Use Criteria

You can define various criteria for your forms to enable the Form Engine to recognize the form input data files.

Lasernet supports the following types of criteria:

• Form: The Form Engine uses the form criterion to look for key data in specific locations in a data input file to ensure that the right input file type has been received.

  Note

  If no criteria are specified for a form, the form is not processed.

• Sheet: The Form Engine uses the sheet criterion to look for key data in specific locations in a data input file. If no matches are found the sheet is not processed.

• Link: The link criterion is used for defining how a series of print jobs are connected that belong to the same output form. A link criterion can only be defined in forms with TEXT as input format.

• Stop: The stop criterion is used to look for key data in specific locations in a data input file, which marks the stop point of the received file. Lasernet will continue to combine all print jobs until it reaches a stop criterion, providing Enable Job combining is selected. Stop criteria are only defined in forms with TEXT as input format.

For more information about link and stop criteria, see Set Up Job Combining and the Combining Jobs part of the Lasernet Developer guide.

JobInfo criteria can also be added to provide the user with additional methods for recognizing input data files.

Criteria are defined in the left-hand window of the Lasernet Form Editor by using the Criteria tool and marking an area with the mouse. It is also possible to manually add criterion from within the Criteria dialog accessed via the Form > Criteria menu.

The picture below shows a defined start criterion. Link and Stop criteria tabs are only visible in forms defined with TEXT as input format.

The start criterion tells Lasernet to look for the word “Invoice” in a specific location in an input data file to indicate that the file contains invoice data. When the form criterion has been defined, it is highlighted in grey. You can now double-click the criterion and edit it manually in the Form Criterion dialog.

As mentioned earlier, the easiest way to define a new criterion is by using the Criterion tool. If you click on the arrow to the right of the Criterion tool a pop-up menu is displayed.

In the pop-up menu, you can choose which type of criterion you wish to define. After you have chosen the type of criterion, the mouse cursor changes, and you can now mark a criterion area in the grab file on the left-hand side of the Lasernet Form Editor.

It is possible to define several different criteria within the same form. To this end, use the Criteria dialog while defining a criterion, or later by choosing Form > Criteria to see a list of all the defined criteria.

From the Criteria dialog, you can also manually add additional criteria, add JobInfos, edit or remove existing criteria and change the priority of the criteria.

Form Expressions

In the Criteria dialog you can define a form expression as a logical expression. The following are examples of possible expressions:

• A and B and C and D

• (A or B) and (C or D)

• (A or B) and not (C or D)

By default, all criteria are true if no form expression has been defined. The form expression field allows for a high degree of flexibility when defining rules for the Lasernet Form Engine to use when recognizing data input files.

JobInfo Criteria

You can include JobInfos in the list of criteria for a form. A JobInfo criterion can only be added manually by clicking the Add JobInfo button.

In the Edit JobInfo Criteria dialog you define the following values:

• JobInfo Name: Select the JobInfo that you want to work with from the dropdown list. In the example the JobInfo ‘FileName’ is chosen. You can also write the name of one of your own custom JobInfos.

• Operator: Define the type of operator. In the example, the physical filename of the input data file must contain the string ‘inv’.

• Match string: Write the value to match for the specified JobInfo.

Schedule Criteria

You can include a Schedule in the list of criteria for a form. A Schedule criterion can only be added manually by clicking the Add Schedule button.

• Start: The date from which the criterion is true. Choose a date from the calendar.

• Expire: If checked, this is the final date on which the criterion will be true. Choose a date from the calendar.

• Every year: If selected, the criterion will be true between the specified Start and Expire dates (day and month) every year.

• UTC: If checked, UTC time will be used instead of the server time.

Criteria Master Form

Criteria added to a form which is specified by a user as a criteria master form are inherited by the current form.

The master form cannot be executed if a child form matches the criteria.