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Generating PDFs - best practice for dealing with limitations


mark-theotcentre
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There are a number of limitations with PDF Generation and I wonder whether anyone can suggest how they handle particular situations.

Let me explain.

We’re using the PDF Generator as a means of providing data sets to external parties such as Customers. The two significant issues we’re dealing with are;

  1. Connect Field data are not available to PDFs
  2. Conditional logic cant be used on PDFs to show/hide certain data

What practices have pipefy people adopted to get around these shortcomings?

Thanks

Best answer by mark-theotcentre

genietim wrote:

Separately from the other excellent answers here, I would like to add my point of action; initially, I resolved some of the limitations using Pipefy’s automations (the issue of connected cards not being available: I added a new field to the “parent” pipe and used an on-change automation to fill this field based on the content of the connected cards in the format required for the PDF; the issue with the conditional: as well, additional fields with content for the PDF, that are copied from other fields using automations with additional conditions to set them empty if they should be hidden in the PDF).

However, after a while, higher expectations and more complex ideas had to be implemented, which I then resolved to do using code and the GraphQL API. That is now running very stable and nicely, in my view, but admittedly defeats a bit the idea of Pipefy being a no-code solution. I suppose Integromat (now Make) or Zapier could be used to do the same though.

Thanks @genietim that was incredibly helpful insight. 

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11 replies

Rodrigo Farias
Pipefy Staff
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At the moment, the specific function you are looking for is not available.

I suggest you include this idea in our suggestions forum! You can follow the progress of all the suggestions and vote for the ones that interest you the most.

Remember that our product development is defined annually, so some suggestions may take a while to be implemented or made feasible.


mark-theotcentre
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Hi Rodrigo, I’ve stopped logging feature requests. They never come to anything and when I look at feature requests from other users much the same happens. The Pipefy Dev team rarely address bugs either. As a business owner I need to spend my time productively


Lucas Democh
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  • Pipefy Legend
  • 396 replies
  • September 13, 2024

@mark-theotcentre , I recently implemented a solution for a client that addresses these issues.

To solve these limitations, I used an integration with Make.

The final PDF result is 100% customizable, and it also allows for the use of connected cards and much more.

Here is an example of a PDF generated by Pipefy with my integration:

 

 

The information in the document is filled out based on several fields connected in tables and also through connected cards (products).

All calculations are also made during integration.


mark-theotcentre
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Hi @Lucas Democh that’s interesting. I’m a big user of make and have extensive knowledge of API’s & integrations incl the Pipefy APIs.

Can you explain in a bit more detail how you’re approaching/achieving this?

THanks for any help

Mark


Lucas Democh
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  • Pipefy Legend
  • 396 replies
  • September 13, 2024

Hi @mark-theotcentre,

I'll be honest with you.

I developed this scenario for this client and he didn't pay me (a deadbeat with a CEO position).

Since I invested a lot of time in developing it, I'm willing to negotiate the blueprint + adaptation (if you need it).

For free, I can give you general guidelines so that you can achieve the same result:
- Use the trigger of your choice on the parent card (which contains all the connections you need to use in the PDF construction).
- Use the card query to search for all the details, including the connected cards.
- Use queries to the subsequent cards and tables to pull data from the connected records.
- Build the PDF structure in HTML for greater flexibility, using LOOP to fill in connection data (products example).
- After finishing, use the HTML to PDF transformation.
- If you want the PDF to be attached to the card, send an email with the generated PDF to the card that generated the document (card email).


genietim
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  • Pipefy Legend
  • 412 replies
  • September 16, 2024

Separately from the other excellent answers here, I would like to add my point of action; initially, I resolved some of the limitations using Pipefy’s automations (the issue of connected cards not being available: I added a new field to the “parent” pipe and used an on-change automation to fill this field based on the content of the connected cards in the format required for the PDF; the issue with the conditional: as well, additional fields with content for the PDF, that are copied from other fields using automations with additional conditions to set them empty if they should be hidden in the PDF).

However, after a while, higher expectations and more complex ideas had to be implemented, which I then resolved to do using code and the GraphQL API. That is now running very stable and nicely, in my view, but admittedly defeats a bit the idea of Pipefy being a no-code solution. I suppose Integromat (now Make) or Zapier could be used to do the same though.


mark-theotcentre
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  • Author
  • New Participant
  • 34 replies
  • Answer
  • September 19, 2024
genietim wrote:

Separately from the other excellent answers here, I would like to add my point of action; initially, I resolved some of the limitations using Pipefy’s automations (the issue of connected cards not being available: I added a new field to the “parent” pipe and used an on-change automation to fill this field based on the content of the connected cards in the format required for the PDF; the issue with the conditional: as well, additional fields with content for the PDF, that are copied from other fields using automations with additional conditions to set them empty if they should be hidden in the PDF).

However, after a while, higher expectations and more complex ideas had to be implemented, which I then resolved to do using code and the GraphQL API. That is now running very stable and nicely, in my view, but admittedly defeats a bit the idea of Pipefy being a no-code solution. I suppose Integromat (now Make) or Zapier could be used to do the same though.

Thanks @genietim that was incredibly helpful insight. 


mark-theotcentre
Forum|alt.badge.img
Lucas Democh wrote:

Hi @mark-theotcentre,

I'll be honest with you.

I developed this scenario for this client and he didn't pay me (a deadbeat with a CEO position).

Since I invested a lot of time in developing it, I'm willing to negotiate the blueprint + adaptation (if you need it).

For free, I can give you general guidelines so that you can achieve the same result:
- Use the trigger of your choice on the parent card (which contains all the connections you need to use in the PDF construction).
- Use the card query to search for all the details, including the connected cards.
- Use queries to the subsequent cards and tables to pull data from the connected records.
- Build the PDF structure in HTML for greater flexibility, using LOOP to fill in connection data (products example).
- After finishing, use the HTML to PDF transformation.
- If you want the PDF to be attached to the card, send an email with the generated PDF to the card that generated the document (card email).

Hi @Lucas Democh thanks for your candour. It’s a horrible experience when you don’t get paid for contracted work and I’m sorry to hear that.

Thanks for the offer, I’m somewhat reluctant to consider it tbh simply because bespoke solutions can be tricky to maintain. I’d also need to explore the degree to which it would be extensible and the associated effort in deployment.


Lucas Democh
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  • Pipefy Legend
  • 396 replies
  • September 19, 2024

@mark-theotcentre , that's right! Custom solutions end up generating maintenance.

I'm trying to turn this functionality into a Pipefy power-up. If I succeed, I'll bring you some news.


mark-theotcentre
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Lucas Democh wrote:

@mark-theotcentre , that's right! Custom solutions end up generating maintenance.

I'm trying to turn this functionality into a Pipefy power-up. If I succeed, I'll bring you some news.

@Lucas Democh definitely interested. What is a Pipefy Power-up? Are there plugins for Pipefy - if so I’ve somehow missed this!?


Lucas Democh
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  • Pipefy Legend
  • 396 replies
  • September 26, 2024

@mark-theotcentre Pipefy allows developers to create their own applications integrated. The best example of a Power-up is the Importer, which allows bulk import via spreadsheets.

I created a much simpler one, which allows duplicating cards.

 

 


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