When importing XML, how do I remove lines with labels but no content?

Question

I am working on a directory whose content is supplied as an XML file. I've created an automatic layout with static text/labels for contact details (e.g. Phone, Fax).
When I import the file, superfluous lines with the static text and no content are created. I have 'Delete elements, frames and content that do not match imported XML' checked.
Is there a way of avoid creating these? I've tried doing a search and replace to remove these but this causes quite a few other problems.
Any help - much appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi Alison,
Did you create the posted XML file by extracting it from a larger file you've been using successfully? I ask because there seem to be a couple of problems with it which make me wonder how you got it to work at all, at least with the provided InDesign file's XML structure:
The immediate child element of the "root" element in the XML document is one called "step2 ". All of the values with which you are concerned are children of that "step2" element, and yet the structure in the InDesign document contains no "step2" element. As a result, when I import, I get nothing at all in my InDesign document's content (though the data are in the XML structure, buried in a newly-created "step2" element.
In both the XML and the InDesign document's XML structure, you have two different elements which are both named the exactly the same - "description" - (actually, in the XML document, there are three of them). When InDesign imports XML, it stops after the first "match" that it finds, so this will not work in any way that I imagine you intend it to. Based on the content of your InDesign document, I would think there ought to be two separate elements in your XML - named something like "step_description" and "category_description".
If, after getting this all straightened out, your question is how to somehow make the text of an empty element (e.g., <description></description>) disappear in the imported result, there are a few possibilities:
Get rid of the text inside the tag markers in your template/base document - for example, instead of having "[step_description]" (where the "[]" represent the tag markers), just make it be "[]". That way, if there is no text value for "step_description", there will be no text left after the import. However, if you put a end-of-paragraph in your template/base file, that will still be there. In most cases, that's not desired, so you might want to put the empty tag ("[]") in the text flow without a carriage return/line break. If you do that, you will need to include the carriage return in the XML data (which admittedly slightly violates the notion of separating presentation from content). Rather than the xml looking like this:
<step_description>This is the text of my step description.</step_description> you would need to make it be this:
<step_description>This is the text of my step description.&#13;</step_description>
(having added "&#13;" to represent the carriage return (ASCII character 13).
As above, make the tag an empty one, include the carriage return in your InDesign template/base document, and then write (or have written) a script to run after the XML import to deal with such empty tag cases.
Upgrade to InDesign CS3, CS4, or soon, CS5, so you can take advantage of the "XML Rules" feature which was introduced in CS3. XML Rules will essentially allow you to automate the second option - running a script - as the XML import is taking place.
Excuse the long (and probably unclear) post. If I've misunderstood your question, then please excuse it doubly...