InDesign and XML Automation

I am new to the InDesign and XML Automation process.
We have a xml file that has 100+ items and our goal is to automate them into a InDesign format (5-6 per page). Does InDesign/XML support this and what is the best approach to do this?

The full script runs on "the active document", and it's possible that is the point where ID gets confused. Can you re-write it as a function with *one* parameter -- the document to work on?
Then you can do your loopy (sorry) looping like this:
someDoc = app.open(files[i]);
Run("other script", someDoc);
someDoc.close(SaveOptions.YES);
"app.open" returns a handle to the ID document once it's opened, and if you save it into a variable you can use this wherever you are using "app.activeDocument" now.

Similar Messages

Book about InDesign and XML

Hello everybody!
Has anybody read "A Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML" by James J. Maivald, Cathy Palmer (Adobe Press)? I am looking for a book about using xml in InDesign. And i'm hoping the title says it all: a guide to show me the basics. Or does anybody have another book I should read?
Thank you for answering!
Maaike

It is a great book to begin for inDesign and XML.
Strange enough there is NO mentioning at all of how to process tabels!
Maaike, if you are Dutch take a look here:
http://www.macmojo.nl/nl/artikelen/gratis-hoofdstuk-als-pdf-van-het-nieuwe-boek-slimmer-we rken-met-indesign-cs4.html

Incopy link will not update in InDesign and XML Story files

So I have a couple of questions.
I work for a publisher and we have a standard InDesign to Incopy workflow. Recently we have started having issues with InCopy links. First some basic info would probably be helpful. We use Windows XP =(, and we are using InDesign and Incopy CS3. All of our files are on a server. When I or people on my team sometimes attempt to update Incopy links, they will simply not update. Then when we check the link it says that it is zero k in size and is pretty much fried, cannot open in Icopy or InDesign. Why this is so nasty is because if the file cannot be updated all the work in the story that was done in InCopy is lost. Then to make matters worse, if we unlink the incopy file sometimes when we go to save indesign completely crashes. Is this a permissions issue as our IT department is fairly ignorant about design workflows on servers and has been inconsistent about the permissions. Also these .xml files seem to be populating the folder where we keep our InDesign files, when we open them they have basic information on the story links. I have attempted to find out more info on these files but have had very little luck.
Any info would be helpful.
Thanks!

I cannot import video files.
Mylenium

InDesign and XML Automatic pagination

Hi Scripters,
I am trying to create "Automatic pagination" system for four to six page journals,
XML--->INDD--->PDF
I am comfort with creating and applying styles I am done. I just don’t have Idea how to place the images and tables automatically after their citations? And how to make my facing pages base align automatically?
Anyone done this before? Kindly give me some suggestions
thanks
regards
a r u l

I'm not sure I'm totally following your question but, I'm very interested in automating via the same process you described so I'll try to get the discussion going.
I
just don’t have Idea how to place the images and tables automatically
after their citations?
the images are called out in your XML, right? you should be able to flow them in based on a template doc. I believe the tables will have to be formatted in such a way that 'convert text to table' can convert them easily, if you want them to stream into a longer story.
And how to make my facing pages base align
automatically?
are you looking for a baseline grid alignment (a simple function of the paragraph style)? or getting all the columns to end at the same depth (a not so simple quandry)?

Scripting InDesign and XML tables

I am trying to get around the fact that InDesign CS2 forces you to import XML data into tables as the WHOLE table. I just want to link cells to data without having to build the whole tables in XML because the table layout changes.
I do not want to use a 3rd party plugin because I need the tags to be portable to other machines without the extension.
Does anyone have any advice on how to script the import of XML data to table cells without importing a whole table?

The only way around this seems to be either using some sort of plugin or just getting more creative with my XML and XSL.

XSLT and generated text using InDesign with xml

I have recently switched from Framemaker to InDesign and am still getting to grips with the differences so apologies if this is a very basic query.
Framemaker was used to format sgml tagged text. You could specify that a particular tag generated a prefix or suffix. You could also specify that the tag should generate the prefix or suffix only under certain circumstances (context rules). The prefixes and suffixes I need to apply are things like open and closing brackets, commas, full stops, and sometimes a bit of text.
I am told that this can be done with XSLT. There are whole libraries of books on XSLT out there and not knowing anything about the subject I really don't know where to start. Does anyone out there who uses InDesign with xml and XSLT have any tips about where to find useful information on the subject?
Thanks in advance for any help on the subject.
Steven

Yeah, we use to have such feature wayback then. Indesign package into GoLive. Kindly look through the idea section and vote massively for this idea.

How to open illustrator file (.ai) using Indesign and save it as XML

I know how to open a Illustrator file (.ai) in Indesign.
It would be like :
1 ) Save your Illustrator file as AI. This Native format is most compatible with InDesign.
2 ) Go to -> InDesign, click on your document using your Frame Rectangle tool (the one with the X through it).
3 ) Fill in the desired size (can be adjusted later).
5 ) Go to File menu > Place.
6 ) Find and select the Illustrator file in the window that opens.
7 ) Click the Open button.
Adjust size, & position of your image using the Direct Selection tool (white arrow), and the cropping with the Seclection tool (black arrow.
Now I want to save this file as XML.
After that, I say
1 ) File -> Export
But this file saves as XML only shows he the root element nothing else.
Every time , this shows like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Root></Root>
Nothing is there as contents.
Can anyone let me know, is it possible to store .AI file as XML.
My requirement is simple, i want to store the .ai file as XML.
Some how I am using Indesign to do so . Can any body help.
Thanks,

Copy and paste is again seems same as 'Place the file' , it wouldn't help again.
Copy( from Illustrator) and paste( it in Indesign) and later saving\exporting as XML again create the same the XML file with no data . Just a XML structure,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<Root />
RRegarding using the FXG and SVG file .. saving these formats to XML does not shows the Co-ordinates in XML formats.
I do I would like to have the coordinates (x,y) so that later on , if required I can change the coordinates and display the Image or Text in the file. As this is a requirement for business card.
A

Products, list of elements and XML in Indesign

Hi,
I want to do something with XML in Indesign, but I can't find the solution
I have a list of product, and each product is composed of multiple elements, just like that :
A product can be made for exemple like that :
Product 1    : - P2O5 : 23 g/L
                    - CaO : 1,2 g/L
                    - Zn : 3,2 g/L
Product 2    : - N : 4,3 g/L
                    - MgO : 2,2 g/L
I want only elements (when I say "element", I want to say Chemical element) that have a face value when I import my XML, and not the other (for exemple, not the term "B", "Cu", ...)
My XML has the value of the elements (for exemple, 23 g/L, 1,2 g/L) but not the term "N", "Cu", ... (it's a static text, directly typed into an anchored object in Indesign)
I want the term "P2O5" or "CaO" to appear only when there are a face value, but disappears when there are no face value.
And I want the elements not to be too spaced one to each other (for exemple, if there not N, P2O5 and K2O elements in my product, the term "MgO" and its value reach back instead of the term"N" (see in my picture above)
For exemple, in this picture (done manually), there is too much space before "CaO : 560", and between "CaO : 560" and "Mn : 8,8"
So, how can I create a document into Indesign with XML (much like in my exemple), wich generates list of products with differents elements that appear or disappear according to their values?
I don't know if my XLM tags are right or not, or if I use the right strategy with anchored blocks instead of a single block of text, but I don't find the solution!
Can someone help me?
I work on Indesign CS6, on Windows 7.
Thank you,

Hello Fabien,
I have had a chance to look at the files. I am a bit uncertain about something. Is the table a design element, or do you want the data in a table?
If you do not want the data in a table, let me know.
If you do want the XML in a table, there are a couple means of achieving that. I don't know how big this publication is going to be, and so the answer sort of depends upon that. So a general "rule" I follow is:
For product data sheets or publications of say 12 pages or less, I will simply arrange my XML so that the data is in rows with the data that will be in a row's cells separated by tabs. I will typically bring in a small amount of data, create the table and create table and cell styles for quickly formatting the data into tables once inside ID. I use the Text to Tables feature for these, then apply the table style(s).
For a bit bigger publication, I will create a CALS table structure in the XML and do the same as above as regards applying table/cell styles.
For a large publication where manually going through and applying the table styles would be onerous and or there are several table styles I would need to use, I *might* take the time to wrap the XML table data in an ID table structure. To see what you would be up against, create and style a table and export it out as an XML file. This, to me, is only worth doing on a really large file that perhaps includes several styles of tables.
Using your example XML, it would look similar to the below. Depending on your text editor, it doesn't take too long to use the search/replace function in a good editor to do once you know how it needs to be laid out and your familiarity with the editor. I began with importing your XML into Excel rearranged some data, exported back out to XML and cleaned it up. I don't know where the data you have is coming from, but if a database of some sort, likely most of this could be done with the export from Access, the SQL, etc. I try to get whoever is providing the XML to get as close as possible to what I need, which takes working with them. But it saves time on my end.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<stuff>
<table>
<tgroup cols="5">
<colspec colname="1"/>
<colspec colname="2"/>
<colspec colname="3"/>
<colspec colname="4"/>
<colspec colname="5"/>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Produit</entry>
<entry>Composition</entry>
<entry>Forme</entry>
<entry>Cultures</entry>
<entry>Doses</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Produit1</entry>
<entry>560 g/L
8,8 g/L
2,6 g/L</entry>
<entry>Texte Forme
Texte Formulation</entry>
<entry>Texte Cultures</entry>
<entry>Texte doses
Texte application</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Produit 2</entry>
<entry>10 g/L
50 g/L
10,2
27 g/L</entry>
<entry>Texte forme 2
Texte formulation 2</entry>
<entry>Texte cultures 2
Texte doses 2</entry>
<entry>Texte application 2</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</stuff>
Take care, Mike

Indesign Javascript and xml structure

Hi to all
I am new to program javascript in Indesign, and I am looking for some example on how modify the xml structure inside a document using a javascript script.
i.e.
if I have a structure like this in the original document:
root
section
tag1
tag2
tag3
I need to transform it in this way( this is just an example, may be more complex):
root
     section
          tag1
          tag2
          tag3
Any help on where or how to solve this is very appreciate.
Thanks a lot

I think the MoveXMLElement.jsx script there shows pretty well what's involved. Here's something that addresses something closer to your example:
var root = app.activeDocument.xmlElements[0];
root.xmlElements.item("tag1").move(LocationOptions.AT_END, root.xmlElements.item("section"));
root.xmlElements.item("tag2").move(LocationOptions.AT_END, root.xmlElements.item("section"));
root.xmlElements.item("tag3").move(LocationOptions.AT_END, root.xmlElements.item("section"));
You want to be careful about the order you do things and when you grab references to the xml structure objects, since you're changing them as you go (i.e. root.xmlElements[3] might refer to tag3 when you start, but will be invalid once you start moving things into section).
If the xml structure in your InDesign document is the result of an xml import, you might consider transforming the xml as you import it. It's faster and more natural there.
Hope that helps,
Jeff

Does InDesign CC XML support Footnotes/Endnotes and Index Markers?

Hi,
Does InDesign CC XML support Footnotes/Endnotes and Index Markers already?
Can anyone give me the list of limitations in XML to InDesign.
Thanks in advance.

Hello MW,
First of all thanks for your reply. Yes I can create an XSLT to change the XML stream ready for import into InDesign template that we have. I have also downloaded the Refoot.js and UnFoot.js. For the footnotes I have already workaround for that, but how about the index-markers and cross-references do you have any idea on how to deal with it?
Actually I have already XSLT script that will convert XML to InDesign Tagged Text. But our client want us to use the XML embedded in InDesign so they can just export the InDesign back to XML easily. I know that there are limitations in XML to InDesign, but we need to proved to them that using XML is not good to use in this workflow because of those limitations. So I'm looking for the list so I can send to them to tell them that what they want is not doable since there are a lot of things that XML in InDesign can't do.
We have existing XML to InDesign round tripping workflow; 1) first we have the XSLT that will convert XML to InDesign Tagged text including footnotes, endnotes cros-refeneces and index-markers; 2) once the layout is final will export the InDesign document to HTML; 3) use XSLT script to convert exported HTML to XML. But it seems this workflow is not efficient to them. Can anyone suggest what other workflow for round tripping XML to InDesign.
Again thank you very much for your quick reply.
Regards,
Elmer

I am pulling my hair out! I am using adobe indesign and just want to make a text box 'autofit text' as I change fonts a lot and want the font to automatically re-size as I change it. help help help please - I have latest version of indesign - thanks

I am pulling my hair out! I am using adobe indesign and just want to make a text box 'autofit text' as I change fonts a lot and want the font to automatically re-size as I change it.
Is it not possible to create a text box, fill it with dynamic (data driven) text, but make the font size either scale up or down automatically, so that the entire text box is filled? This is a feature in PrintShop Mail Pro called COPY FIT. but no such feature in Indesign??
help help help please - I have latest version of indesign - thanks, DJ

lol... it seems to work, but I have another huge problem!
Apparently .CSV files cannot contain page breaks in the data! The data I am trying to merge is a 'letter', with paragraphs, line breaks, etc.,
But, after data merging, it ignores page breaks and only merges the first paragraph of each letter. (sigh)
Solution? Hopefully, an EASY solution. lol as we have thousands of records.
Is there a third party indesign plugin that will allow .xml, or .xls data merge import??
Thx,
DJ

Working at a newspaper, I'm having difficulty making a presentation made in Indesign and must be transformed in an application for Ipad / IOs. That occurs in DPS consgigo generate the file .ipa put it nsao install on Device, getting the message "instal

Working at a newspaper, I'm having difficulty making a presentation made in Indesign and must be transformed in an application for Ipad / IOs.
That occurs in DPS consgigo generate the file .ipa put it nsao install on Device, getting the message "installing" all the time.
If I get the zip file and the xml of the person who generated the folios, as indicating that the DPS?
grateful

In fact, it is listed in the devices profile file. The problem I see is the steps to production of an APP.
Made as follows:
My friend created the folios in InDesign (with your login) on another machine. Provided in a shared folder.
I already have the contents of the application. From here, I believe he should publish through the Folio Producer and then I create the Application Builder IOs in DPS app in Title citing the Login ID he used to publish the content.
Hence, I believe that would only make the Download Device and see install APP.
Is this the correct sequence?
Please.

How does one convert final designed print content in InDesign to XML?

I have been grappling with this issue for a while now. What I do get as an output in XML is content which is not complied in a proper hierarchical manner. Images are listed separately where as I want them to be listed as part of the article.
Can you help me with a solution? Do let me know if my question is unclear.

Can you help me with a solution? Do let me know if my question is unclear.
It's unclear. XML is really really complicated and there are thousands of variations, because it's infinitely flexible. In order to understand your question, we need to know what kind of XML schema you need, and what you are getting, and posssibly also how your document is set up.
Are you exporting to IDML (an XML format that is zipped), or using InDesign's XML Export?

How to uninstall CS6 Indesign and Photoshop silently?

Hello,
We have a situation where we have to uninstall CS6 Indesign and Photoshop from dozens of computers. I would like to do this silently using Psexec or SCCM. So far I haven't been able to figure out how to do that. We have installed both using a msi file and I have tried command "msiexec.exe /uninstall C:\Temp\Build\indesigncs6.msi /quiet" for indesign but nothing happens. When taking the quiet command away I get an error saying "This feature can only be used to programs that have been installed". The error message has been roughly translated from Finnish so it probalbly isn't excatly the same in English versions. Obviously this computer has Indesign installed.
I have also tried the PDApp.exe, but haven't been able to run that silently either. Command I've tried is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\core\PDApp.exe --appletID="DWA_UI" --appletVersion="2.0" --mode="silent" --mediaSignature="{CFB770D7-8D43-1014-922B-CC2715FADE3F}"
Is there a person who has successfully been able to silently uninstall Adobe Indesign or Photoshop CS6? If there is can you please tell us how to do it?

Thanks for answering. I tried to contact Adobe Support, but could not find out how to do that. I went to the Adobe Contact site and filled in what kind of problem I have and it just suggests that I ask from the community. If I try anything else it just leads me to the beginning.
You are absolutely correct that the CC Cleaner Tool is the way to do this. I have been able to generate cleanup.xml and used it. The problem is that the tool only finds Adobe Photoshop CS6 Driver version 13.0, Adobe Indesign CS6 Application Base Files version 8.0 and Adboe ID Credentials. It deletes these very efficiently and quietly. Problem is that it does not uninstall the whole program. For example all Adobe programs are still in the Start Menu and the Indesign folder is still found where it used to be. Have you any experience on this kind of problem?
Thank you in advance
Regards
Karri

Working with InDesign and Microsoft Access Databases

I was wondering if there’s anyway to synchronize Adobe InDesign with Microsoft Access in a way that when changes are made to the INDD file they would automatically be updated in the database. Does Anyone have any ideas on this? Is there a third party plugin that would accomplish this or would I need to export xml out of InDesign?

InCopy would be indeed the best solution for you. InCopy is the little brother of InDesign, But both need to be in the same version to work together flawless.
InCopy is much cheaper and simpler than InDesign as it is missing layout capacity, but both of you need to understand both applications.
Generally, if 2 persons are working on the same document they should have the same versions between 2 InDesigns or between InDesign and InCopy, any workflow where IDML is needed should be avoided.
Why are there so many corrections in your present workflow? If you make your Word Document correct and set it up with styles without any manual format overrides, no hyphenation, no several continuous returns it should reduce the number of corrections on the first place.

InDesign and XML Automation

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