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Data selections can also be used in a PlanetPress Design document that is being merged with
the data (for example in a printed output); for more information, see PlanetPress Design User
Guide.
Wild card parameter "?"
Data/Metadata selection functions accept a wildcard parameter "?", indicating the function
operates on all nodes (not just one) of a given level.
Examples
l In a PDF emulation, the format of a selected region could be:
region(?,0.59375,2.21875,1.85416,2.51041,KeepCase,NoTrim)
In this case “?” represents the current physical data page processed by the task.
l In the following rule, the Metadata selection function loops through all datapages in a job,
comparing their index in the document to a value:
(GetMeta(SelectedIndexInDocument[0], 11, Job.Group[?].Document
[?].Datapage[?]) Equal 0
l In the following rule, the question mark in the text-based data selection represents the
current page number:
(@(?,1,1,1,9,KeepCase,NoTrim) IS EQUAL TO Page 1 of)
Text-based data selections
Text-based selections are used for text data files such as Line Printer, ASCII and Channel Skip
emulations. The selection refers to a rectangular selection that may contain multiple lines, rows,
columns on a given page.
Syntax
@(page number, from line, to line, from column, to column, case option, trim option)
Here is a breakdown of the syntax (all options are mandatory):
l
@(): Always surrounds a data selection.
l
Page Number: The data page number from which you want the data selection to grab the
data. If you want to get data from each page individually, this has to be done after a
splitter.
l
From Line: The starting line of the data selection.
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