7.4

l PlanetPress Suite Workflow Configuration (or "Configuration"):The Configuration is a physical file opened by
the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools and it contains all of the elements (tasks, processes, documents and printer
queues)that drive your workflow.
l Process:A single workflow within the Configuration. Aprocess begins with a single input task, contains one or more
tasks and/or branches, and terminates with one or more output tasks.
l Task:A single block in a process (also known as a plugin). Tasks can be used for input, output or manipulation. Some
tasks gather data, others output data in different locations.
l Trunk:The main "branch"of a process. If a process does not have any branch or condition, that process contains one
initial input and one output on a single trunk.
l Branch:A branch in a process means your workflow will stop, follow the branch up until its output, and then return to
the main trunk to continue processing. Each additional branch in your process means you will need an additional output
task also.
l Condition:Acondition is a type of branch where the workflow will only go one way - either in the branch, or in the
main trunk. If a condition is true, the branch is followed. If the condition is false, the main trunk is followed.
l Job Info:Alocal variable that is called by its numbered id, from 0 to 9. There are only 10 job infos. Job infos are nor-
mally used to communicate information from the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools to a PlanetPress Design document,
either in printer outputs or connectors such as Image or Fax.
l Variables:A variable is a name that refers to specific information that is kept in the computer memory. Avariable can
be modified via programming or certain tasks, and are generally accessible anywhere in your process (except certain
locations).
l Job:The processing of one or more job files, through one or more processes.
l Job File:The physical file that is generated (or obtained)through a process' input task. The job file can be of multiple
formats including plain text, CSV, databases, XMLand PDFs.
l Sample File/Sample Data:Aphysical file that contains the data used to create your process, including examples of
any data that you need to rely on (such as texts for conditions, or data for variables). The sample file should be limited
in size to speed up processing time while designing your process.
l Emulation:Afilter used to read the job file that is used in your process. Emulation lets you read different types of files
ranging from text-only line printer data to more complex PDFand XMLfiles, as well as database files.
About Configurations
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools configuration files are defined as a set of processes, subprocesses, variables, documents
and printer queues, that work together within the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service.
PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools cannot work without a valid configuration and a PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools session
running on a given computer can only use one configuration at a time. Once you have created a configuration, you must “send”
it to the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Service. When you do this, your PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool forgets its pre-
vious configuration and starts executing the tasks included in the new configuration.
A PlanetPress Suite configuration must be composed of at least one process, but it may include as many as 512.
For a configuration created in PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tool Configuration to actually be executed by PlanetPress Suite
Workflow Tool, it must be sent to its PlanetPress Suite service.
See the following pages for information on different parts of the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools Configuration:
l For information about Processes, see About Processes.
l For information about Subprocesses, see About Subprocesses.
l For information about Global Variables, see Working With Variables.
Understanding PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools