Forms Composer. Using Forms Composer. October

Transcription

1 Forms Composer Using Forms Composer October

2 Edition: October 2002 The following paragraph does not apply to any country where such provisions are inconsistent with local law: LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC., PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions; therefore, this statement may not apply to you. This publication could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in later editions. Improvements or changes in the products or the programs described may be made at any time. Comments about this publication may be addressed to Lexmark International, Inc., Department F95/032-2, 740 West New Circle Road, Lexington, Kentucky 40550, U.S.A. In the United Kingdom and Eire, send to Lexmark International Ltd., Marketing and Services Department, Westhorpe House, Westhorpe, Marlow Bucks SL7 3RQ. Lexmark may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. You can purchase additional copies of publications related to this product by calling In the United Kingdom and Eire, call +44 (0) In other countries, contact your point of purchase. References in this publication to products, programs, or services do not imply that the manufacturer intends to make these available in all countries in which it operates. Any reference to a product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not infringe any existing intellectual property right may be used instead. Evaluation and verification of operation in conjunction with other products, programs, or services, except those expressly designated by the manufacturer, are the user s responsibility. Lexmark and Lexmark with diamond design are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc. registered in the United States and/or other countries. Copyright 2002 Lexmark International, Inc. All rights reserved. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT RIGHTS This software and any accompanying documentation provided under this agreement are commercial computer software and documentation developed exclusively at private expense.

3 Table of Contents Introduction... 1 Installation... 1 Step 1: Planning your form...2 Step 2: Creating objects on your form...3 Step 3: Creating a formset...4 Step 4: Loading your formset...6 Connecting the named pipe to a printer object... 7 Appendix: E-forms directives...8 Data stream commands... 8 iii

4 Introduction This book is a tutorial on how to create a Forms Project with Forms Composer software. The following are terms used throughout this tutorial: Host application The software program generating print data to be combined or merged with your form Host data The print data generated by your host application A Forms Project is made up of one or more forms that are uploaded to the Document Producer server. Once at the Document Producer server, the forms are then merged with print data that was sent from the host application. After the forms and data are merged, Document Producer can print, , fax, FTP, or save them to a file. Also included with the Forms Project: Mapping information from the host application data to the form variables A Condition file that selects the correct form for each page of data coming from the host application Forms Composer lets you design your form using: text lines arrows ellipses boxes images bar codes pages from a PDF file variables You can set variables to be areas on your form that are then filled in with changing data from a separate application. For example, you could set a variable as a customer's address on an invoice. When the form is merged with data from your server, you could have the same form merged with a mailing list of many customers to create a separate customer form for each customer. Installation Forms Composer can be installed on your Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP system. Refer to your printer documentation for help with installing and configuring your printer hardware. 1

5 Step 1: Planning your form In this tutorial, we are going to create a sample formset using practice data files available with the Forms Composer software. There are several steps to complete before you actually create a formset. This planning stage will help you create a solid design form that requires little maintenance. Before you begin designing your form, you need to decide: What kind of form do you need, a blank form that has no dynamic fields, or a formset that includes information from a third-party data stream? What kind of form you want to create (invoice, bill of lading, and so on)? How the final product should look (look at current stationery or an example you want to copy)? What information will appear on the form and a name for each of them (think of what kinds of information your host application collects for you)? What kinds of objects need to be designed (columns, totals, text boxes)? What colors and shading you want to use on the form? What information is common to the forms you create (company address, logo, telephone, and fax numbers)? 2

6 Step 2: Creating objects on your form When you design a form, you must create objects on the form to hold the various kinds of information to be shown. The finished form design is a collection of data objects and variables. Form objects Fixed data Fixed data is information you want to always appear on the printed form. Columns and column headings are examples of fixed data. You can create columns using the Box and Line tools on the object toolbar. Column text headings are created using the Text tool. Fixed data objects can be layered on the page. For example, you can place a text object on top of an arrow object to have text appear inside an arrow. Variable data Information generated by your host application is mapped to particular objects on the form by creating and assigning variables. These variables tell the form where to place host data. Text variables Format the assigned data item as text. The typeface, point size, and color can be set for each text variable. Bar code variables Format the assigned data item as a bar code. The type and size can be set for each bar code variable. Image variables Format the assigned data item to represent an image file. The size, rotation, border line width and color, and so on, can be selected using the image placeholder in the design. Note: Variables are saved only with the current form. You need to create a new set of variables for each form you create. 3

7 Step 3: Creating a formset Now that you know what kind of information you need on the form, you are ready to start creating the formset using the Forms Composer software. Setting up the variables on your form 1 Open the Forms Composer software by clicking Start Programs Lexmark Document Solutions Forms Composer. 2 Click New from the File menu. 3 Click Load Data File from the Data menu. 4 The default Forms folder is opened. Select debittext.txt. 5 Using the mouse, draw a rectangle around the month/day/year on debittext.txt in the right side pane. 6 A Field Variable dialog box is opened. Accept the defaults and name the variable DATE. Click OK. 7 Draw a rectangle around the words Debit Memo, and call the variable DEBIT_CHECK. Click OK. 8 Draw a rectangle around the three lines under Debit To:, and call the variable DEBITTO. Click OK. 9 Draw a rectangle around the number 1234, and call the variable DEBIT_NO. Click OK 10 Draw a rectangle around the number 1357, and call the variable INVOICENO. Click OK. 11 Draw a rectangle around Invoice Date value, and call the variable INVDATE. Click OK. 12 Draw a rectangle around the number 2468, and call the variable CUSTORDNO. Click OK. 13 Draw a rectangle around the Credit Date value, and call the variable CREDIT_DATE. Click OK. 14 Draw a rectangle around the Transaction list, and call the variable DEBITS. Click OK. 15 Draw a rectangle around the number list, and call the variable AMOUNTS. Click OK. 16 Draw a rectangle around the number 10.00, and call the variable TOTAL. Click OK. 17 Draw a rectangle around the name at the bottom left of the page, and call the variable APPROVAL. Click OK. 18 Draw a rectangle around Company Debit, and call the variable REASON. Click OK. 4

8 19 Right-click in the right pane, and select Save. This saves the file as a field map (.fmp). Enter Tutorial for the name. 20 Select the PDF box from the Drawing tool menu bar. In the open dialog box, select DEBITMEMO_IMPORT.pdf. This provides a background to draw on. 21 Select the image box from the Drawing tool menu bar. An image dialog box opens. Select the type of image as Fixed image. Click Browse and select ProgressiveImg. 22 The image is placed in the upper left corner of the design pane. With the Select box highlighted from the Drawing tool menu bar, left-click the image and move the object to the right 1" and down 1/2". Setting your variables 1 Select the Text box from the Drawing tool menu bar. 2 Hold the left mouse button down and draw a small text box next to the word Date:. Right-click in the text box, and select Insert Variable. Select Show All and choose DATE from the drop-down menu. <DATE> now appears in the text box to represent the variable. 3 Repeat step #24 for Debit Memo, Debit To, Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Customer Order Number, Credit Date, Debits, Amounts, Total, Reason, and Approved By. Setting your Page Print Profile and Project Activation Conditions 1 From the File menu, select Page Print Profile. When the dialog boxopens, click New. Select the Paper Tray to be 1. Click Save. Save the Page Print Profile as Tutorial. Click Close. 2 From the File menu, select Project Activation Conditions. From the dialog box, click Add Set. 3 For the first Condition, select DEBIT_CHECK from the drop down menu under Field. Select Contains from the Operation drop down menu. Type Debit Memo for the Compare Value. Select String from the drop down menu under Type. 4 From the File menu, select Page Activation Conditions. From the dialog box, click Add Set. 5 For the first Condition, select DEBIT_CHECK from the drop-down menu under Field. Select Contains from the Operation drop-down menu. Type Debit Memo for the Compare Value. Select String from the drop-down menu under Type. Click OK. 6 Under Output Forms, for the first row, select Page 1, and Tutorial.ppf for the Page Print Profile. 7 Click OK. 8 From the main dialog box, click Save to update the project. 9 At this point, the formset Tutorial.fdd is ready to upload to the Server and merge with the data. 5

9 Step 4: Loading your formset Now that you have created the formset and set your variables and activation conditions it s time to upload the form to the Document Producer server. 1 Open the Document Server Manager by clicking Start Programs Lexmark Document Solutions Server Manager. 2 If a Document Producer Server has not been added yet, click Add Server in the Welcome to Document Server Manager window. Type in the server IP address and the name of the server in the Add Server window. If a server or multiple servers are already defined, then select the server and click Open. 3 Enter the administrative password for this server. (The password was created during the installation of the Document Server Manager.) 4 Click the Add Formset icon on the Home Page. This starts the Add Formset Wizard. 5 Click Browse and go to the directory where the formset was saved, select the formset Tutorial.fdd. Click Next. 6 Choose an action to perform when the formset is received by the server: The action will be specified by the pipe or in the data stream This setting means that: a) The pipe has an action associated with it. The pipe associates this default action with the formset. b) The data stream contains a directive that tells it which action to perform. For more information, see Data stream commands on page 8. c) There are Page Activation Conditons set when designing your form in the Forms Composer. These Page Activation Conditions are set to activate an action if certain conditions are met. Perform this action There are five actions you can associate with a formset; Print, Save to File, FTPput, , and Fax. Run a script If the Document Distributor server is installed and there are scripts available, you can select and associate a script with the formset. Click Next. 7 A Summary page opens with a summary of the choices you have made. You have the option of creating a named pipe to receive the data stream that is placed on the new form. Click Finish. 6

10 Connecting the named pipe to a printer object To connect the named pipe to a printer object: 1 Click Start Settings Printers. 2 Click Add Printer. 3 Create a Windows printer object and new local port. Under the port settings, create a new Local Port. Enter one of the pipe names specified in the Server Manager Named Pipe Wizard in the following format: \\.\pipe\pipe_name where pipe_name is the name from the Server Manager Named Pipe Wizard. 4 Select Generic from the Manufacturer s list and the Generic/Text Only printer driver. 5 After you have created your Windows printer object, point your data stream to it. If the data stream is coming from an application on that system, then just print to that printer object. If the data stream is coming from another Windows system, then set the printer object to be shared and print to the printer object. If the data stream is coming from an AS/400 or UNIX system, run a service program on the system called TCP/IP Printing Service. This is free with Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, but is an optional install. In UNIX terms, this is an LPD program (Line Printer Damon). It listens on the network for print data streams that are sent by other systems. It receives them off the network and sends them to the specified queue. If the data stream is coming from a mainframe, you would run a printer emulation program on the system. These programs emulate a mainframe printer. They receive the print data stream from the mainframe, convert it from EBCDIC to ASCII, and send it to the correct Windows printer queue. See your System Administrator for more information about mainframe printer emulation programs. 7

11 Appendix: E-forms directives Data stream commands The following is a list of directives, commands within the data stream, supported by the e-forms merge process. These commands can be used to override any activation conditions or properties found in the formset. If a directive appears more than once on a page, only the last occurrence is used. #!FORM_SET=NAME!# Specifies the formset to use for this data stream. Only one formset is used to process the whole data stream. Therefore this directive must appear on the first page of data, otherwise it is ignored by the handler. #!FIELD_MAP=NAME!# Specifies the name of the field map file to use for this page of data. #!FORM_NAMES=(NAME1, PPF File1),(NAME2,PPF File2)...!#: A comma separated list of the form Names/Page Print Profiles (PPF file names) to create from this page of data. Each member in the list is enclosed in parentheses (). The members are separated by commas. Within each member is the form name (1, 2, 3, and so on.), followed by a comma, and then the PPF file name. It is valid for the PPF file name to be blank. In this case the form names are still enclosed in parentheses, but the comma between the form name and PPF file name is optional. The following examples are both valid. #!FORM_NAMES=(1),(2),(3)!# #!FORM_NAMES=(1,),(2,),(3,)!# #!DEFAULT_FIELD_MAP=NAME!# Specifies the name of the field map file to use for this page of data and all following pages of data, until another DEFAULT_FIELD_MAP directive is found. #!DEFAULT_FORM_NAMES=(NAME1, PPF File1),(NAME2,PPF File2)...!# A comma separated list of the form Names/Page Print Profiles (PPF file names) to create for all pages of data, until a new DEFAULT_FORM_NAMES directive is received. See FORM_NAMES directive for examples of a list of valid forms. 8

12 #!FIRST_PAGE!# Indicates that this page is the first page of a job. If a job is already started, it returns to the receiver. This page is the first one processed on the next 'GetNextJobFromStream' call from the receiver. #!LAST_PAGE!# Indicates that this page is the last page of a job. After this page is processed, the job returns to the receiver. #!SCRIPT_NAME=NAME!# Specifies the name of the script that processes this job. Each job can contain multiple pages, but only one script can process it. Only the last occurrence of this directive in the pages of the job is used. #!DEFAULT_SCRIPT_NAME=NAME!# Specifies the name of the script that processes this job, and all following jobs until another DEFAULT_SCRIPT_NAME directive is found. 9

13 Lexmark and Lexmark with diamond design are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc., registered in the United States and/or other countries Lexmark International, Inc. 740 West New Circle Road Lexington, Kentucky