Smartstream guidance appreciated...

[Popsy82]

Hello

I am a complete newbie to SmartStream...I've managed to apply rules to make paras appear where necessary, but cannot figure out how to include a merge field in a conditional para - I've tried many routes, but only get the para to appear, followed by the name of the rule which contains the merge field, rather than the cell contents. Any help would be appreciated!

Popsy82

 

[Bowner]

Would love to help, but cannot figure out what do you mean under the "para" term? Can you give an example what do you want to achieve?

 

[Popsy82]

sorry - 'para' is me referring to the conditional paragraphs which I need to appear. I have seven of them in total, and two of those need a field at the end which contains numbers. I can make the rules work for the text (the paragraphs themselves), but not the numerical part. I've tried all sorts with the CSV file, but to no avail.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[Popsy82]

As an example, here is some dummy text (I can't show you what I'm working on, data protection, etc etc). Say this is one of my paragraphs:

Thank you for joining Blue Skies Bank. Your credit limit is £1,000.

I can get the text 'Thank you...' etc to work, but where £1,000 is a variable amount taken from an Excel sheet (saved as a CSV) I can't get it to work. I only get the text part.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bowner]

It seems to me the output should look like <thank you rule 1> £<credit limit csv header>.
<rule> seems like is working
<credit limit csv header> - should be entered by clicking on respective field in the Smartstream's Data Fields window.
The problem may exist anywhere here (it still hard to troubleshoot).
Did you load/re-load database after name of the header (1st row in excel spreadsheet) changed?
Do you see the desired value when you 'Preview' output in the Preview window?

 

[Popsy82]

Thanks for your suggestion...the problem is, that returns a value every time, and I need the 'credit limit' part to only appear where the paragraph appears - it's a conditional. I've tried the above, and all I get is for those people who do not need the paragraph, a big gap in the letter and a £0.00 (as there is no value in their 'credit limit' field - hence them not having the text).I can make the figures work anywhere where they are used on their own - it's just the combination of rule + numbers from data field that doesn't work for me.

Roll on Friday...!

 

[Bowner]

Did you try to use 'Purge' features?
Double click on the particular channel in the 'Channels' tab of Smartstream window...
Pretty much check them all on.

 

[DCurry]

I think you need a rule that says "if the value of <credit limit field> is empty, return nothing (""). Else return "Your credit limit is £<credit limit field>."

Obviously the syntax is not correct, but hopefully enough to give you the idea. You could also write the rule in reverse, so that if the credit field is not blank, return the paragraph, else return nothing.

 

[Popsy82]

Hello

That sounds worth a try, thanks.

If I find an answer, I'll post it!

 

[DCurry]

I made a little test. It works. See attached screenshot for how the rule is built. Note that on the Else settings I am using Multiple values to account for the "Your credit limit is $", then the variable field, then the period.

 

[DCurry]

Also, check your Private Messages.

 

[mdidonto]

I assume you are trying to create a variable Paragraph that contains a variable number. I would create a layer for each paragraph that is needed then use a layer rule to select that layer. Each layer would contain the text for a paragraph and would have a rule embedded to call the number from the CSV file.

 

[Bowner]

There are many ways to work around but if this is a long run, then one might take much more time to process than another.
Some cannot be optimized or be used as a template output or are good during the soft proofing stage and then failed to print.
Using the layers is the one that takes time.

 

[Popsy82]

well, after all that hassle, it turned out that the data was causing the problem, nothing to do with SmartStream! Still not entirely sure what it was exactly, but I pasted into a new sheet and the figures ran in fine. Some bizarre background formatting, I assume. I've managed to make rules for everything as per Dan's screen grab above, and all is well. Thanks for your help, guys!