Graphics

I'm trying to get datalinq working for elections. My IT dept provides an XML for candidate data. Instead of setting up a datalinq text field for each piece of data (like left side candidate vote percent, right side candidate vote percent...) for each of the 435 races, I tried this: 

Column: Race<%relid%>\ReportingUnit\Candidate

Row: VotePerc

It's not working. It gives me data for the first candidate in the sequence, but all templates after the first all have the same data as the first scene.

So my next thought was: I have a text box called Race Select with a List Box of all House races alphabetically and by district(Alabama1, Alabama2,...Nevada1, Nevada2...), and it's column linked to a bunch of other published objects in the scene, one of which is called Race Number. It assigns a specific individual number to every race (so Alabama District 1 would be number 1, all the way down to Wyoming District 1 would be number 435). Can I get a Datalinq Key to follow the Race Number that gets determined by the Race Select List Box? So: Race Select List>Race Number>Datalinq Key? Or is there a better way to use the XML?

Thanks for the help!

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Brian Lanciki
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK
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I think this double posted due to some issues with the forum, but perhaps try a text macro? 

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Simon Redmile
Senior Graphic Programmer & Designer
Ross Video
Bristol United Kingdom
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You've got options for using the Race Number column in your Datalinq setup. 

The easiest way is to point your text object's datalinq directly to the column you want to pull from your list box. You can use a Text Object macro formatted to look at a specific column corresponding to the choice - @Text Object.Column@. You wouldn't need a Datalinq Key in this case, and you likely wouldn't need to have an extra text object pulling in your race number unless you needed that isolated for something else.

So your left side candidate Vote Percentage text datalinq would looksSomething like:

Column: Race<@Race Select.Race Number@>\ReportingUnit\Candidate

Row: VotePerc

As for why your %relid% isn't working, are your race numbers an Attribute of the Race Element, or are they sequential in your XML, so Race 1 is the first race, Race 2 is the second race. Wondering if the XML search with %relid% isn't working, and the scene is just pulling the first race info because that's the field you clicked on when setting up the Datalinq value. 

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Jeff Mayer
Ross Video
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