RIP Integrations : Caldera RIP

RIP Integrations : Caldera RIP

Caldera RIP Integration Help
 

Introduction

This Rip Integration has been set up to work with the Kornit X DTG Meters workflow to provide a solution for printing swatches, fat quarters and meters on a Kornit Presto printer.
The Kornit X DTG Meters workflow has been document with great detail in the following article - Click Here
There are multiple steps that must be followed to correctly set up this RIP Integration and these have been detailed below. 

How to set up Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is an important part of the integration as this is the platform we use to allow file sharing between the Kornit X platform and Caldera. 
Kornit X will manage the setup of S3 unless the client specifically wants to manage this.
The connection to S3 is key based and requires a user to be set up:
  1. In your AWS Account navigate to S3
  2. Create a bucket for these files (for the example we will call this “DTFBucket1”) - take note of the region that you host this bucket in, the region can be any and ideally should be the closest to your Caldera machine geographically.
  3. Once created navigate to AWS IAM (which is where users are managed in AWS)
  4. Create a new “Policy” (for this example we will call this “DTFBucket1-policy”)
  5. On this policy you should be able to switch to JSON view and you can add the following (making sure to replace with your bucket name)
  6. Create a new “User Group” (for this example we will call this “DTFBucket1-group” and allocate the “DTFBucket1-policy” to it
  7. Create a new user (making sure to select that access will be programmatic and key based) assigning it to the user group you created.
  8. AWS will confirm user creation and provide you with an Access Key and Secret Key
Once the above steps have been completed you are ready to set up the integration against your Production Centre Companies in the Kornit X Platform.

Setting up the Kornit X Caldera RIP Integration

Now that we have Amazon S3 prepared we can take the credentials and add these against the Production Centres in Kornit X.
Please note that a Production Centre should be set up for each fabric

Under SETTINGS > COMPANIES, each Production Centre in the Kornit Platform has a tab called “RIP Integrations”, on each the RIP Integration called “Caldera RIP” needs to be configured. They can use the same AWS S3 Credentials but the Input folder will differ.


The screenshot below shows the integration settings, the numbers in red have been added and a guide below explains what should be added to these


1 - Enabled = Toggle on or off to enable the integration


2 - Start Timestamp = mm/dd/yyy hh:mm field, any production jobs created before this time will be ignored by the integration


3 - S3 Endpoint = The s3 endpoint should be added and this differs depending on the region the bucket was created in so “s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com” for example, the format is “s3.region.amazonaws.com”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


4 - S3 Region = The region the S3 bucket was created in should be added here, for example “eu-west-2”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


5 - S3 Bucket = The name of the bucket created to store these files, in our example in this document this was “DTFBucket1”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


6 - S3 Caldera Input Prefix = This is the directory in the bucket that files sent to be RIPed will be stored, we recommend this be set as “/caldera-input/fabricname” where fabricname is replaced with a the name of this fabric, lowercase with no spaces. This field will be different on each production centre


7 - S3 Caldera Output Prefix = This is the directory in the bucket that files that have been processed by Caldera will be passed back to Kornit X, we recommend this be set as “/caldera-output”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


8 - S3 Print Hotfolder Prefix = THIS SHOULD BE LEFT BLANK UNLESS PRINTS ARE BEING RUN AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT BEING PUSHED TO PRODUCTION. If running automatically then the S3 directory which will be the printer hotfolder (so “/printer-hotfolder”) would be added here and the Production Integration “Generic Hotfolder” would not need to be set up.


9 - S3 Access Key = The access key generated in AWS when the IAM user was set up should be copied here. This field will be the same on every production centre.


10 - S3 Secret Key = The secret key generated in AWS when the IAM user was set up should be copied here. This field will be the same on every production centre.



Once this has been configured on each Production Centre then the Job Templates connected to these will have a tab visible on their settings called “Caldera RIP”, each template that needs to use this integration should be toggled to enabled. See Screenshot below.




Setting up the Kornit X Generic Hotfolder Production Integration

Now that we have the RIP Integration prepared we can take the credentials and add these against the Production Integration in Kornit X. The production integration is what will on demand take the RIP output files and pass them to the print hotfolder for production.

Under SETTINGS > COMPANIES, each Production Centre in the Kornit Platform has a tab called “Production Integrations”, on each the Integration called “Generic Hotfolder” needs to be configured. They can use the same AWS S3 Credentials.


The screenshot below shows the integration settings, the numbers in red have been added and a guide below explains what should be added to these.



1 - Enabled = Toggle on or off to enable the integration


2 - Auto Transfer Enabled = should be OFF for this use case


3 - Production Sheet enabled = should be OFF for this use case


4 - Use Legacy Production Sheet Rules = should be OFF for this use case


5 - Auto Ship Enabled = should be OFF for this use case


6 - Production Units Enabled = should be ON for this use case, this allows the QA scanpoints to work bypassing the print station


7 - Preferred Artwork Format - Should be blank for this use case


8 - Filesystem Type = Should be S3


9 - File System Root = should be the directory of the printer hotfolder set up in S3 (so “/printer-hotfolder” in our example)


10 - Artwork Path Format = Can be left blank


11 - Transfer Order = When using S3 and sending multiple filetypes at the same time, such as .tif artwork and .xml files it is possible that there has to be an order. For example if the hotfolder is connected to a RIP sometimes the XML has to be dropped last. This field allows you to achieve this by listing the extensions in order on seperate lines followed by "$”. For Caldera DTF rolls this field should be:-

tif$

jpg$

xml$


12 - .Disable HTML Head Requests = Should be set to OFF


13 - Bucket = The name of the bucket created to store these files, in our example in this document this was “DTFBucket1”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


14 - Region = The region the S3 bucket was created in should be added here, for example “eu-west-2”. This field will be the same on every production centre.


15 - Access Key = The access key generated in AWS when the IAM user was set up should be copied here. This field will be the same on every production centre.


16 - Secret Key = The secret key generated in AWS when the IAM user was set up should be copied here. This field will be the same on every production centre.



Setting up Caldera

Now that we have the Kornit X Platform and Amazon S3 configured we need to complete the setup on the machine running Caldera and the Kornit Presto printer.


On the machine running caldera set up local folders to handle the caldera input and output and the printer hotfolder. Using our example nomenclature from above this would be


/localpath/local-caldera-input/fabricname (*a folder for each fabric)

/localpath/local-caldera-output

/localpath/local-printer-hotfolder


In caldera "/localpath/local-caldera-input/fabricname" should be set as the input hotfolder for each fabrics queue and "/localpath/local-caldera-output" should be set as the output path for all queues. 


Now we have the syncing folders set up there are some steps that need to be followed to connect up to the Kornit X platform.


Step 1 - Install Docker

The file sync solution Kornit X have created requires the Caldera machine to have Docker installed to run. Instructions on how to install Docker on Debian are available here https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/. 


Step 1 - Create the configuration file

Create a yaml file to hold the configurations for the file sync. This file should be called caldera-sync-config.yml

Below is an example of this files contents using our example values



aws:

  key: AKIA55HL2ZOSR5UDGLM6

  secret: *****

  region: eu-west-2

 

caldera_inputs:

  -

    bucket: bucketname

    from: caldera-input

    to: local-caldera-input

 

caldera_outputs:

  -

    bucket: bucketname

    from: local-caldera-output

    to: caldera-output

    file_count: 9

 

print-inputs:

  -

    bucket: bucketname

    from: printer-hotfolder

    to: local-printer-hotfolder

    file_count: 9


The same is below with more field explanation



aws:

  key: YOUR AMAZON KEY

  secret: YOUR AMAZON SECRET KEY

  region: BUCKET REGION EG eu-west-2

 

caldera_inputs:

  -

    bucket: NAME OF S3 BUCKET

    from: S3 CALDERA INPUT FOLDER

    to: LOCAL CALDERA INPUT FOLDER

 

caldera_outputs:

  -

    bucket: NAME OF S3 BUCKET

    from: LOCAL CALDERA OUTPUT FOLDER

    to: S3 CALDERA OUTPUT FOLDER

    file_count = INTEGER VALUE OF EXPECTED NUMBER OF OUTPUT FILES (USUALLY 9)

 

print-inputs:

  -

    bucket: NAME OF S3 BUCKET

    from: S3 PRINT HOTFOLDER

    to: LOCAL PRINT HOTFOLDER

    file_count = INTEGER VALUE OF EXPECTED NUMBER OF OUTPUT FILES (USUALLY 9)



Important Information: YAML files are very particular about indentation, they must be indented correctly using 2 spaces.


Step 3 - Run the sync command and leave running

Open the terminal on the Caldera machine, a command will be input and run which will run continuously and perform the sync, the terminal should not be closed or the sync will stop. If the machine is rebooted the sync should be triggered again by performing step 3 only.


The command is as follows (using examples)


sudo docker run -v /localfilepath/KornitXHotfolders/:/hotfolder -v $HOME/caldera-sync-config.yml:/usr/src/kornitx-caldera-sync/config/config.yml gateway3d/caldera-sync


Important Information: Note how the paths work -v /localfilepath/:/hotfolder in the docker run command that mounts the local path containing the sync folders to the container so the paths in the yaml file are relative to this, in our Tel Aviv demo centre this would be /opt/caldera/var/public/   


Note: Updating the docker container may be needed to pull through any code changes. To do this simply run this command making sure to stop and restart to container if it is already running

docker pull gateway3d/caldera-sync


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