How-tos

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• Adding external attachments to an Email Context

  This How-To will show you how to insert your own file attachments when sending email through the Designer module, or through automation using the Create Email Contents task in the Workflow module.
  Designer

  JavaScript

• Change detail line formatting based upon a data field value

  This How-To will show you how to change a line Item detail formatting based upon a data field.
  Designer

• Controlling Designer Objects from Workflow

  This How-To shows you how to modify the properties of different elements by using a variable in the Workflow module. Designer is essentially being told where to place an item, or whether to place it at all, from the automation because in some cases, only Workflow knows the information required to make such a “decision”.
  Designer

  workflow

• Overview of Booklet Imposition

  Here is a basic How-To along with some tips for generating booklets.
  Designer

  output

• Combining record-based conditions

  This How-To shows you how to combine record-based conditions using the Conditional Script Wizard.
  Designer

  scripts

• Creating an Address Block

  This How-To shows you how to create an address block.
  Designer

• Dynamically Insert a Hyperlink

  In order to dynamically insert or modify a hyperlink in Connect, scripts are required. However, those scripts are very small and simple to understand.
  Designer

  scripts

• Import and use external fonts

  While there are currently no UI methods of using fonts imported into the Fonts folder in the template’s resources, they are still useable through a small bit of CSS that will “activate” those fonts for use, following which they can be called for use (again, within the CSS).
  Designer

• Load a snippet based on a data field value

  In this How-To, we will personalize a letter for each customer using snippets that contain text in the customer’s language.
  Designer

  scripts

• Localizing templates using JSON

  This How-To shows you how to localize text in your template’s content.
  Designer

  scripts

• Passing record data to your front-end web page

  This How-To will show you how to pass record data to your front-end web page without making the fields and tables from your record (the data model pane) available to the client.
  Designer

  scripts

  web

• Test your emails with Litmus

  When sending a large number of emails to different individuals, you’re bound to be actually sending those emails to more various clients than you can count. People use all types of clients from software on their computer (Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Apple Mail), on their mobile device (Outlook, Gmail, Inbox, Boomerang, Mailbox) or even their browser (gmail, outlook.com, yahoo, aol, etc). There are literally hundreds of different clients and different versions of these clients, This How-To will show you how to test them.
  Designer

• Using external librairies and frameworks

  When it comes to offering choice, nothing beats the Internet. There are so many different frameworks and librairies out there, whatever you think you want to do is probably already available as a simple library you can add to your template with a single line of code. Why do you think we chose HTML, CSS and JavaScript as our new technology choice? This How-To shows you how to use external librairies and frameworks.
  Designer

  web

• Using Mandrill® to send and track mailing lists

  Mandrill is a neat service that can be used to send out mailings, newsletters, or any other mass mailing. It offers email tracking, bounces, reports, all that cool stuff that’s really useful when you’re sending thousands of emails per month. Even better, you can use it for free to send up to 12,000 emails per month. How neat is that?

• Using OpenWeatherMap API

  While there are many different APIs available to provide weather information on the Internet, OpenWeatherMap appears to offer the simplest, most extensive features available. It is easy to use and free for up to 50,000 requests per day. In this How-To we will explore obtaining weather information in HTML form (the easiest to include in your page) and in JSON format which is better if you wish to customize the weather display in your template.
  web

• Using the Google Maps API

  Sometimes, you just need a map. A map to get you somewhere, or to know where you are. In this page we explore how to use the Google Maps API to add a static or interactive map to your template.
  web

• Getting Started with DataMapper

  Getting Started with DataMapper

• Getting Started with the Designer Module

  Getting Started with the Designer Module
  Designer

• Installing Connect

  Installing Connect

• Splitting job file per document or document set

  In this How-To we explore how to divide output into multiple PDF files, most often on a per document case. This is done in the Output Module, more specifically in the Output Preset.
  output

  print

• Passing Workflow variables to Designer

  This simple 2-step trick will let you get any Local and Global variables from PlanetPress Workflow into your record, for use in your template.
  Designer

  workflow

• Tips and Tricks for Medias and Master Pages

  This is a small collection of tips & tricks specifically related to the use of Master Pages and Medias, along with the Sheet Configuration properties for any sections.
  print

• Dynamic image that doesn’t contain the data field value

  Sometimes, the data field value doesn’t contain the actual name of the image. So, we must proceed via scripting and use an if statement on the data field value.
  Designer

  scripts

• Dynamic signatures

  The use case we deal with here is the one where the data field value contains the name of the image.
  Designer

  scripts

• Output Sections conditionally

  The case we deal here is the one where the sections are output according to a data field value condition.
  Designer

  print

• Overflow with multiple master pages

  The case we deal here is one where we add a tear-off section on the first page of an invoice. The tear-off section will appear below the line items only on the first page. So, we don’t want the line items overflow on the tear-off section.
  Designer

  overflow

  print

• Showing a Terms and Conditions on the back of the first page only

  The case we deal here is the one where we add Terms and Conditions page only in the back of the first page, regardless of the number of pages in the overflow. We will use a duplex document but be careful that the line items do not overflow into the Terms and Conditions page.
  Designer

  print

• Using a selector to load part of a snippet

  In this case we show how to retrieve parts of a snippet. Suppose we have a single snippet with three parts. Each part contains text wrapped in a absolute div element with an ID.
  Designer

  scripts

• Internal, External and Web resources

  There’s a few tips in this list that will show how to reference different locations where resources can be located (such as images, snippets, JSON data). This tip clarifies exactly what those formats are and how to use them.
  Designer

  JavaScript

  stylesheets

• Creating a multi-page Web template

  Snippets are useful for a lot of things, but in this How-To we’ll be seeing how they can be used to simplify service multiple web pages with the same design and different contents. This assumes that your contents is in various snippets, either internal to the template (in the Snippets folder) or external ones on local disk.
  Designer

  snippets

  web

• Creating Raffle Tickets

  In this How-To we’ll be creating automatically numbered raffle tickets, to be used in events and parties and such.
  print

• Custom table footer with subtotal at the end

  In this How-To we’ll show you how to make your own footer with text, while leaving the grand total at the end of the table along with a subtitle and taxes.
  Designer

  overflow

  print

• Add and Format the current date

  This How-To shows you how to add the current date to your template, and to format it in the desired locale and language.
  Designer

• Maintaining extra spaces in text added to a template

  In the world of HTML, extra spaces are generally dealt with by removing any spaces beyond the single one. In some cases, this is not the behaviour you want to maintain, and those spaces should all be shown in your output.
  Designer

  stylesheets

• Split a String into Elements

  In this How-To we’re going to take a single field and split it into different elements. This is useful to create lists, menus, etc.
  Designer

  scripts

• Dynamically adding options to an HTML drop-down

  In this How-To we’ll explore how to dynamically add new options to an HTML drop-down, or in other words, how to add new <option> elements to a <select>.
  Designer

  scripts

  web

• Testing the Capture OnTheGo Template Wizards

  This How-To will show you how to use the existing Capture OnTheGo templates available from the Connect Welcome Screen. Note that following this How-To requires Connect 1.3 or higher.
  Designer

  web

• XML: Using XPATH in the Repeat step

  In this How-To we’ll be exploring the use of XPATH to handle flat-level XML files that we want to add a bit of structure to.
  xml

• Using Preprocessors in DataMapper

  The Preprocessor feature in the DataMapper module is a fairly complex, but extremely powerful one. Basically, a Preprocessor runs on the whole data source before anything else happens – before even the file settings and boundaries are set!
  preprocessor

  scripts

• Complement record using Metadata

  This How-To shows you how to add information to your record using external sources, in the Automation tool – Workflow. For this purpose we will create empty fields which we will populate using the Metadata Tools.
  scripts

  workflow

• Create blank pages on field value

  This How-To will show you how to create any number of blank pages in your output, using a number found in a field value.
  Designer

  print

  scripts

• Adding a cover page with data at any level

  This How-To describes a more advanced technique that requires some work with different modules offered by Connect.
  Designer

  print

  scripts

  workflow

• Extracting a multi-line item description

  In this How-To we’ll show how to extract an item description that appears in multiple and variable number of lines.
  scripts

• Adding record data to a custom barcode in print output

  In this How-To we’ll show how to add use metadata fields to add text and barcodes in your Print output.
  Designer

  output

  print

• IIS reverse proxy for Workflow

  In this How-To we’ll explore the #1 best practice when it comes to providing end users with output generated by Workflow: use a public IIS instance with a reverse proxy pointing to a separate, private Workflow server.
  workflow

• Scripts: Query a database from Workflow

  These script samples will help if you need to connect to, and query, a database from within a script in Workflow.
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: Basic Scripted Condition in Workflow

  The following demonstrate the very basics of creating a scripted condition in Workflow.
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: PDF Page Count using Alambic API

  This simple script is used to count the number of pages in a PDF using the Alambic API, which is a very fast and efficient way to do so.
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: Decode base64 image to Binary

  This script will take the current data file which is assumed to be a base64 string of an image type. Useful if you have data coming from the COTG mobile application and need to obtain a copy of a submitted image!
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: Send an email via a script in Workflow

  The following is a VBScript example that sends an email through an SSL Connection, using gmail’s SMTP server. This, of course, assumes that you have a gmail account!
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: Resize an image without an external application

  This script uses a simplified function that demonstrates the use of the WIA object in Windows Scripting Host. It lets you resize images without the use of an external program or software.
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• Scripts: Manual Counter in Designer

  While the Generate Counter script is really, really useful for things like Raffle Tickets, it’s unfortunately unuseable if you already have your own Data File as it cannot complement that data file automatically.
  Designer

  samples

  scripts

• Scripts: Communicate with an HTTP(S) API from Workflow

  This How-To is meant to show an example of how to communicate with an external service from a Run Script action task in the Automation module (Workflow). It is geared towards users with an existing background in scripting and network communications, as the concepts here are relatively complex for beginners.
  samples

  scripts

  workflow

• QR Codes in Designer

  In this How-To we’ll be covering the use of QR Codes in Connect Designer, more specifically how to obtain the right data for specific types of QR Codes.
  Designer

  print

  web

• Using the new PHP Array option with COTG

  In this How-To we’ll explore in detail the new Use PHP Array feature added in Workflow 8.5. Though seemingly unasuming, this feature has quite a bang for your buck: in fact, it will make processing HTTP Post data exponentially easier. When used in conjunction with COTG templates in Connect 1.5, which integrates those changes, you’re in for a treat.
  web

  workflow

• Scripts: Single-Script Translation and Replace

  This How-To will show you a relatively advanced, but very powerful way, of optimizing an arbitrary number of field replacements in your template using a single script.
  Designer

  scripts

• Cloning your way through nested tables

  This How-To with accompanying sample explains how to programatically generate a detail table including nested items, in the most efficient way possible. The method used here is generally refered to as Cloning, since we create copies of the tables and rows, editing them as we go along.
  Designer

  scripts

• Variable Directory in Output Preset

  While, unfortunately, meta data is not available to determine the location where files are sent in the Output Preset’s Job Output Folder option, there is a little known trick that does enable us to do this dynamically.
  workflow

• Add a Record Index and Count to your document

  In this short How-To we’ll show you how to get the current record index, and the total number of records in the record set, displayed on your document.
  workflow

• Manipulating PDF Files with Metadata

  In this How-To we’ll be taking a look at how to manipulate metadata in Workflow, without any sort of document or template. We’ll be using Metadata tools exclusively to sort, split, and merge a PDF job.
  pdf

  workflow

• Separate Job by Invoice Number Using Presets

  In this How-To we’ll explore how to separate your output job by invoice number, in order to create one file per invoice. Since we’ll be implementing this in the Job/Output presets, this method can be used both by printing from Designer, as well as automating it from the Workflow tool.
  Designer

  output

  pdf

• Scripts: Convert XML to JSON

  Convert XML to JSON
  scripts

  workflow

  xml

• Interacting with the Data Repository API

  This How-To will show you how to interact with the Workflow Data Repository using it’s scripting API. Because the default tasks involving the Data Repository only offer to Insert or Update, any other action requires the API to be used in a scripting action.
  repository

  scripts

  workflow

• How to Archive Emails using SMTP Input

  Users often contact Support to enquire about ways to backup emails sent to their clients for accounting and tracking purposes. Emails can be archived in Workflow v8.6.1+ using the SMTP Input Server.
  workflow

• Pass multiple global variables from Workflow to Designer

  Simulate multiple global variables in DataMapper.
  Designer

  preprocessor

  scripts

  workflow

• Dynamic Charts for use with Web Dashboards

  Before jumping into the details of “how it’s done”, it’s important to understand the basic elements that make it possible to have a chart.
  Designer

  output

  web

• Speed Up your Connect templates

  This How-To will cover some basic tricks to speed up your Connect template.
  Designer

  output

  scripts

• Performance Testing Grounds

  These are tests performed internally by employees in order to test/prove/verify the difference between various methods used for processing, mapping and generating data and files in our products.
  Designer

  optimization

  output

  pdf

  performance

  workflow

• Reading and Interpreting Connect Logs

  Reading and Interpreting Connect Logs

• Connect Performance and Optimization Megathread

  Connect Performance and Optimization Megathread
  Designer

• Calculating the LUHN Check Digit in Connect

  Calculating the LUHN Check Digit in Connect
  Designer

  scripts

• Database Lookups from DataMapper

  This How-To will show you how OLConnect Data Mapper can use the JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) driver to connect to a third-party DBMS. JDBC makes it possible to establish a connection with a database, send SQL statements and process the results.
  scripts

• Create a Detail Table from a Linear Data Structure

  Create a Detail Table from a Linear Data Structure
  scripts

• Dead Simple Cover Page

  This How-To shows how to create a cover page on any job, using only Designer and the Output module.
  Designer

  scripts

• Capturing Emails from any Outlook version

  This How-To will go over the steps needed to capture emails from any Outlook version.

• Put one slice per detail record in a Pie Chart

  Create a Pie Chart with one slice per detail record for the field of your choice?

• ‘Stamping’ one PDF file on another

  pdf

  print

  scripts

  workflow

• Creating a Table of Contents using a Post Pagination script

  Creating a Table of Contents
  post pagination

  scripts

• Connect to localhost with COTG on Windows 10

  Running Capture OnTheGo (COTG) on Windows 10 is the perfect way to debug or demonstrate a COTG solution since you can have the COTG app, the Connect Workflow and the Connect Designer all running side by side on the same PC (or VM).

• Creating multilingual Connect templates

  A multilingual Connect template can handle content and static text elements in more than one language. Traditionally this is achieved by creating a template or section for each language variant. This approach complicates content updates and template maintenance. Alternatively
  multilingual

  translation

• Debugging User Scripts

  The Script Debugger feature in OL Connect Designer 2019.1
  Debugging

  scripts

• PDF/A-3 and e-Invoicing in OL Connect 2019.1

  e-Invoicing

  PDF/A-3

• Secure Email Input/Output

  Over the past few years, one of – if not the – most requested improvement to Workflow has been a way to capture and send email messages from/through online servers like Office365 and Gmail.
  secure email

• WordPress & Cloud – FAQ’s

  FAQ’s on WordPress & Cloud
  cloud

  wordpress

• WordPress & OL Connect Technology

  OL Connect is a great tool to automatically generate personalised documents and distribute them via multiple channels. This is done through templates created by a Template Designer
  wordpress

• Email Attachments simplified

  Email