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Greetings,

Newb to affinity, so please bear with me...

I rtfmed the data merge help page, watched "Affinity Publisher DATA MERGE Explained / Setup / Generate / Basic Format Tutorial" youtube video posted 1 year ago and still am having problems with merging data.

Below is a screenshot of my work-in-progress:
image.thumb.png.7ddf6d949a67b0b2bc927a81e797c758.png

 

the csv file was accepted and shows the source's field names. But even when my cursor is in the appropriate layer's textbox, double-clicking the appropriate field does not enter it.

? Is there a way to manually insert a field into a textbox?  e.g. typing "<card title>" and executing a hard return? (that didn't work, though)

 

Kindly,
Randall

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13 hours ago, rschweik said:

the csv file was accepted and shows the source's field names. But even when my cursor is in the appropriate layer's textbox, double-clicking the appropriate field does not enter it.

Hi @rschweik and welcome to the forums,

What you are doing should work...

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I'm really hoping it's a board game rather than a bored game... :)

Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5
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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes, it is a track-based travel-themed Board Game based on an older game and a hike I took.

 

? Is there a problem with Data Merge in this current update?
I load a data merge file i've been using frequently without saving minor edits since 14 June and now i get a frozen merge. I either have to use task mngr to close app or use alt+f4 to get rid of the one frozen "bar" screen to then exit app, but either way, Data Merge won't work even without a hard reboot of app/pc.


Here is a short video to show what is going on. sorry for the static; after years of using kdenlive, i still can't figure out how to get rid of that irritating noise.

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Hi @rschweik,

I'm wondering whether the issue is simply the size of your data file. You have 1,048, 575 records with 9 records per page which means Publisher would need to generate 116,509 pages...

I've just created a new blank Publisher document with 116,509 pages and it took 7 mins 25 secs and that's without any Data Merge so it could just be that you need to give it sufficient time to generate the merged file...

I'm unsure what sort of overhead a Data Merge adds to the page creation process but I can imagine it will increase the time over straight page creation.

If you're happy to share your source data file we can run some tests...

Just to clarify, does your data file genuinely have 1,048, 575 records?

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Hi @anto,

Do you see the same flashing on Mac when running the Data Merge?

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Just now, anto said:

I haven't tested this file on Mac with version 2.5.3.

Is it a file you can share so we can test it as well?

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Just now, anto said:

No.

Is it a file you can share with the moderation team if they provide you with a private Dropbox link so they can take a look?

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10 minutes ago, anto said:

I think and experience shows that this will not help. Because after a dozen attempts, I finally merged the data. And now it seems to be working.

I don't believe the issue you're seeing in your screen recording is in any way related to the issue in @rschweik's post but unless someone else can test your file we will never know for sure...

If you can replicate this on Mac then I would say there is a genuine issue but if not, and others can't replicate the issue you're seeing on Windows on a Windows machine then it is highly likely the issue is specific to your PC...

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@rschweik, sorry to hear you're having trouble!

As Hangman has mentioned, your Data Merge file appears to contain a substantial number of records and this requires generating a huge number of pages, over 110,000 - although there is no technical page limit in the Affinity apps, this will certainly be pushing the apps (and your machines memory) to it's limits.

Have you tried generating your data merge using a reduced number of records? Does this complete as expected? :)

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Just now, anto said:

Look closely at the video, you can see the merge window flickering.

I can see the page in the background flickering but not the Data Merge Window...

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@anto if you have a bug to report, please follow the How to report bugs FAQ - and create a new post in the relevant section of the forums with the requested information.

Please do not use other users threads to report issues specific to your file(s), as this makes it harder for our team to log and track these issues.

Many thanks.

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Just now, anto said:

Not my video

In which case could you upload a new screen recording in a new thread (as @Dan C requests) that shows the whole Data Merge Window when you're running the Data Merge, you don't need to show any sensitive data...

I'm not seeing any flickering of the Data Merge Window in your screen recording viewed on Mac or Windows. I can certainly see flickering on the Page sitting behind the Data Merge Window but not with the Data Merge dialog window itself...

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4 minutes ago, anto said:

I believe that these problems are related. 

And I do not agree - but for our team to fully investigate you need to report your separate issue, with your separate data merge file in a new thread.

If a moderator asks you to report your issue in a separate thread, I'd recommend following that advice.

4 minutes ago, anto said:

Follow the topic closely.

I am perfectly capable of reading & following this thread, and simply wish to assist the new user that has reported a problem with their specific data merge file - I don't want this thread to become awash with separate reports from other users, as above this makes it harder to track issues internally.

I do not take kindly to your tone and will not tolerate further posts of this kind.

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2 minutes ago, anto said:

I wrote that this concerns the video posted by rschweik above. When he clicks on the generate button, the window flickers.

Except it doesn't when viewed on the forum (for me at least) on Mac or Windows so you appear to be seeing something other's aren't hence the request to file this as a new post because it appears to be unrelated...

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7 minutes ago, Hangman said:

hence the request to file this as a new post because it appears to be unrelated

If the issues are different but are thought to be related, even tangentially, it’s easy to link from one thread to the other. If unrelated issues are reported in the same thread, it’s usually difficult (if not impossible) to disentangle them.

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@Дан С Putting aside emotions.

The questions you are asking are wrong from the start. The user wrote that this happened with the new update, which means that everything worked fine before the update, no matter how many rows or records there were.
The question is, why did it stop working after the update? This is where you need to look for the problem.

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3 minutes ago, anto said:

The user wrote that this happened with the new update, which means that everything worked fine before the update, no matter how many rows or records there were.
The question is, why did it stop working after the update? This is where you need to look for the problem.

As can be seen from the 2.5.3 release notes post below: 

There are no changes to Data Merge in this version, or to document creation using this method - so I would be very surprised if this issue is specific to, or only occurs within 2.5.3, but that is not to say it is impossible.

It's most likely that 2.5.3 was the first version that was used with OPs merge file, as they mention in their first post they are a new user, though of course I can only make these assumptions based on the information provided in this thread, without a copy of OPs files.

Once we have files to test further here, we can confirm if this is a regression over 2.5.2 or not - but before we can test with these files it is not helpful to our development team to speculate either way.

As I mentioned previously:

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

(the) Data Merge file appears to contain a substantial number of records and this requires generating a huge number of pages, over 110,000 - although there is no technical page limit in the Affinity apps, this will certainly be pushing the apps (and your machines memory) to it's limits.

The above would be true of V1, V2.0, V2.5.3 or even the next beta version - creating a document that is over 110,000 pages from Data Merge will always require a considerable amount of time, or PC resources to complete.

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15 minutes ago, Dan C said:

There are no changes to Data Merge in this version, or to document creation using this method - so I would be very surprised if this issue is specific to, or only occurs within 2.5.3, but that is not to say it is impossible.

I understand all of this, but I also confirmed that with the update to 2.5.3, there are problems with data merging.
You should know better what additional bugs have been fixed but not included in the main list on the site, because some users have commented that not all the fixes are on the site. So I think that fixing one thing could have damaged another. So there were some changes and fixes in performance that led to these problems.

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3 minutes ago, anto said:

I also confirmed that with the update to 2.5.3, there are problems with data merging

Our team have no regressions in 2.5.3 relating to data merging confirmed at this time, so again if you have a bug you can currently replicate - please report this in a new thread and our team can investigate further, testing the reported issue in multiple versions to verify if 2.5.3 was the first version that shows this issue.

5 minutes ago, anto said:

You should know better what additional bugs have been fixed but not included in the main list on the site, because some users have commented that not all the fixes are on the site. So I think that fixing one thing could have damaged another.

There is certainly this possibility, but I cannot consciously agree with your findings without the requested proof, in order to replicate & report these issues to our developers.

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On 7/3/2024 at 5:22 AM, Dan C said:

@rschweik, sorry to hear you're having trouble!

As Hangman has mentioned, your Data Merge file appears to contain a substantial number of records and this requires generating a huge number of pages, over 110,000 - although there is no technical page limit in the Affinity apps, this will certainly be pushing the apps (and your machines memory) to it's limits.

Have you tried generating your data merge using a reduced number of records? Does this complete as expected? :)

Very interesting catch!

I am actually only Merging 111 items from 3 of those 4 fields, generating 3-4 pages. The Card Deck is for my own notes to keep track of game development.

Is there a way to reset the Data Merge record count to Zero? I see i can choose a number of fields, but...i'd rather reset it, if possible, rather than trial and error, but i understand that's what is needed sometimes.

dataMergeIssue.webp

 

 

Sorry if i have caused...? with my inactivity, but i am not one to be glued to my pc, or indeed the Internet for that matter, but i appreciate all the help from everyone.

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Hi @rschweik,

Option 1
Specify the range you wish to use from your CSV file under the Filter | Range option, i.e., 1 - 111... The three fields will be defined by the three placeholders you've added to your Data Merge page...

image.png.4ff55ca40102be2845ab78c76d7f967a.png


Option 2
Create a subset of your data containing just the fields you wish to include using copy and paste to a new worksheet, re-export a new CSV file and use the new CSV file as your data source in Publisher.

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On 7/8/2024 at 2:59 AM, Hangman said:

Hi @rschweik,

Option 2
Create a subset of your data containing just the fields you wish to include using copy and paste to a new worksheet, re-export a new CSV file and use the new CSV file as your data source in Publisher.

A .csv file with only those 4 fields is what i am using to import to Publisher, which is why i found it odd it was hanging. The whole "1 billion assets" thing is also odd in that Publisher has continued to count Assets even when importing differing CSV files with at most 150 assets, so far, to import up to 3 full pages of cards for each Deck, per your Option 2 suggestion.
I do have a master CSV file with all of my Game Decks i have never tried importing, having looked up how to do it in the Affinity rtfmHelp website section.

I will try Option 1.

 

Thanks.

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On 7/8/2024 at 12:25 AM, rschweik said:

I am actually only Merging 111 items from 3 of those 4 fields, generating 3-4 pages.

I suspect the issue is with your source data file thinking there are far more rows than there are...

If you select your 37 rows and 4 columns and copy these to a new blank file, re-export your CSV then update the file in Publisher does it still show 4 Fields 1,048,575 Records loaded or does it now show 4 Fields, 36 Records loaded?

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