Data Merge Using Multiple Data Sources On The Same Page

[Hangman]

It would be a great addition if you could use multiple data sources within the same Data Merge Frame on the same page...

Sample Use Case

Business Cards, Lanyards, Badges etc., where you have a requirement to produce N-up on a page but personal identifying information data is kept in separate files for data security purposes.

This inevitably would require some basic relational database functionality such as a key to be available in each data source to ensure data integrity but would make for a much more efficient production workflow in instances like this.

Currently, it's not possible to produce N-up layouts using multiple data sources, meaning that multiple data sources need to be combined or referenced in a single source data for use by Publisher which isn't always convenient or even an option in high-security settings.

This may be considered too niché for Publisher but hopefully, it will be added to the pile for future consideration... thank you...

 

[Murfee]

If I remember correctly when data merge was first introduced in the betas, this functionality was in it and removed before release.

I support this request and think it would be very useful

[thomaso]

I agree. … For objections as in this previous request thread I wonder if this would be possible :

In case of differing numbers of records per source APub respects empty fields and handles them as empty entries in the generated merge until / unless all sources have an empty cell / record. This presupposes that every source is setup in a way that is aware of the total number of generated data sets and their order (position within the source). For instance:

[andriko]

I support this request. Working with more than one Database is a great help and straightforward workflow. Being interrupted to merge different databases to one workable for AP will produce redundant data and at one stage you will lose the overview of your created databases. 
 

[wonderings]

Never thought about the idea of 2 or more data files to be used at once. Sounds like a scary thing if data does not line up exactly. I have done more than my fair share of mailings with variable data and this idea seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Your data has to be meticulous and perfectly matching the other data records for this to work, and I have yet to see data come into our mailing department that did not need cleansing. 

[Hangman]

As mentioned above Publisher would need to reference a 'key' to 'align' both files in a similar fashion to a relational database for this to be effective but I suspect it's very much outside the scope of the intended use for the Date Merge feature. so I don't anticipate this ever becoming a feature of Data Merge in Publisher, nice though it would be...

[wonderings]

5 hours ago, Hangman said:

As mentioned above Publisher would need to reference a 'key' to 'align' both files in a similar fashion to a relational database for this to be effective but I suspect it's very much outside the scope of the intended use for the Date Merge feature. so I don't anticipate this ever becoming a feature of Data Merge in Publisher, nice though it would be...

It would be the data that would need to be in order to match. If the data did indeed match you could simply just copy and paste the rows you need into the data file you are using for the merge. It is hard to imagine for something like a business card merge that there would be such stringent security, especially as I am assuming you will eventually be printing a business card which by design are meant to be handed out and not treated with the greatest care.