Automating PDF Generation with InDesign

Question

Is it possible for InDesign to retrieve info from a database, automatically format the data with paragraph style(s) and export hi-res PDF art for each database entry? PDF export to include common art positioned on the master page. If this function is possible with InDesign, how does one accomplish this task?... AppleScript? I don’t speak code, so this could be very intimidating. Recommendations?

Answer 1

I think you might need an interpreter. I speak code, sure, but very slowly and with a very thick accent.
Plain vanilla InDesign won't hit a database; there are plugins for that. Catalog plugins, for example; if you're making something catalog-like, that's worth a search or three. If you can get CSV files from your DB, then Data Merge will work for minor automation. Read up on InDesign's XML capabilities if you need something more robust than that; it is extremely useful, and even someone like myself with barely-there software development skills can automate the production of a dictionary with XML spat out of a database.
In terms of automating the the formatting, XML is another obvious choice, because the working method is to map an XML tag to a style.
Exporting PDFs automatically is something that can be achieved with scripting, either Apple- or Java-. I don't know off the top of my head how to set it up, but there are quite a few talented scripters reading these forums, and perhaps one of them can nudge you in the right direction. Perhaps you'll see the advantage in actually contracting one of them to develop this for you.
All that being said, I'd be surprised if there wasn't already a catalog plugin to do exactly what you want. (The last time I said "InDesign can't really do that" it took about fifteen minutes for the forum regulars to post both a plugin and a custom-developed script that basically completely fulfilled the original poster's criteria.)