Multiple rows in the same composition

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Hey guys,

Before I purchase templater, trying to make sure I can do what is needed with this plugin. Right now I’m trying to take a data set and spread it across 7 different layouts. The issue is that the data is provided to me in rows (Sample sheet here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N14IKR5vBFaS2VwDRqlXVQmoNWfa0dHzVznHN1CvcHs/edit?usp=sharing ) and not columns. The final output needs to look something like this (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NcjAFSHl9Yj6Nue5kjAHzti4POwJp1Ag) and pull multiple rows into the same composition. Is this even possible with this plugin?

I know this use is a little different than what I see most rigged templates doing, but hoping this is possible.

edit - I need to do this across 50 venues with varying calendars/tours. Copying/Pasting would be hell,

@keithvlk

If you are using a Sheet, Templater requires that each “row” is equal to one “job.” You will need to do some sort of conversion or correction on the data to get it into a format that Templater can understand. Your best bet would be to create formulas in a separate worksheet that reference the data in your source Sheet. I’ve created a sample Sheet based on yours that shows one way this could work. Feel free to copy and play with it.

The slight complication is that your 7 layouts can’t be directly queued for rendering simultaneously with Templater Pro/Bot, but you can swap in all of the data to all of the layouts for one “set” of data, then manually queue them, or you can copy a row seven times, then add a target column in your data, which allows you to choose which comp to render– in this second case you would be able to batch render.

Thanks for the sheet conversion idea…that is going to come in handy for this.

As for the 7 layouts, I’m getting a little lost. ( Sorry, new to this whole templater world.) So you’re saying its not possible to send the same 5 dates to 7 different layouts at the same time? I’m fine if I need to manually queue everything. For me, this is just saving me from copy/pasting everything for every venue every month.

@keithvlk sorry for the confusion. Yes, you can swap the data in any and all comps within your project at one time. The limitation I was speaking of is the concept of a “target,” which is the comp that you can set Templater to automatically render once the swap is complete. You can only have one “target” per row of data, but you can swap the data, then add all of your layouts to the render queue manually-- this skips needing to use Templater’s automatic rendering, but it still saves you a significant amount of time tediously swapping the copy for all of those layers.

Could this be done using a JSON file type instead of a spreadsheet? I’m running into this same issue and can’t figure it out haha.

@darrencase Yes, you can use JSON as a data source, though the JSON needs to be “flat” with no nested object arrays. You can take a look at our JSON documentation. JSON has some significant advantages over Sheets/TSV data when it comes to being able to adapt data points being passed to Templater on a per-job basis, but it can be not as user-friendly for a lot of people who are already extremely familiar with Sheets. JSON can effectively act as if each object array is a unique worksheet with values that are only relevant to that particular job. If it were a Sheet, it would be like having different columns on a per-job basis. If you still want to use a Sheet, did you take a look at the sample Sheet that I made for Keith’s case?

@Jon Yeah I looked over your sheet example. It was really helpful, thanks! I think for our purposes, JSON will be good, I’ll be working with some data people who know that file type pretty well. It’s me that doesn’t haha.

I have another question, but I’ll make write it up in a new topic. Thanks again for all your help on here!