CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • August 8, 2011 at 2:30 am #60234
    Roland

    Member

    I'm currently in the process of trying to get a new job (not easy in today's economy, even if we ignore all the basement and bedroom-based “designers”), and the most promising opportunity will require a great deal of data merging next to the work I've been doing in the past.
    Normally that's not a big deal, but this merging requires connecting to a remote SQL database (MSSQL or MySQL, not sure which) for a project I'll need to set up. So I'm doing a little homework in advance to make sure we can get right to work if things go through.

    Thanks to an old post here on the site I found TeaCup's DataLinker and Cacidi's LiveMerge, but there's quite a big price difference between the two, even with TeaCup's ODBC add-on included — €373 for TeaCup's software vs. €990 for Cacidi's — while they both seem to promise roughly the same… though I admit I've only skimmed the descriptions so far.

    Does anyone have experience with these, or other similar plug-ins/programs?
    Are these good or should I be looking at something else? I'd like to keep using InDesign, but if there's a better solution for printing data merged documents (anywhere from 1500 to 5000 'records' at a time, 4 to 6 per sheet) I think we'd be willing to consider it.

    As far as I know we'll be using CS5 (or 5.5) as that's what I was using until recently, but I don't know yet whether it'll be on Mac or Windows. So ideally the solution we end up with should be available for either platform.

  • August 22, 2011 at 6:50 am #60352
    Matt Mayerchak

    Participant

    Have you looked into InData and InCatalog from Em software?

    I use InData, which allows me to work with exported text files from databases (comma or tab delimited). I haven't used InCatalog, but it's the more robust & expensive version that supposedly allows live linking with remote databases.

    Here's a short blurb from their website:

    use off-line simple delimited text data “snapshot” files, on-line FileMaker Pro (and Runtime) databases under Mac OS, and on-line SQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and Access, using ODBC under Mac OS and Windows (Pro license).

    https://emsoftware.com/products…..emcatalog/

    I hope this helps!

  • August 25, 2011 at 1:09 pm #60373
    lkelley36

    Member

    I am looking into Easy Catalog. It looks promising and isn't really expensive like some. Just started learning and I think we will end up using it.

  • August 25, 2011 at 1:27 pm #60374
    Roland

    Member

    mchak, sorry I didn't reply sooner. I got the email there was a reply but it didn't show up until I checked today…
    I'll look into the EmSoftware programs. The EmData package seems to do exactly what we'd need for only a little more than Teacup's 2 programs.

    lkelley36, that software seems quite expensive ($1299 for the software + $199 for the ODBC module) compared to EmSoftware's EmCatalog and EmData, Teacup's DataLinker and Cacidi's LiveMerge. I'll keep it in mind, but very much doubt my (potential) future employer will be willing to spend $1500 when he can get the same for a couple hundred dollars less :)

• Author
  Posts