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Well, first, what are you trying to accomplish? Editing the DIF file won't do you any good unless you're using FusionPro VDP Producer API (FP Server), which allows you to specify the DIF file as a parameter. In a FusionPro VDP Creator (Desktop) workflow, there's no way to "inject" the DIF file information into the composition; it uses the information stored in the template PDF file.

 

You might be able to modify the DIF file if you're uploading the composition to a web-to-print system such as MarcomCentral which uses FusionPro VDP Producer API. But I don't really recommend doing that, as it's easy to break things.

 

If you really do want to modify the DIF file, you can always just edit it manually, if you know what you're doing, but I don't recommend that either.

 

For Producer API customers, we supply a DIF Control which has an API for modifying DIF files. This is documented in the DifControlReference.pdf manual that's installed with Producer API.

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Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. We do not have Producer API or the MarcomCentral. I kind of figured that I couldn't since the dif file is generated after composition. I have a lot a text boxes that I have to edit one by one. So I was just looking for a faster way to do this and thought editing the dif file would be faster. Thanks again!

 

PS - do you personally offer any advanced training for VDP Creator, since you seem to be the best out there? Or do you recommend a javascript course I could take because some of the scripts I've seen you post are crazy?

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Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. We do not have Producer API or the MarcomCentral. I kind of figured that I couldn't since the dif file is generated after composition. I have a lot a text boxes that I have to edit one by one. So I was just looking for a faster way to do this and thought editing the dif file would be faster. Thanks again!

When I hear about a repetitive task being done manually, I automatically think that there must be a way to automate it. That's what computers are for, after all.

 

Or, I think that maybe there's a better approach that can do away with the repetitive task altogether. I'd need to know more about specifically what you're trying to do to offer a specific recommendation, but you might be able to use something like a repeatable component (Template Page), which you could call out in multiple places, and you would only need to change the Template Page itself in order to propagate the change throughout the output. Or, maybe you can use a table. Or maybe you can name your frames and call FindTextFrame in a loop in OnRecordStart, and set frame properties there. Or maybe you can use variable injection with calls to FusionPro.Composition.AddVariable.

 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a solution that can free you from having to edit all of those frames manually. That's why I asked what you were trying to accomplish. Yes, you're editing frames, but what specifically are you doing to them?

PS - do you personally offer any advanced training for VDP Creator, since you seem to be the best out there?

Thanks. No, I don't personally offer training. I wouldn't have time anyway; I'm busy working on coding the program itself.

 

PTI does offer training, however:

http://www.pti.com/proservices/training/

Or do you recommend a javascript course I could take because some of the scripts I've seen you post are crazy?

There are a ton of JavaScript resources out there, but most of the online information is focused on client-side web scripting, which is by far the most common use of JavaScript, but unfortunately most of that isn't applicable to FusionPro. That said, it couldn't hurt to look at these:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/learn/javascript

http://www.w3schools.com/js/

 

If you learn JavaScript well enough, and a little bit of HTML and CSS, you can probably have a good career as a web developer.

 

At the end of the day, though, there's no substitute for experience. So the only real way to become an expert like me is to spend 15 years working on the source code for the application. :eek:

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