[scribus] Automating Scribus

[FredAt]

Submitted on 03/31/2010
Submitted by anonymous user: [10.1.6.26]

Submitted values are:

   Your contact information:
     Name: FredAt
     Email Address: etkit1 at gmail.com
   About your Scribus program:
     Version: 1.3.3.13
     Prebuilt/Compiled: Prebuilt
     Build Date:
   Your operating system and CPU:
     Type: Windows
     Version: 2000/XP
     CPU type: 32bit  Intel/AMD (i386)
   Your request content:
     Subject: Automating Scribus
     Message:
Hello All,

I currently create documents in Word 2003 which are saved in XML (WordML)  
format.  The documents typically have 4 pages and contain multiple sections  
with variable numbers of columns, figures and tables.  I upload the XML to my  
server where it is converted into a simpler XML format which I then use to  
generate customized PDF documents using mPDF.

The weak link in all of this is Word - it is a mere document processor and  
the process of creating precise document layouts, placing figures correctly  
etc is well nigh impossible.  Enter Scribus.  I have looked at what it can do  
and also checked out the Scribus XML format.  I should be able to convert the  
Scribus XML to my native, GSNML, format and then feed that to mPDF and things  
will work just fine.

However, I am wondering if there is an alternative along these lines

a, Take the SLA file.
b. Replace the text and figures taht I need to customize.
c. Finally use sla2pdf to convert the SLA to a PDF.

If this is doable I can handle all of the programming.  However, I would  
appreciate some pointers on where to look etc.  Naively changing text, images  
in the SLA does not work - it ends up in Scribus reporting a bad format.

I'd much appreciate any help.

p.s. - I need to do all of the above on my webserver which runs Apache under  
CentOS.


The results of this submission may be viewed at:
http://www.scribus.net/?q=node/158/submission/378