Generating output

When merged with a record set, the templates made in the Designer can generate three types of output: Print, Email and Web.

You can print and send email from the Designer, but if you want to do this in an automated process, or if you want to produce web pages that are not attached to an email, you need to build Workflow processes with OL Connect tasks. For more information, see: Workflow processes in OL Connect projects.

Print output

Connect supports a number of different types of print outputs. These include:

  • PCL
  • PDF
  • PostScript (including the PPML, VIPP and VPS variants)

Print templates (also called Print sections), are part of the Print context. They are meant to be printed directly to a printer or a printer stream/spool file, or to a PDF file (see Generating Print output).
The Print context can also be added to Email output as a PDF attachment; see Generating Email output.
When generating output from the Print context, each of the Print sections is added to the output document, one after the other in sequence, for each record.

To dynamically select a section for output, use a Control Script; see Control Scripts.

There is a number of settings in the Print context and Print sections that have an impact on how the Print context is printed; see Print settings in the Print context and sections.

To split the Print output into several files, see Splitting printing into more than one file.

Fax output

It is possible to generate Fax output from PlanetPress Connect through a Print output job creating PDF/VT output, with some additional Workflow steps.

See Generating Fax output for details.

Email output

The Email context outputs HTML email with embedded formatting to an email client through the use of an email server. The HTML generated by this context is meant to be compatible with as many clients and as many devices as possible.

Although the Email context can contain multiple Email templates, only one of them can be merged with each record. Which one is used, depends on a setting; see Email output settings in the Email context and sections.

Email Output can be generated in two different ways: from the Designer or via Workflow. In both cases, email is sent in a single batch for the whole record set.

To test a template, you can test the scripts (see Testing scripts) and send a test email first (see Send (Test) Email), before actually sending the email (see Generating Email output).

Attachments

Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments:

  • The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment. (Compression options for PDF attachments can be specified in the Email context's properties; see Compressing PDF attachments.)
  • The output of the Web context, as a self-contained HTML file.
  • Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example.

Attaching the Print context and/or the Web context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog.

These options are also available in the Create Email Content task in Workflow.

To learn how to attach other files, see Email attachments.

Web output

The Web context outputs an HTML web page that contains the HTML text and all the resources necessary to display it.

Web output can be generated in two different ways: it can be attached to an Email template when generating Email output (see above), or it can be generated using Workflow; see Generating Web output.

Although the Web context can contain multiple Web pages, only one of them can be merged with each record. Which one is used, depends on a setting; see Web output settings in the Web context and sections.