Overview

Download the finished sample and follow along.

This page walks through one complete product: a jar label for a food producer. The customer types their logo, product name and weight once, then imports a spreadsheet with one row per label. Every label gets its own batch number and its own QR code, which opens that batch's web page. The page covers the essential steps in order and links to the detailed guide for each part.

Downloads

Step-by-step

1. Design the label in InDesign

   Start with a finished design. This jar label is 90 x 50 mm with a 2 mm bleed. Put the background artwork and the die line (the cut shape, in a spot colour your printer can use) on a locked Background layer, and the frames customers change on an Editable layer above it: the logo, the product name, the weight, the batch number, an empty square frame for the QR code, and the line under it. The word Batch is part of the background, so the batch-number frame holds just the number.

   Locked background underneath, editable frames on top

   

2. Open the Infigo Invent panel

   Invent works through one panel with five tabs: Resources, Variables, Properties, Setup and Export. If you're new to Invent, start with the business card build.

   The five Invent tabs, next to your design

   

3. Add your logos as a Clipart Set

   In Resources, click Add Resource Set, name it Logos and choose Clipart Set. Click Add Images / PDF, add the logos customers can pick from, and click Save.

   Two logos in the Logos set

   

4. Add an Image Variable for the logo

   In Variables, click Add Variable, choose Image Variable and name it Logo, with a label and help text. Tick Allow Image Upload and the Logos set, then Save. Select the logo frame, set its Type to Image, and under Mapped choose Variable > Logo. More detail: Configuring image variables to accept clipart, uploaded images or both.

   Upload, or pick from Logos

   

   Logo frame mapped to Logo

   

5. Turn the text frames into form fields

   Select the product name frame. In Properties, tick Enable, click Link to new variable, choose Text Variable, and give it a name, label and help text. Do the same for the weight and the line under the QR code. More detail: Configuring text inputs.

   Properties > Enable

   

   Name, label and help text

   

6. Add a Number Variable for the batch number

   In Variables, click Add Variable and choose Number Variable. Name it BatchNumber, give it a label and help text, and set a Default Value (here 1001). You can also set a minimum, a maximum and a step. Click Save. Then select the batch-number text frame, tick Enable, and under Mapped choose Variable > BatchNumber: a text frame can show a Number Variable. More detail: Number Variables.

   Add Variable > Number Variable

   

   BatchNumber, default 1001

   

   The batch-number frame shows BatchNumber

   

7. Add a Text Variable for the web address

   The QR code needs a Text Variable to read from. In Variables, click Add Variable, choose Text Variable, name it ProductUrl, add a label and help text, and type a Default Value (the address the code shows until the customer imports their spreadsheet). Click Save. It isn't linked to a frame: the QR code uses it.

   ProductUrl, with a default address

   

8. Make the QR code

   Select the empty QR frame. In Properties, set the frame Type (top right) to Barcode. On the Barcode sub-tab, set Type to QR, and under Mapped set Type to Variable and choose ProductUrl. Untick HRI (the human-readable text under a barcode) - a QR code doesn't need it. InDesign doesn't draw the code; MegaEdit does. More detail: Barcodes (and other AIDC, like QR) in Invent.

   Barcode > QR > ProductUrl, HRI off

   

9. Switch on Batch mode

   In Setup > Mode, set Operation Mode to Batch. Choose the Batch Sources customers can use (here CSVA plain text table format where each row is a record and values are separated by a delimiter, often a comma.), and keep Mapping ticked so they can match their own column names to your variables. Set the Minimum and Maximum Records, and keep Validation and Provide sample download ticked. More detail: Batch mode in Invent.

   Operation Mode: Batch, CSV

   

10. Choose which fields come from the spreadsheet

    In Batch mode every variable has Controlled by batch source, ticked by default: its value then comes from the customer's spreadsheet, one label per row. Keep it ticked on BatchNumber and ProductUrl, so every label gets its own number and QR code. For the fields the customer types once (the logo, product name, weight and the line under the code), click Edit on the variable, untick Controlled by batch source and click Save.

    Untick it on the fields typed once

    

11. Lock the layout and check the form

    For each editable frame, open Properties > General and, under Restrictions, untick Allow Rotation, Allow Movement, Allow Resizing, Allow Z-order Adjustments and Allow Deletion. Then in Variables, click Setup Forms, put the logo first and click Save. More detail: Building a form in Invent for use in MegaEdit.

    General > Restrictions

    

    Logo first, then the text

    

12. Turn off extra fields

    In Setup > Field, untick Allow adding text fields and Allow adding image fields, so customers can't add their own text or image fields. For the other Setup options, see Invent Problem Solvers.

    Setup > Field: no extra fields

    

13. Validate and export the .mex file

    In Export, click Set Export File and choose where to save the .mex file. Click Start Validations, then Export, and confirm the Media and Font License Confirmation.

    Start Validations

    

    Export the .mex

    

14. Create the MegaEdit product

    In Catalogue > Products > Product ManagementAn area of Infigo where administrators can create, edit or delete products on a Storefront., click Add new, type the name, set Product type to MegaEdit, use Upload Invent Package to add the .mex, and click Create. Then set the price on Product variants, map it to a category and add a picture. In Batch mode the price is per label: an order for three labels costs three times the price. More detail: Creating a MegaEdit product with Invent template.

    Name, MegaEdit type, Invent package

    

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

    

    Mapped to a category

    

15. Check it as a customer

    Open the product as a customer. The QR code shows on the label, and the form has only the fields typed once. Download sample gives a spreadsheet with a column for each batch field (BatchNumber and ProductUrl). Import spreadsheet opens Placeholder Mapping, which shows how many records there are and picks a spreadsheet column for each batch field (change any that are wrong). Click Ok: the price now covers every label. In Preview, use Next Record to see each label with its own batch number and QR code. More detail: How to Set Up MegaEdit Batch (CSV) Uploads, Validation and Previews.

    The label in its category

    

    Download sample and Import spreadsheet

    

    Import a spreadsheet: every label gets its own batch number and QR code

    

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