XML Import Help in InDesign CS2

[LaoTsu]

I've tried for almost two hours now to get an XML list of employee names and phone numbers into InDesign CS2.

1. I create a new blank file.
2. I add two empty text boxes.
3. I load the tags from the XML file, which all look good.
4. I assign the employee and phone tags to my two empty text boxes (in the correct order).
5. I attempt to import my XML file, performing a merge (duplicating repeating text).

All I get is a long list of expandable employee tags (with name, phone, etc.) under a new dataroot in the structure view... and my two lonely placed employee and phone tags (also in the structure view) seem seperate from this imported structure.

What I want is... 400 generated pages with different employee names and phone numbers.

Questions...

Am I creating a document or a template?

Do I need to manually add 400 seperate employee pages, or will InDesign create them if I get this whole process right?

Do I add the XML tagged text boxes to a Master Page or Page 1?

So many questions... Please, someone's got to know the answer to this process.

You'll pretty much save my life if you can help me through this process.

Many many thanks,
Lao Tsu (Thomas)

 

[paulab1]

Hello. Just wondering if you ever figured out the answer to your query. We are at about the same point, trying to figure out what to do next after importing XML entries into a catalogue template in InDesign CS2. The first page populates properly, we've selected the "Clone Repeating Elements" and "Merge" options in the dialog box, and can see a list of tens (or hundreds) of XML elements in the Structure pane.

What now? Do we have to drag and drop the subsequent entries onto pages manually? According to the CS2 documentation, this should seem to happen automatically, but it doesn't, unless we are missing something.

It seems like there are several postings of this sort, but I haven't seen any postings with a clear solution.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[dsimone22]

Has anyone solved this issue or does anyone have a link they can point me to? We have the exact same challenge here...

Cheers,
D. Simone

 

[kaustav76]

has anyone solved the XML & InDesign issue .. ??? how to display, say 50 records in indesign file from a xml file.. when i'm trying its showing only the first one .. i'm also having the same prob like LaoTsu.
Please help ..

 

[LaoTsu]

I've posted this a few different places (on the adobe forum for one), and I get replies on how to do it every so often... all of which I try and try and try and ultimately fail.

I've been getting a few responses lately so I tried again for an hour tonight.

I think it has something to do with placing XML tags in a text frame or placeholder on a master page after you've loaded the tags in InDesign, then inserting blank pages based on the master (applying the master to the pages), and then importing the XML file.

It may be a mismatch between getting a 'dataroot' in the structure from importing the XML file versus a 'Root' in the structure from placing a tag. My XML file is from MS Access.

If anyone gains any insight from any of these comments, I would love to hear them.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

- Lao Tsu

 

[kaustav76]

thanks lao tsu ... even if i change the root name in my xml file still it shows only the first record. i am also making the xml file from access. i have downloaded lot of pdf files with the instructions but nothing is working as per my requirement. is it a bug of indesign ??
thanks again
kaustav.

 

[taoofbean]

I have recently tried the process of getting XML integration to work in Indesign and been successful on my end.

This tutorial was a saving grace.

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/08/04/indesign.html

We are not doing a product like yours but were posting 60+ meeting session descriptions from a SQL generated XML file into Indesign. I created 20 pages worth of blank linked text frames. I also created a sample mockup illustrating exactly how I would like to format each of the sessions. To this, I applied the exact tag structure as was found in the xml file. I then associated styles to the appropriate tags.

The next several steps were experimentation in importing the XML and discovering how picky Indesign is about the formatting of the XML. If there are carriage returns in the XML, they will be in the placed document, same with stray commmas tabs and what not. We had to ultimately customize the XML output with extra formatting tags that contained whitespace elements like tabs and carriage returns.

Good luck in your own example. I don't know how it will work since technically Indesign's XML import cannot generate new text frames.