How InfoPrint Manager Transform Feature works

This section describes how InfoPrint Manager Transform Feature works.

Transform Feature handles data and image transform processing from print servers by balancing and managing transform requests across multiple transform servers. You interact with Transform Feature through the user interface on a Web browser.

The Transform Feature user interface includes these components:

Coordinator
The coordinator communicates with InfoPrint Manager.
Transform server
The transform server manages these print data and image transforms:
  • AFP to Adobe PDF
  • PCL
  • Adobe PDF and PostScript
  • GIF
  • JPEG
  • SAP
  • TIFF
The transforms convert the print data and image data to AFP data, and with the AFP to Adobe PDF transform, convert the AFP data to PDF.
User interface
The user interface lets you define print servers and start, stop, and manage the transform servers.

The next figure shows the components and how Transform Feature interacts with the print servers.

Transform Feature components and the interaction with print servers

Then numbers in the figure refer to these descriptions of how the components operate and interact with each other and the print servers.

  1. Print jobs are submitted from one or more print servers that have been configured to send transform requests to Transform Feature. A print server interface transmits the request to the coordinator. The coordinator component receives the request and information regarding the type of transformation to be done.
  2. The coordinator sends the transform request to a transform server component, which transforms the data with the appropriate transform, such as PostScript to AFP. If you are using more than one transform server, the coordinator sends the request to the transform server with the lowest processing load.
  3. To maximize print server performance in sending data to the printers, the transform servers sequence the transformed data in the correct order and return it to the print servers as the data completes processing, instead of waiting for the entire job to finish.
  4. The user interface component, which you access from a Web browser, lets you define which print servers and transform servers Transform Feature communicate with. With the user interface, you can start and stop transform servers, check the operating status of the transform servers, determine the percentage of work pending for a transform server, view the message log, configure a trace to help diagnose a problem (only when requested by Software Support), and see what transforms are installed on a transform server.
    Note:
  • When you purchase Transform Feature, the GIF to AFP, JPEG to AFP, and TIFF to AFP transforms are included on the CD-ROMs.

Returning transform requests from Transform Feature

If you submit numerous transform requests from a print server, those transform requests might not return to the print server in the same order. The order the transformed data returns to the print server depends on the kind of transform (AFP, PDF, PostScript, GIF, JPEG, SAP, or TIFF) and the size of the request.

For example, you send a PCL file and then you send a PDF file that is the same size. The PCL file can only be transformed on a job basis. The PDF file, on the other hand, is processed as groups of pages over multiple processors. Therefore, the PDF file might be transformed first and returned to the print server before the PCL file.

Related information:

Using the transforms
Parent topic: InfoPrint Manager Transform Feature overview