I have a customer that wants to automatically print PDFs stored in a folder. The path for each of the files is a field in i.e. (C:\PDFs\document1.pdf) in a CSV file. I am new to Connect, but wondered if I would use Datamapper to extract the file name, and then use Workflow to submit the file to a printer? If so, how do I get the file name that Datamapper extracts into Workflow?
In this particular case, you don’t even need to call the DataMapper, it can all be achieved using a single workflow process.
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Use the CSV as the job file for a Workflow process (you can capture it via an input folder, email, HTML request, etc.
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Use the Emulated splitter to split the CSV on each row
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Use a Load External File task that reads the specific field where the PDF path/name is stored and uses that as the name of the file to load
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Use a Print using a Windows driver task and set it to auto-detect mode so it simply prints out the PDF.
Thank you for your Answer Phil. Can you explain your thoughts on the Load External File task that reads the specific field?
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Add the Load External file task to your process.
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Right-click in the External File field, select Get Data Location to open up the data selector and then highlight the line containing the PDF path and name.
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Press OK: the actual command to dynamically retrieve that data will be inserted in the field.
And that’s all there is to it, really.