Catalog from database or XML?

[quesera]

Hi,

I want to use InDesign to create a product catalog. The catalog data is in XML.

I don't need it to be real time, but I do need the InDesign document to recognize repeating <product> XML elements.

So far, I've set up a master page with the common page elements (background, logo, etc). I've tried to import the XML file, and it worked, but only for the first <product> XML element. I would like it to put the repeating <product> XML elements on successive pages. I can specify them as <product id=1>, etc if that helps.

Is this possible in InDesign? How about XPress?

Thanks for any help. I'm willing to script it, if that's a possibility.

Q.

 

[AdobeTim]

I posted these links in another thread, but they apply to your situation as well. All these companies do catalog publishing plug-ins for InDesign. Check them out and see if there's a good fit for your situation. You can definitely script catalog construction as well. If you want to pursue that direction, I'd recommend you post questions in the InDesign Scripting forum on the Adobe web site.

http://www.woodwing.com/smartcatalog.htm

http://www.65bit.com/highleveloverview.htm

http://www.cacidi.com/

http://www.emsoftware.com/products/incatalog

http://www.sansuisoftware.com/