creating links in Indesign from php/mysql page

[jrogers17]

Ok, I have been working on an inhouse database that is using mysql and php, well now i need to be able to drag a picture from safari(or whatever browser) to Indesign? Anyone ever tried this?

Jeff

[wicky]

I don't understand what you're asking? Are you using the database to generate printed documents? Why would you want to drag images from a browser straight into ID?

[jrogers17]

We used php with mysql backend to build our database consisting of roughly 37k pictures. Well these pictures are stored as .eps images on our raid drives with .jpg thumbnails generated via php. Well the artist sees the thumbnail image in the browswer, but will need a hard link back to the .eps image from the dynamic thumbnail.

[wicky]

I'm still not sure exactly what you're asking, because I don't understand what the project is, or what you're trying to achieve.

If you've created a database purely so that an artist can search and browse for relevant images, then the best bet is to set up the php page so that when the jpeg link is clicked, it downloads the appropriate eps file to the artists desktop. Then it can be placed into the document as per usual.

If you want the artist to work with images stored in a central location (ie your server hard drive), and not download the images, then you set up the php page to display the path with the name and location of the eps file, so that the artst can navigate directly to it from ID.

Either way, to avoid massive ID files you should avoid embedding images, which means that the eps images should be "placed" in ID from wherever they are stored.

[jrogers17]

Let me see if I can explain this better. The way we have it now in Filemaker is we use the file path to the image name and via applescript, the artist clicks a button and the picture is flowed into Quark (keep in mind this is old because we are now on Indesign).

I think the way you described above is the way we were doing it before, and probably will do again, but we don't want the artist to have to download the images. Just have them place the image (or file path to the image) directly into ID.