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Hello all,

 

I'm very curious when the Publisher will be available in Beta version. Till now I'm using the quite expensive InDesign from Adobe. I would be interested whether there will be a plug in available for the new Affinity Publisher that plugs in into a database like MySQL or Firebird to create a Database-Publishing system for creating documentation like catalogues or user manuals in multiple languages!!

 

I would like to hear from you whether this kind of program has been planned to be published by Affinity!!!

 

Kind regards, Wolfgang

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Hello Wolfgang,

 

Probably no one outside of Serif really knows when the beta will arrive--and if they did they likely are bound to not reveal it. And Serif isn't saying when.

 

As for the initial features? Serif also isn't saying what those features will be. Nor is there yet a roadmap yet because APub isn't in beta yet.

 

I have my own list of things I wish for APub, both as regards an initial release and its future. As does everyone else awaiting the first beta I suspect. 

 

I hope that Serif doesn't make some of the same mistakes it did with PagePlus--it wasn't extensible via 3rd party plug-ins and scripting.

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I'd also love to see database features built in to Publisher.

From Patrick Connor (Serif head honcho guy on another Serif forum):

 

I happen to know we are not putting a mail merge feature into Affinity Publisher for v1.0 . The 25+ years of PagePlus development (approximately 100 programming man-years from the PP7 rewrite onwards) are some big boots to fill and will take some time grow into.

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  • 1 month later...

Wow, database functionality... I've never considered that before, but now that I do I can imagine fantastic benefits. Half the web has moved towards database-driven page layout for good reason, so why not page layout? It would immediately put itself ahead of InDesign and Quark upon launch just based on the concept alone. (They will both have tough times rewriting their software to implement this feature)

 

It would be a bit like Final Cut Pro X. It's a database-based application which is why it has no Save command, nearly unlimited un-does and no work ever gets lost in the event of a crash. Much better than being interrupted with spinning beachball autosaves every 15 minutes (yes Premier, I'm looking at you).

 

This might also have the added benefit of being able to add DRM-style photo management at a later stage. Page layout always "links" to images rather than embedding them, so why not put the link management on steroids and push it all the way to image/resource management? 

 

Fantastic concept.

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Using plug-ins in ID and XTensions in QXP one can have one and/or two-way connectivity to any type of database. Using different plug-ins in ID one can pull in data in vastly different and extensible ways than ID is capable of natively, and XTensions in QXP can do the same.

 

I do these things nearly everday in either applications using the aforementioned add-ons.

 

But even simple mail merge isn't going to be in APub in the beginning and if Serif doesn't provide plug-in support, no third-party is going to be able to extend what AD could be capable of even after rudimentary merge is implemented. And no third-party is going to do those plug-ins unless they belive it is financially beneficial. The net effect will be that if this is fundemental to ones work needs, they will need to use a different layout application for years to come. That's the way it is for me. These capabilities are fundemental to my work.

 

I'll purchase APub in all likelihood the day it is available. But I have few illusions as to its overall usefulness to what I generally do.

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While you are waiting, you might want to check out some of the other solutions already out there, like Scribus: https://www.scribus.net  (I'm sure there are quite a few others out there but that is the one that comes to mind off the top of my head).

 

If by database you are looking for a mail merge function of some sort, it looks like there is a Scribus extension for that (I have not tried it - just found it with a quick Google search), though it appears you would need to export a CSV file from the database to use it: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus_Generator

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  • 5 months later...
On 6/22/2017 at 0:19 PM, MikeW said:

I happen to know we are not putting a mail merge feature into Affinity Publisher for v1.0 . The 25+ years of PagePlus development (approximately 100 programming man-years from the PP7 rewrite onwards) are some big boots to fill and will take some time grow into.

 

Ouch, Need Mail Merge despartly. I was hoping APub to be a replacement of PP9x. I work for a Mass Mail Data/Print Marketing Co. and use PP9x for mailings, labels, and other things that i cant stand working in MS WORD with.

 

However, APub/PP9x needs a few things that WORD's Mailings has:

  • Rules (Next Record, Next Record IF, Skip Record IF, Ask, IF..then...ELSE, Fill in,ect...)
  • Save Selected Criterias to Document (WORD does, PP9x doesnt. Alwasy have to re-select my sort criteria and database to use everytime the document is loaded)

So please, add mail merge/database sooner than later!

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  • 2 months later...

After Reading all this ... two things comes in my mind that would be great:

 

1- Rename Affinity Publisher to Affinity Studio: Because of what it bring to the public and users and the way it will interact with already existing solutions from Serif.

2- Make it use less Resources (cpu and ram to be precise): This is the reason why i'm thinking of removing ID from my PC, i live in a country where i can't afford and/or easily buy PC/Mac with those massive memories (16,32, 64 etc...) so having a powerful products that works very well with a 4GB Ram Core2Duo dedicated PC/Mac will help resurrecting and growing my skills and my business by the same way.

 

... What does Dev's have to say about this ?

 

 

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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3 hours ago, Arnaud Mez said:

After Reading all this ... two things comes in my mind that would be great:

 

1- Rename Affinity Publisher to Affinity Studio: Because of what it bring to the public and users and the way it will interact with already existing solutions from Serif.

2- Make it use less Resources (cpu and ram to be precise): This is the reason why i'm thinking of removing ID from my PC, i live in a country where i can't afford and/or easily buy PC/Mac with those massive memories (16,32, 64 etc...) so having a powerful products that works very well with a 4GB Ram Core2Duo dedicated PC/Mac will help resurrecting and growing my skills and my business by the same way.

 

... What does Dev's have to say about this ?

 

 

Affinity Designer and Photo have been complimented of being fast, so I'm sure that Affinity Publisher will too. 

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