Hello boys and girls
I'm working on a potential client at the moment, and one the things that is interesting in this job is their massive amounts of data that needs to be in layout.
So I've been experimenting with using xml data in Indesign and so far Im quite far in having a working prototype. One thing I still havent found out is how I can import image data from an xml file.
Im think along the lines of having the image path relative to the indesign document put in a tag in the xml file. But I still havent found out how I can get indesign to recognize that its a path to a picture.
Any ideas?
I think I did this a while ago with Walt's help...I'll try and dig up the file when I get into the office.
That would be sweet!
I'm perhaps missing something in the description of what you are doing, but that's because I don't know as much about using code as I would like.
working with InDesign more efficiently always interests me though. when you say "import image data from an xml file" I'm thinking you already have the Text from the XML file flowing through your document and you want to add anchored objects [images]
the guy we once brought onboard to help with this stuff is no longer here. what he found was that InDesign by itself didn't do all that he needed to completely flow data and create new text and image boxes from the data alone... he employed tools from [teacupsoftware.com]9http://www.teacupsoftware.com/) particularly DataLinker
Connect data quickly and efficiently to Adobe InDesign documents with Teacup Software's DataLinker. This intuitive, easy-to-use plug-in allows you to link data anywhere on an InDesign page, or merge data into a document and into tables too. Once your data is linked, you can update from the database with the simple click of a button.
I hope tha Riddla can help... he's got a much better memory than I I do believe Michael helped him before we lost him
I've tried to refresh my memory, particularly to see what still applies, as we've gone backwards in the process of automation of our catalogue process... Michael and I had the process almost automated from Access database to print catalogue layout using the DataLinker plugin all the way back in CS2... after our merger, and Michaels layoff, the guy in new york who does the parent company's catalogue has reverted all the way back to laying in each product on each page manually, individually.
I recently had a chance to help him. taking the data from excell files, cleaning and formatting the data flowing it through my template with linked text boxes... then having to unlink all the stuff for the other guy to understand. frustrating
in any event, without using a plugin, to create the frames for your info as it flows, I believe you still need to create linked frames. there's a really sweet tool I use for linking and unlinking text frames... simple, easy to use... http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/indesign-downloads/textstitch/
these other links I just had to hit to refresh my memoory as I said... looks like 'cleaning' the data using grep/find & replace steps are still needed for me to make sense of the data/image import automation process
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSFA420DB7-65C3-4a84-8530-4DDCC634E01Ca.html
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/taggedtext/indesign_cs5_taggedtext.pdf
I can't find the file, apparently the new print guys have culled a lot of the old files from our server :/
This was using datamerge in CS2/3...sorry, i haven't done print stuff in a while so i'd have to experiment again. Some of the print guys will probably be able to answer better than i.
Originally posted by Walt
I'm perhaps missing something in the description of what you are doing, but that's because I don't know as much about using code as I would like.
I'll read through your links tomorrow, since I can't test anything in ID at the moment - I'm still setting up the new computer. Just to elaborate though, I'm working on a solution that will grab data from a XML file and then publish it in Indesign.
<product>
<image_file>product/122093872.jpg</image_file>
<image_eps>product/122093872.eps</image_eps>
<headline>Headline test 1</headline>
<product_txt>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetu</product_txt>
<price_dkk>100,00</price_dkk>
<price_sek>120,00</price_sek>
<price_nok>130,00</price_nok>
</product>
The above is basically what I'm working with at the moment. Its just for testing, since the data provided by the client will be much more detailed, but it has the basic content. What I cant figure out is how I can get ID to recognize the image path from and and then publish those picture into a content box in ID.
I had hoped there was a way for ID to see the path as an image path and then go looking for the image in the correct folder, relative to the ID-document. There probably is a clever way to do this, I just havent found it yet...
Sorry if the description is vague, some times its hard for me to express myself correctly in English If I don't fully understand the problem myself.
Use an href attribute (just like html)...
eg.
<Image href=”file://Volumes/DOCS_IMAGES/2008_ Sydney/IMG_1806.JPG”></Image>
edit: fixed link 
Woot! Thanks Nat, great find 
Originally posted by n-gen.dk
Woot! Thanks Nat, great find
No prob mate.
I just fixed the link and realised that I worked with the girl who wrote the tutorial about 10 years ago. Small world