Overview

This page walks through one complete product: a business card your customers personalise with their own logo, name, job title, email address and phone number. It covers the essential steps in order and links to the detailed guide for each part, so you can see how everything fits together before going deeper.

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Step-by-step

1. Design the card in InDesign

   Start with a finished design. This card is 85 x 55 mm with a 3 mm bleed, and it has two layers: Background holds the fixed artwork and is locked, and Editable holds what the customer personalises (a logo frame and four text frames). Put placeholder text in each text frame, such as Full name, and give each frame a clear name in the Layers panel. Use a fixed line height rather than Auto: Invent's validations flag an automatic line height.

   Locked artwork underneath, editable frames on top

   

2. Open the Infigo Invent panel

   Invent works through one panel with five tabs. Resources holds images, fonts and colours that variables can use. Variables holds the fields on the customer's form. Properties sets up the selected frame. Setup controls how the product behaves in MegaEdit. Export checks the template and writes the .mex file. If you don't have Invent yet, see Setting up the Invent plugin for InDesign and Invent Basics.

   The five Invent tabs, next to your design

   

3. Add a Clipart Set for the logos

   In Resources, click Add Resource Set, type a name (here Logos) and choose Clipart Set. Click Add Images / PDF to add the logos customers can pick from, then Save. To offer clipart in an Image Variable, it needs a Clipart Set like this. More detail: Image Variables & Clipart Resource Sets.

   Resources > Add Resource Set > Clipart Set

   

   The Logos set with two logos

   

4. Turn a text frame into a form field

   Select the Full name frame. In Properties, tick Enable, then click Link to new variable and choose Text Variable. This creates the variable and links it to the frame in one go, and the frame's text becomes the default value.

   Properties > Enable

   

   Choose Text Variable

   

5. Name the field and write what the customer sees

   Give the variable a short name (FullName), keep Mode on Single Line, and set Prepopulate Data to Full Name so it fills in from the signed-in customer's account. Under UI Info, the Label and Help text are what the customer sees on the form. Click Save. For every option on this screen, including length limits and format checks, see Configuring text inputs.

   Name, mode, prefill, label and help

   

6. Repeat for the other text frames

   Back in Properties, the frame now shows Type: Variable and the variable it is linked to. Do the same for Job title, Email and Phone. On the card in this guide, Email is prefilled from the account and checked with the Email validation preset, and Phone uses the Mobile prefill option, which fills in the phone number on the customer's account.

   The frame is linked to FullName

   

7. Add an Image Variable for the logo

   In Variables, click Add Variable and choose Image Variable. Name it Logo, add a label and help text, and choose where the image can come from: Allow Image Upload lets customers upload their own logo, and ticking the Logos resource set offers your clipart too. Click Save. More detail: Configuring image variables to accept clipart, uploaded images or both.

   Variables > Add Variable > Image Variable

   

   Upload, or pick from the Logos set

   

8. Map the logo frame to the variable

   Select the logo frame. In Properties, set the frame Type to Image, then under Mapped set Type to Variable and choose Logo.

   Image frame mapped to the Logo variable

   

9. Lock the layout

   On a business card, customers change the content, not the layout. For each frame, open Properties > General and, under Restrictions, untick Allow Rotation, Allow Movement, Allow Resizing, Allow Z-order Adjustments and Allow Deletion.

   General > Restrictions

   

10. Put the form in order

    The Variables tab lists every field you've made. Click Setup Forms to choose the order they appear in on the customer's form. Here the logo comes first, then the text fields from top to bottom, and then click Save. For grouping and other form options, see Building a form in Invent for use in MegaEdit.

    Five variables: four text, one image

    

    Setup Forms: Logo first

    

11. Stop customers adding extra fields

    In Setup > Field, untick Allow adding text fields and Allow adding image fields, so the card keeps exactly the fields you designed. Leave Setup > Mode on Single.

    Setup > Field

    

12. Validate and export the .mex file

    In Export, click Set Export File and choose a folder on your computer, not one synced to OneDrive or a similar service. Click Start Validations and fix anything it flags, then click Export and confirm the Media and Font License Confirmation. Invent saves the document and writes the .mex package. For export tips, see Invent Problem Solvers.

    Start Validations

    

    Export the .mex

    

13. Create the MegaEdit product and upload the .mex

    In your admin area, go to Catalogue > Products > Product ManagementAn area of Infigo where administrators can create, edit or delete products on a Storefront. and click Add new. Type the product name, set Product type to MegaEdit, and use Upload Invent Package to add your .mex file, then click Create. When the import finishes, a message links you to the new product. More detail: Selecting a product type upon creation and Creating a MegaEdit product with Invent template.

    Name, MegaEdit type, Invent package

    

    Import finished - open the product

    

14. Describe, price and categorise it

    On the product, add a short description, set the price on Product variants, map it to a category on Category mappings, and add a picture on Pictures. For pricing options such as quantity tiers, see Pricing Products with Basic, Tiered and Pricing Scripts. For the product page itself, see Creating a Product and Customising the Landing Page, and for categories, Creating Categories to Organise Products on your Storefront.

    Name and short description

    

    Price on the product variantAn area in the specification of each Infigo Product, generally concerned with the technical elements of the Product.

    

    Mapped to Business Cards

    

    The catalogue picture

    

15. Re-import the .mex after a change

    When you change the template in InDesign, export again and import the new .mex into the same product: Catalogue > Product Types > MegaEdit > MegaEdit Products, then Mex Import on the product's row. Make sure Update product image is unticked if you want to keep the pictures you've added.

    MegaEdit Products > Mex Import

    

    Choose the .mex, then Import

    

16. Check it as a customer

    Open the product on your storefront as a customer. The form shows your fields in your order, with your labels and help text, and the name, email and phone are already filled in from the account. Select Image on the logo offers Images (upload your own) and Cliparts (your Logos set). Everything the customer chooses or types appears on the card straight away. For the rest of the editor, see Introducing the MegaEdit editor interface.

    The card in the Business Cards category

    

    Filling in the form: each field updates the card

    

    Choosing a logo: Select Image, Cliparts, then the Logos set

    

    Logo and name on the card

    

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