Xml with Indesign

Hello , I have a question : can indesign make a layout from an xml file??? I explain:
all the info are stocked into a database (advert, text,number of pages etc ) and i create an xml file from the database and can Indesign make a layout from this XML file (suposing that the xml file have all the info needed for indesign) ???
thanks

I'm not completely clear on what you're trying to do, cosmicvibs. If what you're asking is whether you can drive the content of an InDesign document with XML, then the answer is that you can. That is to say, given an XML file and an InDesign document with matching XML elements/tags, you can import the XML, and replace the tagged content in the InDesign document with that in the XML file. In this case, Peter (Spier)'s suggestion of creating the desired end result and exporting XML from InDesign to see what your XML structure should look like is an excellent one.
If you want the XML to drive the content AND the styling of the InDesign document, then this is also possible with the built-in features by creating paragraph and character styles (and also possibly table and cell styles), and then using the Tags-To-Styles Mapping feature. This will cause the mapped styles to be applied to the XML elements that map to them.
If, however, you are wanting the XML to drive the content, styling, AND form (i.e., create/modify the geometry of pages, frames, etc.), then you will need to at minimum so some scripting to accomplish it. InDesign CS3 and CS4 have a feature called XML Rules which you can look up in the InDesign CS4 Scripting Guide. This feature essentially allows you to define scripted "handlers" to be executed whenever the InDesign XML parser encounters a certain element/condition. So, for example, in response to a <page type="foo"/> element in the xml, a handler might create a new page in the document based on the "C" Master Page, and in response to a <pic source="myImage.psd"/> element, a different handler would create a graphics frame, and place the named image into it.
This last bit, of course, demands that the XML document have some rather intimate knowledge of the template, so it's generally best practice to create that XML by combining "pure" XML data (as it may be stored in your database) with the template- and presentation-specific stuff that has nothing to do with the abstract data, but is based on the template being used.

Similar Messages

Importing XML Text files with Indesign friendly 'Carriage Returns'

Hi,
I have a question wrt importing XML into Indesign. I have my text stored in Excel (Fig A) and intend to export as an XML file where each line will represent each page. However, my first attempt failed to treat the 'carriage returns' as I'd envisaged:
The 'carriage returns' used within an Excel cell (ALT-ENTER) are maintained when transforming to a CSV file (Fig B). However, when converting to an XML file, the conversion only takes place on a line by line basis and hence the XML file becomes incomplete (Fig C).
So, it appears I need to make sure that the CSV file contains one line per entry, while also maintaining the actual carriage returns in my source spreadsheet and for Indesign to recognise them. In order to do this, I'll need to substitute the 'carriage returns' in my excel column to be represented by a new set of characters. My question is how can I let Indesign know to recognise this set of characters to be converted to a carriage return, when importing text.
For example, if this set of characters was '%%%%%%', then my new csv file would look like Figure D and the XML would be produced correctly, like Figure E. Then importing this XML file to InDesign, the carriage returns would automatically be reinstated, hopefully.
I hope someone can help me as I am only starting out in Indesign and feel Im running before I can walk by venturing into the XML/Indesign arena too soon.
Best Regards
Luke

Hi,
Thanks for all the responses.
With regard to XML, it could well be an issue has crept in because I am using another utility to convert my csv's to xml and maybe there are better options out there. I will take a look for other utilities and try that (Its not possible from Excel easily, even though there is an option to save as an XML file).
Secondly, because the XML was readable by internet explorer, I assumed it had a satisfactory standard XML format which would be accepted by any program, including InDesign. This proved true, since the XML file i generated was actually recognised by my Indesign document and populated the tags correctly, albeit without any carriage returns.
When I save my excel sheet as a csv, it does actually hold the carriage returns causing multiple lines per entry, hence why I need to substitute the actual carriage returns in my excel sheet to a alternative character set so that the entry remains on one line.
Re: Double quotes on text fields. Im sorry, I didnt realise I had commas in my sample csv example.
I should have corrected it, but I intend on using semi-colons as my csv delimiter and don't intend on having semi-colons in my excel sheet itself, so I possibly won't need any double-quotes.
So, it looks like this is what I need to do ;
i) Add a column in Excel which substitutes all the carriage returns with a line break identifier (^n).
ii) Convert Excel file to a semi-colon csv holding this new column,
iii) Convert csv file to XML using a good CSV->XML utility,
iv) Add the respective XML tags to my INDD document,
v) Add a GREP rule which does a find/replace on all instances of ^n and replace with a line break,
vi) Import the XML file,
vii) Apply the find/replace GREP rule on the whole document. Carriage returns on my text fields should be consistent with my original excel sheet.
Thanks for all your help fellas. Will report on how I get on once Im done.
Best Regards
L

Can I do this with InDesign tags (or XML)

We are embarking on a new project which will require the use of either InDesign or its major competitor, I have been tasked with determining which to use. Our needs are few but specific. We will be publishing a catalog, the source text of which will be a database. We want to create a text file report from the database with tags embedded (or XML output), so we can flow it right into a template in InDesign with minimal manipulation afterward. I'm concerned with three particular fields - the main catalog entry, manufacturer information and price. The main entry is text of indeterminate length, but usually 80-100 words. The manufacturer information is generally 20-50 characters, the price 6-8 characters. We want it to look like this
|entry entry this longer catalog entry ends here.
| Manufacturer info: PRICE
(with the manufacturer string up against the right margin, I can't reproduce that well in the forum)when the entry ends towards the right side of the page and
|entry ends here. Manufacturer info: PRICE|
with this all on the same line when the main text ends to the left. The string of Manufacturer info and text cannot wrap and must always be aligned to the right margin. How would you do this with InDesign's tagging system?

You cannot 'tag' specific a layout. You
i must
tag every element with its
i function
only -- in this case, 'catalog_entry' and 'manufacturer_info'. That has nothing to do with what the layout looks like.
Now how would you get this effect with ID?
One way is to insert a Right Indent Tab at the end of each catalog entry instead of a hard return; the Manufacturer info follows right after that. Protect the entire Manufacturer info piece from breaking by applying No Break.

XML to InDesign, multiple versions of the same document

Hi everyone,
I have a small project that I need help with.
I am working on an online survey for a client of mine; which consist of 10 odd pages of questions as well as free text entry on some of the questions. Some of the questions requires number input which then converted into charts (bar graphs etc.) Survey is done as a web app (using .NET and C# and MySQL) and resulting data converted into XML format in order to generate a report based on the answers that the members provide.
Currently XML data is imported into MSWord and report is generated as .docx file.
Client is not happy with the presentation of the word so I suggested that we can use InDesign to have a better look/feel of the report, using the same XML structure.
There are 1000+ members that need to take this survey, which means that report has to be generated for each client individually (different answers, total page numbers, branding and so on.)
I understand the basics of generating a book from XML to InDesign but I can't figure out how can I apply this workflow into producing 1000+ different copies.
Do I need to have 1000+ InDesign documents with SAME XML structure but DIFFERENT branding (different heading colours etc.) or is there a way to generate the reports with using a single InDesign template, supplying each member's survey results as a separate XML file and generate the report.
It would be great to know if the process can be automated such as :
- Saving all the XML files (Survey answers) in a folder
- Save all graphs for each client in a separate folder (e.g. /client_name/graphs)
- Open InDesign and select the XML source file <- This is where I stuck. I can only imagine doing this work for every single member
- Generate reports (saving as PDF documents)
I'll be happy to answer if you have any questions or need clarification.
Any suggestions welcome
Thanks

You probably want to look at InDesign's Data Merge feature.
Unfortunately it won't accept XML directly, so you'll have to convert your XML to CSV or TSV. But that's pretty easy to do.

When trying to install an extension for InDesign CC 2014 I get an error message saying that the extension only works with version 7.0 or greater. My version is 10.0.0.7 x64 Build I was using this extension fine with InDesign CC

When trying to install an extension for InDesign CC 2014 I get an error message saying that the extension only works with version 7.0 or greater. My version is 10.0.0.7 x64 Build I was using this extension fine with InDesign CCError message with InDesign CC 2014

Used the 64bit version before CC 2014 as well so don't think that's the issue. Here is the text in the .mxi file if I have missed something:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<macromedia-extension id="PrintUI Tools" name="PrintUI Tools" requires-restart="true" version="3.0.0">
<author name="PrintUI.com"/>
<description/>
<license-agreement/>
<products>
<product maxversion="" name="InDesign" primary="true" version="7.0"/>
</products>
<files>
<file destination="" file-type="CSXS" products="" source="PrintUIManagement.zxp"/>
</files>
<update url="http://printui.com/public/downloads/updates/printui_tools_update.xml"/>
</macromedia-extension>

Do you need to generate HTML table rows from XML in InDesign?

General issue: you export XML and you get a bunch of content for xml elements that were a table in inDesign. But they don't have any rows, just cell after cell. What will make rows in your output?
Solution: XSLT; you need to use the @aid:tcols attribute of exported XML to determine the number of columns that your table should be. This is written in XSLT 1.1 so it shoud work with an export from InDesign. If you have problems with using it on export of XML, try using it on the XML afetr it has been exported, in Oxygen or other XSLT processor. Best to save acopy of your files before using the XSLT with them. Copy all of the plain text and past into a new file, save with your own filename, ending with .xsl file extension. Then when exporting XML from InDesign CS3-5, browse to your new .xsl file and select it. PLEASE read about XSLT files at w3c.schools or other resource if you want to understand what is going on with this file.
BTW 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.1"
    xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/"
    xmlns:aid5="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/5.0/" exclude-result-prefixes="xsl aid aid5">
    <xsl:output method="html" indent="yes" encoding="UTF-8"
        doctype-public="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml/DTD/xhtml-transitional.dtd"/>

    <xsl:param name="tableElem">//*[local-name()][@aid:table='table']</xsl:param>
    <xsl:param name="colheadStyle">
        <xsl:value-of select="//*[local-name()][@aid:theader][1]"/>
        
    </xsl:param>


    <xsl:param name="cellStyle">
        <xsl:value-of select="//*[local-name()][@aid:table='cell' and not(@aid:theader)][1]"/>
    </xsl:param>
    
    
    <xsl:template match="Story">
        <html>
            <head>
                <title>Sample Table</title>
            </head>
            <body>
                <xsl:apply-templates>
                    <xsl:with-param name="colheadStyle" select="$colheadStyle"/>
                    <xsl:with-param name="cellStyle" select="$cellStyle"/>
                </xsl:apply-templates>
            </body>
        </html>
    </xsl:template>
   
    <xsl:template match="Table">
        <xsl:param name="colheadStyle">
            <xsl:value-of select="$colheadStyle"/>
        </xsl:param>
        <xsl:param name="cellStyle">
            <xsl:value-of select="$cellStyle"/>
        </xsl:param>
        <xsl:variable name="cellsPerRow">
            <xsl:value-of select="@aid:tcols"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <table>
            
            <tr>
                <xsl:apply-templates select="*[@aid:theader='']">
                    <xsl:with-param name="colheadStyle" select="$colheadStyle"/>
                    <xsl:with-param name="cellStyle" select="$cellStyle"/>
                </xsl:apply-templates>
            </tr>
            
            <xsl:for-each
                select="*[@aid:table='cell'][not(@aid:theader='')][position() mod $cellsPerRow = 1]">



                <tr>
                    <xsl:apply-templates
                        select=".|following-sibling::*[@aid:table='cell'][not(@aid:theader='')][position() < $cellsPerRow]"
                    />
                </tr>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </table>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="*">
        <xsl:param name="colheadStyle">
            <xsl:value-of select="$colheadStyle"/>
        </xsl:param>
        <xsl:param name="cellStyle">
            <xsl:value-of select="$cellStyle"/>
        </xsl:param>
        <xsl:variable name="cellsPerRow">
            <xsl:value-of select="parent::Table/@aid:tcols"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:choose>
            
            <xsl:when test="parent::Table and @aid:theader">
                <th>
                    <xsl:apply-templates>
                        <xsl:with-param name="colheadStyle" select="$colheadStyle"/>
                        <xsl:with-param name="cellStyle" select="$cellStyle"/>
                    </xsl:apply-templates>
                </th>
                <xsl:if test="(position() = last()) and (position() < $cellsPerRow)">
                    <xsl:call-template name="FillerCells">
                        <xsl:with-param name="cellCount" select="$cellsPerRow - position()"/>
                    </xsl:call-template>
                </xsl:if>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:when test="parent::Table and @aid:table='cell' and not(@aid:theader)">
                <td>
                    <xsl:apply-templates>
                        <xsl:with-param name="colheadStyle" select="$colheadStyle"/>
                        <xsl:with-param name="cellStyle" select="$cellStyle"/>
                    </xsl:apply-templates>
                </td>
                <xsl:if test="(position() = last()) and (position() < $cellsPerRow)">
                    <xsl:call-template name="FillerCells">
                        <xsl:with-param name="cellCount" select="$cellsPerRow - position()"/>
                    </xsl:call-template>
                </xsl:if>
            </xsl:when>

            <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:element name="{name()}">
                    <xsl:if test="@aid:pstyle">
                        <xsl:attribute name="class">
                            <xsl:value-of select="@aid:ptyle"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                    </xsl:if>
                    <xsl:apply-templates>
                        <xsl:with-param name="colheadStyle" select="$colheadStyle"/>
                        <xsl:with-param name="cellStyle" select="$cellStyle"/>
                    </xsl:apply-templates>
                </xsl:element>
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:template>
    
    <xsl:template match="text()">
        <xsl:variable name="myString">
            <xsl:value-of select="string-length(normalize-space(.))"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="parent::Story">
                <xsl:if test="$myString > 0">
                    <xsl:element name="p">
                        <xsl:attribute name="class">text</xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/>
                    </xsl:element>
                </xsl:if>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/>
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:template>
   
    <xsl:template match="br">
        <br />
    </xsl:template>
    
    
    
    
    <xsl:template name="FillerCells">
        <xsl:param name="cellCount"/>
        <td> </td>
        <xsl:if test="$cellCount > 1">
            <xsl:call-template name="FillerCells">
                <xsl:with-param name="cellCount" select="$cellCount - 1"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:if>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Message was edited by: HoneoyeFalls
Sample XML file exported from IDD
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Story><Table xmlns:aid="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/4.0/" xmlns:aid5="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/5.0/" aid:table="table" aid:trows="2" aid:tcols="2"><colHead aid:table="cell" aid:theader="" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="44">1 colHead</colHead><colHead aid:table="cell" aid:theader="" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="56">2 colHead</colHead><tabletext aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="44">1 tabletext</tabletext><tabletext aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="56">2 tabletext</tabletext><tabletext aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="44">row 2 1 tabletext</tabletext><tabletext aid:table="cell" aid:crows="1" aid:ccols="1" aid:ccolwidth="56">row 2 2 tabletext</tabletext></Table>
<table><tr><th>normal HTML table heading</th></tr>
<tr><td>normal HTML table<br/>cell text</td></tr></table></Story>

You can use RECORD type declaration:
SQL> declare
2   type rec_type is record (
3    ename emp.ename%type,
4    sal emp.sal%type
5   );
6   type rc is ref cursor return rec_type;
7   rc1 rc;
8   rec1 rec_type;
9 begin
10   open rc1 for select ename, sal from emp;
11   loop
12    fetch rc1 into rec1;
13    exit when rc1%notfound;
14    dbms_output.put_line(rec1.ename || ' ' || rec1.sal);
15   end loop;
16   close rc1;
17 end;
18 /
SMITH 800
ALLEN 1600
WARD 1250
JONES 2975
MARTIN 1250
BLAKE 2850
CLARK 2450
SCOTT 3000
KING 5000
TURNER 1500
ADAMS 1100
JAMES 950
FORD 3000
MILLER 1300or use, for example, VIEW to declare rowtype:
SQL> create view dummy_view as select ename, sal from emp;
View created.
SQL> declare
2   type rc is ref cursor return dummy_view%rowtype;
3   rc1 rc;
4   rec1 dummy_view%rowtype;
5 begin
6   open rc1 for select ename, sal from emp;
7   loop
8    fetch rc1 into rec1;
9    exit when rc1%notfound;
10    dbms_output.put_line(rec1.ename || ' ' || rec1.sal);
11   end loop;
12   close rc1;
13 end;
14 /
SMITH 800
ALLEN 1600
WARD 1250
JONES 2975
MARTIN 1250
BLAKE 2850
CLARK 2450
SCOTT 3000
KING 5000
TURNER 1500
ADAMS 1100
JAMES 950
FORD 3000
MILLER 1300 Rgds.

Can you use complex DTDs to produce XML in InDesign?

I'm working on a scientific publication with a DTD similar to that of NLM/Pubmed for upload to our own site and PubMed. We are working with an InDesign/InCopy workflow. Can InDesign handle this complicated DTD or does it only handle standard XML such as fonts, heads, paragraph tagging?

This Help topic discusses DTDs in InDesign. This site on Adobe.com also has a section on XML resources. If you're going to be working with XML in InDesign, I recommend A Designer's Guide to InDesign and XML.

Automating PDF Generation with InDesign

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?

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.)

Import XML to InDesign

New to XML in InDesign, I have a few question, so if you only can answer one or two, please do so.
1. Is there a way to get InDesign to display in the structure the content of the tag, rather than the tag name over and over again?
2. Can you make a search in the Structure, XML file in InDesign? I know once you have it on the page you can show where it is in the structure, was looking for the same function vice versa.
3. We get the data from the App developers, and the data is very messy, lots of spaces, returns etc, which seems legit for the digital version, but in InDesign we have to clean all this up, so when we reimport the data every time with updated content, we have to go through and apply all those manual changes again. What wold be the proper way to tackle this?
4. When we update the XML file later, do we have to update the whole file, or can you specify which section you want to update. Because we do a lot of Typography after inporting, i assume we have to redo this once the XML gets updated.
5. What happens with all the duplicats? Every time you copy and paste a content group, new XML entries, also when you duplicate a page.
Thanks, Dimitri

1. Turn on "Show Text Snippets" to display the beginning of text.
2. Double click an xml-element in the structure pane or right-click and "Go to item"
3. You can clean up the text in the layout with grep find-replace queries (there are scripts that allow make a series of queries in one go). And by script it's possible to clean up xml-elements themselves – e.g. remove returns from certain elements
4. As far as I know, you can only merge or append xml-file. You may want to import xml-file as external link and edit it in another app, but I think you’ll lose formatting in InDesign after updating.
5. Xml-elements are duplicated as well.

Tagging TextFrames With InDesign Server - not showign in desktop?

Hi all,
Ive come across a weird issue with marking up text frames with InDesign Server (CS3) whilst processing xml rules during an xml import.
I run the following code on desktop it works fine. When run on server, it works apart from the frames will not highlight when "Show Tagged Frames" is selected.
(code cut for brevity)..
//..open a new doc, import the xml file, process the rule set.
function AddTextFrame(element)
this.name = "AddTextFrame";
this.xpath = "//textFrame";
this.apply = function(element, myRuleProcessor)
with(element)
var frame = page.textFrames.add();
//...frame geometry code goes here...
markup(frame);
As Ive stated, the code is functionally fine on desktop and server, but the tagged frames will not highlight when the document is created on server?
Ive tried numerous work arounds (placeIntoFrame etc) but to no avail.
Any ideas, is this a known/expected behaviour?
Cheers, Scott

After much local experimentation and iteration with Adobe tech support, we have a fix for Problem nr. 1: cannot define the port that works in our environment (IDS CS4 running as a service, Windows 2008 Server).
Add this parameter to your server startup command line for each instance of InDesign Server you're running:
-ORBendPoint giop:tcp:<serverIP>:<portNumber>
where
<serverIP> is the static IP of the server that is running IDS. Note: The OmniOrb docs imply that you can use the server's domain name here, but that didn't work for us. 127.0.0.1 also did not work. The IP number does work. This might help your Problem nr. 2: wrong IP address in the application IOR if you set it to the IP you want to listen on, but we have no experience with that.
<portNumber> is the port you want IDS (via OmniOrb) to listen on. If you're running multiple instances as we are, each instance should have its own unique port number.
I completely agree that, as an enterprise product, IDS's default behavior of boldly going where no one has gone before in your port space at each restart is not the way to play nice in a firewalled, enterprise environment. This should be documented in Adobe's Introduction to InDesign Server in the command line parameter discussions, it would have saved us a lot of time

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

Can anyone that works wirth xml in InDesign help me

I am trying to create a schema to get an Excel workbook into xml so I can take that information and make a member list in inDesign CS6 so I don't have to type it by hand. This is the schema:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<element name="memberList">
    <member>
        <lastname>LastName</lastname>
        <firstname>FirstName</firstname>
        <phone>555-555-5555</phone>
        <streetaddress>streetaddress</streetaddress>
        <city>City</city>
        <state>State</state>
        <zipcode>Zip code</zipcode>
        <email>email</email>
    </member>
</element>
</schema>
When I bring the schema into Excel, everything seems to be fine except that the top of the tree is wrong in excel. memberList is nott at the top ot the tree. When I pull it over to populate the cells I get no names but when i click on the cell it highlights the proper name in the tree.
Schema
     element
          name
     member
          lastname
          firstname
          phone
          streetaddress
          city
          state
          zipcode
          email
Can anyone that works wirth xml in inDesign help me

I typically get XML from a database, or an Excel sheet without the troublesome XML mapping. Once I simply received an Access database. Access spits out XML in a mostly usable state.
I use an XML editor that converts the Excel sheet to XML, do any needed transformations, search and replaces, etc in the editor, then save it as an XML I use in ID. The editor is XML Blueprint. I often do other manipulations using UltraEdit as I have long used it for programming and am comfortable with it.
I did a test in Excel's requisite mapping and found it so cumbersome I didn't successfully get it to export in the 20 minutes it took me to try it. I suspect I could do it with more head scratching but I don't have much hair left.
But I'll give it another try later today or tonight and see if I can help in the way you want to go about it.
Take care, Mike

XML and InDesign

Hello,
I just started working with InDesign and I have some questions. Ideally I would like to use InDesign as a scriptable WYSIWYG platform that will compile and XML doc and indicate the (x, y) position of artwork and text. I make educational items that in turn go into Flash that use an XML doc. What I will have is basically 5 pieces of art (1 question and 4 responses) I have access to the art in all these formats (Quark, Ai, eps). I would like to place the artwork on my InDesign stage, move it around where I want and export that as an XML doc reflecting the position of the artwork in (x, y) coordinates. I have older XML files that I've used a horribly slow and tedious way of positioning artwork. Can I use one of these older XML files and make it a generic template for use in InDesign?
Thanks,
Nate

From what i know, there is no support of geometry information in the xml structure (wich can be handled trought the user interface).
Even the support for style attributes mapping at import is a bit underdocumented and i dont even talk about tables! It's something that could be done with the inx format wich is xml based, but it's not a trivial task.
I have a project where i had a script to read the structure and associated page item to export a XML containing the text and geometry information.... but generated xml was to be used in a flash application, not to be reloaded in Indesign...
I did a search on this a while ago: third party support for roundtripping (indesign/xml/database). What was available was not answering my needs, but it could be good for you (by exemple go see http://www.easypress.com/. Do a search (in the forum/google) as there are other technology offering!).
More long term, you can keep a eye on flash interchange format and other new technologies(http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/03/flash_moving_to.html) as it could be usefull in adressing such scenario.
Eric

End footnotes to page footnote in xml flow indesign files.

Hi,
I am working with xml files in Indesign, but I had the problem with footnote text, because I need to set the end footnotes to be the page footnote.
Is there any script to make end footnote to page footnote for XML through Indesign files.
Thanks
Hasvi

In Indesign there is no way you can directly work on the XML-IN footnote, since indesign won't support XML tags in footnote stream.
To achive that you need to have XSLT/Perl/Indesign Scripting.
This task is achievable, you can create a auto footnote for XML workflow projects.
1. Create an XSLT to transform the footnote to the respective places
2. Change all the "<" ">" to some standard names, since indesign won't accept XML tags in the footnote stream.
3. Import it in indesign and using script convert it to autofootnote.
Shaji

Validation of XML within InDesign CS5 document using schema (xsd)

Hi,
Can any one suggest me how to validate the XML within the InDesign document using xml schema (.xsd) file.
Can this validation be done within the Indesign like DTD validation.
Thanks,
Gopal

I personally don't work with XML in InDesign too much.
This link should help you :- http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WS372C59DB-BD13-4806-A399-794E754FF37Aa.html
look under About DTD file section.

Xml with Indesign

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