2022.2

Note: Null characters present in the data may not be displayed properly when using the Plan-
etPress Workflow Configuration tool, and they may also be printed differently by different print-
ers. To ensure consistency, you should consider filtering out such characters.
About documents and variable data
"Variable data" is data that is meant to be merged with a document or template.
In PlanetPress Connect, variable data is usually retrieved from a data file (the job file) using the
OLConnect Execute Data Mapping task. This task uses a data mapping configuration file, created with
the DataMapper, to produce a record set. A data mapping configuration contains a data model. Any
Connect template constructed using the same data model can be merged with the resulting record set
by an OLConnect Create Content task.
In PlanetPress Suite, Design documents are typically associated with an Output task. PlanetPress
Workflow dispatches captured data (the job file) to PlanetPress Design documents directly. It is there-
fore critical that a process and a document use the same emulation (see "About data emulation" on
page54). PlanetPress Suite users are advised to review the PlanetPress Design User Guide, espe-
cially the Selecting an Emulation section.
Job file
Whichever source it may come from, a serial port, an e-mail message, or an LPR request, for instance,
and whatever its format, data entering a PlanetPress Workflow process via an Input task is always
referred to as a data file. When a data file enters a process, it becomes the job file.
'Job file' however is a more general term, that can refer to data files as well as other types of files trav-
eling through a process. Image files, for example, can be passed from task to task in order to be down-
loaded to a printer. So files traveling within a process are referred to as job files.
A single job file can be the source of multiple job files. This is the case, for example, when a process
includes multiple branches, as each branch is given a duplicate copy of the job file (see "About
branches and conditions" on page115). This is also the case when a job file is split into multiple smaller
files by a Splitter Action task, for instance (see "Data splitters" on page406).
It is important to note that job files may be used as a helpful debugging resource (see "Debugging and
error handling" on page82).
Job file names are generated automatically and stored in the %f system variable (see "Job file names
and output file names" on the next page).
Actual data and sample data
The actual data is the dynamic data captured by PlanetPress Workflow at run-time. The sample data
file is a static sampling of the run-time data (see "Sample Data" on page63).
In the PlanetPress Workflow Configuration program, you use sample data files to create, edit and
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