Analyzing an Indesign file

Its not so much that I don't know how to get the data out of it, as much as I'm working with a fleet of designers who upload .indd files and tend to forget to include their linked content - by analyzing their uploads with your methods I'll be able to make a smooth process that'll stop files from being forgotten.

Thanks so much for the great responses!!

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/xmp/

Azadi Saryev
Sabai-dee.com
http://www.sabai-dee.com/

too lazy to download a copy of indesign and play around with it?

this is what i could locate in one .indd file i created:

<?xpacket begin="" id="W6M1MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc0d"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Adobe XMP Core 4.0-c006
1.236519, Wed Jun 14 2006 08:31:24">
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=" http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
<rdf:Description rdf:about=""
xmlns:xapMM=" http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/"
xmlns:stMfs=" http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ManifestItem#"
xmlns:stRef=" http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ResourceRef#">

<xapMM:InstanceID>99b5dd84-07a6-11dd-995d-d46ba47c85f2</xapMM:InstanceID>

<xapMM:DocumentID>adobe:docid:indd:1e560e9e-07a5-11dd-8b4e-e74ec5270167</xapMM:DocumentID>
<xapMM:RenditionClass>default</xapMM:RenditionClass>
<xapMM:Manifest>
<rdf:Bag>
<rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
<stMfs:linkForm>ReferenceStream</stMfs:linkForm>
<stMfs:reference rdf:parseType="Resource">

<stRef:lastURL>file:///D:/My%20Work/Sabai-dee.com/NGO%20Directory/PRINTED%20DIRECTORY/Scan10009.JPG</stRef:lastURL>
</stMfs:reference>
<xapMM:placedXResolution>300.00</xapMM:placedXResolution>
<xapMM:placedYResolution>300.00</xapMM:placedYResolution>

<xapMM:placedResolutionUnit>Inches</xapMM:placedResolutionUnit>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
<stMfs:linkForm>ReferenceStream</stMfs:linkForm>
<stMfs:reference rdf:parseType="Resource">

<stRef:lastURL>file:///D:/My%20Work/Sabai-dee.com/NGO%20Directory/la-map.gif</stRef:lastURL>
</stMfs:reference>
<xapMM:placedXResolution>72.00</xapMM:placedXResolution>
<xapMM:placedYResolution>72.00</xapMM:placedYResolution>

<xapMM:placedResolutionUnit>Inches</xapMM:placedResolutionUnit>
</rdf:li>
</rdf:Bag>
</xapMM:Manifest>
</rdf:Description>

several thing you can get from above:

1) it uses Adobe XMP. more info a nd lots of resources here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/

2)as you can see above, i have placed a .gif and a .jpg file into the
document.
what you can't see is that i have also place a .tif image in it. no
entry for the .tf image was created above. this makes me believe that a
lot depends on what type of file is linked into the indesign document,
and you may not be able to get all linked files from the .indd file.

download a trial copy of indesign and play with it to see what linked
content you can extract and what you can't.

hth

Azadi Saryev
Sabai-dee.com
http://www.sabai-dee.com/

Have a look on the Adobe site for details of the .indd Indesign file format. It's not widely documented; there might be some useful info in the .inx SDK documentation (the file format used by later Indesign versions to export data to be read in earlier versions.)

From a quick look in a .indd file using a text editor, it looks like the resource info is stored as XMP metadata (XML packets) within the file.

Adobe provide an XMP SDK: most of it is written in C++ but it included a limited subset of Java classes. Might be a useful starting point. CF8 contains some XMP metadata manipulation tools but they're specifically for PDF (via CFPDF's iText).

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/xmp/

Really? Nobody has any idea? Wow.