Odystar Conditional Routing

[hermanpeckel]

Folks,

May I start this by saying that I am FAR from an expert in Odystar. I'm probably even far from a novice, but I do enjoy tinkering with it. Dangerous probably describes me best.

Anyhow... what I am trying to do is to route a job through a canvas based on public parameters (or any other way really). So, to give an example, we have one RIP that needs a JPG file, one that needs a TIF and one that needs PS. The operator would drop a supplied PDF into shuttle, enter the public parameter (JPG, TIF, or PS). The job would move through to "a gateway" that would then use that parameter and route the JPG output to the JPG output gateway, the TIF output to the TIF output gateway, and the PS output to the PS gateway.

Does that make sense? My question is, which gateway do I use for this conditional routing, and how do I use the public parameters in a conditional statement (if JPG, do this...) in the gateway?

Am I approaching this wrong? I've had a good look and nothing is jumping out at me.

By the way, just for some more background, I am trying to set up a more complex workflow in order to show our GM that we need to invest more time and money in Odystar and Automation Engine. So far our files just move down the line and all do the same thing. Not ideal.

As always, any help much appreciated!!

Regards
HP

[jeffkin15]

Actually you would use the Hold gateway.

1. Set the "Output Options List" to your choices
2. Click the Auto release tab and select "Enable Auto Release" and set the "Auto Release Time" to 00:00:00
3. Make "Auto Release Output" the public parameter.

This will allow your operator to choose from a pull down list the output, and because you set the time to 0, the file will not go on hold, but instead route to the chosen path.

Hope this helps.

[hermanpeckel]

Ah!! Cheers Jeff. Sorry for the delay, but I didn't get an alert email. Thought I'd check back.

What you have explained all makes sense. Now I've just got to put it into practise. Thanks again! This will help a lot!

Regards
HP

[hermanpeckel]

Ok, so I tested Jeff's method above and all works well. Thanks Jeff!

Now, using Jeff's info, I thought I'd take this one step further, and to somewhere that I want to be. I'm experimenting with writing XMP data into the PDF file with specific information from our job database (MIS). I then plan to extract this data at a ROUTE gateway and use this as a way to route the job automatically and conditionally. To give an example - write XMP to the PDF "File Output Type" and "JPG", or "File Output Type" and "TIF" depending on the info in the job database.

I've tried getting the XMP data out of the file with the FILE PROPERTY test type, but to no avail. I guess my other option is to then write that XMP data to the JDF ticket via the HOUSE KEEPING gateway, then extract that later in the canvas using XPaths.

I feel like I am trying to reinvent the wheel here and there must be a simpler way, but I'm not seeing it.

As always, any thoughts or comments much appreciated!!

Regards
HP

[jeffkin15]

well getting out xmp data can be "interesting" The routing gateway has the ability to either read the information via a XMP tag or a Xpath Expression. It really depends on how the information is written. If you would like to post the file, I will download it and get back to you with the solution. I am on vacation now so you will need to give me a week or two to look into it.

BTW, have you looked at upgrading to automation engine? That has much better capabilities to query databases for information. Its a better solution moving forward.

[hermanpeckel]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks a lot for your kind offer. It seems, with your help (and help from Esko Australia), that I can now read and route via XMP metadata!! Very happy!! The next challenge is writing the data in to the correct schema via an Applescript gateway. Not sure how that is going to happen yet. I need to get my head around the whole metadata schema thing.

As for Automation Engine, yeah, I plan on doing the upgrade. Currently our Odystar instance runs on two Xserves. I am also doing a VMware migration which should place us better for running up AE. Are you using it yet? What are your thoughts?

Hope you are enjoying your vacation!

Regards
HP

[jeffkin15]

I love automation Engine. In all my years working with workflows (Brisque, Taiga, Nexus, Odystar, Prinergy etc...) I truly believe that automation engine is the best all around workflow.

[hermanpeckel]

In case anyone else stumbles upon this through a forum search, I think I've come up with an answer.

After much mucking about, the key was using ExifTool by Phil Harvey to write metadata to the PDFX namespace. It meant creating a custom .ExifTool_config file which included my variables. Then these variables are picked up through the metadata test type of the route gateway.

It is now all working a treat! And the beauty of it is, all the info is contained in the PDF file throughout the entire workflow.

If anyone needs more info just reply to this thread.

Cheers!
HP

[Rob Stott]

Hi there,

Sounds pretty cool! It seems like I'm doing some similar stuff and having similar headaches. Please could you be kind enough to share a copy of your .ExifTool_config file?

Thanks
Rob

[hermanpeckel]

Hi Rob,

I MAY have jumped the gun a bit with my, "It's all now working a treat". It is still not 100%, but that's more to the fact that I've been doing other things.

So the config file is pretty simple. I basically just edited the default file with -

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Shortcut tags are used when extracting information to simplify
# commonly used commands. They can be used to represent groups
# of tags, or to provide an alias for a tag name.
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
'Image::ExifTool::XMP:dfx' => {
LPPrinter => { },
LPColourProfile => { },
LPXMP => { },
LPScale => { },
LPXdim => { },
LPYdim => { },
LPOrientation => { },
LPFinishingCode => { },
LPItemDesc => { },
LPProduct => { },
LPColourMatch => { },
LPTrimming => { },
},
);
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1; #end
<-- Back to ExifTool home page

All the variables starting with "LP" are custom variables that can be picked up in the PDFX namespace. Let me know if this doesn't make sense and I can explain further.

The next part is extracting that metadata at gateways. I've almost got it right. Be interested if you have any more luck.

Regards
HP