Quark and XML

[raeben]

Has anyone experience importing and Exporting XML from Quark on a PC?

We are facing a catalog job with a database-generated XML file for import into Quark (or InDesign). This catalog has product titles, descriptions, images, and tables with order number, miscellaneous info and price.

How would InDesign handle the table imports? The graphics?

Any info you have would be appreciated.

Rae

 

[rylo]

I have just started doing tests in both quark and indesign. I have managed to import xml into both applications. I must admit that I am not an expert with regards to xml. In Indesign you have to map style sheets to xml tags and this proved to be easy enough. With quark once you import the xml it creates placeholders, and these placeholders you can format like you would any stylesheet. Unfortunately for me my brief, is to try and create quark or indesign templates so that when xml data is imported the layout must be formatted automatically without any operator intervention. To date I don't even know if this is possible.

Good luck

 

[raeben]

Thanks for your post, Rylo.

If you find a way to import into either automatically I'd be interested in hearing about it. We will probably be using a 3rd party extension for Quark. There are 2 we are looking at.

Did you find that when you imported into Quark it just ran all the text together in a stream-- like all the "HeadA"s would print in a lump, then all the "Body" elements (or whatever elements you had defined). I understand about creating a DTD and a rule set. What I don't get is how to import the XML into Quark in a useful fashion without an extension. I don't think it can be done. Of course, with Quark you *always* need extensions to do anything, so that shouldn't come as a surprise. However, they shouldn't list it as a capability if it doesn't do more than enable an extension to work.

I also tried importing XML into In Design--but don't you have to create placeholders before you import? So you'd have to create a place holder for each element on the page? Well, what if you just want the text to flow into one frame, one element then the next, picking up the styles from the rule/match set? I got the impression each element had to be in a separate frame.

The instructions on importing XML were not clear for either Quark or Indesign. As I recall, I think Quark's had some great detail on what XML was, etc. Indesign's was more step-by-step application-wise, but neither told you how to troubleshoot and get results you could use. I got the feeling they just wanted to be able to put XML import on the product's spec sheet in order to keep up with each other. Did you find any books or online resources that helped?

R

 

[rylo]

Raeben

What versions of the software are u using? I'm using Quark 6 and Indesign CS. If you like I could email u the test data that I am using for the Quark tests, i.e. the DTD and the raw xml data. It might be possible that you are able learn something from this. Whatever I learn I will be more than glad to pass on to you.

R

 

[raeben]

I'm using Quark 6 and Indesign CS. E-mail me at rbene@eeicommunications.com That would be great