Affinity Publisher Data Merge Manager Bug: No Fields

[Ben Wolf]

Hi everyone, I'm using Affinity Publisher with Data Merge Manager to create playing cards from json files. This worked all really well until today, when I updated to Affinity Publisher 2.3. 
When I now update the json file I'm using, it says "0 fields, 32 records loaded". Before the update, it found 49 fields. Is this a known bug, or a regression? 

I thought it was a new json file I used, but when I switched to other projects with unchanged json files, the problem occurred, too. 

I'm using Affinity Publisher 2.3.0, on macOS 14.1.1. 

Is there a possibility to download Affinity Publisher 2.2 so that I can continue my work? Thanks in advance!

[walt.farrell]

You can switch back to 2.2, but it won't be able to Open any file you Saved with 2.3. 

You can download prior V2 releases of Publisher for macOS from https://affinity.store/update/macos/publisher/2

Have you verified that the field names in the JSON file match the field names in the Fields panel of your .afpub file?

Do you have a .afpub file and a .json file that you can share which demonstrate the problem? 

[Ben Wolf]

Hi, thanks for the links to the old files. I downloaded Publisher 2.2.1 and everything works again. I didn't touch the json files of other projects, I just pressed "update" and then all entries are gone in Data Merge Manager, so it's definitely a problem with version 2.3. Is there a logger that I can activate, or some sort of developer system to see any potential errors? 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Ben Wolf

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, Ben Wolf said:

Is there a logger that I can activate, or some sort of developer system to see any potential errors? 

Not that I know of (or, at least, not one the Serif staff have mentioned). 

When they get to this topic they will be able to provide a private upload link so they can test your file, if you can't provide it here publicly.

[DMY1000]

On 11/30/2023 at 11:23 PM, walt.farrell said:

Have you verified that the field names in the JSON file match the field names in the Fields panel of your .afpub file?

I have noticed the same bug. If I use the attached sample2.json file, I see the expected fields "Expression", "MeaningEnglish", "PartOfSpeech" with version 2.2.1, but with version 2.3, the fields show were something like "Source", "Index", "something else" (I can't remember exactly, and don't want to reinstall 2.3 just to check.)

sample2.json

[Ben Wolf]

I added a reduced affinity file and a json with only one entry. It won't of course render the linked images if you try it out, but all the text is where it is supposed to be. If you try it with Affinity Publisher 2.3, it will show 0 entries, and nothing gets rendered at all.

data_merge_example.zip

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, DMY1000 said:

I have noticed the same bug. If I use the attached sample2.json file, I see the expected fields "Expression", "MeaningEnglish", "PartOfSpeech" with version 2.2.1, but with version 2.3, the fields show were something like "Source", "Index", "something else" (I can't remember exactly, and don't want to reinstall 2.3 just to check.)

sample2.json 204 B · 2 downloads

Very strange.

The .json file:

[
	{
		"Expression":"No varmasti!",
		"MeaningEnglish":"certainly\\ndefinitely",
		"PartOfSpeech":"adverbi"
	},
	{
		"Expression":"pari kertaa vuodessa",
		"MeaningEnglish":"a couple of times a year"
	}
]

The Fields panel in 2.2.1 (Windows) using that file:

But in 2.3.0 (Beta, but probably retail .2165 works the same):

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Ben Wolf said:

I added a reduced affinity file and a json with only one entry. It won't of course render the linked images if you try it out, but all the text is where it is supposed to be. If you try it with Affinity Publisher 2.3, it will show 0 entries, and nothing gets rendered at all.

data_merge_example.zip 1.4 MB · 0 downloads

Also strange.

The .json file:

[
  {
    "artist": "Jérémie Morán",
    "artwork": "artworks/rob001.jpg",
    "card_frame": "frames/crab_character.png",
    "card_id": "1",
    "character_flavour": "Come try this exotic fruit while you enjoy the pleasure of our hot springs!",
    "character_glory": 1,
    "character_military": "2",
    "character_political": "3",
    "character_text": "<b>Reaction:</b> After this character enters play – search your dynasty deck for a character with printed cost 1 or less and put it into play. Shuffle.",
    "character_title": "Hot Springs Proprietor",
    "character_traits": "Courtier. Merchant.",
    "deck_type": "D",
    "fate_cost": "3"
  }
]

Fields panel in 2.2.1:

Fields panel in 2.3.0.2165 Beta:

[walt.farrell]

So it looks like JSON parsing is broken for Data Merge, on both Windows and macOS.

[Dan C]

Hi @Ben Wolf & @DMY1000,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & thanks for your report!

I can confirm I've been able to replicate this issue and I've logged it with our developers, to be resolved ASAP.

I hope this helps

[Ben Wolf]

Hi Dan, thanks for verifying so quickly. Very cool that you’re responding to this so fast. For now I can use 2.2.1, so all is good. ☺️

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Data Merge can no longer parse JSON files " (REF: AF-1429) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.3.1.2212".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.