Chapter 24. Understanding Transforms And The Configurable Transform Subsystem - Ricoh InfoPrint Pro C900AFP Manual

Chapter 24. Understanding transforms and the configurable
transform subsystem
Transforms are InfoPrint objects (like queues and destinations) that you create and
configure in InfoPrint Manager. Transforms receive data in a particular format or
formats, process the data in some way, and output the changed data. When you
create a transform, you have complete control over what data format or formats it
operates on and what type of processing it does. The processing that the transform
performs can be anything from simply copying the data to a different place on
disk, to filtering the data stream that the transform receives (for example, to
remove a particular PostScript order), to transforming the data to a completely
different format (for example, converting PCL to AFP).
When you create a transform, you specify several things, including:
v Input data format
v Transform options
v Output data format
In addition, you can specify whether you want the file that the transform produces
to be printed. If the transform does not return the file to be printed (for example, if
the transform completes its processing and saves the file to a different location), it
is called a terminating transform. In addition to the terminating transform, you can
also create a conditionally-terminating transform. To create this, define a unique
return code to indicate the transform was successful but does not return data to
print.
Transforms do not do anything by themselves. They remain inactive until you
associate them with an actual destination as a transform sequence. A transform
sequence is an attribute of an actual destination that contains an ordered list of
transforms. Every job that is submitted to that actual destination is sent through
that list of transforms in the order specified before it is printed.
The data stream that is sent to the transform. The input data format is what the
transform uses to determine whether it has any work to do. If you send a
PostScript job through a transform that has its input data stream set only to
PCL, the job will bypass the transform without being changed at all. You can set
the transform to accept multiple input data formats.
The program or command that actually does the work of the transform; what
happens during the processing stage. The transform options can be system
commands (such as copy), programs provided with InfoPrint Manager (such as
ps2afp), or your own custom transform programs (for example, mypclfixup).
When you create a transform, you specify the complete command line needed to
invoke this program or command. In this command line, you can also specify
various substitution variables, place holders which InfoPrint Manager replaces
with a value when InfoPrint Manager runs the transform. For example, if you
include %i in the line, InfoPrint Manager will replace it with the name of the file
that the transform receives; if you include %o, it will be replaced with the name
of the file that the transform needs to put the changed data into.
The data stream that results from the transform. You can only specify one output
data format.
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