How to create Indesign document using IDML in vb.net without using indesign application....

[Oviya___]

Hi,

      Im new to indesign IDML... I have to create indesign document without using indesign application...

      I seen the structure of idml and how the xml files are linked there(designmap.xml)....

     But dont know how to implement that without indesign application...

     If anyone known means help me....

     Thanks in advance...

[Harbs.]

What are you trying to do? If you are trying to create an IDML file

from scratch, just copy the format of an existing one. If you want to

create an indd file, that's impossible without InDesign.

Harbs

[Adobe-InDesign_CS4]

Hi Oviy,

    I read your msg,

(*) Without InDesign its possible to create the IDML

Limitation

   We Need one InDesign File [like template] for example I'm having the Template with some Text Frames [xxx.indt] and I exported as [xxx.idml].

Requirement to generate the IDML

(*) InDesign SDK

(*) Java

Hint:

   Pls check the Story_xxx.xml's and you get some Idea to generate the new IDML.

Pls. No need to change any other Folder & its xmls.

Thanks & Regards

T.R.Harihara Sudhan

[Harbs.]

You don't need either the SDK or Java to create an IDML file. An IDML

file is just a zip of the folder structure with an IDML extension.

Harbs

[subha_oviya]

Hi,

    Yes having folder contains various xml files in each folder.  If we want to add one story(textframe) means have to creat one story file (story_xxx.xml) and have to give link in designmap.xml in manually.... Each xml element having many attributes....How its all possible without idesign?

   How to implement idml file without indesign?

   Could you explain me?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

subha_oviya wrote:

   How to implement idml file without indesign?

   Could you explain me?

the easiest way for you will be to prepare example document in InDesign, export it as IDML and then open files in IDML package and check what is in each file

robin

www.adobescripts.co.uk

[Jongware]

It sounds to me as if the OP wants to bake a cake without using eggs. Oh sure, you can break open an egg and examine which proteins it contains ...

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[Jongware] wrote:

It sounds to me as if the OP wants to bake a cake without using eggs. Oh sure, you can break open an egg and examine which proteins it contains ...

for me - OP wants to bake cake - but without recipe

robin

www.adobescripts.co.uk

[iwhp]

So, can someone provide a sample of how to open an idml file, change some stuff and write it back. It seems that the .NET developers do not get the support compared to the Java developers. They at least get some tools and samples. Why does the .NET community not get this support from Adobe?

[Jongware]

Java is cross-platform, .NET is Windows only. You might as well ask why Adobe doesn't support RealBasic, because there are lots of users of that as well.

[iwhp]

THankx! Good point. But know with Silverlight we (.NET Developers) are going into cross-plattform, at least in some way. I am wundering if that could trigger a rethinking in Adobes strategy. I hope so... RealBasic? Have you used it in main-stream? Is it as good as .NET? Just wundering to what you compare .NET, since I see that .NET is more advanced than Java and has a better strategy... That is just my view....

Thankx and cheers Harry

[Olav Kvern]

Hi Harry,

.NET works fine--technically, it's better-supported than Java (though not JavaScript--not sure why anyone's talking about Java or the SDK here, unless they're doing CORBA stuff with InDesign Server). Which .NET language you use is more significant--you'll feel more pain with C# than with VB (InDesign scripting is loosly-typed by design--essentially, everything is a Variant from pre-.NET VB, so C#'s stronger typing is a problem).

As has been stated, an IDML file is a zip archive containing a bunch of XML files. It's possible to open and manipulate the content of the files--usually people do this to change text strings. But you still need InDesign (desktop or Server) to compose the files. In terms of actually doing this, you'd just need to find a way to open a Zip archive in .NET, then use whatever/whichever XML approach you prefer. I've done a fair amount of XML manipulation using pre-.NET VB, and found it very well supported.

Hope this helps?

Thanks,

Ole