Source Contents

Everything that takes the place of one occurrence of a field tag in an output file is a data element. Each data element must not exceed 32,000 bytes in size, which is about 5,000 English words or 16,000 double-byte characters.

Mergemill accepts four content source formats. First is the common tab-separated text format exported from a database or converted from a spreadsheet. Source files in this format must begin their filename with 'DB_' (upper- or lower-case). In this format:

• The field values (or columns) in the source file must be delimited or separated by the [Tab] key, i.e. ASCII code 9, and the rows or records by [Return], i.e. ASCII code 13. Mergemill will automatically remove the line feed character in the row delimiters on Windows.
• Column order is NOT important.
• The first row may contain the field names. These field names must match exactly those field tags used in the templates. That is, if the field tag <!--[[Last Name]]--> is in the template, there should be a column in the source file with the heading 'Last Name' or '[[Last Name]]' for the data values to be used.
• If the first row does NOT contain the field names, you need to specify the Data Column Number for each tag in the task settings of your job definition.
  

Second is the 'Merge' format exported from a database. Source files in this format must also begin their filename with 'DB_' (upper- or lower-case). Mergemill will automatically distinguish between this and the tab-separated text format described above. In the 'Merge' format:

• The field values (or columns) in the source file must be delimited or separated by comma, and the rows or records by [Return], i.e. ASCII code 13. Each piece of data content is enclosed in quotes. Mergemill will automatically remove the line feed character in the row delimiters on Windows.
• Column order is NOT important.
• The first row contains the field names. These field names must match exactly those field tags used in the templates. That is, if the field tag <!--[[Last Name]]--> is in the template, there should be a column in the source file with the heading 'Last Name' or '[[Last Name]]' for the data values to be used.

The third content source format acceptable to Mergemill is a simple text file with data elements properly bracketed by data element markers:

• If the entire document contains no data element markers, its whole content is considered as one data element.
• The beginning marker with the fieldname (e.g. '[[Fieldname]]') must be closed with the ending marker '[[/]]'.
• If data element markers are used, text outside the markers are ignored by Mergemill. You may therefore include instructions or descriptions outside the data elements.
• Source data elements must not be nested. That is, [[Field 1]] ... [[Field 2]] ... [[/]] ... [[/]] is not allowed.
  

[FileMaker Pro Users Please Note: FMPro turns all line breaks into Vertical Tabs (ASCII code 11) as it exports your text into Merge or tab-separated format files. To restore the Carriage Returns, please use the Preprocessing Filters in Task Settings.]

XML is the fourth content source format Mergemill accepts. This data exchange standard lets you freely include line breaks, returns and HTML tags in your text contents. Please note that Mergemill identifies these files by their '.xml' extension and requires your data element values to be enclosed by tags with element names, instead of say <data>...</data>. If you export in XML using FileMaker Pro 6, select FMPDSORESULT as the Grammar option. Starting from version 3.9, Mergemill allows you to specify URLs for external XML source files accessible online. This improvement opens for you the door to collaborative web publishing.