Merged final PDF file from different variable multi-page PDF Inserts

[dbentley]

Hi all.

I hope someone will be able to lead me in the right direction. I have a job that requires pulling multiple PDF files into one single final PDF file for print. Each of the possible PDF files to be pulled are different page counts for each, and all have variable text boxes to populate with one weekly data file supplied for each job - qty of records not known currently. (Multiple records, with multiple page count final PDF possibilities.)

I have setup the Insert files (separately) to pull - and all variable text boxes have been linked to the master data file's fields that will be provided to us.

How do I go about programming a master template to pull the necessary individual PDF files (in a certain order) and to populate the variable fields on each insert based on the data file dropped into the master template (with overflow pages)?

I'll also need to add blank pages, at the end, to force the final print file to be divisible by 4. 

Note: There is not one single field, within the data file, that calls up the filename for the inserts. It's based from other fields, but there is no common naming convention for these. (I'm thinking a switch type rule would need to handle this - but I could be wrong.)

Thanks so much in advance for the assistance. 

Danielle

[Dan Korn]

Your description of the job is good, but this is still a bit tough to figure out in the abstract.  Some files might be helpful to visualize what you want.

The most straightforward way to do something like this is probably just to add all the various pages from the multiple PDFs into a single master template, as Unused Body Pages, and use FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage in OnRecordStart to pull the pages you want per-record.

That said, there is a new feature as of FusionPro VDP 13.0 that lets you bring in pages from other FP templates, with their variable frames, into a job, as repeatable components.  This is done by exporting the DIF files from the "foreign" templates, then you can pass the name of each DIF file, and a page number, to the FPRepeatableComponent object, to bring in the page, with its variable frames, into the main job as an inline repeatable component, in a text frame in the master job, overflowing that text frame to Overflow pages, as in the standard multi-page PDF resource example.  I might be able to provide an example of this; I have to check whether the one that we did for another customer can be shared.

[dbentley]

Hi Dan.

Thanks for responding so quickly. 

22 hours ago, Dan Korn said:

Some files might be helpful to visualize what you want.

I'm working on trying to setup example files and will upload them as soon as I have them ready.

 

22 hours ago, Dan Korn said:

The most straightforward way to do something like this is probably just to add all the various pages from the multiple PDFs into a single master template, as Unused Body Pages, and use FusionPro.Composition.SetBodyPageUsage in OnRecordStart to pull the pages you want per-record.

Some of the inserts have quite a few pages within them, but as a last resort I had planned on trying this method. (I've used it on smaller page count jobs.)  I was hoping to maybe find a "quicker" solution for larger jobs. I'm still open to this if needed.

 

23 hours ago, Dan Korn said:

That said, there is a new feature as of FusionPro VDP 13.0 that lets you bring in pages from other FP templates, with their variable frames, into a job, as repeatable components.  This is done by exporting the DIF files from the "foreign" templates, then you can pass the name of each DIF file, and a page number, to the FPRepeatableComponent object, to bring in the page, with its variable frames, into the main job as an inline repeatable component, in a text frame in the master job, overflowing that text frame to Overflow pages, as in the standard multi-page PDF resource example.  I might be able to provide an example of this; I have to check whether the one that we did for another customer can be shared.

This sounds interesting. I'm not sure we're in a position to upgrade to FusionPro VDP 13.0 quite yet. It is entangled with a couple of other systems that we currently use. I'll check to see if the other systems are compatible with an upgrade.

I'll post test files as soon as I can. Look forward to your thoughts.

Thanks.

Danielle

[dbentley]

Hi Dan. We've had some setbacks on the design needs for this project - hence the delay in getting sample files created to upload. I've included a zip file with some generic files - and have included an instructions sheet of what is actually requested. If I were needing to go the route of having all pages saved into a master template and named for call out - there would be over 290 pages to handle individually. (For now, that is. We're not sure how big this job will be in the long run. I'd love to set it up once to handle anything thrown at it, with minimal recreation, if possible.)

Thanks as always for any guidance.

Danielle

Forum_Sample_Files.zip