Triggers and Automation

Triggers and automation rules modify document properties based on predefined conditions and actions. They can be helpful in implementing budget and security policies, and for tailoring efficient workflows.

Triggers run when a document is added or printed, and execute when a predefined set of conditions is met.

Automations run every 15 minutes and execute if conditions are met.

In this section, the triggers & automation features are explained, and these main aspects will be covered:

1. Building condition and action statements
2. Name triggers and automations using descriptive names
3. Reordering triggers and automations to achieve the desired outcome
4. Avoid conflicting triggers or automation

Working with triggers & automation

Triggers and Automation rules are handled in the PMC Web UI under each account and office. Therefore, you can set up rules for an entire organization or a specific office within the organization.
On the Triggers & Automations pages, you can search for, add and reorder rules. You can also edit, clone, and deactivate/activate specific triggers/automation. Note that inactive rules are shown at the bottom of the table. Only inactive rules from the list may be deleted.

Rules are run, and possibly executed, in a sequential cycle according to the order defined in the Web UI. Whenever the conditions for a specific rule are met, and an action is executed, the cycle restarts (see flowchart below). This cyclic flow ensures that interdependent rules execute as expected with fewer requirements for detailed ordering of rules.

Default triggers

Certain PMC functionalities are implemented as default triggers when a new tenant is created.

• Failed workflow – This trigger activates when a scan job hasn't been successfully delivered. For this trigger to function correctly, you must set the email address of the admin user in the trigger actions.
  

  

  
  The admin will receive an email with information about the failure, the error code, and the error message which may help the admin to resolve the problem. For the list of error codes, see Workflow error codes.

Default rules

Certain PMC functionalities are implemented as default rules when a new tenant is created. For example, an automation will mark print jobs as expired after 32 hours. We recommend you not to deactivate or delete the default rules. Be aware that some default rules, such as Delete expired failed scan jobs, do not have the Delete and Edit options.

Delete expired failed scan jobs

This rule controls Retention in My documents. If you wish to decrease it and have the new value displayed to the end users correctly, clone it and make sure the cloned rule contains the following three conditions:

• Hours since document created
• Documents status Is Failed
• Job type Is Scan

If you use higher value than 7 days in your cloned rule, then the default rule will take precedence.

Building condition and action statements

Both Triggers and Automation consist of condition statements and action statements.

• Condition statements consist of conditions, field operators, and condition values (these vary depending on the condition selected). Condition statements are essentially ‘if’ statements that return all print jobs that meet the specified criteria.
  For condition statements, the trigger will execute whenever the condition is changed. 'Changed' means any update made to the value, even if the value previously did not exist. For example, the Input Port Name trigger condition will execute even if the Output Port did not exist when a trigger was defined.
• Action statements consist of actions and action values (these vary depending on the condition selected). Some actions will be unambiguous, in which case a value does not apply – for example, the Delete Document action. Action statements define what occurs if all the condition statements are true and the trigger executes. You can think of action statements as ‘then’ statements – if all your conditions are true then perform these actions to update the document or print job.

At the end of this section are reference lists with all conditions and actions, as well as field operators and values (see Conditions and Actions Reference lists below).

Best Practices for triggers & automation

Triggers and automation rules should be carefully designed and arranged to achieve the desired outcome. As more rules are added over time, it becomes more critical to manage the collection – therefore we recommend establishing good practices from the beginning.

Choosing a descriptive name

While triggers and automation rules can be a huge benefit, they can be tedious to maintain if not named appropriately. Choose a descriptive name that makes it easy for you (and any future admins) to remember what statements are contained in the rule, and to distinguish between different rules.
Consider these three identical triggers with different names.

They all communicate some aspect of the rule, but the first name is clearly superior for introducing what the rule does.

Reordering rules

Rules run in a sequential cycle. Certain rules will have actions that change parameters used as conditions in other rules. To achieve the expected outcome, it is therefore important to consider the order by which rules are run.

Avoiding conflicting rules

You may need to watch out for triggers that undo or modify an action contained in another trigger.
Consider an example where you want all print by guests to be in black&white. Trigger 1 determines all print jobs by guests will be set to black&white. Now consider a Trigger 2 – added for a different purpose – that sets all PowerPoint files to be printed in color. Consequently, if a guest prints a PowerPoint file, the order of triggers will determine the color attribute. One remedy for this situation is to add a condition to Trigger 2 that checks if it is a guest user, so only PowerPoint files from non-guests are set to color.

Consider if automation only runs once

Automations check every 15 minutes to see if their conditions are met. Typically, automation rules are meant to only execute once for each print job or document that satisfies the conditions.
To avoid continuous executions, an automation must include one of the following:

* an action that nullifies at least one of the conditions, or * a condition that can be true only once

If there is no nullifying action or true-only-once condition, the unmodified conditions will continue to be met, and the automation will continue to execute – possibly in an endless loop.

Conditions and Actions Reference lists

Condition	Operators	Values	Triggers	Automations
User Assign actions to either employees or guest users	Is Is not	(authenticated) User is successfully authenticated in a designated authentication provider. Non-authenticated can be used for assigning rights to a guest user
User name Assign actions to specific users	Is Is not Contains Does not Contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the user name
User group Assign actions to specific user groups	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the group name
Document status Assign actions to documents at a specific time during the print flow	Is Is not Changed Changed from Changed to Changed not from Changed not to	Received The document is added to print queue but not yet visible to users. Ready The document is added to a print queue and ready to be printed, meaning it is accepted, stored, and possibly converted. Printed The document is successfully printed. Deleted The document is deleted from storage, but has not necessarily been printed. Expired The document has been deleted from storage due to expiration of designated retention period. Failed The document failed to print. Awaiting conversion The document failed to convert and is awaiting conversion to be retried. Converting The document conversion is in progress. Conversion failed The document conversion failed and will not be retried. Stored The document is received and stored in the storage service. Deleting The document failed to be deleted. The deletion will be retried.
Document name Assign actions to specific documents	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the document name
Document type Assign actions to certain types of documents	Is Is not	Unknown The file type is not recognized and will result in a conversion error PDF PS PCLXL HTML DOCUMENT SHEET SLIDE TEXT XPS IMAGE
Document attribute Assign actions to a document that has certain attributes	Is Is not	Color Black & white Duplex long side Duplex short side Simplex
Hours since document ready Assign action within a certain time after the document state changed to “ready”	Is Is not Greater Than Not greater than Not less than	[number input] The number defines whole hours (integer)
Print queue Assign actions to documents sent from known or unknown print queues	Is Is not	(Empty) Documents sent via IPP or API can have a designated print queue that is not specified in the PMC Web UI, in which case the port is empty. (Listed input ports) Print queues set up in the PMC Web UI are individually listed.
Print queue name Assign actions to documents received from specific print queues.	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) print queue name
Print queue type Assign actions to documents from either a push or pull queue	Is Is not	Roaming Print Queue Follow-me print Direct (Push) Print queue Direct print
Output port Assign actions to documents that are not associated with any output port (for example, a printer)	Is Is not	(Empty) Push print jobs can have a designated output port that is not specified in the PMC Web UI. (Listed output ports) Output ports set up in the PMC Web UI are individually listed.
Output port name Assign actions to print jobs assigned to specific output ports (for example, printers)	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) output port (for example, printer) name.
Output port type Assign actions to print jobs assigned to either a physical printer or a dummy	Is Is not	Dummy Output port is a dummy intended for purposes other than physical printing Printer Output port is a physical printer Rightfax Output port is a virtual Rightfax destination. Discovered Printer Output port for the printer has been automatically discovered.
Output port address Assign actions to print jobs assigned to specific output ports (for example, printers)	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the output port address in IP-format
User card ID Assign actions to users with a specific card ID	Is Is not Contains Dost not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the user's card ID.
User one-time password Assign actions to users with a specific one-time password.	Is Is not Contains Does not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the user's one-time password.
User short ID Assign actions to users with a specific short ID	Is Is not Contains Dost not contain	[text input] Text is (part of) the user's short ID
Scan job status Assign actions to scan jobs in the specific status	Is	Failed The scan job has failed
Job type Assign actions in dependency of the job type	Is	Print Copy Scan Fax
Hours since document created Assign action within a certain time after the document was created	Greater Than	[number input] The number defines whole hours (integer).
Number of pages in the document Assign actions based on the total number of pages in the document (number of pages multiplied by number of copies)	Is Is not Greater Than Not greater than Not less than	[number input] The number defines the page count

Action	Values	Triggers	Automations
Output document Output the document, for example, by printing	(associated output port) The specific output port the document is already associated with (Listed output ports) Output ports that are added in the PMC Web UI shown as individual entries in the list of possible values
Delete document Delete the document from storage	-
Set document attribute Set a specific document attribute	Color Black & white Duplex long side Duplex short side Simplex
Store document Store the document in storage	(Default storage) Default storage according to storage service settings.
Assign document Assign the document to the specified user	(Alias) See the Users section for this feature description. If the user has multiple aliases, this trigger assigns the document to one of them randomly because their order isn't defined. [text input] Type the target username
Convert document Runs the document conversion	-
Generate OTP for user Generates new one-time password for the user	-
Generate short ID for user Generates a new short ID for the user	-
Send email to user Send an email to the logged-in user	(template - SMTP config) List of available email templates and SMTP configs.
Send email to address Sends an email to the specified address	(template - SMTP config) List of available email templates and SMTP configs. [text input] Recipient's email address.

Template parameters

Several conditions and actions may accept template parameters enclosed in double curly braces. The following parameters are currently recognized: