Barcode added to current workflow

Hi we are passed thousands of pdf documents of varying lengths, 2 pages, 5 pages etc. At the moment I have a workflow that counts the number of pages in each document and splits the documents on the number of pages and creates a folder for each size so all 2 page pdfs go into a folder named 2 etc. I’ve been asked to concatenate the files and add a barcode so audit can trace, the files do not need any design work and are formatted correctly, is there a way i can do this in workflow or would I still need to have a print content, datamapper etc. to extract and position the one field I need for the barcode. Sorry for the long message. Thanks in advance.

Well you need to add a barcode, so right there you need either a template or an output preset.

And you need to fill that barcode with some kind of variable data, so you’ll probably need a data mapping config as well.

Hi Phil, thanks for the reply. Yes spot on, the thing I’m having trouble visualising is the processing of pre formatted documents and how best to do it. Normally we extract the data add a template and build the job form there. In his instance then I can just use a datamapper to extract the one field needed then include that in the output preset then add to workflow. Apologies if I’m stating the obvious here, never used Planet Press to process data that needs only a barcode and nothing else.

>> In his instance then I can just use a datamapper to extract the one field needed then include that in the output preset then add to workflow.

Yep. You will also need a template that simply maps your PDF in the background and you will be good to go.

Excellent, thanks Phil much appreciated, have a nice weekend.