Create Job

The Create Job action task prepares a series of print content items for output generation. A Job is not actual contents but simply a collection of content items ready to be printed.

See also: About printing.

Drag-and-drop a Job Creation Preset from the Connect resources in the Configuration Components pane on a process to add this task.

For information about Job Creation Presets, see Job Creation Preset in Connect's Online Help.

Input

The task expects to have a valid Print Content Set, output from the Create Print Content task, or the result of the Retrieve Items task set to retrieve either Content Items or a Content Set.

The result of a Retrieve Items task cannot be used with a Job Creation Preset. Use the IDs in the metadata instead (see the Properties below).

Processing

The task prepares the content items or content sets for printing, tagging them as printable. Only the content items that are part of the job will generate output.

Output

The task outputs a Print Job ready to be sent to the Create Output task for printing.

Task properties

General Tab

  • Job Preset file: Select which Job Preset to use to generate the job. To be used in this dialog, a preset must have been sent to PlanetPress Workflow using the Package File function in PlanetPress Connect.

    • Default: The IDs in the Metadata are used instead of a job preset file. Select this option if the Print Content Set is the result of the Retrieve Items task.

    • "%o": Select to use a dynamic preset name. Click on %o to change the expression that determines the name of the preset to use. The preset name must be available in the Connect Resources (see Connect resources).

    • Preset Names: Select the appropriate preset to generate output. Listed are the Job Presets that are present in the Connect Resources (see Connect resources).

  • Unselect unused Content Items in metadata: When this option is checked, only Content Items that were actually included in the Job are set to "selected" in the Metadata (see Metadata Attributes and Fields).

  • Runtime Parameters: The Runtime Parameters defined in the selected Job Creation Preset are displayed and their values can be edited here. Right-click the field to open the contextual menu that allows to select variables, data and lookup functions (see Data selections).

    Note that it is not possible to change a parameter's type here; that can only be set in the Job Creation Preset itself.
    At runtime, Workflow passes the parameter values as strings, and the type defined in the Job Creation Preset will be used to try and parse the input parameter value. In order to make this work:

    • Boolean values need to be entered as either “true” or “false”. (When the comparison actually occurs, it will be a full Boolean comparison. Thus it can compare this runtime parameter with Boolean data values that are stored as 0/1 in data fields.)

    • Numeric string values need to be parseable as a number (either a whole integer or decimal value).

    • Dates should be in an ISO8601 compatible format (e.g. 2019-10-15) or use the current Windows Locale date settings options.The latter is not recommended as it requires all computers in the cluster have the same locale data format.

    The order of the parameters doesn't affect the way they are handled at runtime.

    Backslashes (\) and double quotes (") in a JSON string must be escaped with a backslash (\\, \") if the JSON string is passed via a global, local, or Job Info variable.
    If the JSON is entered directly in the runtime parameter field, the plugin adds the necessary backslashes.

Runtime parameter value settings are not preserved when switching to a different Job Creation Preset and back, for example to reload a modified Job Creation Preset. This issue is fixed in PlanetPress Workflow 2022.1.
OL Connect Proxy Tab

This tab is common to all OL Connect tasks and defines where to process the jobs sent through these tasks. When these fields are empty, they use the defaults set in the OL Connect preferences.

Defaults are not used unless the configuration is sent to the Workflow service.

  • OL Connect Proxy Address: Enter the machine name or IP Address where the OL Connect Server resides.

  • Port: Enter the port to use to communicate with the OL Connect Server. Default: 9340

  • User name: Enter the user name expected by the OL Connect Server.

  • Password: Enter the password expected by the OL Connect Server for the above user name.

On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.