2018.1

Generating all contents using JSON instead of data records
A number of customer workflows involve generating new versions of documents based on the
original one created by Connect. For instance, a Delivery Note might come back with adjusted
quantities on certain line items. Or a web-based status page might need to get updated with
additional data. However in many cases, the original data must still be left untouched (for
reprints, for instance).
The traditional approach to recreating the document would be to generate a new single data
record with the new data and perform the usual data mapping/content creation/output creation
operations. However, that means the data records are duplicated in the database and the entire
operation takes slightly longer than it could.
As of Connect Workflow 8.8 all Connect Create Content tasks have the option of using a JSON
string as their data source instead of relying on the metadata generated from a data mapping
operation.
This feature builds on the same kind of improvement that was implemented in Connect
Workflow 8.7 with the Create PDF Preview task that provided lightning fast PDF Creation. The
new feature makes it much easier to create Web or Email status pages that are delivered
almost instantly. (SHARED-51086/55414)
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