Use pip
:
pip install SimpleIDML
Or:
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install
- Python 3: 3.6+
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/simpleidml-users
vagrant up
vagrant ssh
cd tests
python runtests.py
SimpleIDML is a Python library to manipulate Adobe® InDesign® IDML files. The main purpose being the ability to compose IDML files together and produce complex documents from simple pieces and to separate the data from the structure.
The philosophy behind SimpleIDML is to keep the content and structure separated and to use XML files to feed your documents by using the XML Structure in InDesign. Keeping this isolation is important to ease the debugging and to keep track of what is going on.
I urge you to take a look in the regressiontests directory for real-world examples.
SimpleIDML is used in production at Le Figaro aside in-house tools managing the content of Classifieds Ads magazines like Propriétés de France or Belles Maisons à louer. These tools produces XML files describing the page layout (which IDML templates and sub-templates to use) and the page content. The XML files feed another tool - the one using SimpleIDML - that compose the final page.
The steps of the (simplified) process of composition are:
- Get the main IDML template (the page) ;
- Ad the sub-templates (the ads) into the page template ;
- Import the content into the final IDML file ;
- Edit the file in InDesign ;
- Push the changesets back to the content management application and update the database.
There is a lot of cool features in this application. You can update a part of a page already or partially composed for example.
These applications are web-applications. The communication is done by web-services feeding a task queue (RabbitMQ/Celery).
The performances are quite good. Composing a document requires a fraction of a second.
IDML (InDesign Markup Language) files are a Zip archives (Adobe calls them packages) storing essentially XML files. Adobe made a descent job because those files can completely express the content of the native (binary) documents. This is a small revolution in the print world when it comes to automatically processing files both from templates and database (Round-trip) without using the proprietary server-edition of Publishing Software.
You can discover the structure of your IDML files:
>>> from simple_idml import idml
>>> my_idml_package = idml.IDMLPackage("/path/to/my_main_document.idml")
>>> my_idml_package.spreads
[u'Spreads/Spread_ub6.xml', u'Spreads/Spread_ubc.xml', u'Spreads/Spread_uc3.xml']
>>> my_idml_package.stories
[u'Stories/Story_u139.xml', u'Stories/Story_u11b.xml',
u'Stories/Story_u102.xml', u'Stories/Story_ue4.xml']
Some attributes are lxml.etree Elements or Documents:
>>> my_package.font_families
[<Element FontFamily at 0x1010048c0>,
<Element FontFamily at 0x101004a50>,
<Element FontFamily at 0x101004aa0>,
<Element FontFamily at 0x101004af0>]
>>> [e.get("Name") for e in my_package.font_families]
['Minion Pro', 'Myriad Pro', 'Kozuka Mincho Pro', 'Vollkorn']
>>> my_package.xml_structure
<Element Root at 0x101004910>
>>> from lxml import etree
>>> # print my_package.xml_structure_pretty() is a shortcut for:
>>> print etree.tostring(my_package.xml_structure, pretty_print=True)
<Root Self="di2">
<article XMLContent="u102" Self="di2i3">
<Story XMLContent="ue4" Self="di2i3i1">
<title Self="di2i3i1i1"/>
<subtitle Self="di2i3i1i2"/>
</Story>
<content XMLContent="u11b" Self="di2i3i2"/>
<illustration XMLContent="u135" Self="di2i3i3"/>
<description XMLContent="u139" Self="di2i3i4"/>
</article>
<article XMLContent="udb" Self="di2i4"/>
<article XMLContent="udd" Self="di2i5"/>
<advertise XMLContent="udf" Self="di2i6"/>
</Root>
xml_structure
attribute is a representation of the XML Structure of your InDesign XML-ready document (The one you want to use to populate the content with data from an external XML file having the same structure).
There is a convenient script to create an IDML package from a flat directory called simpleidml_create_package_from_dir.py which should be in your PATH.
Important: You should always use a with
context when using side-effect methods on IDMLPackage
instances returning new instances.
For example, the following is bad because my_doc
initial instance reference is lost and the associated file cannot be properly closed. This may raise an exception on Windows platform if you try to os.unlink()
an unclosed file.
from simple_idml import idml
my_doc = idml.IDMLPackage("/path/to/my_main_document.idml")
my_doc = my_doc.prefix("main")
Instead, use:
from simple_idml import idml
my_doc = idml.IDMLPackage("/path/to/my_main_document.idml")
with my_doc.prefix("main") as f:
# some code.
Using the XML Structure, SimpleIDML can insert the content of an XML tag from one document into an XML tag of another document. The tag paths are expressed using XPath syntax. Note that you should always make a copy of your idml files before altering them with shutil.copy2(src, dst)
for instance and prefix your document before using insert_idml()
to avoid reference collisions.
>>> from simple_idml import idml
>>> idml_main = idml.IDMLPackage("/path/to/my_main_document.idml")
>>> idml_module = idml.IDMLPackage("/path/to/my_small_document.idml")
>>> with idml_main.prefix("main") as p_idml_main, \
>>> idml_module.prefix("article") as p_idml_article:
>>> with p_idml_main.insert_idml(p_idml_article, at="/Root/article[3]",
only="/Root/module[1]") as f:
>>> f.stories
['Stories/Story_article1u188.xml', 'Stories/Story_article1u19f.xml',
'Stories/Story_article1u1db.xml', 'Stories/Story_mainu102.xml',
'Stories/Story_mainu11b.xml', 'Stories/Story_mainu139.xml',
'Stories/Story_mainue4.xml']
>>> print f.xml_structure_pretty()
<Root Self="maindi2">
<article XMLContent="mainu102" Self="maindi2i3">
<Story XMLContent="mainue4" Self="maindi2i3i1">
<title Self="maindi2i3i1i1"/>
<subtitle Self="maindi2i3i1i2"/>
</Story>
<content XMLContent="mainu11b" Self="maindi2i3i2"/>
<illustration XMLContent="mainu135" Self="maindi2i3i3"/>
<description XMLContent="mainu139" Self="maindi2i3i4"/>
</article>
<article XMLContent="mainudb" Self="maindi2i4"/>
<article Self="maindi2i5">
<module XMLContent="article1u1db" Self="article1di3i12">
<main_picture XMLContent="article1u182" Self="article1di3i12i1"/>
<headline XMLContent="article1u188" Self="article1di3i12i2"/>
<Story XMLContent="article1u19f" Self="article1di3i12i3">
<article Self="article1di3i12i3i2"/>
<informations Self="article1di3i12i3i1"/>
</Story>
</module>
</article>
<advertise XMLContent="mainudf" Self="maindi2i6"/>
</Root>
You may need to gather pages from severals documents into a single one:
>>> edito_idml_file = IDMLPackage("magazineA-edito.idml")
>>> courrier_idml_file = IDMLPackage("magazineA-courrier-des-lecteurs.idml")
>>> # Always start by prefixing packages to avoid collision.
>>> with edito_idml_file.prefix("edito") as p_edito,\
>>> courrier_idml_file.prefix("courrier") as p_courrier:
>>> len(edito_idml_file.pages)
2
>>> new_idml = p_edito.add_page_from_idml(p_courrier,
... page_number=1,
... at="/Root",
... only="/Root/page[1]")
>>> len(new_idml.pages)
3
# The XML Structure has integrated the new file.
>>> print etree.tostring(new_idml.xml_structure, pretty_print=True)
<Root Self="editodi2">
<page Self="editodi2ib">
<article Self="editodi2ibif">
<Story XMLContent="editoue4" Self="editodi2ibifi1f">
<title Self="editodi2ibifi1fi1"/>
<subtitle Self="editodi2ibifi1fi2"/>
</Story>
<content XMLContent="editou11b" Self="editodi2ibifi1e"/>
</article>
</page>
<page Self="editodi2i10">
<advertise XMLContent="editou1de" Self="editodi2i10i23"/>
</page>
<page Self="courrierdi2ib">
<title XMLContent="courrieru1b2" Self="courrierdi2ibi34"/>
<article XMLContent="courrieru1c9" Self="courrierdi2ibi33"/>
<article XMLContent="courrieru1e0" Self="courrierdi2ibi32"/>
<article XMLContent="courrieru1fb" Self="courrierdi2ibi31"/>
<article XMLContent="courrieru212" Self="courrierdi2ibi30"/>
</page>
</Root>
There is a convenient method to add several pages at once:
>>> edito_idml_file = IDMLPackage("magazineA-edito.idml")
>>> courrier_idml_file = IDMLPackage("magazineA-courrier-des-lecteurs.idml")
>>> bloc_notes_idml_file = IDMLPackage("magazineA-bloc-notes.idml")
>>> with edito_idml_file.prefix("edito") as p_edito,\
>>> courrier_idml_file.prefix("courrier") as p_courrier,\
>>> bloc_notes_idml_file.prefix("blocnotes") as p_bloc_notes:
>>> packages_to_add = [
... (p_courrier, 1, "/Root", "/Root/page[1]"),
... (p_bloc_notes, 1, "/Root", "/Root/page[1]"),
... ]
>>> new_idml = p_edito.add_pages_from_idml(packages_to_add)
>>> len(new_idml.pages)
4
>>> new_idml.spreads
['Spreads/Spread_editoub6.xml',
'Spreads/Spread_editoubc.xml',
'Spreads/Spread_editoubd.xml']
Exporting as XML:
>>> idml_file = IDMLPackage("path/to/file.idml")
>>> print idml_file.export_xml()
<Root>
<module>
<main_picture/>
<headline>Hello world!</headline>
<Story>
<article>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ...</article>
<informations>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,</informations>
</Story>
</module>
</Root>
You can also import XML files into your InDesign® documents. The following rules applies:
- A node having the attribute
simpleidml-setcontent="false"
will not update the content of the corresponding element into the idml document (but its children will be updated). - A node having the attribute
simpleidml-ignorecontent="true"
will not update the content of the corresponding element into the idml document and its children. - A node having the attribute
simpleidml-setcontent="delete"
will remove the corresponding element into the idml document (Story and Spread elements). - A node having the attribute
simpleidml-setcontent="remove-previous-br"
will remove the new-line characters before the element. - You can mix several flags using a comma (i.e.:
simpleidml-setcontent="delete,remove-previous-br"
) - In a ignorecontent context the content of a child node can be turned on with the
simpleidml-forcecontent="true"
flag. - Image references are passed by the href attribute. An empty value will remove the corresponding page items into the document.
- A nested tag will be created if mapped with a character-style.
- The style applied to the newly created tag is a combination of the parent character-style and the mapped one.
Please take a look into the tests for in-depth examples.
A block can be used as a placeholder for a PDF file:
>>> with IDMLPackage("my_package.idml") as idml_file:
>>> with idml_file.import_pdf("file:/path/to/file.pdf", at="/Root/modules/module[2]", crop="PDFCrop") as f:
>>> f.export_xml()
The crop
parameter should be one of the PDFCrop_EnumValue
from the IDML Specification ("CropArt"
, "CropPDF"
, "CropTrim"
, "CropBleed"
, "CropMedia"
, "CropContentVisibleLayers"
, "CropContentAllLayers"
, "CropContent"
). It defaults to CropContentVisibleLayers
Use InDesign server SOAP interface to convert a file ---------------------------------------------------- This require an *InDesign Server* and a readable/writable working directory. The same directory must be accessible by the client either by the filesystem or over FTP. The
formatsparameter is a list (of dicts) of formats and parameters you want your file to be exported into. The supported output formats are
jpeg,
idml,
pdf,
inddand
zip(a zipped InDesign Package). Export parameters are provided using the
paramskey. Use
simpleidml_indesign_save_as.py --helpfor a list of supported parameters. The response is a list of binary strings matching
formatsprovided: .. code-block:: python from simple_idml.indesign import indesign response = indesign.save_as("/path_to_file.idml", [{"fmt": "indd"}], "http://url-to-indesign-server:port", "/path/to/client/workdir", "/path/to/indesign-server/workdir")[0] with open("my_file.indd", "wb+") as f: f.write(response) response = indesign.save_as("/path_to_file.indd", [{"fmt": "idml"}], "http://url-to-indesign-server:port", "/path/to/client/workdir", "/path/to/indesign-server/workdir")[0] with open("my_file.idml", "wb+") as f: f.write(response) response = indesign.save_as("/path_to_file.indd", [{ "fmt": "pdf", "params": {"colorSpace": "CMYK"}, }], "http://url-to-indesign-server:port", "/path/to/client/workdir", "/path/to/indesign-server/workdir")[0] with open("my_file.pdf", "wb+") as f: f.write(response) pdf_response, jpeg_response, zip_response = indesign.save_as( "/path_to_file.indd", [{"fmt": "pdf"}, {"fmt": "jpeg"}, {"fmt": "zip"}], "http://url-to-indesign-server:port", "/path/to/client/workdir", "/path/to/indesign-server/workdir") To convert an InDesign Package, use
indesign.export_package_as()instead. If the InDesign Server instance is running on a Windows machine, set the
indesign_server_path_styleparameter to
"windows". If the client accesses the working directory *via* FTP, you must specify that in the
ftp_paramsparameter: .. code-block:: python { 'auth': ("ftp://ftp.foo.org", "user_account", "s3cret-pa55word"), 'passive': False, 'keepalive': True, # False by default (optional) 'keepalive_interval': 30, # set socket.TCP_KEEPINTVL (optional) 'keepalive_idle': 45, # set socket.TCP_KEEPIDLE (optional) 'polite': False, # Unilaterally close ftp connection (optional) } A script (
simpleidml_indesign_save_as.py) that wraps these functions is installed in your PATH. Revisions ========= 1.1.8 ----- - Bugfix (issue #73). 1.1.7 ----- - Manage border color in styles when composing documents. 1.1.5 ----- - Add a
page_numberparameter to
IDMLPackage.import_pdf()so that you can choose which page from the PDF file to display. 1.1.4 ----- - PyLint refactorisation. 1.1.3 ----- - Catch and log exceptions to the InDesign Server when setting options in export.jsx. Thanks to @kylehodgson for the contribution. 1.1.2 ----- New features '''''''''''' - Add
indesign.export_package_as()to convert an InDesign Package. 1.1.1 ----- New features '''''''''''' - Add the possiblity to remove new-line characters when importing XML by using the flag
simpleidml-setcontent="remove-previous-br". 1.1.0 ----- Removed Python 2 support. New features '''''''''''' - Add the possiblity to remove elements when importing XML by using the flag
simpleidml-setcontent="delete". - The
PDFCropattribute is now parametrable when using
import_pdf(). -
IDMLPackage.add_note(note, author, at=path)added. 1.0.5 ----- Bug fixes ''''''''' - Fixed
indesign.save_as()in Python 3 where the jsx file was opened in text mode instead of binary. 1.0.3 ----- - Use setuptools instead of distutils for a better integration with Pypi. 1.0.0 ----- New features '''''''''''' - Added support for Python 3 Backward incompatibilities '''''''''''''''''''''''''' - Removed support for Python 2.6 0.92.9 ------ New features '''''''''''' - Added
simpleidml_indesign_profiles.pyscript to list the available joboptions files on the InDesign Server using the SOAP interface. Bug fixes ''''''''' - Fix working directory cleaning of the SOAP server when an exception is raised.
indesign.save_as()may be backward incompatible since the returned list may contains some
None(instead of raising an exception before returning anything). - Give the list of available profiles (joboptions files) on the InDesign Server if the given 'pdfExportPresetName' is not found. Backward incompatibilities '''''''''''''''''''''''''' -
indesign.close_all_documents()has been replace the
CloseAllDocumentsclass and its
.execute()method. - Some util functions that wrap the basic file manipulations to manage the case of a ftp access to those files have been moved from indesign.py to a new ftp.py module. 0.92.8 ------ New features '''''''''''' - Added
IDMLPackage.import_pdf()method. Bug fixes ''''''''' - Fix
bleedMarksin export.jsx. 0.92.7 ------ Bug fixes ''''''''' - FillTint wasn't managed. - Force
lxml < 4in dependencies. 0.92.6 ------ Bug fixes ''''''''' - Catch errors when InDesign SOAP server fails to complete a task and raise an exception. 0.92.5 ------ Bug fixes ''''''''' - Handle <PDF> in `IDMLPackage._get_item_translation_for_insert()` 0.92.4 ------ Bug fixes ''''''''' - Fix issue #11: Parent CharacterStyle not applied in import_xml() in some cases. 0.92.2 ------ New features '''''''''''' - More ftp parameters for `indesign.save_as()` function. Hardcoded socket parameters are now modifiable. And you can set the flag `polite` to `False` if you encounter hanging problem on `ftp.quit()` as I do. Being unpolite calls an unilateral and rude `ftp.close()`. Please upgrade your code with explicite values if you rely on the previous default behavior. 0.92.1 ------ Bug fixes ''''''''' -
indesign.save_as()uses a dedicated temporary working directory to avoid concurrent access on files. - Added a logger to
indesign.save_as()('simpleidml.indesign') and some debug messages. - Fixed hanging
ftp.retrbinary()in
indesign.save_as()calls by tuning the socket. 0.91.8 ------ New features '''''''''''' - Added support for PDF export presets in
indesign.save_as(). 0.91.7 ------ New features '''''''''''' - Added
IMDLPackage.merge_layers(with_name)(Refs#7). - Added a new script
simpleidml_indesign_close_all_documents.py. Bug fixes ''''''''' - In
IDMLPackage.insert_idml(), Elements from the same layer (but not tagged in the structure) are now added in the Spread of the document of destination. - Better support for Windows platform. - Fixed character style mapping with tag when using insert_idml. - Fixed Export XML in some edge case. - Added parameters to
simpleidml_indesign_save_aswhen exporting to PDF. Backward incompatibilities '''''''''''''''''''''''''' -
indesign.save_as()formats parameters is now a list of dictionaries. 0.91.6 ------ New features '''''''''''' - Add the
simpleidml-ignorecontentand
simpleidml-forcecontenttags (XML attributes) allowing one to carefully exclude a node and its children during the import XML process. -
indesign.save_as()now works with a client working directory over a FTP. This require
wgetto be on your system if you want to create zip packages. Backward incompatibilities '''''''''''''''''''''''''' -
indesign.save_as()require both a client workdir and a server workdir parameter. 0.91.5.5 -------- Bugfixes '''''''' - <EPS> elements in Spread weren't handled correctly. - All spread elements were added in the destination package when using
insert_idml()``.
Add a SOAP client to call a InDesign server to get INDD file and export in various formats.
- Ticket #20 - Suffix layers.
- Ticket #22 - IDMLPackage.import_xml() parameter is a XML string and not a file object.
Tickets #19, #21 (orphan layers), #23 (AssertXMLEqual), #24 (import_xml() failure).