About the Output Service

The Output service enables you to output documents as PDF (including PDF/A documents), PostScript, Printer Control Language (PCL), and Zebra Printer Language (ZPL) formats. Using the Output service, you can merge XML form data with a form design and output the document to a network printer or file.

You can accomplish these tasks using the Output service:

•	Create a PDF document. For information, see Creating PDF Documents.

•	Create a PDF/A document. For information, see Creating PDF/A Documents.

•	Send documents to printers. For information, see Sending Print Streams to Printers.

•	Create multiple documents. For information, see Creating Multiple Output Files.

•	Create search rules to match data to a form design or generate document packages. For information, see Creating Search Rules.

•	Flatten an interactive PDF document to a non-interactive PDF document. For information, see Flattening PDF Documents.

•	Convert a PDF document to a PDF/A document. For information, see Converting PDF Documents to PDF/A Documents.

For more information about the Output service, see LiveCycle ES Services at http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_lc_services.

Note: LiveCycle Output ES cannot format arbitrarily large XML data files. Throughput is limited by available application server memory. Large data files can contain many smaller records that will create a single output file that contains many smaller documents (batch records/many small documents) or sometimes one large data record that will produce one output file with one large document (big record/one big document).

Throughput limitations are not discreet and will vary, depending of the complexity of the form design, available memory, options chosen and other activity on the application server. Errors generated when such a limitation is reached may identify lack of memory as being the problem, but not always, and may seem unrelated. You should be aware of this limitation and use the Output service within safe page generation number guidelines.

For a medium complexity form (the PO form in Output IVS; 2-page records for batch case) on a typical entry level business server, we have observed the following approximate safe page generation number guidelines.

Format	Batch records/many small documents	Big record/one big document
PDF (not tagged) & PDF/a-1b	10000 pages	500 pages
PDF (tagged) & PDF/a-1a	5000 pages	250 pages
PostScript	10000 pages	500 pages
PCL (using True Type or printer fonts)	10000 pages	500 pages

There are a few things to note in order to maximize throughput performance. Only select tagging for PDF if it is required. Be aware that PDF/A-1a is always tagged; PDF/A-1b is not tagged. For PCL printing; the use of Adobe OpenType fonts in form designs will format properly but will decrease throughput, generate a larger output file, and will not deliver optimal performance. For increased performance, use or map properly licensed TrueType fonts or use printer resident fonts.

When processing large data files or operating on a busy server, it may be necessary to increase the Output service time-out; the default time-out is 180 seconds. To change the time-out value, ensure that hardware servers have adequate memory and that the memory is available to the Java Application Server heap.

When processing a big record/one big document case, throughput will be maximized when the XML data is structured so that a recordLevel run-time option of 2 can be used. For example, rather than structuring your data file this way:

	<datafile>

		<field>123</field>…

	</datafile>

Structure it this way, adding another level:

	<datafile>

		<record>

			<field>123</field>

			…

		</record>

	</datafile>

Note: You can attach multiple PDF documents to a single e-mail message that invokes the Output service. For example, you can convert PDF documents to PDF/A documents by sending an email message that contains PDF file attachments. For each file attachment, a separate email message is returned to the email recipient that sent the message. Each email message contains one file attachment and each file attachment has the same file name.

To change the time-out value:

1.	Log into the LiveCycle ES Administration Console.

2.	Click Services > Archive Administration > Service Management > Output Service: 1.0.

3.	Select Configuration, and change the setting for Maximum Concurrent Invocations for Asynchronous Jobs.

4.	Restart the service for the change to take effect.

The Output service has a setting to control the number of parallel asynchronous jobs that can run at one time in order to ensure that jobs do not overwhelm the server. Any additional jobs are queued and will be initiated only when a job is finished, and thus will not time out. This setting must be less than the XMLForm BMC pool-max value to allow room for synchronous jobs initiated by the Output service and the Forms service. If this setting is greater than the XMLForm BMC pool-max value, additional asynchronous requests will be put on hold but can be in a started state and may time out. For more information about changing the XMLForm BMC pool-max value, see the "Advanced Production Configuration" chapter in the Installing and Deploying LiveCycle ES document for your application server.

To control the number of parallel asynchronous jobs:

1.	Log into the LiveCycle ES Administration Console.

2.	Click Services > Archive Administration > Service Management > Output Service: 1.0.

3.	Select Configuration, and change the setting for Maximum Concurrent Invocations for Asynchronous Jobs.

4.	Restart the service for the change to take effect.

 

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