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Batching means gathering and then printing previously created print content items.
Commingling refers to documents originating from different templates being combined into one
print batch.
This topic explains how to batch, commingle, and - not the least importantly - sort and separate
items into print batches with Connect.
The Workflow tasks mentioned here can all be found on the OL Connect tab of the Plug-In Bar
in Workflow. For descriptions of the tasks, see "OL Connect tasks" on page185.
Batching
Batching refers to creating print jobs from print content items that were created earlier. A
batching print process is split up in 2 phases:
l Phase 1: Content is created by merging a print template with data. Newly created print
content items are always automatically saved in the Connect database
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. Information
about the set of items (the "content set"), including the Content Set ID, gets stored in the
database as well.
l Phase 2: Print content items are retrieved from the Connect database using the Retrieve
Items task. The Create Job and Create Output tasks transform these items or sets into one
or more print jobs.
In order to retrieve print content from the Connect database in the second phase, some
preparatory work must be done in the first phase. What needs to be done exactly depends on
what you want to retrieve, and how.
Sorting and separating the output also requires some preparation (see "Sorting and grouping
items in print batches" on page197).
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Database entries get cleaned up automatically as well. Make sure that the Cleanup Service is
configured appropriately, so that it doesn't remove relevant record sets and content sets before
batching starts (see "Clean-up Service preferences" on page890).
What to retrieve: content sets or content items
The Retrieve Items task can retrieve only one type of entity from the Connect database at a
time: records, record sets, content items and so forth. Since the Create Job task can only work
with print content items or content sets, in a batching print process the choice is narrowed down
to these two possibilities.
Here are a few things to consider:
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