[Scribus] Can Scribus?

[Calum Polwart]

On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 21:49 +0000, Bernard G Hill wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-11-15 at 02:48 -0800, andre at pixelplexus.co.za wrote:
> > Hello
> > 
> > I hope someone can tell me weather or not Scribus would be appropriate for
> > the following project.
> > 
> > My client generates labels that go onto shelves, based on data they
> > receive in spreadsheet format. Of course the designer has created
> > templates in Photoshop or Corel Draw, copies and pastes the info in,
> > massages the lay-out and and saves print ready 8-up files. This takes
> > around 5 mins per label x a couple of houndred every month.
> > 
> > I would like to automate most of this process (will have to be on Windows
> > platform).
> > 
> > I?ve considered using Flash, and a print to file driver (and/or a
> > swf2exe), but flash only supports RGB colour space as far as I can tell, I
> > need to work in CMYK. I?ve started looking at the option of scripting it
> > in Corel Draw?s VBA, but VBA still looks a bit greek to me, and if I?m
> > going to learn something new I?d rather it not be a dead-end MS technology
> > :-)
> > 
> > Esentailly I need to import & parse text and based on values of specific
> > fields auto-format graphic elements (possibly also import certain graphic
> > ellements) ? preferably have the user double check layout - and export
> > something print ready.
> > 
> > Could I do this with Scribus? (my Coding background is thin, mostly some
> > PHP hacking and Actionscript)
> > 
> > Any advice/pointers much appreciated!
> > 
People have offered alternatives which may be far better but perhaps
someone can say why the following doesn't make sense:

Create the label 8 to a sheet (or whatever) and place the 'FIELDS' to be
imported as text lines perhaps something like {{{FIELD1}}} - the
{{{ will make it easier to find.

Open the SLA in a text editor and then Build the file using some PHP -
very roughly something like this (pseudo code):

open_file (database.xls)
//do whatever you do with that file to get the fields ready and into 8
strings called $field1 to $field8

output$ = "...the SLA file until the first {{{FIELD1}}}"
output$ = output$ + $field1
output$ = $output$ + "...Next bit of the SLA file until the next
{{{FIELD}}}" etc...

then...
write_file ($output, output.sla)

I guess the graphics are more trick but if you can pick up the
enabled(?visible?printing) flag then you can query the database and
decide if its enabled or not.

Plus the file would need to be saved into the same path as the original
SLA to get the fonts and graphics to work (I think).

If the SLA changes each time that will be tricky if its just the data
then that doesn't sound TOO hard.  (Or wait for mail merge in 1.3.9)

Calum
> > Thanx
> > 
> > Andr? SC
> > pixelplexus.co.za
> > 
> Have a look at DataPower2
> 
> Berni
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