#PDF generation I created a pdf form using ‘PDF Forms Designer’ tool.

senthilar over 12 years ago

#PDF generation

I created a pdf form using ‘PDF Forms Designer’ tool. I am able to manually open it and enter details properly. But when I try to populate it from Appian using 'PDF Doc from Template' smart service, I get error - "Details: [File name cannot be empty or contain any of the following characters: \\ / ; : “ | ? ’ > < * ] " The error message is relevant as no special characters are in the filename.
Attached is the pdf form I am using. Can someone shed some light on the solution....

form1.pdf

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0 Aleksi White
Appian Employee
over 12 years ago

Could you attach a screenshot of the "Template Configuration" section of your 'PDF Doc from Template' node?
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0 sikhivahans over 12 years ago

Strip the special characters from the document name(something like fn!stripwith). I got the same error even when generating a word doc using Ms word from template.
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0 senthilar over 12 years ago

Aleksi, pls find the screenshot attached..
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0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 12 years ago

Change the file name from:

"helloform123"

to

="helloform123"

remember that if you are using "" then those are taken literally unless you put an = before which is the symbol that represents the beginning of an expression. That's why Appian is telling you that you are using invalid characters in the name; you are indeed using them; these characters are the "" since they do not have the = to make Appian know this is an expression and therefore the "" simply identify a string.
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0 senthilar over 12 years ago

That's excellent. Issue now resolved. Thank you Eduardo!
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0 supriyap over 12 years ago

can you please share the template format for pdf creation? As there ### format in word doc creation, is there any different format for pdf creation? urgent help appriciated.
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0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 12 years ago

What we call PDF Templates are basically fillable PDF forms you create on tools such as Adobe; there's no concept of creating PDF templates through ### tokens, you need a tool to create a PDF Form
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0 bhaktit over 12 years ago

how can we insert any image into pdf from web server not from KC of Appian??
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0 khoyendrap over 12 years ago

I'm also trying to insert image into PDF from tomcat(as a http link), is there any way to put an image on PDF??
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0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 12 years ago

Take a look at this post forum.appian.com/.../e-104595 you could use the same approach; download the image with the Send HTTP Request and use the Base64 Utilities to create the document in Appian to finally add the image using the "Append Image to PDF".

All these plug-ins are available for download here in Appian Forum under the "Shared Components" record (forum.appian.com/.../all)
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