Is it possible to add to a data record once it’s created?
I have incoming text data, which gives me one record per customer, each with a detail table. If I later get more data for the same customer, can I add the details to that same record? If I can get it all on one record, my template can print it together all on one page.
I realise that if I can sort the incoming data to collate the info for each customer together, then I can easily generate one record per customer containing one detail table, but our ERP is not very cooperative for this.
Thanks for any suggestions.
I don’t think you can, at least I cannot think of a way. Would it be possible for you to leave the records separate, but perform grouping into Document Sets?
What I usually do is create a special JavaScript field in the Data Map which contains the entire mailing address, stripped of all spaces, line breaks, and punctuation, and in the Job Preset, check the Grouping and the Sorting options. Then for Sorting, use Standard Sort, Ascending, upon this field. You could, of course, use any field from your data which identifies a unique recipient, it doesn’t have to be the address.
For Grouping, use the same field and group into Document Sets.
If needed, then, in the Output Preset, you can add additional content and operate across Document Sets rather than Documents. I do this to apply a folder/inserter 2D barcode across the complete mailpiece (Document Set).
That said, you don’t need an Output Preset to do your sorting and grouping, nor an external script of any kind. You can do it all with a Job Preset via the Sorting option then the Grouping option.
Maybe you can split your incoming data into separate records and drop them in a folder named after customer ID using send to folder with ‘Concatenate files’ ticked. When next data is coming in you do the same meaning different files for the same customer are merged together.
When the time comes, you merge all of the files together and then datamap them.
Option two it to run the Datamapping on each file with output set to XML. Split and massage the XML just like in previous scenario
Thanks for your suggestions.
Johndoe, splitting the input data into separate files and then concatenating was the technique I used with PP7. I could use the same method with connect. The issue here is that it would mean delaying running data mapping until all the data is in. I’d like to run data mapping as soon as I receive the incoming data.
TDGreer, I will investigate document sets and see what they offer.
Thanks again.
Document Sets are the “organizational result”; the real work is via Job Presets, Sorting, and Grouping. I think that’s where you’ll find a solution.