Presorting address data from PDF source

OL Connect Professional Workflow
1

I am just going to throw this out there.

We are a service bureau that prints and mails account statements and utility bills, presorting address data for postal discounts. Many of our customers have moved to a PDF data source, and we need to use Connect to:

  1. Extract the address data from the source PDF invoices for presorting through our postal software (we use BCC Ignite built in Redpoint DM)

  2. Return the updated address data to the correct invoice and output the PDF file in the presorted order.

We have had some success using PP Designer ver7 to bookmark each invoice (based on a unique field, usually account number) in the source PDF, then splitting the file on that bookmark, resulting in individual invoice PDFs using the bookmark as the filename.

Address data is extracted by a Datamapper to an XML file for presorting. The PDF bookmark field (account number) is included. A CSV file is returned from Redpoint and another Datamapper and template then creates the print job. A script is used to add the correct invoice as a “background image,” using the account number field/PDF filename.

This process does have some limitations, not the least of which is relying on both PP7 and Connect. I dread the day PP7 goes end-of-life. Also, if multiple invoices have the same account number, the split PDFs are overwritten.

I have been able to duplicate this procedure using an Output Preset to “separate” the invoices into individual PDF files, and name them using the account number field in the data, but I was hoping some unique field could be used to identify each record, and name each individual PDF invoice. Looking at the extracted XML file produced by my Datamapper, the vger_record_id was an obvious choice. It is unique to each record and present in the extracted XML. But how do I use vger_record_id to name my individual PDF invoices?

My Job Creation Preset. “Include Metadata” is checked.

jobpreset
jobpreset904×653 24.9 KB

My Output Preset. Separation does work when I use an extracted data field to name my PDF files

outputpreset
outputpreset968×628 17 KB

My Workflow Process. I have tried to incorporate several ideas I found in this forum.

workflow
workflow535×662 28.1 KB

I feel like I am close to a solution. But I also feel I may be “not seeing the forest for the trees.” Any insight, or alternatives, would be appreciated.

2

Hello @rdaneel72 ,

In case the option Document has been selected as for the Separation field*; you could insert something like the following in the Job Output Mask field**:

@automation.JobInfo9@_${document.sequence.job}.pdf

See Print output variables - OL Connect 2025.1 Help for more information about the usage of @automation.JobInfoX@ and ${document.sequence.job}.

And apply something like the following on the Connect Workflow side:

Screenshot-Branch_2025-07-17
Screenshot-Branch_2025-07-17393×360 11.6 KB

(%9= Job Info 9; %u = unique 13-char string)

*For this field, go to Output Creation wizard → Separation Options page → Separation Settings.
**For this field, go to Output Creation wizard → Print Options page → Output Options → Directory Options.

3

Thank you for this response. This does name the split PDF files in sequence with a unique filename. But it is not the vger_record_id.

Surely there a way to also add the ${document.sequence.job} as a field in the XML file Datamapper exports for Presorting, so I can match the address data of each record to the appropriate PDF statement after Presort.

Thank you for giving me an avenue to explore. I will continue to explore this option.