Microsoft Access & FrameMaker

[jthomas666]

Is there a (relatively) painless way of importing data from Microsoft Access into a Frame document. I have a series of files that need to be updated on a fairly regular basis, and it is a pain in the *&% to make the changes manually.

If I could link/import the data, it would make life much easier.

 

[kerlin]

The solution would be to write a simple FDK client to do the import. I doubt, however, you will be able to find anything off-the-shelf. If you are willing to spend some money, you will be undoubtedly able to find a programmer (myself included) willing to do the job.

 

[shaneat]

Short of writing an FDK, there is another solution offered by the MIF format: in Access, create a report which incorporates the data you need into a simple MIF file. Then, when you need to update the Frame document, write your report to a text file (ending with .mif). One problem I have encountered is that Access always seems to want to put a blank line at the start of the file, but it just takes a moment to manually delete it (since the MIF file identifier must be on the first line). MIF files can be created to function as entire documents, or just sections of documents which are imported by reference.