Job Processor

The Job Processor plugin is an output plugin that appears in the Plug-in Bar of Workflow under OL Connect Send.

Input

The Job Processor plugin must be added to a Workflow job transfer process that starts with an HTTP Server Input. The Job Processor plugin is the only other task in that process.
The action name of the HTTP Input task must match the last part of the URL for print job submission, set in the OL Connect Send Printer Driver installer. By default this is olcs_transfer.
After the job is processed, the HTTP Server Input returns a reply from the Job Processor plugin back to the OLCS Printer Driver in order to notify the user that the job has been received successfully (or failed if an error occurred).

Note: It is strongly recommended that a single job transfer process for all OL Connect Send Printer Drivers is created, using the domain or machine’s or user information to divert to any follow-up processes.
This single transfer process can be set to "Self Replicating", so that parallelization is possible.

Processing

The Job Processor plugin receives a compressed PostScript file sent by the OL Connect Send Printer Driver and communicates with the Printer Driver to ensure that all data has been received correctly. If the Printer Driver has split the job into multiple chunks, the plugin combines the chunks into one PostScript file.

License mode

Each incoming print job is checked against the license to determine if it can be handled in licensed mode or in unlicensed mode.

If OL Connect Send is unlicensed, the plugin stores the incoming job in the target folder using the specified file name, but it does not save any information in the database. The end user will receive a message in the Notification Area (also called "system tray") confirming the unlicensed status, and the printer driver will not request another web page.

In licensed mode, the plugin will store all relevant information about each job in the OL Connect Send database. This database is a HSQLDB and is installed automatically. Subsequent Workflow processes can use the information in the database for additional processing (see Get Job Data).

Whether OL Connect Send is licensed can be seen on the General tab of the properties dialog.

Timeout

During a job transfer from the OL Connect Send Printer Driver to Workflow, a timeout could occur (indicated by a log entry like “ERROR: sendBinaryContents: Could not open request. Reason: 12002”). In this case, the timeout for the HTTP service in Workflow needs to be increased. It is recommended to use a value of more than 10 minutes (>600 seconds).
Additionally, the timeout in the browser on the client side should be enhanced. Please see the help pages for your browser about how to do this.

Security

In order to provide security when printing over the internet, OL Connect Send includes several protective features.

HTTPS Communication

The OL Connect Send Printer Driver can be set to use HTTPS for any job transfer. To do this, Workflow must also be set to use HTTPS.

Job Origin

Each print job will include unique information about the machine it has been sent from. This unique machine ID is calculated with a proven method and will be transferred, encrypted and enhanced. The enhancement will result in a different encrypted machine ID per print job, so that spoofing can be detected. On the server side, if spoofing is detected a respective message will be created.
Users can set up Workflow processes and filters to accept only specific jobs from known machine IDs, thus enhancing security.

Database connection

The Job Processor plugin works with a database to store all relevant job information. This database is a HyperSQL Database (HSQLDB, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSQL_Database_Engine). It is installed as a service with the name OL Connect Send DBServer (the internal service name is OLCSServer).

Communication between the plugin and the database occurs using port 9001 (the default port for HSQLDB). However, there may be situations where this port is already blocked by another application and may need to be changed.
Several database settings can be modified by creating an ini file. This file must be named “OLCSSvc.ini” and stored in the same folder as the executable OLCSSvc.exe, located under “%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Objectif Lune\<Workflow Name>\Plugins\CPD”.
By adding the entry “DBPort = <new port number>” under [HSQLDBSETTINGS] and then restarting the service, the communication port is changed.
Note that Workflow has to be restarted after such a modification.

Output

The plugin stores the incoming print job in the target folder with the file name specified in the plugin.
If no extension is defined by the user for the file name, the default “.ps” extension is added automatically, as the incoming print jobs are PostScript files.

Metadata

In addition to the print job, the plugin creates a metadata file with basic information. The values originate from the client machine.
In unlicensed mode, the user name, machine name and domain/workgroup name will not be available through the metadata.

Properties

General tab

  • Data Output
    • Output Folder: Enter the target folder for the incoming print jobs.
    • Output File Name: Enter the file name for the incoming print jobs.

    Note: If no extension is defined by the user for the file name, the default “.ps” extension is added automatically, as the incoming print jobs are PostScript files.

    Workflow variables

    Variables can and should be used to create dynamic file and folder names for each print job. This enables separating licensed and unlicensed jobs and/or storing the files by domain, machine and even user name.

    To facilitate using job related information for the creation of the target folder and file name/s, the Job Processor plugin maps job relevant information to the standard Workflow variables (%1 to %8). The following mappings apply:

    Information Workflow Variable When licensed When unlicensed
    Job ID %1 Job ID Job ID
    License status for this job %2 "Licensed" "Unlicensed"
    Username 1 %3 The user name "na"
    IP Address 1 %4 The IP address The IP address
    No. of Pages 1 %5 Number of pages of the job Number of pages of the job
    No. of Copies 1 %6 Number of copies set by the user Number of copies set by the user
    Domain Name 1 %7 The Domain Name "na"
    Machine Name 1 %8 The Machine Name "na"

    1) These values originate from the Printer Driver machine.

  • Plug-in Information
    • License: Shows whether a license for OL Connect Send could be found. If not, OL Connect Send will be running in unlicensed (default) mode.
    • Protocol version: Here the plugin shows which protocol version is used. The OL Connect Send components communicate with each other by using a well-defined and versioned protocol. As long as these components use the same protocol version, the job transfer will work even if the plugins themselves are changed.
      The protocol version used by the Printer Driver can be found in the third part of the version number of the Printer Driver (i.e. in version number 1.2.5.98-17, the “5” indicates protocol version 1.5, omitting the leading 1).
      Any OL Connect Send Printer Driver can communicate with any plugin, as long as this third version number part is identical.

On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a 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.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.