other-transform-options

Specifies the command line that executes when this transform is run.

GUI label

Transform options

Type

Resettable, single-valued

Allowed Values

You can enter a text string of up to 4095 characters that contains the command line for this transform.

Default Value

No default value

Usage Guidelines

  • You should not use the pdset command with the other-transform-options transform attribute.
  • For transform-library=command-line-transform, this attribute contains the command line that specifies the transform. The supported substitution control sequences that can be used in other-transform-options follow:
    %i
    The name of the input-file to transform.
    %o
    The name of the file in which to store the output transform.
    %e
    The name of the file in which to store any transform information or error messages. If anything is written to this file, it is logged in the InfoPrint Manager for AIX server log.
      Note:
    1. If the transform exits with an exit code of 0 or the value set in the conditional-terminating-return-code transform attribute, the error messages from the transform are logged as debug severity.
    2. If the transform exits with a non-zero exit code, but not the value set with the conditional-terminating-return-code transform attribute, the error messages from the transform are logged as error severity.
    3. Transform error messages can be written to the file specified through the %e substitution variable, or they can be written to standard error (stderr). You should not mix output to %e and stderr in a single run of the exit program. You should use one or the other in any given run.
    %j
    The name of the original print file name, minus the path (from document-file-name attribute).
    Note: This file might not be accessible. This should only be used to construct another name, for example, for a temporary file.
    %n
    The name of the original print file name, minus the path and minus the extension (from document-file-name attribute).
    Note: This file might not be accessible. This should only be used to construct another name, for example, for a temporary file.
    %d
    A string representing the document-format of the input file:
    ascii
    ASCII
    afpds
    AFPDS
    pcl
    PCL
    postscript
    PS
    Note: You can also use %%Ddocument-format%% to pass the document format value from the document.
    %p
    The value of the destination-pass-through document attribute from the document. The value can be used as job specific information that can be passed to the transform and the actual destination.
    %q
    The name of the actual destination that is doing this transform.
    %s
    The document-sequence-number for the document.
    %t
    The other-transform-options for the document.

    To write one transform, but use it differently for different jobs, you can pass values into the transform with this parameter.

    %g
    The global job identifier for the job.
    %u
    The name of the file to be used to update the job's pages-completed and the document's page-count attributes. Updating the document's page-count changes the job's job-page-count attribute.
    Note: This file should never be accessed directly; only the transform_update utility should be used to modify this file. For more information about the transform_update utility, see “Using the transform_update utility” in the appropriate InfoPrint Manager procedures manual.
    %#
    The 10-digit job-identifier of the job.
    %%Jattribute-name%%
    Passes the job attribute value from the job containing the document being transformed.
    %%Dattribute-name%%
    Passes the document attribute value from the document being transformed.
    %%Aattribute-name%%
    Passes the actual destination attribute value from the actual destination processing the job.

    Considerations when using the %%Nattributename substitution control sequences:

    • InfoPrint Manager accepts standard abbreviations for the attribute name, as long as they are not ambiguous. For example, you can enter res-prof for results-profile. When ambiguous text is used, it is passed to the transform as entered.
    • The %%Nattributename substitution control sequences must be followed by a blank or %%.
    • You can put quotes around the single percent values (for example, '%u'), but you should never put quotes around the double-percent values, such as %%A.
    • Values with spaces are enquoted so they pass as a single argument. You should not enquote %%substitution%% controls.
    • Multiple value attributes return all values separated by commas.
    • If no attribute exists for the object, a null value is passed to the transform. No checking is done if there is an object class attribute mismatch. For example, if you ask for an actual destination attribute from a job, you get a null value.
    • If no value exists on a requested attribute, a null value is passed to the transform.
    • The attribute specified in the %%substitution control sequence can be specified in English or the language of the pdserver. A new transform attribute, server-locale, specifies whether to use the pdserver's language or to use English. server-locale defaults to the language of the pdserver. The same language will be used for values passed to the transform.
    • The identification of the end of the attribute name is done based on the occurrence of a blank, end-of-line, or % character. If the class identification is missing after the starting %%, the substitution request will not be recognized as a %%Nattributename substitution request with the result that the last % in the ending %% might be misinterpreted as the start of another substitution sequence depending on the next character.

  • The command line that you specify with other-transform-options can run in an AIX shell script. Therefore, make sure that shell meta-characters are escaped, that is, preceded by one or more backslashes, so that the resulting attribute value can be correctly parsed by the shell script.
  • Pragma statements with other-transform-options:

    The other-transform-options attribute can now have a value which includes an equals sign, so pragma statements are supported. For example, to submit a color print job called PS.doc to a printer called color_printer using perceptual color rendering, you could type this command on the command line:

    pdpr -d color_printer -x "other-transform-options = -pragma color-rendering-intent=perceptual" PS.doc

    This pragma can also be used on a command line invocation of a transform or it can be specified in the transform configuration file.

  • Examples for other-transform-options:

    Use these examples on the command line:

    • To run the ps2afp transform and print the generated AFP data, you would specify a one-step transform sequence consisting of a transform object as follows: 
      other-transform-options="ps2afp -o '%o' '%i'"
    • To run the ps2afp transform and also save a copy of the generated AFP data in "c:\afp\*.afp", you could create a transform sequence consisting of two transform objects as follows:
      1. This step does the PostScript to AFP transform and stores the output in the designated output file, which becomes the input file for step 2: 
        other-transform-options="ps2afp -o '%o' '%i'"
      2. This step copies the AFP file from step 1. However, in this example, nothing is put in the %o file, so the %i file (the transformed AFP) is passed through to the DSS for printing. 
        other-transform-options="copy '%i' 'c:\afp\%n.afp'"
    • To run a customized program that removes PostScript controls that might create a problem at the printer, you would use a one-step transform sequence consisting of a transform object as follows: 
      other-transform-options="d:\tools\my_ps_filter.exe '%i' '%o'"
    • To run Fred's mytransform and pass it the document-sequence-number, the global jobID, and the document other-transform-options, specify: 
      other-transform-options='/home/fred/mytransform %i %o %s %g %t'
    • To run Sally's mywork transform and pass it the actual destination's resource-context value and the job's job owner, specify: 
      other-transform-options='/home/sally/mywork %i %o %%Aresource-context %%Jjob-owner'
  • For AIX:

    The InfoPrint Manager server runs as a setuid program. When setuid programs are started, AIX clears the LIBPATH variable for security reasons. Therefore, transform programs that are run under the transform Subsystem of InfoPrint Manager must either be built not to depend on LIBPATH or to explicitly set LIBPATH themselves.

Parent topic: Attributes for transforms