User manual

User Manual Page 70
EDIsecure
®
XID 8300 Printer Driver
6.6 Multiple encodings on one card
The driver is capable of handling multiple encoding strings in one layout, which might be
- different encoding format templates with one encoder
- contact encoding and contactless encoding
- combination with magnetic stripe
Usually, the driver processes the strings in the order how they are sent from the printing application. Since it
is impossible to determine this, and since this differs for each application, a special keyword allows
specifying the processing sequence of multiple encoding strings. Using the so-called "sequence order", the
encoding and printing process can be tweaked to be performed in the fastest possible way.
6.7 Precoding
Introduction
A special preprocessing might be required by the application before encoding or printing the card, or both.
In some cases, a serial number from a card needs to be processed and the card which has to be produced is
selected by this serial number, i.e. the card holder record is determined by the number that is pre-encoded
on the card.
Another example of the need to preprocess the card is when the card's pre-encoded serial number must be
printed on the card.
In both cases, a pre-processing needs to be done before the real print job is created:
- the card must be loaded to the encoder and some data from the chip is processed
- the layout is selected or adjusted and send to the print job queue
What is precoding?
In the time between the first and the second step, this printer must be locked for the second step, which
contains the data that needs to be encoded on the card or the layout that needs to be printed, or both. (This
is especially important in a multi-printer environment)
This first step is called "Precoding". In this step, the card will only be loaded to the encoder and the printer
will be locked for the second step and data from the chip is processed. No printing is done at this step
What is done in the precode step?
In order to give the most flexibility, the Plug-in is completely free to decide what to do in the first step.
Examples of possible processings are:
- reading a serial number
- writing it to a database or log-file and
- report it to the application (to let it select the record for the printing layout and the encoding string)
Precoding however does require the Plug-in to interact with the printing application so it can prepare the
second processing step when the precode step is finished.