How do you write a URL in a csv file so it will generate a QR code in data merge?

[susanbeegee17]

I am having an issue creating QR codes from URLs in a csv file.

In the original csv file, I added URL: to each URL, and the column name is #URL; but although I am getting the little QR code symbol in the data merge window, it will not generate a QR code when I run the merge. Each URL does work when I manually copy and paste each one into InDesign, so it's not the URLs themselves . . .

I would appreciate any advice on trouble shooting this issue. Thanks!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

There are some samples here - whole thread is worth reading: 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/vcard-qr-code-not-working-with-some-android-devi...

[susanbeegee17]

Thanks, but that did not help me . . .
InDesign is recognizing that I have QR codes in my cvs file (see the screen shot in my original post)— however, InDesign is not generating the QR codes when I run the data merge.
Just wondered if anyone else had this same issue.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you post a screenshot of your template - INDD file with all the fields and objects? And please show all edges and hidden characters. 

[susanbeegee17]

It is attached. As you can see, it is so simple— it's just a test doc. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

Note that when I test each URL outside of the data merge, whether I select Web Hyperlink or Plain Text, the QR code generates perfectly. It is only when I run the data merge that the URLs won't generate QR codes.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You're very slightly overlooking that you're creating another specific (and somewhat fussy) format of QR code. Contact or vCard codes aren't some natural or native format (leaving Plain Text or WebURL as outliers). I know 10X more about QR codes than Data Merge, but I would bet the problem has nothing to do with your data and everything to do with the data merge into that specific QR format. You need to make sure the data is compatible with vCard and importing correctly to vCard format before it will go the extra step and encode into QR format.

[susanbeegee17]

I thought vCard coding was for business cards?
I am not trying to create a business card with this file. I set up this simple test to see if I could convert a URL provided within a .cvs file into a QR code via a data merge. This would allow me to take a very large .cvs file with thousands of lines or data and create, for example, a personalized postcard with unique QR code on each card.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Okay, maybe I am misunderstanding. So the contact data is part of the merge, and the QR code data is just an additional field?

I don't know anything that would prevent DM from creating a QR code, one way or the other, with any data provided — even if the data is random machine coding or other arbitrary strings. (QR codes are absolutely nothing but an encoded text string that can be read back — they, the format itself, doesn't care what the data is.)

That said, I am not sure I've ever seen or tried a DM that brought in data fields AND a string for a QR code. Faint possibility the two modes are not simultaneously compatible, but that's just an unfounded guess.

[susanbeegee17]

Yes, the contact data is part of the merge and the URL is just an additional field in the .cvs file— a unique URL for each line of data.

Each line of data contains, for example, a name, title, address, etc. with a unique URL, so that I could use the data to generate hundreds of, for example, postcards, each with their own unique QR code taking them to a personalized landing page. I just want to know if it's possible.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, with my feeble DM skills, I just made it work without any problems — first, last, phone, URL code. Did nothing but create a simple CSV file and set up the merge.

Is the problem that your import is not reading the URL data correctly? Or at all? Or that the code does not read back correctly? Or... what?

Since your merge list looks okay (and you know how to designate a QR code field), it's got to be a data content/format issue.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, that's interesting, I just got a "flood limit" warning trying to post this reply. 😛

You haven't posted any of your actual data, so my working thought is that you have the URLs misformatted. They should have no quotes, brackets or other 'frames' around them, and no special characters. They should look exactly as if you copied them from a browser address window, with nothing added or subtracted. (Since almost any string of gibberish should encode in a QR under these circumstances, I am leaning toward some character or string that is actively blocking the data, rather than it just being 'wrong' for a URL.)