PDF Generator app

Introduction

Installation

Template link

Templates

Introduction

This manual is quite technical. Don’t worry, it will guide you in all the ins and outs of the PDF generator.

Before we start
You need a basic set of HTML and CSS knowledge
A basic programming language skill set is not required but helps
You need a basic understanding of akeneo product data

In this guide you will learn :

How to create a template, assets and translations from scratch
How the render engine works with dynamic content
How to create and control your own content dynamically
How to generate a PDF an its' storage options

Installation

...

Template link

When we have our templates set up, we can now start linking our products and product models onto the template.

In order to link a product:

Go to the product grid
find the product you wish to link
In the product details page select the templates tab
Select the template(s) you wish to link
Press save to Confirm

If you have multiple products selected, each product will export as a separate PDF.

If you wish to include products into 1 PDF you will need to setup a Source for this.

Templates

The PDF generator uses templates as a set of essential parts to generate a PDF.

The template consists of the following properties.

XML config

The XML configuration specifies what information of the product data that you wish to feed as data.

It also specifies what dynamic blocks should be rendered in combination with its' configuration.

You can find more information about these blocks here.

Here is a basic example, we don’t specify much, just the title of the page that will be placed inside the header.

We also specify a link to the assets collection

<title>My Title</title>

</body>

Let’s continue the configuration file and add a dynamic block.

We are adding a paragraph block with a label and some content.

<title>My Title</title>

</paragraph>

</blocks>

</body>

Let’s add some more blocks to the blocks node.

Here we added a table to render, we render the SKU, color and size as columns.

And in order for our table to render successfully, we provide a source that is coming from our product associations called pack.

Find more about product sources here.

<title>My Title</title>

</source>

</sources>

</paragraph>

<table

label="{{ trans('table.variants') }}"

source="associations:pack"

column="sku,color,size">

</table>

</blocks>

</body>

Assets collection

Every template needs an asset collection. An asset collection allows you to determine the layout of your pdf. For more info check the ‘assets’ tab.

Template context

The template will have to provide some context to the render engine in order to render the correct Data Set.

You can overrule these values if needed.

More information about context overruling inside functions can be found here

{

"locale": "en_US",

"scope": "ecommerce"

...

}

Dynamic content

So rendering static content should not be that hard, you can use most of HTML / CSS tricks in your sleeve to create the perfect design.

In order to make dynamic content possible we need a dynamic language called twig.

Twig is an easy syntax to learn but hard to master, so we limit our usage of twig syntax only to places where it counts.

We separate our dynamic in two distinct ways.

Dynamic Functions and Dynamic Blocks:

Dynamic functions: Functions that will render the correct value based on it’s context.
Dynamic blocks: Blocks that will render values into a reusable structure like a table, section based on its' input data.

Assets

Your assets are a set of HTML structured files that are novice to any web developer.

Any type of file that can be used to create a website can be used inside this template.

Most often an asset directory should consist of the following:

template.html.(twig): Our main html file, you can call it what you want, but you have to provide the correct filename in the XML body link.
fonts: fonts you wish to use.
media images: png or jpg files are supported
css: you can use inline css or standard css files
blocks: dynamic blocks for dynamic content

Translations

...

Dynamic content

Generating a PDF

In this section you will learn:

how to generate a PDF
how the PDF generator works on cron
how to store you PDF onto an attribute.

How to generate a PDF

Once your template is final for rendering into a PDF you can try rendering your template.

The generate PDF button will create a queued task to render a PDF based on your template settings.

Check the activity tracker to see if your render was exported successfully.

Select that latest job and download the PDF file.

It’s possible that some products will not render based on the validations, check for more info here.

How the PDF generator works on cron

Based on your input we will generate PDF on a daily basis.

The command will only render updated products since the last 24 hours.

The command will only render products that pass validation.

0 1 * * * php $APP_DIR/bin/console induxx:pdf:export-delta --daysAgo=1 --user='admin' -vvv

How to store your PDF onto an attribute

The PDF you generate is stored in the attribute you define in the settings of the app.

Validations

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Release notes

2.0.6

added mass edit for assets

2.0.5

added attribute to save to

2.0.4.17

made service overridable

2.0.4.16

remove empty values in characterise table

2.0.4.15

BUGFIX: get raw values, associations table data

2.0.4.14

added associations table

2.0.4.13

Removed products normalization inside Rawvalues

2.0.4.12

Added Metric Value formatter

2.0.4.11

Added translations on boolean

2.0.4.10

made filter product caching localizable BUGFIX: removed thousands separator

2.0.4.9

added translations option into link function, fixed issue with attribute label translations and added attribute option translation

2.0.4.8

Update OnPdfDocumentWasCreatedSubscriber.php

2.0.4.7

corrected aws resize URL Corrected AWS filter added option display metric-display-unit boolean parameter

2.0.4.6

Remove unneeded value conversion

2.0.4.5

Change Project dependent normalizer and show result bug Added Project RawValuesNormalizer Added multi-sort

2.0.4.4

added sort filter and page-limit
PdfDocumentWasCreatedEvent Cleanup
added European number format

2.0.4.3

Added S3 image support to imageValidator

2.0.4.2

added better validations

2.0.4.1

Update DateSheetDocumentWriter.php

2.0.4

added local catalog_storage filesystem

2.0.3

added support for characteristics

2.0.2

Added recursive pm filter and association support Ability the modify your working path per job added refeerence support to the Task setup default scope code complate refactor of the PdfEngine and twig extensions initial support for tables

2.0.1

Bugfix: fixed issue with product model normalizer

2.0.0

Made bundle compatible with Akeneo 3.x

1.0.5.8

Added multi-select support

1.0.5.7

Update OnPdfDocumentWasCreatedSubscriber.php

1.0.5.6

Added PdfWasCreatedSubscriber renamed the default attribute_code moved to locale filename for correct placement added filter support on LinkedEntities Update OnPdfDocumentWasCreatedSubscriber.php

1.0.5.5

1.0.5.4

Fix for Pruduct Selector

1.0.5.3

GetName Locale issue fix

1.0.5.2

PDF : label fix

1.0.5.1

Update PdfController.php

1.0.5

filename sanitize update

1.0.4

bugfixes and better validation

1.0.3

spit up the filename locale for easier handlingfix : allow files to be writen in sub directoryfix for File_exists issue vs is_filereverse timestamps for nowadded surrounding div on reusable blocksadded Timestamp that doesnt update fixdont throw exception when attribute label is nullchanged to CurrentLocale instead of UI localeadded basFile exceptionadded refeerence support to the Task

1.0.2

fix: when requiredcodes is null dont validateadded Required attributes validation

1.0.1

json-response output attribute async fix

1.0.0

init project

Page updated

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