1.6
Table Of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Welcome to PlanetPress Connect 1.6.1
- Setup And Configuration
- System and Hardware Considerations
- Installation and Activation
- Installation Pre-Requisites
- User accounts and security
- The Importance of User Credentials on Installing and Running PlanetPress Connect
- Installing PlanetPress Connect on Machines without Internet Access
- Installation Wizard
- Running Connect Installer in Silent Mode
- Activating a License
- Migrating to a new computer
- Information about PlanetPress Workflow 8
- Upgrading from PlanetPress Suite 7.6
- What do I gain by upgrading to PlanetPress Connect?
- Server Settings
- Uninstalling
- The DataMapper Module
- Basics
- Features
- Data Mapping Configuration
- Data Mapping Workflow
- The Data Model
- Data Source (Settings)
- DataMapper User Interface
- Defining Boolean Values
- Defining String Values
- Building String Values
- Defining Integer Values
- Building Integer Values
- Defining Float Values
- Building Float Values
- Defining Currency Values
- Building Currency Values
- Extracting dates
- Entering a date using JavaScript
- Defining Object Values
- DataMapper Scripts API
- The Designer
- Generating output
- Optimizing a template
- Generating Print output
- Saving Printing options in Printing Presets.
- Connect Printing options that cannot be changed from within the Printer Wizard.
- Print Using Standard Print Output Settings
- Print Using Advanced Printer Wizard
- Adding print output models to the Print Wizard
- Splitting printing into more than one file
- Variables available in the Output
- Generating Fax output
- Generating Tags for Image Output
- Generating Email output
- Generating Web output
- Release Notes
- Copyright Information
- Legal Notices and Acknowledgments
The DataMapper Module
The DataMapper is the tool to extract your data and transpose it into a format (a Unified Data
Model or UDM) that will allow it to be shared amongst different layouts and outputs created with
the Connect Designer. This UDM is a generic format with an emphasis on content, free from
any restrictions imposed by the file types or the origin of the data. This UDM also allows a same
layout or output to be populated with data from different sources and formats without the need to
modify it.
The original data, located outside of Connect, whether it’s a file or a database is called a Data
Source. The DataMapper doesn’t use the Data Source directly, rather it uses a copy of that data
called the Data Sample. Although the Data Sample is a copy, it is updated each time the data
mapping configuration is opened or whenever the Data Sample is selected.
The first step in the data extraction process is setting Boundaries for each record inside the
data sample. As an example, “Page 1 of…” in a PDF could be used as a “signal” to indicate the
beginning of a new record. When you define the boundaries, you are actually defining a series
of records inside your data sample file. You can then start working on the logic to extract data
from each of those records (see Configuring the settings for more information). Once you know
where each record begins and ends, you need to identify and extract data from each record. To
achieve this, you will create a process consisting of multiple steps (extraction, loops and
conditions) (see Extracting Data for more information). When this process is complete, the
result is a Data Model.
This Data Model contains all the necessary information to add variable data to Connect
Designer templates. (see Data Model for more information).
Basics
Connect’s DataMapper lets you extract data from a variety of files and creating Data Mapping
Configuration file. The Data Mapping Configuration can then be used to add variable data to
Connect Designer templates.
1.
Create a new Data Mapping configuration.
Start creating a Data Mapping configuration by selecting the Data Source. You can do
this manually or using one of the wizards. See Creating a new Data Mapping
configuration.
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