Sort and check FlightCheck Online files

FlightCheck Online flow hands over print-job's (PDF or fully collected native files, with fonts and images) to PowerSWITCH which will read the job ticket information delivered with the job. All jobs are preflighted and sorted based on this information.

This flow is compatible with: PowerSWITCH

Information

This example flow connects FlightCheck Online with PowerSWITCH.

The first step is to use FlightCheck Online to submit jobs. Markzware has therefore created a demo site that allows you to try this out yourself: http://www.flightcheckonline.nl/SWITCH/.
This link will take you to a page with more information and download links for the FlightCheck Online Client (MAC and PC).
After downloading and installing this client you are ready to submit your first job.

When submitting a file, you will be asked to provide more information about the job. This information will be handed over to SWITCH together with the job. After preflighting the file, FlightCheck Online shows you the preflight result and gives you the option to send the file using FTP.

In PowerSWITCH an FTP receive tool is used to receive files from FlightCheck Online. The downloaded jobs are zip archives which contain the job and the FlightCheck Online job ticket. The Uncompress tool is used to un-zip the archive and the XML Pickup tool is used to retrieve the job ticket information and include this information in the SWITCH job ticket.

Next, a script is used to read the TFS info (i.e. FlightCheck Online job ticket) and retrieve the email address that was entered in the FlightCheck Online form so that it can be used for sending email notifications.

FlightCheck Professional is used to preflight all incoming files a second time. The first preflight done by FlightCheck Online before submitting the files was a basic preflight. This second preflight goes more in dept and checks if a file should go to the prepress department first or not.

The preflight results go through the log connections and are only emailed if the customer chose this option in FlightCheck Online. When you select the outgoing connection on the "Sort on TFS info" script element, you'll see that the properties of this script are set so that files are only allowed to trigger an email if the TFS (FlightCheck Online job ticket) says so.

If a file fails on preflight, it is only sent to the prepress department if the customer chose the option on the FlightCheck Online form to allow corrections. Otherwise it is sent back to the customer.

If a file passes the preflight step, it is dropped in the correct output folder: Black&white, A2 CMYK, A3 CMYK, A4 CMYK. Other formats are sent to the Prepress department. An email notifies the customer that the print is launched, but again only when this was requested when submitting the job.

Using this flow

• Download the flow and save it on your computer: download flow
• Launch one of the SWITCH products this flow is compatible with
• Use the “Flow > Import…” menu item
• In the dialog that is shown, select the flow file and activate it
• Go to http://www.flightcheckonline.nl/SWITCH/ and download and install the FlightCheck Online Client
• Drop a file on the client and fill out the requested information
• Go to PowerSWITCH and see how the submitted file is dropped in the correct output folder.