Creating IMB serial number files

If you want Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMBs) to contain a sequential serial number that identifies each mailpiece, you must create a serial number file.

The IMB serial number file contains the serial number that you want to encode in the first IMB that AFP Editor creates in a production AFP file. AFP Editor increments the serial number by 1 in each subsequent IMB so that the serial number is unique.

You can use different IMB serial number files when you create IMBs in a sample AFP file and when you run the EditAFP command to create the IMBs in production AFP files. To use a different serial number file for the production AFP files, you specify the name of the serial number file to use for the IMB definition in the -snf option of the EditAFP command.

You can create a different IMB serial number file for each barcode that has a unique barcode definition name. For example, if one IMB contains the customer's routing ZIP Code and another IMB contains your company's routing ZIP Code (in a reply address), you can create a separate IMB serial number file for each barcode definition.

To create an IMB serial number file:
  1. On the preparation system, create an IMB serial number file.
  2. Identify the serial number file with a name of the barcode that the file applies to. For example, if the barcode contains the customer's routing code, you might name the barcode to-imb and the serial number file to-imb-serial.
  3. If the production system is different than the preparation system, use the File Transfer Program (ftp) to send the serial number file to the production system. Use the ftpbinary option.
Parent topic: Editing AFP files