Hi All, I have a requirement where I need to create a PDF file off of a User Interface. The UI has a bunch of labels and text values that are populated using a record from a database table. Not all labels are static though. Some labels change based on some other values. It might say something like, "Finance Manager" or "Accounting Manager" based on what the record represents. While all the text values are stored in the database, the labels are not. (At least not yet). This is my first attempt at creating a PDF in Appian. Here are my questions -
1. Is the Appian PDFTOOLS capable of handling values passed in runtime from the UI or does it only work with values like a CDT or something? I am asking this because I want to know if the labels have to be stored in the database as well?
2. Does it allow formatting the data like bold, italics etc. ?
3. Can I attach an image as the 2nd and 3rd page of a document - these images are help documentation/guidelines related screenshots that I want to make part of the output PDF file.
4. Or should I rather use a PDF TEMPLATE to create my document structure and then pass process parameters to it? Will the TEMPLATE help me achieve 1, 2 and 3 above?
In a nutshell I want to know if using a PDF TEMPLATE has more advantages than using the PDFTOOLS so I can justify the cost of acquiring the tool (like Adobe Acrobat Pro) to create one? I am looking for easy maintainability, less clutter in coding and more options in formatting and the ability to append static images to the end of the document.
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If you are looking for more flexibility in creating the document, this plugin will let you convert a docx to a pdf
https://community.appian.com/b/appmarket/posts/dynamic-document-generator
So, with the Appian PDF tools and/or this plugin, you can do most of what you need. Many on my team do not have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro. So, we use these plugins and even this free tool to edit existing PDF templates www.pdfescape.com/.../https://www.pdfescape.com/windows/
Hope this helps!
Thank you, Christine. I work at a bank where one can't download free stuff without getting approvals! But they do allow/have Adobe Acrobat pro though which I had to talk to my manager to pay for! I am using a template and so far so good.
We also do have access to the PDF plugin you mentioned above which some other groups in the bank are using. I found some of that code too complicated especially the "content" text in the create pdf smart service which is what led me to explore the template option in the first place!
Please ignore my question 1 above since I wasn't very sure of what I was asking back then when it was all new to me!
I successfully created and used a template and passed it the values in a CDT variable and was able to create a pdf file with dynamic content.