Creating a custom step (transform) object that updates the job's page count

By default, InfoPrint Manager has no knowledge of the number of pages in a transformed job. However, if you have a transform that knows how many pages are in the job, you can create a transform object that can update InfoPrint Manager with this information. InfoPrint Manager can pass transform objects an update_file with the %u option. This update_file can be updated with the number of pages that are in the transformed job, and InfoPrint Manager then updates the job with this information. To modify the update_file, the user supplied transform needs to call the transform_update utility that is supplied with InfoPrint Manager. For the syntax of the transform_update utility, see Using the transform_update utility.

To define a data stream transform object from the InfoPrint Manager Web Administration Interface, use this procedure:

  1. Connect to the InfoPrint Manager server using the InfoPrint Manager Web Administration Interface.
  2. In the left-hand Objects panel, click the Servers tab.
  3. Click , the Menu icon, and select Custom Steps (Transforms)....
  4. Click the New button in the upper right corner.
  5. In the Create New Custom Step (Transform) dialog, fill in the fields as shown in the following figure.
    For this example, the passvals program that is called by the PASSVALUES transform object gets passed both the resource-context document attribute and the job-owner job attribute, as well as an update file. You should change the passvals program to your transform program that knows how many pages are in the job, and then change the parameters in Transform Options to what your program expects with the %u being the update_file that will be passed to the transform_update utility when your transform calls it. Other attributes, like resource-context and job-owner, can be included or omitted as required by the needs of your transform.

    Create New Custom Step (Transform) dialog: Define a transform to pass job attributes

    Create New Custom Step (Transform) dialog: Define a transform to pass job attributes
  6. Click OK.
    InfoPrint Manager saves the transform under the name you provided in the Name field. To see the values of this transform, click , the Menu icon, on the Servers tab and select the Custom Steps (Transforms)... option.

In this section:

  1. Using the transform_update utility
Parent topic: Examples of creating custom steps (transform) objects