Advice on unique output filenames

OL Connect Professional Job/Output Creation
1

What are my options for creating unique output filenames from an Output Preset without using Separation?

We process Regular and Consolidated water bills consecutively, and the client does not want them to be combined into one mailing. Both files use the same DataMappers, Templates and Job/Output Presets, resulting in the same output filename. If we do not move or rename the first output file, it is overwritten by the second with the same filename. I need a solution to automatically alter the output filename for consecutive output files.

I have been looking at output filename variables like ${template.nr,0000} ${file.nr,0000} ${job.nr,0000}, hoping one of them would increment each time a file is created, but it seems that all of these variables are only useful if the output file is Separated at some level. Even a randomly generated 4-digit number appended to the filename would suffice.

I feel a simple solution continues to elude me. Any advice would be appreciated.

2

You could use %U in Workflow and pass that as a runtime parameter to your Datamapper and then use that in your Output preset as a name.

3

@jchamel, Thank you. This is exactly what I was thinking of. I knew there was a unique string system variable in Workflow but I did not know how to access it in an Output Preset. I will explore further the procedures for appending variables to data in Workflow. I can think of a few instances where this would be helpful.

While waiting for this post to be approved, I fell back on the tried and true Text Condition tool which can search the CSV data for the statement type field. It requires a second Output Preset with a different output filename, but it works.