the PostScript DSC comments, to improve subsequent searches. (SHARED-42826)
• Option added to allow storing of job resources on PostScript printer’s own storage medium. (SHARED-43467)
• OMR marks improved, with support added for Match Numbers (Match Code, MC). (SHARED-43589)
• A Proof preview function has been added to the Output Wizard, to display onscreen how the current print job would appear when printed. (SHARED-43885)
• Imposition improvement. Can now set specific starting position via new Offset option. (SHARED-44022)
• Minor glitches in Booklet and Imposition output addressed. (SHARED-44340/44430)
• IPDS output: Added support for levels and metadata. Future versions of the Print Manager will be able to search and restart based upon these values. (SHARED-44173)

Web Output

• Extra customization added to custom OMR settings. (SHARED-36267)

Connect 1.5 General Enhancements and Fixes

Installer improvements

• Improvements made to installation robustness. The installer now copes better when encountered permissions issues during installation. (SHARED-43732/43737)

• The Update Client has been updated to 1.1.9 and has been included in both the Connect 1.5 and Workflow 8.5 installations. (SHARED-47065)

Print Manager improvements

• Removing all finished jobs for a specific printer with a single step. (SHARED-42984)
• Retry counters added to interface. (SHARED-44772)
• Minor dialog updates and improvements throughout the Print Manager. (SHARED-30040/41975/42189/42804/43890/44113/44214)

Known Issues

Connecting to OL Learn

The link to the OL Learn site from the Welcome screen is broken in PReS Connect 1.5.
To get to the OL Learn site, use this link: http://learn.objectiflune.com/en-ca/pres-connect

Memory Usage in Clustered Environments

In high speed clustered environments, PReS Connect will fill the database faster than the clean-up service can clear it (the ratio is approximately 3:1). Therefore if the system needs to run for some time under a considerable load, a larger database should be used to prevent production from being interrupted.

We also recommend only the Master Server performing the database clean-up or the local Server Extension if the database is not installed with the Master to improve performance. For ALL Designers, Server and Server Extensions except one, set the clean-up of the database entities to run every 100 months and disable the clean-up for any Designer which also has a Server or Server Extension on that machine. Note that if the Designer is a stand-alone then it is not connected to the central DB for clean-up purposes.

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 | 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 1.5 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 1.5: *.all[0].*

Any preset containing this code will need to be recreated in Version 1.5.

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.

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 PReS 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 PReS Connect Workflow 8 thereafter.

Capturing Spool Files After Installing Workflow 8

If PReS 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 PReS 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.

Online Help Links Point to Introductory Page

Context sensitivity for the online help is not yet enabled in Connect. All links and F1 calls point to the introductory page, where you can Search on keywords to bring up Help pages relating to the topic.

Context sensitivity will be introduced in a subsequent release of Connect.

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 shows 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 PReS Workflow

In PReS 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.

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.

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.