Ordering finishing devices after printing

If you want to apply finishing actions on printed jobs you can send job instructions to an external application previously installed.

To be able to use this option, first install the external bindery application. The external bindery application can be either on the same server as TotalFlow Production Manager or on a remote server.

Important:

If the application is on a remote server, make sure that the Export Folder on the remote server is shared.

To order finishing devices, follow these steps:

Log in to TotalFlow Production Manager as an administrator.
In the menu bar, click Operations.
In the Workflows tab, select the workflow where you plan to apply finishing actions on printed jobs and click the edit workflow icon. Or, right-click the workflow and select Editor and Properties....
In the Activities pod, select the Bindery Export activity and click Copy.
In the activity properties dialog that opens, select the Job Defaults page.
Set the Export Folder job property to the name of the hot folder where the external bindery application is configured to send files.
- If the bindery application is on the TotalFlow Production Manager server, the Export Folder is a local folder.
- If the bindery application is on a remote server, follow these steps:
  1. Add a Run External Application activity before Bindery Export in the workflow.
  2. Set the Run External ApplicationExternal command property. The command must look similar to this:net use \\host_name\shared_folder_namepassword /user:user_name,
  3. Set the Export Folder property to look similar to the name of a shared folder on the remote server. The property value must look similar to this: \\host_name\shared_folder_name.
Click OK.

You see the new activity in the Custom section of the Activities pod.
Drag and drop the new activity to the workflow.

Important: Make sure that the workflow has an Imposition activity that precedes the Bindery Export activity.
Save the workflow.
When the job goes through Imposition, a JDF file is created. Then, when the job goes through the Bindery Export, it copies the JDF file in the Export Folder. All the finishing settings that you defined in Imposition are then processed by the Bindery Export activity.