2022.1

Note
Null characters present in the data may not be displayed properly when using the PReS
Workflow Configuration tool, and they may also be printed differently by different printers.
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 PReS 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. PReS
Workflow dispatches captured data (the job file) to PlanetPress Design documents directly. It is
therefore critical that a process and a document use the same emulation (see "About data
emulation" on page60). PlanetPress Suite users are advised to review the PlanetPress Design
User Guide, especially 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 PReS 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 traveling through a process. Image files, for example, can be passed from task to task in
order to be downloaded 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137). 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440).
Page 51