How to create automatic catalog in InDesign with scripting in JavaScript

Question

I have a following code which works great for importing excel to InDesign and creating automatic grid catalog.

var doc = app.activeDocument;

// get a text from the XLSX file
var inputFile = File("~/Desktop/test.xlsx");
var temp_frame = doc.textFrames.add();
temp_frame.place(inputFile);
var text = temp_frame.parentStory.contents;
temp_frame.remove();

// make a table from the text
var rows = text.split('\r');
var table = [];
for (var i = 1; i < rows.length; i++) table.push(rows[i].split('\t'));

// width and height of cards, gaps, properties of the grid
var card_width = 70;
var card_height = 80;
var gap = 5;
var cols = 2;
var rows = 3;
var cards_per_page = cols * rows;

// calculate and add pages
var cards = table.length;
var pages_to_add = Math.ceil(cards / cards_per_page) - 1;
while(pages_to_add--) doc.pages.add();

var page_num = 0; // start page
var start_point = [10,10]; // start point for a first card on a page

main_loop:
for (var i = 0; i < cards; i++) {

    for (var row = 0; row < rows; row++) {

        for (var col = 0; col < cols; col++) {

            // break the loop if there is no more rows in the table
            if (table.length == 0) break main_loop;

            var table_row   = table.shift(); // take a first row from the table
            var title       = table_row[0];
            var description = table_row[1];
            var price       = table_row[2];

            // make a card
            var card = make_card(title, description, price);

            // send the card to the some page and move at some place
            card.move(doc.pages[page_num]);
            card.move(start_point);
            card.move(undefined, [(card_width + gap)*col, (card_height + gap)*row]);
        }
    }

    if (i > (page_num-1) * cards_per_page) page_num++; // increase the page number

}


// the function to create and return a card
function make_card(title, description, price) {
    var doc = app.activeDocument;

    var title_frame = doc.textFrames.add();
    title_frame.geometricBounds = [20, 80, 30, 150];
    title_frame.contents = title;

    var description_frame = doc.textFrames.add();
    description_frame.geometricBounds = [30, 80, 80, 150];
    description_frame.contents = description;

    var price_frame = doc.textFrames.add();
    price_frame.geometricBounds = [80, 80, 100, 150];
    price_frame.contents = price;

    var group = doc.groups.add([title_frame, description_frame, price_frame]);
    return group;
}

But what if I want to have for example 3 pages. Every page will have a different template Pages 1, 4, 7... will have this template Pages 2,5,8 ... and pages 3, 6, 9 ... will use grid template I didn't get how can I resolve it in javascript.

Answer 1

Here is the template IDML: https://app.box.com/s/muqvroawbwv8zydwdizfc3xsmyzmenmy

Here is the code:

var doc = app.activeDocument;

// get a text from the XLSX file
var inputFile = File("~/Desktop/test.xlsx");
var temp_frame = doc.textFrames.add();
temp_frame.place(inputFile);
var text = temp_frame.parentStory.contents;
temp_frame.remove();

// split the text by rows
var rows = text.split('\r');
rows.shift(); // remove the first row (a header of the table)

// add pages if there is more than 10 rows
var i = rows.length - 10;
while (i > 0) {
    doc.pages[0].duplicate(LocationOptions.AT_END);
    i -= 1; if (i < 0) break;
    doc.pages[1].duplicate(LocationOptions.AT_END);
    i -= 5; if (i < 0) break;
    doc.pages[2].duplicate(LocationOptions.AT_END);
    i -= 4;
}

// fill all the text frames with texts from the rows
var frames = doc.textFrames;
var i = 0;
while (rows.length > 0) {
    var row = rows.shift().split('\t');
    frames[i++].contents = row[0]; // title
    frames[i++].contents = row[1]; // text
    frames[i++].contents = row[2]; // price
}

// remove empty frames
while (frames.length > i) frames[i].remove();

The script puts text from the Excel table to the text frames of the template. If there more than 10 rows the script adds pages.

The script depends on the order of the frames in the template. It fills the frames from the frist frame[0] on the frist page to the last frame. If you change the order the texts will get in wrong places.

Here is how the first 10 rows/cards are filling: