Choosing template with in a template

I need to create a brochure for a real estate company ( 8pg- 12pg & 16pgr. ) My customer would like the option to be able to choose different types of templates for each page of that particular brochure they are building. ( example on the 8pgr page one would be a full spread pic and the second page they would like the option to be able to pic from different types of templates one might a spread of two downloadable images or another might have four different images another might have six, this would need to be able to applied to all pages throughout that particular brochure. Is this even possible. Any help would be great.

If I'm reading your request correctly, I see no reason why you couldn't have several pages in your FP template with only certain pages being used per record based on a combination of field values and JavaScript code.

 

How is your client intending to "decide" which format to use on each page and how many pages per record?

Look in the FusionPro Rules Guide at the section titled, "How to switch body pages during composition," or search this forum for SetBodyPageUsage for numerous examples.

 

You can also do tricks with tables and repeatable components to change the way that things are laid out within a single text frame.

 

If you're using FusionPro Server, you can also call out a different layout (DIF file) for each record in tagged markup, and you can also use the DIF API to modify the layout programmatically.

 

In FusionPro 8, if you have an FP Direct or Server license, you can modify the positions of frames on a page via JavaScript as well.

In FusionPro 8, if you have an FP Direct or Server license, you can modify the positions of frames on a page via JavaScript as well.

Stop the presses! We will be able to adjust frame size/position based on some form of logic? Tell me more 'O Great One.

 

And while you're at it, when is this "holy grail" of variable data supposed to be available??

In FusionPro 8, if you have an FP Direct or Server license, you can modify the positions of frames on a page via JavaScript as well.

 

The very first question I had when I used FusionPro for the first time was "how do you program it to move the frame?"

 

I wonder why this feature wont be in all version of FP8, it just might be the most useful thing that could possibly be added.

Stop the presses! We will be able to adjust frame size/position based on some form of logic? Tell me more 'O Great One.

Yes, many of the JavaScript FusionProFrame properties which had formerly been read-only are now settable for users with FP Direct and Server licenses. This includes the x, y, width, height, and rotationAngle properties, which allow you to move and resize the frame on the page.

And while you're at it, when is this "holy grail" of variable data supposed to be available??

It's supposed to be available in the next couple of weeks.

I wonder why this feature wont be in all version of FP8, it just might be the most useful thing that could possibly be added.

Well, it's not my call, but allowing variable layout in FP Desktop would significantly devalue one of the key advantages of FusionPro Server, which has always offered variable layout capabilities through the DIF API, or via other programmatic modification of the DIF file. (Although even with the new 8.0 features, the DIF API will continue to offer much more granular control over the entire DIF file, including the ability to generate DIF files completely "from scratch," which is the ultimate in variable layout.)

 

The new JavaScript frame modification features features are a particularly significant value-add for FP Direct users, who now have access to variable layout capabilities without the need for FP Server.

 

Also, the new JavaScript features in FusionPro 8 will be available to all users of MarcomCentral and other web-to-print systems which utilize FP Server, and to FP Direct users, regardless of the license on the machine used to design the job in FP Desktop or Designer (as long as everyone is running 8.0 or later). So the new features will help out a lot of Desktop users who have access to such systems.

 

Finally, users of FP Desktop who don't have access to FP Direct or Server can still make use of the strategies I outlined in my earlier post to vary the positions of objects on the page, to suppress frames, and to completely swap out body pages at composition time.

Well, it's not my call, but allowing variable layout in FP Desktop would significantly devalue one of the key advantages of FusionPro Server, which has always offered variable layout capabilities through the DIF API, or via other programmatic modification of the DIF file. (Although even with the new 8.0 features, the DIF API will continue to offer much more granular control over the entire DIF file, including the ability to generate DIF files completely "from scratch," which is the ultimate in variable layout.)

Perhaps it is unfortunate that my background is in prepress rather than development so I have not known how to take advantage of APIs to "modify/generate DIF files programmatically" before now. At least now I am beginning to understand the theory behind why one might want to use this feature. Where would I find examples of how to make use of these Server APIs and how best to implement them? I feel like we we have been missing out on the "full power" of FP Server due to my ignorance.

Perhaps it is unfortunate that my background is in prepress rather than development so I have not known how to take advantage of APIs to "modify/generate DIF files programmatically" before now. At least now I am beginning to understand the theory behind why one might want to use this feature. Where would I find examples of how to make use of these Server APIs and how best to implement them? I feel like we we have been missing out on the "full power" of FP Server due to my ignorance.

No problem, not everyone is an expert in everything. And there's no single user who is taking advantage of every feature or capability in the product. Many of our users are prepress folks like you, or otherwise not developers by trade, so we do strive to make the base design tool easy to use without the need for programming.

 

That said, generally the main reason for having FP Server, even more so than its variable layout capabilities, is that it presents an API which you can use to perform batch compositions in an automated, programmatic way, such as in a web-to-print system. In other words, you (or someone acting on your behalf) must have done some kind of development to hook up Server in the first place.

 

At any rate, the DIF API is documented in the file DifControlReference.pdf, located in the Manuals folder of your main FusionPro installation location (generally "C:\Program Files\Printable\FusionPro\Manuals") if you've installed FP Server. The examples are in old-school Visual Basic, but you can easily import the OCX into a C# or VB.NET project. Also, some new features have been added since the last update to the doc, mainly to support newer features added in FusionPro (such as the corner radius for rounded corners in FusionPro 8).

 

There's also a new Web Service API for FP Server which contains methods for adding, deleting, and moving frames on a per-composition basis.