FAQ
- Will additional work be required to convert fonts for different jobs?
- Does PRO Meta to PDF have the capability to "watermark" or insert content into PDF files?
- What platforms are supported?
- Do PRO products have indexing capability?
- Do PRO products have PDF bookmark capability?
- Can PRO products produce search enabled PDFs?
- Can you do batch conversion of metacode to PDF?
- Can you automatically kick-off batch conversions?
- Is there a way for the AFP transform to run as a started task and sit on the "back end" of a JES defined printer destination. Can data be seamlessly pulled out of JES to keep so that we don't have to apply maintenance to hundreds of applications?
- Does PRO Meta to AFP only provide support for Letter, Legal, and A4 paper sizes?
- Does PRO Meta to AFP handle Tumble Duplex?
- Is it true that the biggest part of any conversion effort is obtaining all the printer resources required for the print job and putting them on the mainframe?
- If I have, for example, 50 different printer setups (combinations of FRM, IMG, LOG, etc), and 500 jobs that use those 50 different setups, how long would it take to get those 50 different setups off the printer and into a mainframe PDS?
- How much JCL would need to be changed in each of the 500 jobs to do the transforms, and how long would those JCL changes take?
Answers
- Will additional work be required to convert fonts for different jobs?
No additional work is required to convert fonts unless the fonts are encrypted or you will be applying font mapping. Font mapping allows you to reduce the resulting file size of a PDF file as well as improve the viewing performance and quality.
[Back to the top] - Does PRO Meta to PDF have the capability to "watermark" or insert content into PDF files?
The ability to add a "watermark" to a PDF file during conversion is handled by our unique PDF "Overlay Merging" feature. This feature has the flexibility to add pages from PDF files during conversion.PDF files can include color logos, pre-printed forms, signatures, watermarks or any other content you want merged. You can also have different "watermarks" on different pages of the converted PDF, offering great flexibility.
In addition, we can dynamically select different Overlay files at conversion time, thus facilitating a wide variety of requirements, including one-to-one marketing applications, multi-language environments and multiple applications in a single system.
[Back to the top] - What platforms are supported?
Our products run on Windows XP/NT/2000/2003/XP/ME/Vista, Unix (AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, SCO Unixware, Linux) and z/OS (all versions).
[Back to the top] - Do PRO products have indexing capability?
The PRO Indexing product creates index files with keys selected from the input print files. These index files can be used to populate a database or to create XML.
[Back to the top] - Do PRO products have PDF bookmark capability?
Our PDF output driver has an indexing capability that can be used to generate either hierarchical or flat bookmarks in PDF files.
[Back to the top] - Can PRO products produce search enabled PDFs?
Since PRO PDF products convert from object to object, text from the print stream can be used for searches in PDF files.
[Back to the top] - Can you do batch conversion of metacode to PDF?
Our software can be used to convert files to PDF in batch mode and put them directly onto a web site. Alternatively, customers may find it more efficient to use our PRO Meta or AFP Normalization and Indexing product to split Metacode and AFP files, and store them on the Web site. PRO Meta to PDF and AFP to PDF is invoked to convert the Metacode and AFP to PDF on the fly when a user wants to look at the document.The methodology used depends on a number of factors including the size of documents, storage requirements, conversion times, hit rate and system loads.
[Back to the top] - Can you automatically kick-off batch conversions?
In the MVS environment, we offer PRO JES Spool Extraction, which pulls jobs out of the MVS spooler for automatic transformation and returns the converted output file to the spooler for printing. It can run in 3 modes, as a batch program, a started task or as functional subsystem.In Unix and NT environments, the PRO WorkFlow Server will watch directories for print files, invoke PRO transforms and directly output files to printers or directories.
[Back to the top] - Is there a way for the AFP transform to run as a started task and sit on the "back end" of a JES defined printer destination. Can data be seamlessly pulled out of JES to keep so that we don't have to apply maintenance to hundreds of applications?
Yes. PRO JES Spool Extraction can run as a started task and pull output from the queue based on a number of criteria and then put the AFP output back on the JES queue for printing with PSF.
[Back to the top] - Does PRO Meta to AFP only provide support for Letter, Legal, and A4 paper sizes?
No, PRO Meta to AFP can also handle custom paper sizes, which can be any size up to and including 17 X 14 inch pages.
[Back to the top] - Does PRO Meta to AFP handle Tumble Duplex?
In Xerox, the applications need to do the Tumble Duplex formatting themselves, so there is no differentiation between Normal Duplex and Tumble Duplex in the Xerox world. If there are Tumble Duplex applications on the Xerox side, they will be printed correctly as AFP Duplex output.
[Back to the top] - Is it true that the biggest part of any conversion effort is obtaining all the printer resources required for the print job and putting them on the mainframe?
Normally this is a large task; however we have tried to simplify it. If the Xerox printers have the same resources on each one, then you will only need to load from one of them.If the printers each have different resources, then you may need to load each of them into different libraries. You would need to understand which library to use with which application. If you can load resources from your Xerox printer onto a magnetic tape (3420 or 3480/3490) that can be read on the mainframe, then you can use Teltape. We provide a 30-day trial for Teltape which can load all of the Xerox resources from a Xerox tape into a PDS, adding a 2 byte prefix to each resource name. (If the printers have only the QIC cartridges in them, IBM Canada has the ability to copy these tapes onto 3490 cartridge for you).
If your printers do not have a tape drive on them, then you may have a large task as you will have to use floppy disks to transfer the files to a PC and then upload them. Often, users have many or all of the Xerox resources on an Elixir workstation. If so, then they could be easily uploaded from there to the mainframe.For JSL source resources, there is an additional step once the resources are loaded. We include a utility, which converts the ASCII/binary format into standard EBCDIC text format so you can edit them on the mainframe.
[Back to the top] - If I have, for example, 50 different printer setups (combinations of FRM, IMG, LOG, etc), and 500 jobs that use those 50 different setups, how long would it take to get those 50 different setups off the printer and into a mainframe PDS?
In the simplest case, it may take 2 days to copy all of the resources from one printer into one PDS on MVS. You will then need to test each of the applications to ensure that all of the correct versions of resources are there and everything is in place.Another factor to look at is the number of START commands used on the Xerox printers. If the operators use a single START command and all applications run under that, then setups are quite simple. On the other hand, if the operators use different START commands on the Xerox printer console for different applications, then you will need to look at these and determine the impact. At the minimum, 1 configuration dataset entry per START command is needed, however, depending on what they do in the start command, additional work may be needed.
[Back to the top] - How much JCL would need to be changed in each of the 500 jobs to do the transforms, and how long would those JCL changes take?
If you use PRO WorkFlow JES Spool Extraction, you may not need to modify any JCL. You would only have to test each of the applications.Without PRO WorkFlow JES Spool Extraction, you will need to add at least one step to each procedure to run PRO Meta to AFP and then test the updated JCL. This could take 1/2 day to 1 day per application.
[Back to the top]
Get in Touch and Keep in Touch with CrawfordTech
