8.4

Serial Input Plug-In Preferences
Serial input plug-in preferences control certain functions of the PlanetPress Serial Capture service, which in
turn has a direct impact on all Serial input tasks performed by PlanetPress Workflow on a given computer.
Preferences
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Serial settings group
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Serial port: Select the port of the computer where the Serial input is connected to (COM1
through COM8).
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Baud rate: Select the baud rate of the Serial input. The baud rate is the number of bits
transferred per second. The transferred bits include the start bit, the data bits, the parity bit (if
defined), and the stop bits.
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Data bits: Select the number of data bits defining the incoming data file on this serial port. The
data bits transferred through a serial port represent the data content. This excludes the start,
parity, and stop bits: these are bits defining the beginning and end of each unit of transferred
data, as well as error detection provided by the parity bit. The majority of serial ports use
between five and eight data bits. Binary data is typically transmitted as eight bits. Text-based
data is transmitted as seven bits or eight bits. If the data is based on the ASCII character set, a
minimum of seven bits is required. If an eighth bit is used, it must have a value of 0. If the data is
based on the extended ASCII character set, eight bits must be used.
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Parity: Select the type of parity used for error detection. The parity transfers through the serial
connection as a single bit. It is used to verify that each set of data bits transfers correctly. It is then
stripped away before the data file passes through the rest of the PlanetPress Workflow process.
Select None to ignore all parity bits; no error detection occurs.
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Stop bits: Since most serial ports operate asynchronously, the transmitted byte must be
identified by start and stop bits. The start bit indicates when the data byte is about to begin and
the stop bit(s) indicates when the data byte was transferred. The start bit is always 0 to mark the
beginning of the byte, but the stop bit can be a single 1, or two bits each with a value of 1.
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Time-out: Set the time in seconds the PlanetPress Workflow process waits for the transfer of
bytes in the data file before ending the transfer of this file. On a time-out, partially received data
files are not passed to the rest of the process; the Serial input resets, ready to receive further data
files.
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Job delimiters: Enter the strings that tell PlanetPress Workflow the data file being retrieved through
the Serial input is complete. Each line in the Job delimiters text box is a different delimiter. You can
enter as many delimiters as you want, one per line. The three default delimiters that appear are three
of the most commonly recognized end of a file delimiters.