Lexmark Document Solutions Suite 3.2

Release Notes and Helpful Hints

 

 

System Requirements

A dedicated server with a minimum of 512MB RAM, 512MB free disk space and 1GB free disk space for the database is recommended.

 

Update Available

The LDSS 3.2 Service Pack 1 (3.2.1) is now available. This update contains stability enhancements, function improvements, and field-reported problem fixes.

 

Readme

For LDSS 3.2 these Release Notes will be used in place of the traditional readme file and TSC quirks list.

 

Language Support

All Lexmark Document Solutions Suite software is available in EFIGS/BP, Danish and Norwegian. Dutch, Finnish and Swedish are no longer supported languages.

 

CD Serial Numbers

All CDs have serial numbers that must be entered to install Lexmark Document Solutions. It is important, especially with regards to the Document Portal, that the seven-digit serial number is entered into the serial number field during installation exactly as it appears on the CD. The Technical Support Center will require the CD serial number in order to provide support.

 

Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft released a "Security Patch" for Outlook 98 and 2000 that breaks LDSS 3.2 support for Exchange Server. This Microsoft Patch was included in the Outlook 2000 service releases SR-1 and SR-1a.

 

The LDSS 3.2 Service Pack 1 (3.2.1) fixes this problem and also enables support for Outlook 2002. In order to use LDSS Exchange support with the Microsoft Security Patch or Outlook 2002, the LDSS service pack must be installed.

 

 

 

Install and Uninstall

 

The LDSS 3.2 Installer cannot handle path names with spaces. Choose a path name without spaces to avoid installation errors.

 

Windows NT machines will automatically reboot after installation of the SAP component without intervention. This is due to the installation of an MDAC system package that LDSS is dependent upon. This reboot is being done by the MDAC package and not by the LDSS software.

 

On a Windows 2000 Server, if an uninstall of the LDSS Client is unsuccessful, the printers on the system will get caught in a Paused State and must be manually restarted. This problem occurs due to an underlying spooler issue.

 

Uninstall does not remove all files. Any files created after the installation are not removed. These files contain scripts, forms, logs and job information. This allows you to uninstall and re-install without losing configuration information.

 

The Repair and Modify options are no longer available.

 

An LDSS 3.2 evaluation copy may now be upgraded to a fully licensed version. To upgrade, install the LDSS 3.2 licensed version over the LDSS 3.2 evaluation version. The fully licensed version can be installed over the evaluation version either before or after the evaluation period has expired. Note that only the components on the licensed version will be updated. For example, if CD1 is installed over an evaluation copy, only CD1 components will be licensed. Document Portal, for example, would remain at evaluation level and would still expire. CD3 would need to be installed to upgrade Document Portal components to a licensed version.

 

Once an evaluation period has expired, no other Document Solutions evaluations will operate on the machine.

 

Previous versions of LDD and LDSS must be uninstalled before LDSS 3.2 can be installed. Instructions on migrating LDSS 2.x scripts to 3.x will be provided in a separate document.

 

Installing the Lotus Notes Component

The Lotus Notes component of the Document Server is only available for installation when the Document Server setup program runs on a computer where Lotus Notes is installed. The Document Server has support for Lotus Notes R4 and R5. If the version of Notes changes, the installer should be run again so the appropriate files can be installed. Lotus Notes R4 and R5 support is not interchangeable.

 

If at any time the Notes client is removed from the system, the Document Server may display an error message during system start-up indicating that certain Notes dlls could not be found. The server will continue to operate, but the Notes actions will not be available. The file sbnotes.amo in the Document Server installation directory can be renamed or deleted to prevent the error message from being displayed. If the Notes client is installed again, run setup again to install the Notes support.

 

Installing the Novell GroupWise Component

The Novell GroupWise component of the Document Server is only available for installation when the Document Server setup program runs on a computer where a Novell GroupWise Client is installed.

 

Installing the Microsoft SharePoint Portal Component

The Microsoft SharePoint Portal component of the Document Server is only available for installation when the Document Server setup program runs on a computer where a SharePoint Portal Client is installed.

 

Installing the Lotus Domino.Doc Component

The Lotus Domino.Doc Component of the Document Server is only available for installation when the Document Server setup program runs on a computer where the Domino.Doc Desktop Enabler is installed.

 

 

Print’N’Send

 

Print’N’Send can only be uninstalled from the Add/Remove Programs Wizard in the Control Panel.

 

No Color Support for Windows 9x and Windows NT4 Print‘N’Send

The Print'N’Send Driver for Windows 9x and Windows NT4 is based on the Lexmark custom drivers that do not support color. The Windows 2000 and Windows XP drivers support color.

 

Print‘N’Send does not support Windows XP Fast User Switching

Print'N’Send remains bound to the original (first) user.

 

 

Select’N’Send

 

The Select 'N' Send client allows a user to right-click on a file in Windows Explorer and choose to send the file to the Document Server. At times, it may be useful to send a file in batch mode, as part of a batch file or script, without prompting the user for information. To use this batch option, use the program sendserv.exe. This program is installed as part of the Select 'N' Send installation and is located in the system32 directory (such as c:\winnt\system32).

 

The parameters for this program are:

  /s for the IP address (not DNS name) of the server

  /p the name of the profile to be executed

  /f the name of the file to be sent to the server

  /u the name of the file that contains any user data for the profile

 

The server (/s) and profile (/p) options are always required. If the profile does not require a file to be submitted, the file option (/f) can be omitted and if the profile does not require any user data, the user data option (/u) may be omitted. If a user data file is used, the format is the name of the user data variable followed by an equal sign (=) followed by the value followed by a new line. For example, if a profile requires an account number and department number, the user data file would look as follows:

 

account=123456

dept=A123Z

 

Examples of calling the program:

  sendserv /s 123.123.123.123 /p myprofile1 /f myimage1.tif /u mydata1.txt

  sendserv /s 123.123.123.123 /p myprofile2 /f myimage2.tif

  sendserv /s 123.123.123.123 /p myprofile3 /u mydata3.txt

  sendserv /s 123.123.123.123 /p myprofile4

 

 

Forms Composer

 

Using eForms

The LDSS 3.2 Using Forms document may be found here (note: link to the URL). A local copy can be made by saving it in the following location: <Install Path>\Lexmark\Document Solutions\Forms Composer.

 

LDSS 3.1 Compatibility

LDSS 3.1 formsets must be opened in LDSS 3.2 Forms Composer and saved before they can be used with the LDSS 3.2 server.

 

PNG Alpha Image

The PNG Alpha image format is no longer supported in version 3.2.

 

Imported PDFs

PDF images must be version 1.3 or below. To check the PDF Version:

Open the file in Adobe Reader

Select File->Document Properties->Summary.

The PDF Version is displayed near the bottom of the dialog 

The PDF file must not have any security settings, have passwords, or be marked as “No Print.” To check security settings:

Open the file in Adobe Reader

Select File->Document Security

Security Options should be set to “No Security”

Do not crop pages. To check if pages have been cropped:

Open the file in Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader)

In Acrobat, select Document->Pages->Crop

The crop margins should all be set to 0.

 

Forms Composer requires a “working directory” to be set. All variable images, field map files, imported PDF images, etc. must be stored in this directory so they are available to be packed into an .fdd file and uploaded to the server. The working directory cannot be changed while a formset is open.

 

Need to check for TCP/IP Print Server

The Windows OS can accept print data via LPR. To enable the LPR server:

Install Windows Print Services for Unix

Make sure the service "TCP/IP Print Server" is installed and running

 
 
Forms Merge

 

Leading Form Feed

When project activation conditions are compared with host data, form feed characters are treated as normal characters and not as a page delimiter. This may affect the position of data fields. To compensate for this, expand the data field size using the FORM_TRIGGER field in Forms Composer and change the project conditions to use a "contains" compare operation instead of an “= (equal to).”

 

Merge results in an "unsupported filter" error message.

Because LDSS 3.2 does not support the LZW algorithm, certain PDF pages which use LZW compression (more specifically, LZW-compressed pages with multiple content streams) will be rejected and flagged with an “unsupported filter” error.

 

The workaround for this situation is to save the PDF page in Acrobat 4.0 or above, with the Optimize button checked. Acrobat 4.0 and above will never generate this kind of unsupported file, only Acrobat 3 and only under certain circumstances. If a large number of files must be converted, the Acrobat batch optimization feature may be used.

 

 

Workflow Composer

 

EmailSMTP

The EmailSMTP action now has support for authentication.

 

SharePoint

SharePointRead now has support for quick fill.

 

Script Reference

The LDSS 3.2 Script Reference may be found here (note: link to the URL). A local copy can be made by saving in the following location: <Install Path>\Lexmark\Document Solutions\Workflow Composer\scrptref.pdf.

 

N-Up Orientation

The printer setting overrides the setting in the script for the orientation of an N-Up job.
 

Uploading Scripts

Scripts uploaded from the workflow composer do not prompt for local settings. The Server Manager must be used to upload scripts with local variables.

 

Removed print-by-association

The print-by-association action is no longer supported.

 

Unable to create a directory on a network drive under Windows XP

The SaveToFile option to create a directory does not work on networked drives on Windows XP systems.

 

BarcodeWrite and PDF 417

Limitations in the barcode library cause the following PDF 417 bar code characters to be printed as spaces:

 

Ð = 0xD0 or 208

ä = 0xE4 or 228

ß = 0xDF or 223

ç = 0xE7 or 231

ö = 0xF6 or 246

ñ = 0xF1 or 241

 

 

No OMR Support

OMR is not supported.

 

 

Server Manager

 

Fixed Paper Size

Paper size may now be fixed within an LDSS script.

 

MarkVision Professional

Server Manager now has the ability to import MVP-generated MFP lists.

 

To create an MFP list using Lexmark MarkVision Professional:

1. Open MarkVision Professional and create a folder.

- Right-click on a folder in the Folders tab. Select New.

- In the first blank of the dialog box that appears, give the folder a name.

- Select Printer from the Device Type combo box.

- Click the checkbox next to MFP. Click the Yes radio button in the dialog box that appears.

- Click OK.

2. Create a custom table.

- Select the View menu. Select Custom Tables from the drop-down menu and then select Create/Manage.

- In the dialog box that appears, select New.

- Type a name for the table in the first blank.

- Select TCP/IP Address and Device Name and move them to the Columns in Use window.

- Click the Apply button.

- Click the Close button to close the dialog box.

3. Open the newly created custom table.

- Select the View menu. Select Custom Tables from the drop-down menu and select the newly created custom table.

- In the Folder Content list, select all of the devices to be added to the table. The devices will appear in the window to the right.

4. Click Export to save the file.

5. Type a filename by which to save the table.

 

Correct format for MFP lists

To create an MFP list manually:

1. Type the IP address or DNS name of the MFP followed by a comma.

2. Type a description followed by a CR/LF (Carriage Return/Line Feed).

3. Repeat step one and two until all MFPs have been entered.

4. Save the file as an ASCII text file.

 

International Characters and Symbols

Server Manager is now able to handle formsets with international characters and symbols. International characters used in the design of a form will now appear in the merged output correctly.  Formset names may contain any characters in the Latin-1 character set (which includes all supported languages).

 

Forgotten password

Instances of forgotten passwords may be handled by uninstalling and re-installing the LDSS software. This process may be avoided by contacting Lexmark support.

 

Updating a profile causes the original to be deleted

A profile is updated by deleting the old version and creating a new version. If the creation fails for example, in the case of a duplicate shortcut, the original profile will be lost. Back-up copies are recommended to avoid this.

 

 

Welcome Screen Configurator

 

The Welcome Screen Configurator only works with touch screen MFPs with EC 3 or higher.

 

Email + Profile only works with touch screen MFPs with EC 4 or higher.

 

Printer Operator Panel only works with touch screen MFPs with EC 4 or higher.

 

For touch screen MFPs with EC 3 the user-defined button text is limited to 1 line of 14 characters.

 

For touch screen MFPs with EC 4 or higher the user-defined button text is limited to 2 lines of 14 characters each.

 

For touch screen MFPs with EC 3, if a button is inaccessible on the welcome screen, i.e. access for that button has been turned off, it will not appear on the Welcome Screen. For the default layout the positions of the buttons on the screen will not change, i.e. there will be a blank where that button would have been.

 

For touch screen MFPs with EC 4 or higher the inaccessible button will be removed. For the default layout all subsequent buttons will move up one position.

 

The use of animated gifs is not recommended on screen layouts of 6 or more buttons.

 

The Welcome Screen Configurator does not support animated pcx images.

 

 

Document Portal

 

Maximum Records

LDSS 3.2 now supports up to 1,000,000 reporting records.

 

PDF error messages

LDSS supports only PDF 1.3 or lower. Attempting to adding a form that is PDF 1.4 or higher will cause a “The file does not exist or is in the wrong format" error.

 

Portal Admin Server Connection Error and Multiple NICs

Running LDSS 3.2 on a machine with multiple NICs may cause a “Problem communicating with the server. Please contact your administrator” error. Two workarounds are available to resolve this issue.

 

INSTALL-TIME WORKAROUND – Make sure that the Network Card with the IP address that the machine’s hostname resolves to when prompted at install time is selected. The hostname can be pinged to view the IP address.

 

POST-INSTALL WORKAROUND – If the software has already been installed on a machine with multiple NICS and the above error is displayed when trying to login to the Portal Admin, the IP address of the NIC chosen at install time will need to be entered into the kiosk.properties. To do this, the kiosk.properties files should be opened in a text editor. The line “ServerIp=  should be uncommented and the IP address of the NIC should be added after the =.

 

Password

The password for the Document Portal is now the same as the server password.

 

Forgotten password

Instances of forgotten passwords may be handled by uninstalling and re-installing the LDSS software. This process may be avoided by contacting Lexmark support.

 

Font Substitution on Windows XP

Forms Merge and Document Portal have a problem with font substitution of Courier on Windows XP. The workaround is to change to a supported font.

 

Slow response clicking on the Forms icon on the MFP Welcome Screen

When clicking on the Forms icon on the MFP Welcome Screen a user could experience a lag before getting the initial portal screen. This situation arises when a DNS server does not exist or is incorrectly configured.

 

Thumbnails and Formsets

Thumbnail images for formsets with bar codes and annotations will not display properly when uploaded with Document Portal because the bar codes and annotations are not part of the background that is used to create the thumbnail images. The bar codes and annotations are added during the merge action and will only be reflected in the merged, printed form.

 

Reports

The “this week” and “last week” reports now use MONDAY as the first day of the week.

 

 

Document Solutions Desktop

 

X215 Connection Lost

If the USB connection to an X215 is lost on a Window 98 system and an attempt is made to run a profile, an error “USB Port not found” will appear repeatedly and will eventually hang the Job Submission dialog. Reconnect the X215 and restart the browser to fix the error.

 

On Window XP and Windows 2000, closing the “USB Port not found” dialog will cause the browser to be shutdown. Reconnect the X215 and restart the browser to fix the error.

 

Scanner Warming on X215

Attempting to perform a scan on an X215 that has not warmed up will cause a scanner warming error that will lock up Internet Explorer. To avoid this problem, let the scanner fully warm up before starting the job.

 

Canceling scans on X215

Canceling a job from an X215 while it is scanning will cause a lock up on Internet Explorer. To avoid this lock up, let the scan finish before canceling the job.

 

JRE version

The Document Solutions Desktop is not compatible with Sun JRE version 1.4.2_01. LDSS 3.2 installs a specific version of the JRE. Using any other version of the JRE may cause errors.

 

Printing

 

PostScript vs. PDF Printing

The same document printed in PostScript may look different printed with PDF if the PDF Scale to Fit option is set to ON.

 

Duplex Printing

A bug in the print action does not honor the setting for duplex. Turn on page level options and set duplex for each page for duplex printing.

 

Queue Printing

LDSS version 3.2 now has the ability to send print jobs to windows print queues in addition to direct IP printing.

 

The Document Producer application utilizes a limited number of threads, one of which is used for each print job. As data is merged in the application and spooled out to a printer or print queue it will use one thread. Direct IP printing will cause data to be sent to the printer as fast as the printer will take it. In the event that the Producer application is able to provide print data faster than the printer can receive it, the application will keep a thread in use and continually work to feed more data to the printer. The next print job cannot be sent to the printer until the previous one has been completely sent. This is very efficient for a lightly loaded application.

 

In the event that larger jobs are being processed, the number of threads available may limit processing speed in the server if direct IP printing is utilized. This limitation can be overcome by printing to the Windows print queue. Jobs sent to the Windows print queue will be processed very quickly and efficiently by the operating system and will release the thread so that it is available for the next process.

 

For details on how to use this feature, see the Action Object/PrintForm section in the LDSS Script Reference.

 

Direct IP Printing

When using direct IP printing to print merged output with Document Producer, the scripts should implement retries to ensure reliable document delivery. If the printer is very busy, it is possible for the PrintForm action to time-out before it is able to send data to the printer. Retry the PrintForm action once or twice before logging an error and exiting the script. Retry using standard looping techniques provided in the scripting language based on the results of the .go() method in the PrintForm action. If .go() returns False, retry. This will allow more time for the printer to free up and accept data.

 

Printing Problems

Printing problems may be debugged by turning logging on in the Server Manager. Document Portal users can install the Server Manager from the Evaluation CD.  The Server Manager is part of the server software in the Document Distributor installation package.

 

Troubleshooting

 

Document Server not recognizing MFPs

The LDD Server uses DNS to resolve the IP address of the MFP to a DNS name. If DNS is not being used, the IP address and host name of the MFP will need to be added to the host’s file on the server machine.

 

ISO Encoding

The ISO encoding in the *.ddp files has been fixed. If the user name or company name includes international characters at install time, the server will now recognize those characters. This allows the Server Manager to display the installed components and licensing information correctly.

 

Confirmation Pages

Confirmation Pages now work more reliably.

 

Looping Scripts

LDSS 3.2 scripts with loops should use the .Reset () method in the loop to ensure the script functions correctly.

 

Non-recoverable error with Exit () command in prompt block

Attempting to execute a .Exit () command within a prompt block will cause a non-recoverable error. To workaround this, any .Exit () commands should be placed outside the prompt block.

 

Lexmark Host Software CD Co-Existence

The Lexmark Host Software CD and LDSS should NOT be installed on the same system. The uninstaller for the host software CD will inadvertently uninstall the LDSS software.

 

Application Co-Existence

If the Document Server will be using the integration with Novell GroupWise, then Microsoft Outlook cannot be installed on the document server.  Outlook may run on  a different server in the same environment, but both mail clients cannot run on the same LDSS server.

 

Changing the IP Address of the Document Server

If a Document Server IP address changes, update the IP address in LDSS with the following steps:

 

Stop the Document Server Gateway

Open the server.dat file in a text editor

Find the server IP address and change it to the new address

Restart the services

 

This will update the Server IP address while leaving all settings and scripts untouched.

 

Cannot access network files

The Document Server runs as a service. In order to access network files the service must be set to login as a user account that has access to the necessary network files. By default, a service does not have any network privileges. See the topic below for instructions on how to change a service to log in as a user to correct this situation.

 

Change Service to Log In as a User

To change the logon preferences of the Document Service, on Windows NT go to the services applet in the Control Panel. Select the Lexmark Document Service in the list and then click Startup. In this dialog, choose to logon as a specific user who has an NT account on this machine and has the access rights desired.

 

On Windows 2000 or Windows XP, go to the Services applet in the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel. Double-click on the Lexmark Document Service. In this dialog, choose the Log On tab and choose to logon as a specific user who has an account on this machine and has the desired access rights.

 

The account chosen needs to have full access to the Document Server directory tree. In most cases, the user will need Administrative rights.

 

Jobs stop being processed due to Gateway failure on FAT32 systems

A file handle limitation on FAT and FAT32 file systems prevents the LDSS Gateway from sending jobs to the server if there are 21,845 jobs in the server inbox to be processed. No error message appears. All jobs sent to the server inbox before this condition occurs will eventually be processed by the server. No jobs submitted after the error condition occurs will be processed. This problem can be resolved with a reboot, but any jobs submitted to the Gateway after the failure will be lost.

 

To avoid this problem, the LDSS server software should be installed on an NTFS file system.

 

Lotus Notes jobs not being processed

For integrated Lotus Notes support, the Lotus Notes client must be installed on the same machine as the Document Server. See the note under Install/Uninstall for further details on Lotus Notes integration and installation. If the id file used by the Notes client has a password, this password must be specified in the script.

 

Microsoft Exchange jobs not being processed

For integrated Microsoft Exchange support, the Document Server service must be set to logon as a user who has an Exchange account. To change the logon preferences of the Document Server service, follow the directions under the "Change Service to Log In as User" topic above.

 

Novell GroupWise jobs not being processed

For integrated Novell GroupWise support, the Novell GroupWise client must be installed on the same machine as the Document Server. The Document Server service must also be set to logon as a user who has a GroupWise account. To change the logon preferences of the Document Server service, follow the directions under the "Change Service to Log In as User" topic above.

 

Escalation/PE Fixes

 

The following Escalation items from LDSS 3.1 have been fixed in LDSS 3.2

 

BSa0304141456 – ConvertToDocument action caused flushing buffer when pages in the input were of different file sizes.

 

RHo0304170915 – Files were being left in temp\inbox when using Email Notes action in a script.

 

RHo0304170915 – Gateway crashes when processing multiple prompting jobs.

 

RHo0304170915, BSa0304141456 Confirmation pages are extremely large and slow to print.

 

BSa0304141456 – Slow printing of thumbnail pages.

 

JMa0309161443, SBO0306301526– The merge form action would fail anytime the server tried to merge a formset that contained international characters.

 

SBO0307171042 After merging a form, the resulting PDF would be missing leading white spaces in the first line of each text box on the form.

 

JMa0308011021 After merging a form, the customer was using PrintForm to print the form to an Optra S printer. The first form would print fine, but any remaining forms would print a postscript error in the upper left hand corner of the page.

 

JMa0306261209 Scanning a TIFF to OCR or PDF, causes error: “image file is corrupt.”

 

PCO0309230904 – FaxByPrinter action times out.

 

RHo0309121424 – ConvertToDocument actions fails if image is over 124 pages.

 

PCO0309301719 – Confirmation page is not printing properly.

 

 

 

Lexmark and Lexmark with diamond design are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc., registered in the United States and/or other countries.

 

PostScript® is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

 

Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

© 2004 Lexmark International, Inc. All rights reserved.