Process Model - Document generation

Hi,

What might be the best approach to generate a PDF document in Appian using process model smart services.

Thanks.

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  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Rao2022

    AFAIK the PDF from HTML smart service is only (or at least mainly) used for creating a text-based PDF using fundamental HTML text formatting.  An image link in the source HTML file would not be interpreted into the resulting PDF as anything particularly useful - by default I'd guess it might just be ignored outright, that or you'd just see whatever HTML placeholder was there for the image. Remember that typical HTML files don't "store" images whatsoever, they merely link to images hosted elsewhere.  (I know there are exceptions where an HTML might store an image file encoded in base64 - this would be an interesting experiment, but I don't have any expectation that the Appian smart service would even be looking for this, much less interpret it correctly.)

    I'm unaware of any supported way to force this smart service to incorporate images into the output PDF, though there may be others here with more experience there, who may know of additional tricks or work-arounds.

  • Thanks Mike for acknowledging.

    Just now I have generated a PDF using "PDF from single DOCX" the output is looking perfect and the document is looking like a proper PDF where as the PDF document which has been generated is totally looking different and even it is not looking like a PDF (just looking like a image).

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Rao2022
    the output is looking perfect and the document is looking like a proper PDF where as the PDF document which has been generated is totally looking different

    Sorry, I might need a bit more clarification on which thing you're referring to where here.  As-is, it sounds almost like you're saying "the output looks perfect but also the output looks totally different", or something.

  • I am trying to say ..... 

    1. I have generated PDF using "PDF from HTML" and PDF file is not looking great.

    2. I have also generated PDF using "PDF from single DOCX".

    Now, I have expected same PDF output (Forgot about image) from both processes. But output looking totally different.

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Rao2022

    Yeah, there are different smart services that generate PDFs in different ways and were developed at different times in different plug-ins by different developers.