Script to merge SVG files with CSV data-files using Inkscape, to produce one outputfile (e.g. PDF) per data-row.

Script inspired by and based on Aurélio A. Heckert excellent InkscapeGenerator (wiki.colivre.net/Aurium/InkscapeGenerator)

Heckert’s original script unfortunately broke for me several times and I took the opportunity to rewrite it and make it more extendable for future.

• Inkscape (preferably in PATH)

gem install inkscape_merge

Create CSV data file with first row as a header. The values from this row are used as keys in the SVG file substitution.

Create SVG file that contains some variables in the form:

%VAR_name%

Where ‘name` is the name of a column in the CSV file created previously. These variables can be anywhere inside the SVG, from plain text nodes to color values. This script just brute-forcedly `gsubs` these values as text w/o any thought.

The script requires at least three arguments:

• the input SVG file

• the input CSV file

• and the output file ‘pattern`

Note: output pattern undergoes the same substitutions as the SVG file, so to create easily unique file names. Additionally the output pattern can contain ‘%d` which is replaced with current row number.

Example:

inkscape_merge -f postcard.svg -d names.csv -o postcards/card_%d.pdf

This produces files like:

• postcards/

  • card_1.pdf

  • card_2.pdf

Any special SVG (XML) characters within the CSV data file’s values will be automatically converted to XML entity references (such as ‘&` becoming `&`).

• Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn’t been implemented or the bug hasn’t been fixed yet

• Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn’t requested it and/or contributed it

• Fork the project

• Start a feature/bugfix branch

• Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution

• Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

Copyright © 2011 Laas Toom. See LICENSE.txt for further details.