7.4

Select this option if the task is to generate a Line Printer file. This will prompt the task to perform the second phase of the proc-
ess, and thus convert the XML file to a Line Printer file. If this option is not selected, the output file will thus be an XML file. The
settings included in this group determine the format settings of the generated Line Printer file.
Character per inch (CPI): The number of individual characters per inch on a line of text.
Line per inch (LPI): The number of lines of text per inch.
Data Splitters
Splitter action tasks are used to single data files into multiple data files. You can use such tasks, for example, to split files that
contain statements for multiple clients into smaller files that each contain a single client statement. Each statement can then be
printed and sent by snail mail, or even emailed directly from PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools, to each individual client.
Splitters initiate a recurring cycle that stops only when the original file has been completely processed. When a given splitter
creates a file, it hands it down to the task that follows, and all the tasks on the same branch are performed until the output
task. Then the splitter task creates yet another file that is again handed down to the next task, and so forth until the cycle ends
(when there is no more data in the original file).
If the process merges the split data with a document, the splitter must not alter the structure of the data file. In other words,
each split file must have the same structure as the original files, otherwise the PlanetPress Design documents to which they
will be sent will not be able to extract the data correctly and the merging process will fail.
Splitters do not modify the metadata that is currently active within your process. This means that, if you are intending
to use metadata along with a process using splitters, you can either use the Metadata Sequencer instead of a splitter,
or (re)create the metadata after the spiltter.
About Using Emulations with Splitters
When an emulation is used with a splitter action task, the job file is emulated, cut to pieces and de-emulated. Most times, the
emulation/de-emulation process is completely transparent. However, in some cases, there may be minute differences.
When using the ASCII or Channel Skip emulation, if there are missing line feed characters (when lines end with a single car-
riage return in ASCII, or when lines start with a No line feed channel in Channel Skip), the output data will be different from the
input data, but the change will not be significant.
Let us imagine that a splitter action task processes the following data file using the ASCII emulation:
Data line1 of page 1<cr><lf>
Data line2 of page 1<cr>
Last data line of page 1<cr><lf>
Data line1 of page 2<cr><lf>
...and so forth...
Once split, the first file generated by the action task would look like this:
Data line1 of page 1<cr><lf>
Data line2 of page 1<cr>
Data line2 of page 1<cr><lf>
Last data line of page 1<cr>