provide a way to run the generator from the scribus ui but without tcl/tk

[aoloe]

if i understand it correctly, it's now possible to run the scribus generator from the command line.

it would be nice if it would also be possible to run it from the UI, but without tcl/tk.

people would have the choice to run it with a nice UI or with a simpler one (but easy to use on every system).

the script could then use the current document (and require a document to be open) and deduce from there all the values needed:

• cvs input from a file with the same name but the cvs extension
• sla output with the same name with same name + "-generator" ("myfile-genrated.sla"
• pdf output with the same name but a pdf extension

the number of dialog should be reduced to a minimum (optimally none).

this could be done by adding a separate "startup" script or simply by detecting if tcl/tk is available.

i haven't had a look at the details, but if you agree on this proposal, i can try to write a patch...

[berteh]

Dear Ale, You understand correctly. I fully agree with the proposal, and would be happy to try any patch you'd be able to propose. Making this simpler UI work on MACOSX would be a huge benefit, as tcltk never worked there afaik. The few defaults (CSV file name and SLA file name) you mention are already the default ones used by the command line. You may just want to check the default output directory. Pdf output is as of now not available from command line, to prevent it depending on the scribus module... I used to recommend interested users to use your own script to turn the generated SLAs into PDFs, maybe you could incorporate the related call directly in your code, unless you see a better option. Thanks for the idea and proposal. Berteh.

[berteh]

Hello Ale,
Any time to progress on this proposal of yours ?
have a nice day.

[aoloe]

hi @berteh so, no i've not forgotten your project.

but no, i haven't had a look at how to tweak the scribus-generator to work withtout tk

... BUT... under the impulsion of https://github.com/michaelu123/adfc2 i've given a try myself and came up with a first result that runs inside of scribus without any UI:

https://github.com/aoloe/scribus-script-repository/tree/master/mail-merge

it has been heavily inspired by the scribus-generator and by michael's work.

(sadly, the patch for adding "revertToSaved" has not been accepted yet, so you need to patch scribus to run it... for now...)