How to Create Tray Labels
When you are preparing an automated mailing, you must prepare tray labels that have a bar code on them.
EasyMailings provides rather basic support for creating barcoded tray labels. You will need to change the file ./lib/traylabels.properties to have information specific to your mailing.
You must specify the following information for each tray label:
Table 1. Things to fill out for each tray label.
| Property | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tray1.Destination (Line 1) | MXD SPRINGFIELD MA | This depends on the kind of tray it is. If all the pieces in the tray are going to the same five digit zip code, you would enter the city, state and five digit zip. If all the pieces are going to zip codes with the same first three digits, then you need to look up Line 1 on list L002 (see Lists). If the pieces are all going to the same AADC, then you look it up on list L801. If the tray is mixed AADC, then you use list L803 with the prefix MXD. |
| Tray1.Content (Line 2) | STD LTR BC WKG | Shows the class (e.g, "STD LTR"), the processing category (e.g., "BC" stands for bar coded), and the sortation level (e.g., "WKG" means mixed). Again, this line depends on what kind of tray it is. A five-digit tray would use "STD LTR 5D BC". A three-digit tray would use "STD LTR 3D BC". An AADC tray uses "STD LTR AADC BC" and a mixed AADC uses "STD LTR BC WKG". |
| Tray1.Origin (Line 3) | SPRINGFIELD MA 010 | The city and state of the "entry" post office. |
| Tray1.ContentIdentifier | 0100054601 | This is the number that is encoded with the bar code. (The bar code is an Interleaved 2-of-5.) The first five numbers are the five-digit zip code of the tray destination. If the tray is a three-digit tray, then you use the first three digits followed by two zeros. The next three digits describe the contents of the tray. Most likely, you will either use 544 (STD LTR 3D BC), 544 (STD LTR AADC BC), or 546 (STD LTR BC WKG). Refer the M032 in the List section for the full table. Finally, the last two digits are for the USPS processing code. You will use "01" here (for machinable letters). |
| Tray1.DestinationThreeDigit | 010 | The first three digits of the zip code of the destination zip code. |
You can print up to ten tray labels on one sheet. To do this, you specify the above properties for Tray1, Tray2, Tray3, and so on. If you need more than ten different labels, you will have to print the first ten, edit the properties file, then print the second sheet.
To print the labels, go to the root directory of the easymailings distribution and run the shell script (batch file on Windows) type traylabels. This will generate the file traylabels.pdf.
