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Context: We produce reports by using scripts to pull data from files and spreadsheets and render them into LaTeX.

Problem: Editing the content requires editing the underlying files and re-running the document assembly process, which is slow and fiddly. It would be more efficient if we could edit the reports directly in an editor and have the underlying files/databases updated accordingly.

Is there a LaTeX editor/framework that supports rich-editing of LaTeX documents and bidirectional binding with underlying data such that the underlying data can be updated as a consequence of editing the report directly?

Nicholas Morley
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    If I understood correctly, if you want to change underlaying data structure according to LaTeX document, in my opinion your only option is ConTeXt. LaTeX can only read data from databases and print it (and even that hardly so). There are few options, such as PythonTeX, that would allow you to modify underlying database, but that would never be interactive (is that also a requirement?) In that case, only ConTeXt would be sufficient. I has ability to contain SQL queries, and it might be possible to create interactive form with it. – Tomáš Kruliš Jan 25 '20 at 12:21
  • if your data is in a spreadsheet isn't it easier to edit it there and have latex run automatically whenever it is saved? – David Carlisle Jan 25 '20 at 12:48
  • You might be able to use LaTeX together with Javascript (Adobe Reader only) to allow editing the pdf document and recording the changes in an external database. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/479542/javascript-application-in-latex, https://www.ctan.org/pkg/acrotex (warning: CTAN has Chinese new year today!), https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/ajax-call-on-acrobat-form-by-javascript/td-p/8599246. But it will require a lot of additional programming in various languages, it will be very difficult and the result will not be very pretty most likely. – Marijn Jan 25 '20 at 15:03
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    Not sure of fully understand your problem, but check if some like this could help. – Fran Jan 25 '20 at 18:34

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