IL CS4 Variables to multiple objects

Question

Hi.
How can I bind several objects (on the same artboard) to a single, common, variable?
The methods I've tried don't seem to work.
This is what I've done:
Select multiple objects
Click "make text dynamic" (This created two instances in the Variables panel with the same title and content)
Click "Capture Data set"
Click "Save Variable Library"
Open XML file in notepad to reveal the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 20001102//EN"    "http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-SVG-20001102/DTD/svg-20001102.dtd" [
<!ENTITY ns_graphs "http://ns.adobe.com/Graphs/1.0/">
<!ENTITY ns_vars "http://ns.adobe.com/Variables/1.0/">
<!ENTITY ns_imrep "http://ns.adobe.com/ImageReplacement/1.0/">
<!ENTITY ns_custom "http://ns.adobe.com/GenericCustomNamespace/1.0/">
<!ENTITY ns_flows "http://ns.adobe.com/Flows/1.0/">
<!ENTITY ns_extend "http://ns.adobe.com/Extensibility/1.0/">
]>
<svg>
<variableSets  xmlns="&ns_vars;">
<variableSet  locked="none" varSetName="binding1">
<variables>
<variable  trait="textcontent" varName="Variable1" category="&ns_flows;"></variable>
<variable  trait="textcontent" varName="Variable1" category="&ns_flows;"></variable>
</variables>
<v:sampleDataSets  xmlns:v="&ns_vars;" xmlns="&ns_custom;">
<v:sampleDataSet  dataSetName="Data Set 1">
<Variable1>
<p>Hello World!</p>
</Variable1>
</v:sampleDataSet>
</v:sampleDataSets>
</variableSet>
</variableSets>
</svg>
Edit the XML node "Variable1" from "Hello World!" to "WTF!"
Save the XML file and close
In IL click "Load Variable Library" and select the XML file
Then I'm presented with a dialogue that reads "The incoming variable library is invalid"
Am I doing something wrong? What should I do to bind several objects to one variable? Is it even possible to do so?
BTW, I've read through the "variable" related posts in the forum but couldn't find an answer to this question. Apologies if it does exist and I've simply overlooked it.

Answer 1

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
How can I bind several objects (on the same artboard) to a single, common, variable?
Think of the bound object as a field in a database. Normally, you wouldn't have two different values assigned to one field. It's not uncommon, however, to have two instances of a single field on a particular form or layout.
But this is XML based, not table-based. Per my admittedly very limited understanding of XML, each "field" or container or placeholder on the page is associated with one element in one position in the XML. So if you want the same "value" (element) to appear in two locations, you have to have two "fields" on the page and two occurrances of the element listed in the XML, just as you would have to in a web page's linear HTML text.
function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
If I want to have, for example, two text objects with identical content but one in Arial 20pt and the other Times 40pt...
...Then you would have to have two variables in the dataset containing the same values, bound to the two separate placeholders.
I agree it's lame. My guess is that Illustrator's Variables function sees relatively little use, compared to the amount of use it would have received as a normal data merge feature based on ordinary tab-delimited data.
But with XML all the rage a few years ago, I guess AI had to get on the XML bandwagon, too.
JET