XML - Incoming Variable Library Is Invalid

[barkerCC1]

Hello Community,

I'm trying to take an Excel File (.xlsx) saved as a XML Spreadsheet (.xml) then attempting to convert it into an XML file that Illustrator will understand and I keep getting the error message "Incoming Variable Library Is Invalid). I just cannot find an online converter to create an XML file that Illustrator will read.

Can anyone tell me how to get an XML file from an Excel file for variable data? The Excel file has columns setup for things like First_Name, Last_Name, Company, Street, etc... and I've made sure that the Variables setup in Illustrator match those headings and number limits do not apply here either because I'm only trying with a test file at this point that contains only 3 datasets.

Looked back at some very old posts from 2009 and 2011 but none of them are helping. Not sure what I'm missing.

Thanks!

[Monika Gause]

Try

http://joaofaraco.com.br/converter/

Import .csv & .txt files into Adobe Illustrator as datasets, with VariableImporter.jsx | Vasily Hall...

Adobe-Illustrator/VariableImporter.jsx at master · Silly-V/Adobe-Illustrator · GitHub

[barkerCC1]

I've been working with the first link listed for a couple hours and can't seem to get their converted text into a file that is readable by Illustrator. I will try the 2nd two links to see if I can get one of those working. Thank you.

[W_J_T]

Silly-V's variable importer is robust, let us know how it goes.

Here is another link to play with perhaps (or at least round out the thread ;-): It uses a script by JET.

http://www.monolinea.com/using-variables-illustrator/

[CarlosCanto]

2nd and 3rd links to Vasily's script require your excel file to be formatted as described, it's all well explained in those links.

all you have to do in the first link online's converter is paste your Excel data in the top box, then copy the resulting text and pasting into a text editor and save as xml.

[barkerCC1]

Still no luck getting anything to work. When I run the VariableImporter.jsx script in my Illustrator I get the following error message:

[Monika Gause]

You might need to search for further info on both elsewhere.

Or try the scripting forum:

Illustrator Scripting

There are further tutorials available on both methods and maybe also further development.

It might also make sense to contact the developers. They know best.

[Silly-V]

The issue seems how you download the script from github. You must choose the "Raw" tab to download a plain-text version of the script, and save as .jsx.

In the error line, you have this.addEventListener('change'... when it really should be this.addEventListener("change"...

So, however you downloaded or pasted the script code, it converted quotes to ' character entities, and probably caused countless other issues.

I have actually now realized it's probably going to save a lot of people issues if I simply provide the raw link itself!

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Silly-V/Adobe-Illustrator/master/Variable%20Importer/VariableImpor...

Also, refrain from simply copying and pasting the text on this page, because if you paste it into some word processor and save it, there's no telling what formatting it will put on this code text. Just Save As on the page by right-clicking it and save as a .jsx file.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I currently have 8 pages documenting Vasily’s VariableImporter script:

Prepression: Illustrator – Introducing the VariableImporter Script

[samybo]

Hello, I had the same problem and discovered it was linked to the fact I had the "&" character in my AI template. i deleted it from the xml and it worked fine...

In case this might help!

[aniansh · Accepted solution]

The problem is probably with the xml syntax. XML files cannot have special characters except _. See if there are any special characters in your file and try after deleting them.

[bahaas53368987]

You are a life savior,

I was working on some sort of an invitation and had German people with  "ö" and "ü" in their names.

I would have never figured this was the problem.

Cheers

[makemende]

Hi all,

I had a similar issue.

Turns out that I had two items in the dataset with the same name in the xml file which made the import invalid.

[fepitol]

I had the same problem and i fixed this removing duplicate data of my files csv/xml. Try to verify if you don't have duplicate data information in your files.

[jcarvallo]

Thank you! This was the problem for me. Actually special spanish characters like é or á are accepted. This solved it for me.