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"Attribution rules" Tab

Some prepress systems write information such as job name and sheet name to the PPF file name and this is sometimes reproduced insufficiently in the internal attributes of the PPF file. The PPF job in question stops and enters the "yellow" state if information such as the job name is missing. You can then click the item in the PPF list and enter the missing attributes in the open preview window.

But missing attributes can be replaced automatically in many cases because the prepress system often writes attributes, separated by separators, into the PPF file name. The prepress system in question controls how the PPF files are named. You can configure the prepress system accordingly if desired.

You can define so-called "attribution rules" to automatically parse the PPF file name for any missing information attributes.

The PPF file names written to the hotfolder are analyzed by the pertaining import process and the attribution file configured in the process is applied. The file name attributes are added to the PPF attributes during PPF import if the elements in the name are recognized correctly. The attributes then appear as columns in the PPF list.

"Snippet" definition

A "Snippet" is

an excerpt of the file name defined by a delimiter or the string length or

an expression defined by any other attribute.

When creating a "Snippet", only the delimiter and/or the string length are initially defined. If the snippet is applied to a file name, the file name component is added.

Create an attribution rule

To make it easier to create an attribution rule, you can load a representative PPF file in the configuration dialog as a configuration example for an attribution rule. You can then view the effect of the respective attribution rule right away. In an attribution rule, you define the assignment of all PPF attributes. This applies to attributes defined in the PPF files but also to attributes derived from the file names. Therefore, you should configure the import of all required attributes in the attribution rules. You can also edit the PPF file name for further processing with an attribution rule.

You can create attribution rules to match PPF files with different types of attribute definitions. This is why we recommend that you always load a sample PPF file if you are going to configure an attribution rule. See the following example.

Create an attribution rule for adding attributes from the file name

1.Click the "plus" icon in the left part of the "Attribution rules" tab to create a new attribution rule.

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2.The "New Attribution rule" dialog appears.

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3.Enter a name for the new attribution rule and confirm with "Save". The name of the attribution rule must not have been used for another attribution rule before.

4.To load a PPF file as example for recognizing patterns of file name attributes, click the folder icon next to "Example".

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Open a folder in the path "\\[Prinect Server name]\PTConfig\PPFIn". If needed, you can go to another PPF import hotfolder. Choose an example file containing all required attributes in its file name. In the example, the underscore separates the attributes.

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In the left part of "PPF Parameters", you see the attributes (parameters) derived from the opened PPF file without using the attribution rule. At first, the right part also displays these attributes. In a later step, the right part will show the attributes assigned to the imported job after the new attribution rule has been applied. In this way, you can see step by step the effect of the new attribution rule when setting up such a rule.

5.You define the attribution rule as follows: for each of the attributes, you define one or more snippets below the "Source" header and move them to the desired attributes below the "Destination" header with drag-and-drop. See "Snippet" definition.

"Source" offers attributes contained in the PPF file but also the "File name" attribute. You must define a snippet for the "File name" attribute for each attribute you want to derive from the file name. In many cases, the file name of the example file suggests, which attributes are contained in the file name.

The file name in our example is:
221117_HDCustomer_150643882_056152.1
(the ".ppf" extension is omitted here).

The following attributes can be derived from this file name:

221117

Job number.

HDCustomer

Customer

1

Version Name

The underscore separates these attributes. To derive these 3 parameters of the example from the file name, you need 3 snippets in which underscores are defined as delimiters:

6.Click the "plus" icon below the "Source" header next to the attribute "File name" because the new attribute is to be taken from the file name. The "Create Snippet" dialog displays:

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7.Type an underscore in the "String" box because the elements in the file name are separated by underscores. Leave the box "Length" as it is. Confirm with "Save". The dialog box closes.

8.The following dialog opens when an example file is open while you are defining the snippet:

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As a rule, you should confirm this dialog ("OK tick"). You can also enable the "Do not show this message again" option. The dialog will not appear anymore, and the example file remains open.

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This snippet is responsible for retrieving the first attribute "File Name" from the file name. It appears indented below the attribute "File Name".

IconNoteNote: You can delete every snippet — also in the "Destination" part — by clicking the recycle bin icon and confirming the following alert message.

9.Repeat steps 6 to 8 to create more snippets also for the attribute "File name"– two more for the attributes "Customer" and "Version name"in the example.

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Now the snippets needed to generate attributes from the file name are created. Now you must assign the snippets to the destination attributes. Open the example file again if it is closed to assess the result of the attribute assignment.

10.Click the first snippet in "File name" and move it to the destination attribute "Job name" with drag-and-drop. Make sure the mouse pointer has a small plus sign while you drag. Otherwise, you must keep the left mouse button pressed and, making a curve, drag the mouse slowly to the destination.

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This assigns the first attribute derived from the file name to the destination attribute "Job number".

11.Now drag the second file name snippet (HDCustomer) to destination attribute "Customer" and the third file name snippet (1) to destination attribute "Version name".

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The new "job number" target attribute differs from the job number originally present in the PPF attributes. In this way, for example, an unsuitable job number assigned by the prepress system can be transferred to a new job number in the Prinect workflow.

All required attributes are now assigned and display as destination parameters. For submission to Press Center, for example, you can also edit the PPF file name by removing the separators and/or deleting some attributes in the file name. The edited file name appears in "New" above the PPF parameters (2). At first, there is no new file name, which means that the existing file name is used.

IconNoteNote: You can use an attribution rule not only to create destination attributes from the file name, but you can also assign attributes from the source PPF file to other attributes of the destination PPF file if needed. The procedure is the same as for assigning attributes from the file name. In this case, any existing destination attributes are replaced by the newly assigned attributes.

Customize the PPF file name using the attribution rule

1.Move the desired parameters into the "File name" destination box with drag-and-drop to generate a new file name from the attribute assignments. For example, the new file name is to contain only the "Job number", "Customer name" and "Version name" parameters. First drag the "File name 1" snippet from the source parameter area into the destination parameter area "File name":

2.Repeat this step for the "Customer 2" and "File name 3" snippets. Please note that you must drop the respective snippet on the "File name" header, not on an already existing snippet. The result is like this:

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3.The new file name displays in "New" when the snippets are transferred to the "File name" destination area. This concludes the definition of attribution rules. Click "Save & Close". The Configuration Editor closes.

IconNoteNote: Not only can you assign snippets from the source "File name" attribute to the destination "File name" attribute, but you can also assign other source attributes to the destination "File name" attribute in the same way. Then the new filename will also contain these attributes.

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