Quark export to database?
Brock Gunter-Smith
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
-> Brock
---------------------------------------------
Brock Gunter-Smith
New Media Development, GB Graphics Ltd.
250 Saulteaux Crescent
Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J 3T2
http://www.gbgraphics.com/
Ph: (204) 885-7733 | Fx: (204) 888-6066
--------------------------------------------
Alfred Anheier
here are two scenarios:
The easy way: Quark text box contains most data fields separated by tab spaces, all text boxes are linked so when you select text for export you'll get the whole text. You save this as ascii text, then pull it into a text editor like BBEdit to add column headings, or into Excel or MS Access.
The hard way: Quark text isn't structured, data items in individual textboxes, text boxes aren't linked, no tab or comma delimiters. You can still export the text (but what a PITA), but you'll have to put a structure into it in a texteditor beofre you can import it into a database.
Other things to investigate: export the Quark pages as PDFs, then use a tool like Jade to extract the text. And while I haven't played around with the HTML export xtension in XP 4.1 yet, but presumably one could take that and turn it into an XML based structure (well, on second thought, maybe not) Also, there are various variable data engines out there that put data into Quark, but I don't know of any that go both ways, back into the database.
well, there goes my two bytes worth..
alfred
Louis Lingg
figure out a PERL-based solution in about an hour.
I'm not joking about this, unlike most of my posts. I've been working
on ways to work with quark files in PERL. Not much luck with it, but
extraction of text into a flat text file is a breeze. Now if I could
just get my hands on the qxp encryption key: then we'd really have
something.
unfortunately, they want you to give them 500 bucks to be part of their
"development team". no joke, i asked them. then, you have to sign away
all sorts of rights and guarantee that any keys that might be given to
you will not be made public. i honestly can't think of a way to make a
key private in PERL. oh well.
but, if all you want is a way to snag all of the text out of a qxp file,
drop me a line and i'll write you something.
that's lli...@hotmail.com in case this damned newsreader tries to screw
up my header again.
-louis
> Does anyone know of a solution that will allow us to export text data
> from
> Quark in such a manner that it would be relatively easy to import into a
> database? We've got several catalogs that are having all of the data
> transferred into a database by re-typing everything (because the snippets
> are pretty small and copying and pasting actually seems to take more
> time).
> I've heard mention of some AppleScripts that might facilitate something
> like
> this, but can't find anything.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> -> Brock
> ---------------------------------------------
> Brock Gunter-Smith
> New Media Development, GB Graphics Ltd.
> 250 Saulteaux Crescent
> Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J 3T2
> http://www.gbgraphics.com/
> Ph: (204) 885-7733 | Fx: (204) 888-6066
> --------------------------------------------
>
--
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Paul Durrant
Louis Lingg <lli...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Now if I could
>just get my hands on the qxp encryption key: then we'd really have
>something.
I'm puzzled. QuarkXPress files aren't encrypted. They are structured, but
that's not the same thing. BTW, the structure isn't available even to
registered XTensions developers.
Paul
Louis Lingg
i don't mean to sound like an a-hole, here, but, obviously, that
structure is available to developers, otherwise, how the hell would
anyone be able to, well, develop? someone tried to sell us a
non-scripted tool for database to quark page conversion. it builds
quark pages directly from a database, without opening quark, so it can't
be some sort of applescript shenanigan. there is a magazine in
indianapolis that relies on this very heavily: they put out a 400 page
magazine every two weeks with it. obviously, the person who wrote this
software knows the file format for a qxp doc.
anyway,
use a program like dataviz or disk editor to check out a quark file in
that lovely binary/hex/ascii format, then, tell me these files don't
contain encryption. make a blank document, a document with one text box
throw some text into it, a document with two text boxes, a blank doc
with one image, etc. the inability to find a concrete pattern in the
non-text data is a sure sign of encryption.
my belief is that the quark file format is a simple proprietary markup
language, probably more like html than like postscript. but, that
format is very strongly protected, and i'd bet five bucks that the
protection is from some weak, fast encryption scheme.
anyway, just for fun i wrote a perl script last night that will tear all
the regular ascii data from a quark file. unfortunately, it takes with
it all of the accidental characters that might be contained in an
encrypted region of the document.
if you'd like, i'll send you a text copy of some of its output: see if
it would be of any help to you.
-louis
--
Michel Lemieux
near a Quark developer. All the tags Quark uses are explained at the end of the User Manual - most users leave it
shrink wrapped ;-).
Tell you what, if ALL of your text entries uses Styles (paragraphs or characters) you can "easily" created a tab
delimited text file from that document. As it was mentioned earlier, if all your text is linked, the task will be
easier, if not, applescript or pearl can help you extract everything.
Mikey
Louis Lingg wrote:
--
Michel Lemieux
mlemieux_at_educalivres_dot_com
Paul Durrant
Louis Lingg <lli...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> In article <llingg-F24148....@news.linkline.com>,
>> Louis Lingg <lli...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Now if I could
>> >just get my hands on the qxp encryption key: then we'd really have
>> >something.
>>
>> I'm puzzled. QuarkXPress files aren't encrypted. They are structured, but
>> that's not the same thing. BTW, the structure isn't available even to
>> registered XTensions developers.
>
>my understanding is that they're both.
>i don't mean to sound like an a-hole, here, but, obviously, that
>structure is available to developers, otherwise, how the hell would
>anyone be able to, well, develop?
The structure is not provided to developers. An API to manipulate documents
is. I've been a registered XTensions developer writing XTensions for 10+
years. I know what I'm talking about here.
Anyone writing QuarkXPress documents without running QuarkXPress must have
reverse-engineered the document structure. The QuarkXPress document
structure is not provided to anyone.
Have you taken a look at an MS Word document recently? That's also a
complex binary document structure, although if you ask Microsoft nicely
enough they will provide you with documentation for it.
Paul Durrant
http://www.durrant.co.uk/
Louis Lingg
i bow to your superior knowledge.
anyway, do you know of any (i hate to say tags) tags that indicate
beginning and end of a text area? this would really be all i need to do
what i want to do.
i imagine, though, that if you did know, you couldn't tell me.
by the way, have you written anything i've seen? i'm always interested
in that kind of stuff.
-louis
> The structure is not provided to developers. An API to manipulate
> documents
> is. I've been a registered XTensions developer writing XTensions for 10+
> years. I know what I'm talking about here.
>
> Anyone writing QuarkXPress documents without running QuarkXPress must
> have
> reverse-engineered the document structure. The QuarkXPress document
> structure is not provided to anyone.
>
> Have you taken a look at an MS Word document recently? That's also a
> complex binary document structure, although if you ask Microsoft nicely
> enough they will provide you with documentation for it.
>
> Paul Durrant
> http://www.durrant.co.uk/
>
>
--
Paul Durrant
Louis Lingg <lli...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>forgive me for my insolence.
No, I should apologise for being a bit tetchy. i hadn't given any
indication (other than being right :-) ) that I had good reasons for what I
said.
>anyway, do you know of any (i hate to say tags) tags that indicate
>beginning and end of a text area? this would really be all i need to do
>what i want to do.
>
>i imagine, though, that if you did know, you couldn't tell me.
If I did know of any such markers I wouldn't be able to tell you what they
were, but as it happens, to the best of my knowledge, there's no simple
marker in a QuarkXPress file that indicates what's text and what's not, so
my NDA doesn't really apply as far as I can see.
>by the way, have you written anything i've seen? i'm always interested
>in that kind of stuff.
There are a few freebies on my web site - PageShadow, Text Insets,
Step&Repeat Default, Sort Text, and some others. Most of my stuff has been
custom work for publishers (newspapers, magazines, books) so you probably
won't have come across it directly.
regards,
Paul
--
http://www.durrant.co.uk/
Custom XTensions for QuarkXPress since 1991.