2022.2

Tip: AneasywaytocreateaCOTGsolution,includingtheWorkflowconfigurationandotherfiles
thatitneeds,istousetheCOTG Timesheets Sample Project.See"SampleProject:COTG
Timesheets"onpage141.
Batching and commingling
AConnectPrintprocessinitssimplestformmergesdatawithatemplateandcreatestheprintjob(s)in
onego,asshownin"PrintprocesseswithOLConnecttasks"onpage172.
Inreality,however,acompanymightwanttocreatelettersandinvoicesduringtheweek,forexample,
andthenprintthemoutonlyovertheweekend.Forsuchascenario,itwouldbebettertoseparatethe
datamappingandcontentcreationprocessfromtheproductionoftheactualprintjob(s),andworkwith
printbatches.
Batchingmeansgatheringandthenprintingpreviouslycreatedprintcontentitems.
Comminglingreferstodocumentsoriginatingfromdifferenttemplatesbeingcombinedintooneprint
batch.
Thistopicexplainshowtobatch,commingle,and-nottheleastimportantly-sortandseparateitems
intoprintbatcheswithConnect.
TheWorkflowtasksmentionedherecanallbefoundontheOLConnecttabofthePlug-InBarinWork-
flow.Fordescriptionsofthetasks,see"OLConnecttasks"onpage169.
Batching
Batchingreferstocreatingprintjobsfromprintcontentitemsthatwerecreatedearlier.Abatchingprint
processissplitupin2phases:
l
Phase1:Contentiscreatedbymergingaprinttemplatewithdata.Newlycreatedprint content
itemsarealwaysautomaticallysavedintheConnectdatabase
1
.Informationaboutthesetof
items(the"contentset"),includingtheContentSetID,getsstoredinthedatabaseaswell.
l
Phase2:PrintcontentitemsareretrievedfromtheConnectdatabaseusingtheRetrieveItems
task.TheCreateJobandCreateOutputtaskstransformtheseitemsorsetsintooneormore
printjobs.
InordertoretrieveprintcontentfromtheConnectdatabaseinthesecondphase,somepreparatory
workmustbedoneinthefirstphase.Whatneedstobedoneexactlydependsonwhatyouwantto
retrieve,andhow.
Sortingandseparatingtheoutputalsorequiressomepreparation(see"Sortingandgroupingitemsin
printbatches"onpage179).
1
Databaseentriesgetcleanedupautomaticallyaswell.MakesurethattheCleanup Serviceiscon-
figuredappropriately,sothatitdoesn'tremoverelevantrecordsetsandcontentsetsbeforebatching
starts(see"Clean-upServicepreferences"onpage783).
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