Aam Digital enables you to generate custom PDF files tailored to specific requirements or formats. The “File Generation” feature let's you upload templates (Word documents) with placeholders to generate a PDF from them.
You can use normal office files (e.g., .docx, .xlsx, .pptx or their open alternatives .odt, .ods, .odp) as templates. With such templates, you can, for example, craft personalized contracts for each beneficiary without the need to create documents manually, copy and pasting names and other details. You can save a template in the system and reuse it for other beneficiaries, significantly reducing the time spent on paperwork.
Through this guide, we will demonstrate how to generate a PDF file:
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Prepare a template file
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Add an "Export Template" in Aam Digital, uploading your template file
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Generate custom PDFs based on the template from your records in Aam Digital
Also see the notes on advanced template functions and placeholders at the bottom of this guid.
1. Placeholders in your template
Your template must include placeholders that the system can use to pull in and replace with actual data.
These placeholders must match the “Field ID” of the field in the data structure of the record in Aam Digital. You can find this in the form editor of the admin user interface (Edit data structure -> Detail view) when you edit a specific field to display its details.
We are working on a user interface that will help you generate placeholders more easily.
For example, I want the name of a child in my template. To find the “Field ID,” follow these steps:
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Navigate to Children from the main menu> Edit Data structure> Detail view
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Click on the required field >“Edit Field”
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Copy the text in “Field ID”
Use this field ID in the template of your choice. The field ID, which is a placeholder, will be replaced with actual data when the file is generated.
A placeholder in the document must be inside curly braces { }, and the ID is prefixed with “d.” (as in “d” for data record). For example, the text {d.name} is replaced with the value in the “Name” field of the respective record.
At the bottom of this guide you can find further options for advanced templating needs.
2. Upload your template:
Now that you have the required data that needs to be pulled, we will upload this template into Aam Digital.
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Open the Admin Overview from the main menu
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Select "Configure Export Templates > Add New"
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You can upload your template in the field "Template file"
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... and select the applicable entity with which the template will be linked. (i.e., for which kinds of records you are able to generate files with this template)
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Then click "Save"
3. Generate File from Template
In our example, we selected Child as our entity type for which this template is designed.
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Navigate to Children from the main menu
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Click on a child record whose document you want to create
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Click on the three-dot menu in the top-right-hand corner
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Click on “Generate File”
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In the field “Template”, select the template created in the previous step
- Click on “Generate File”
The customized document will be created, with placeholders replaced by the actual data.
Advanced Templating: Formatting and special placeholders
The PDF generation is built upon the open source software carbone.io
You can use any formatters and special placeholders the system provides. For example:
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... and many more: carbone.io Documentation
Some functionality is a bit technical but please refer to the user documentation about carbone.io templates and feel free to experiment.