Variable Slug Placement

[Eric Patrick]

I am setting up a job that needs a variable slug. I found the set up info in the Rules manual and have created the OnJobStart Rule. I have created a template page. But I can't find any info on how to place the Slug rule on the template page.
Is there a full explanation somewhere on how to set this up?

Thanks!

[ThomasLewis]

If you want it in a specific spot I believe you have to set up a background sheet. This is explained on the last page of the FPImposer.pdf which should be in the Manuals folder. I haven't tried it yet, this is new to 8.2.

[Dan Korn]

Attached is a sample which demonstrates the new imposition sheet background feature in FusionPro 8.2. Unzip the files to the "Working Files" subfolder of the "Real Estate Mailer" tutorial and compose.

[esmith]

In the sample file's OnJobStart rule, what is the following doing?

FusionPro.Composition.forcePreprocessing = true;

I do not see it mentioned in the manuals.

Also, can you attempt to expand on the use of

FusionPro.Composition.chunksBreakStacks = true;

I can not tell from the documentation whether that causes a stack to continue at the top of the first page in the same chunk, or if the stacking continues through multiple chunks in the same position (what I think rkronk was asking about in a recent thread). Perhaps the two lines above are working in tandem (despite the tutorial not having enough records to take advantage)?

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by esmith

In the sample file's OnJobStart rule, what is the following doing?

FusionPro.Composition.forcePreprocessing = true;

I do not see it mentioned in the manuals.

What it does is force a preprocessing run through the data before the main composition pass. Preprocessing normally happens only when you either have (a) imposition with stacking (where we need to pre-calculate which pages go on which sheets in the stacks, which depends on the total number of output records) or (b) FP Expression images (which get created in parallel to the composition).

It actually has no effect in the sample job as provided, since it uses stacked imposition, so preprocessing is done anyway. However, if you were to remove that line from OnJobStart, and use an imposition template (FPI file) without stacking, then you would see that the information in the output on the imposed sheet background would not be able to correctly report the total number of records or sheets, since it can't know that until the job is done, unless you force it to do preprocessing.

It's not documented per se, but it is present in the Building Blocks dialog, on the Objects tab, under FusionPro (Global) -> Composition -> Record numbers and control.

Originally Posted by esmith

Also, can you attempt to expand on the use of

FusionPro.Composition.chunksBreakStacks = true;

I can not tell from the documentation whether that causes a stack to continue at the top of the first page in the same chunk, or if the stacking continues through multiple chunks in the same position (what I think rkronk was asking about in a recent thread).

This is explained in the User Guide, in the section titled, "Interaction between stack breaks and output file breaks" (on page 216 of the latest version).

It doesn't have any effect on the sample job as provided, because, while it is using stacked imposition, it's not chunking the output to multiple files. However, if you were to set the stack size to say, 10, and then do this in OnRecordStart:

if (FieldChanged("ZIP"))
    FusionPro.Composition.OpenNewOutputFile();

Then you could compose with FusionPro.Composition.chunksBreakStacks set to true, and then compose again with it set to false (or without specifying it, which is the same thing), and you would see the difference in the output. If chunksBreakStacks is not set (or set to false), then the first output file (chunk) will have the entire stack of 10 records, even though they don't all have the same ZIP Codes. If you set chunksBreakStacks to true, then the first output file has just the first six records with the 92101 ZIP Code, and a new stack is started in the next output file.

Originally Posted by esmith

Perhaps the two lines above are working in tandem (despite the tutorial not having enough records to take advantage)?

Well, they wouldn't really work together, since, if you were using stacked imposition, then the forcePreprocessing setting would be moot, and if you weren't using stacked imposition, then the chunksBreakStacks setting would be moot. But neither has any effect on the sample as provided.

[dreimer]

OK so I have the basics figured out for the slug on the background page. I am trying to get "Page 1 of 6", "Page 2 of 6", etc on the imposed PDF using

Page «$pagenum» of «$pagecount»

in a text box on the background template page. It puts "Page 1 of 1" on all six pages. Is what I am trying possible? If so, how would I do this? TIA

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by dreimer

OK so I have the basics figured out for the slug on the background page. I am trying to get "Page 1 of 6", "Page 2 of 6", etc on the imposed PDF using

Page «$pagenum» of «$pagecount»

in a text box on the background template page.

I'm confused. Do you want the page numbers, or the imposed sheet numbers? For the background template page, it's the sheet number that's relevant.

Originally Posted by dreimer

It puts "Page 1 of 1" on all six pages. Is what I am trying possible? If so, how would I do this? TIA

Now I'm even more confused. What do you mean by "all six pages?" Do you mean the individual output pages? Didn't you just say you wanted the numbers on the imposed sheet background? Which is it?

If you want the imposed sheet number, you can use the $impositionsheetnumber variable, but it has to be on the imposition sheet background (the Template page), not on a Body page. If you want to use $pagenum, that has to go on a Body page, not on the sheet background.

[Dan Korn]

Also, the $pagenum and $pagecount variables are the per-record page numbers. If you have only one page per output record, those numbers will always only be 1, regardless of whether you're using imposition. If you want to count page numbers for the entire job, for all records, then you can use the $pagenumberinjob variable.

[dreimer]

Sorry for the confusion. I have the code I posted in a text box on the template page. I was trying to get page numbers of the imposed sheets. My data has 398 records. The art fits 70 up on an imposed sheets. So records 1-70 are on imposed sheet 1 and I want that to say Page 1 of 6. Records 71-140 are on imposed sheet 2 and I want that to say Page 2 of 6, and so on. Does that make sense? Can it be done?

I don't see the variable $impositionsheetnumber anywhere?

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by dreimer

Sorry for the confusion. I have the code I posted in a text box on the template page. I was trying to get page numbers of the imposed sheets. My data has 398 records. The art fits 70 up on an imposed sheets. So records 1-70 are on imposed sheet 1 and I want that to say Page 1 of 6. Records 71-140 are on imposed sheet 2 and I want that to say Page 2 of 6, and so on. Does that make sense? Can it be done?

Yes. Use the $impositionsheetnumber and $impositiontotalsheets variables. Or use the FusionPro.Composition.impositionSheetNumber and FusionPro.Composition.impositionTotalSheets properties in a JavaScript rule. The nominal page numbers are per output page, and per-record, and don't change when imposition is used. It's the imposed sheet numbers you want here (even if you label them page numbers on the output sheets, which is fine).

Originally Posted by dreimer

I don't see the variable $impositionsheetnumber anywhere?

They're not all included in the Variables drop-down list in the Text Editor. This is one of those things where we try to weigh the utility of including every little bit of information in the UI versus the confusion all those options can cause.

Anyway, they're all listed here:
http://forums.pti.com/showpost.php?p=13793&postcount=3

The relevant JavaScript properties are all shown in the Building Blocks dialog, on the Objects tab, under FusionPro (Global) -> Composition -> Imposition.