This is a very simplistic tool that takes a Latex document with Python Code embedded between \begin{python}\end{python} and a CSV or XML file and evaluates all the Python code for every line in the CSV or every of the XML file. During the evaluation of the embedded code, a variable for every column of the CSV file is available that contains the corresponding value at the current row. In the case of XML input, a variable for every child of is created.
For every row in the CSV file, respectively every of the XML, the part of the Latex document between \begin{document} and \end{document} is copied with the results of the Python evaluation pasted in.
The Python snippets don't share any state between them. There are no security measures whatsoever taken to prevent a malicious document from eating your data.
I use it to generate certificates for course attendance.
- Prepare your CSV or XML. For CSV, there should be no empty lines and every column should have a header. If it's not
,-separated, but;-separated (as produced by OOCalc) add the--oocalcswitch at step 3. - Prepare your Latex template. It should be a normal Latex document, except you can have Python code between \begin{python} and \end{python}. In this code there are magic variables available: The headers of your columns and
_text. Python expressions can ignore_text, Python statements should assign totext. See theexamplefolder for an example template. - Run
python mailmerge.py template.tex data.csv. It producesout.tex. XML files are recognized via the .xml extension. - Run (pdf)Latex on
out.tex
Try running without arguments to get some usage information. See the examples folder for examples.
In your template you can use the following magic variables:
_text: Assign to this in Python statements. The code block will be replaced by the value of_text_line: An integer that is set to the current line of the csv.
Besides these every column header in your csv defines one variable.