Mail Merge in frame maker?

[prem_maker]

first of all I want to know below things

1) Is there any possibility to connect oracle database from Frame maker Tool?

2) how do i insert dynamic data into .fm file?

3) can i use fdk to connect oracle database?

4) will FDK support java language?

My Requirement:

1) have to create one static paragraph with place holder for dynamic data in frame maker (ex: your loan amount @amt is approved) here @amt is placeholder

2) get amt from database or user and modify @amt with loan amount. (ex: your loan amount 1,00,000 is approved)

3) generate pdf using java code.

Regards,

Prem

[Arnis_Gubins]

Yes you can do this dynamically either by using a database publishing tool like PatternStream ($$$) or by using FrameScript($) with a good chunk of programming. You also probably could do this with ExtendScript, but I don't know enough about what sort of ODBC there is in this new tool - it's too poorly documented. These approaches would all use a "pull" approach to dynamically pull the content into FM via SQL queries (which you'll also need to program into the application within FM).

An alternative consideration is to use a "push" approach where the publishing automation is triggereed from the database end. With this approach you can use Datazone's Miramo ($$$ - same league as PatternStream for enterprise tools) or their new Miramo Personal Edition (*freebie*) to take tagged (your own structure or XML) data into FM along with content residing in other FM files (i.e. your merge) to produce final pdfs. his tool is used by many financial and insurance institutions to create customized individual reports, statements, invoices, etc. at rates approaching a quarter-million PDF pages per hour. The Personal Edition is geared to run on the desktop using only FM (by the way the others would require you to get FM Server = $$$), but throughput is down around the range of 25-30k PDF pages/hour.

With a push approach using either of the Miramo products, you wouldn't need to do any programming on the FM end of things. You would set up the queries in Oracle and generate the reports to feed into FM via Miramo which would then process the mark-up using your business rules to create the FM and PDF files. The FM files in this case are trransient and need not even be generated.

Check out:

Patternstream: http://www.patternstream.com

Framescript: http://www.framescript.com

Miramo: http://www.miramo.com

Miramo Personal Edition (including download area): http://www.miramox.com

[prem_maker]

Thanks for your quick response Arnis Gubins .

Whatever you mentioned are licensed product. Is there any open source to achieve same kind of functionality?

[Arnis_Gubins]

Nope, no open source. TANSTAAFL

If you need to do it on the cheap, then either homebrew your code using the FDK or Extendscript, or use the freebie MPE. Otherwise the products are licensed in the enterprise tiers ($$$$$$$$$)

[prem_maker]

Thank you so much for all your guidance.

we have intention in mind to go with Miramo now.

[prem_maker]

Could you please provide me an examples to implement mail merge using frame maker and miramo personal edition?

for eg: if the user clicks on button (UI), i need to generate pdf by passing frame maker templates as input and fetching data from database and merge database data with template. I searched in search engine but i didnt get enough information to start mail merge implementaion using framemaker+miramo. I need to know the step by step process how to use framemaker and miramo to achieve mail merge. i am running out of time. i have to complete one POC in short span of time. please help me out.

[Arnis_Gubins]

See my response in your other thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4033844?tstart=0#4033844

Weren't there sample files in the MPE download?