This document describes various Entire Output Managements setups for the processing of binary documents. It covers the following topics:
For general information on the processing of binary documents, see the section Processing of Binary Data in the Concepts and Facilities documentation.
You can set up an environment that integrates binary data of UNIX and Windows computers with Entire Output Management, using the file system.
This is possible if binary files are to be transferred to Entire Output Management which are filed to a UNIX or Windows directory that is owned by Entire Output Management:
This requires a UNIX node and predefined report definitions in Entire Output Management depicting which directories are to be viewed and handled by the monitor of the respective source system. The directories will be scanned synchronously in each Entire Output Management monitor cycle.
With this setup, the original file will be is forwarded to Entire Output Management, and can be automatically archived/distributed as required. Each document can then be reprinted using the corresponding application on the target system (which in fact could also be the source system).
The files are stored in Entire Output Management and you can decide where to print and which layout is to be used at the time when the document is printed out of Entire Output Management.
It will not be possible to printout a binary file to a printer directly, because Entire Output Management does not know the binary format of the file. However, the output converter function (see the description of printer type DISKUNIX) of Entire Output Management is able to invoke the print function of an application on the target system which can do the job. This is the way to have the printout of binary files controlled by Entire Output Management, or to convert binary data on the target system for subsequent processing.
The following examples are all based on the following assumptions:
An Entire Output Management installation is active on a mainframe or a UNIX system.
The source system of the documents is a Windows PC called "win"
with Entire System Server UNIX installed and a service npr_win
being active.
The target system for the output of documents is a UNIX sample
system called "unix" where the Entire System Server UNIX service
npr_unix
is active.
The following cases are covered:
Convert any Windows printouts to PDF and store them as PDF files in Entire Output Management.
Entire Output Management can read binary files from UNIX or Windows directories. This feature can be used to fetch all PDF files from a directory owned by Entire Output Management.
Define a report as follows:
**** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** User ID XYZ - Report Definition >Unix Identification - Report Name .............. GET-PDF__________________ Unix Attributes Node Name ......... npr_win_____ Read-binary... B Path: /output/ and Files ......... *.pdf________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ |
By using this report definition the Entire Output Management
monitor will look for PDF files in c:\output
of the specified
Windows PC regardless of whether Entire Output Management runs in a mainframe
or a UNIX environment.
In order to convert the required printouts to PDF format, a PDF
converter must be used. Customize a PDF converter which is installed as a
virtual printer and which writes the resulting PDF file to the directory
c:\output
.
Now you can use the print function of any Windows application by printing on the created printer. The output will be converted to PDF, and the Entire Output Management monitor will load the PDF files for further processing.
Microsoft Word documents are saved to the directory
c:\output
. They have to be converted to PDF and then transferred
to Entire Output Management as PDF files.
Use the input converter feature of Entire Output Management. Assuming the PDF converter printer profile "NOM-Printing" is available and the Entire Output Management report "GET-PDF" (as defined in Example 1) is active, the following report will instruct the Entire Output Management monitor to convert Word documents to PDF and load them into Entire Output Management:
**** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** User ID XYZ - Report Definition >Unix Identification - Report Name .............. DOC2PDF__________________ Unix Attributes Node Name ......... npr_win_____ Read-binary... B Path: /output/ and Files ......... *.doc________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ |
Enter the following jobcards:
**** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** User ID XYZ - Report Definition >Printing Attributes - Report Name .............. DOC2PDF__________________ Hold Logic ........... _ Printers ............. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ Copies ............... ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Separator Pages Start ............. ________ End ............... ________ Copies ............ ___ Length ............ ___ Style.. ______________________________________________________________ Jobcards input-cmd=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" &f /q /n /mNOMPrinting"____________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ |
Add the following macro "NOM-Printing" to Microsoft Word, using the Visual Basic editor:
Sub NOMPrinting() Dim printerName As String Dim CurrentDoc As Word.Document Set CurrentDoc = ActiveDocument Set printerName = Trim$(Left$(ActivePrinter, _ InStr(ActivePrinter, " on "))) ActivePrinter = "NOMPrinting" ActiveDocument.PrintOut ActiveDocument.Close ActivePrinter = printerName End Sub
The following will happen:
Entire Output Management will recognize the ".doc" file in
the directory c:\output
.
The monitor will activate the report DOC2PDF and execute the input command in the jobcards fields. Afterwards the ".doc" file will be deleted and not processed further by Entire Output Management.
The command (without the outer quotation marks) will be
executed on the Windows source system "win" (where the c:\output
directory resides).
There Microsoft Word will be invoked without splash screen (/q), without opening a new document (/n) but opening the recognized ".doc" file (&f) and executing the macro "NOM-Printing" (/m). If it is called using a batch user of this Windows system, the user will not see any part of the execution of this function.
The Microsoft Word macro will set the current default printer to "NOM-Printing" and print the document using the PDF converter. Then the former default printer will be restored.
Entire Output Management will get the created PDF file with the report "GET-PDF" from Example 1.
Entire Output Management will replace "&f" with the current file name.
No user intervention is required, and the procedure will be
carried out for all Word documents that have been filed in
c:\output
. Everything is triggered by the Entire Output Management
monitor on a mainframe or on UNIX.
Print a PDF file that has been stored in Entire Output Management on a real printer.
Ensure that the product Ghostscript is installed.
Create a logical printer "PRTPDF" of type NATUNIX with the following special attributes:
**** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** User ID XYZ - Logical Printer >Special Attributes - Logical Printer Name ............. PRTPDF__ Description ...... Print a PDF file Attributes Formfeed .......... Linesize .......... Max-Pages ......... Output-Target ..... 1 Pagesize .......... Printer-Name ...... gs -sDEVICE=printserver01:printer09 Print Method ...... tty Profile ........... Trace ............. 0 |
Ensure that the product Ghostscript is installed on the target system "unix".
Create a logical printer "PRTPDF" of type DISKUNIX with the following special attributes:
**** ENTIRE OUTPUT MANAGEMENT **** User ID XYZ - Logical Printer >Special Attributes - Logical Printer Name ............. PRTPDF__ Description ...... Print a PDF file______________ Attributes command ........... gs filename .......... filetype .......... logpath ........... Opt1 .............. -sDEVICE=printserver01:printer09 Opt2 .............. Parm1 ............. Parm2 ............. Parm3 ............. Path .............. /tmp Server ............ npr_unix Trace ............. 0 |
If a binary active report containing a PDF file is printed on the
printer PRTPDF, a file filename.pdf
will be written to the directory /tmp
of the UNIX computer on
which the Entire System Server UNIX node npr_unix
is active, where
filename is the origin file name of the file.
Ghostscript will send the printout to the printer printer09
on the
printer server printserver01
.
Store XML documents in Entire Output Management; at printing time, these documents are to be formatted and rendered to several different documents.
Create the desired XML documents with any application.
Transfer them to Entire Output Management, using the UNIX identification feature as text files.
Create several printers of type DISKUNIX that forward the documents to an XML renderer which takes care of the final formatting. You may consider using the Apache Formatting Objects Processor (Apache FOP) for the final formatting.