2022.2

Writing your own scripts
Personalizationcanbetakenalotfurtherthanjustinsertingnamesandaddresses,andhidingorshow-
ingtextorimages.Everybitofinformationinyourcommunicationscanbemadeentirelypersonal,
usingscripts.
InOLConnect,ascriptisasmallsetofinstructionstotheprogram,writteninJavaScript.
WhenOLConnectgeneratestheactualoutput–lettersoremails-,itopensarecordsetandmergesit
withthetemplate.Ittakeseachrecord,onebyone,andrunsallscriptsforit(inaspecificorder,see
"Thescriptflow:whenscriptsrun"onpage384).
Anykindofpersonalizationisdoneviascripts,butyoudon'thavetowriteeveryscriptyourself.Inmany
situationsyoucanuseaScript Wizard,whichwilldothatforyou(see"Personalizingcontent"on
page297).
Forablockofvariabledata,suchasanaddress,theText Script Wizardisaperfectfit.
ParagraphscanbemadeconditionalwithaConditional Script Wizard.
Fordynamicimages,youcanusetheDynamic Image Script Wizard.
InanEmailcontext,youareprovidedwithanumberofEmail Script Wizardstosetthesender,the
recipientsandthesubjectoftheemail.
However,whenyouwanttodosomethingthatgoesbeyondwhatyoucandowithaWizard,likecre-
atingaconditionalparagraphwithaconditionthatisbasedonacombinationofdatafields,youhaveto
writethescriptyourself.
Thistopicexplainshowscriptsworkandhowyoucancreateandwriteascriptyourself.
Script types
TherearethreetypesofscriptsintheDesigner:Control Scripts,Standard ScriptsandPost Pagin-
ation Scripts.
ControlScripts
Whenoutputisgeneratedfromatemplate,ControlScriptsrunbeforeallotherscripts,whenarecordis
mergedwithacontext.Theydeterminehowdifferentsectionsofthecontextarehandled.Theycan,for
example,makethepagenumberingcontinueoverallPrintsections,splitEmailattachments,oromit
Printsectionsfromtheoutput.
SomefunctionalityisprovidedasaScriptingWizard,forexampleConditionalPrintSections.
ControlScriptsdon'ttouchthecontentofthesectionsthemselves,buttheycanchangethewayatem-
plateisoutputted.FormoreinformationaboutControlScriptsandtheiruse,see"ControlScripts"on
page398.
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