What’s New at PDF Generator API
Most flexible Web API and template editor for generating PDF documents from Your software, Your data.
Over the past months, we have developed some new functionality in PDF Generator API we are sure you will like. Before we dive into the details though, we would like to point out some of the basics. Specifically - what our product is, what is the problem it solves, or what value you as the customer receives.
PDF Generator API allows you to easily generate transactional PDF documents and reduce the development and support costs by enabling your users to create and manage their document templates using a browser-based drag-and-drop document editor.
The problem we are solving…
It is time-consuming and expensive to create and manage customized document templates for our users.
Here is why:
- The process to get requirements takes time and a lot of back-and-forth emails.
- Customer requirements change over time and they often want changes, but don’t want to pay for them.
- The development team must be involved in this, in turn increasing delivery time.
- Making small changes looks like an easy job, but actually wastes a lot of valuable developer time.
The value customers are getting…
- Allows your customers to create customized documents without any involvement from your development team, without writing any code.
- Drastically minimizes the time spent on creating and managing customer-specific documents.
- Allows your sales or support to make the needed changes within minutes instead of pushing it through your development cycle.
Some of our example documents, easy to reuse and start using in a few minutes:
…and now straight to the point! We would like to introduce new functionalities in PDF Generator API!
- Expression language
- Conditional formatting
- Iteration (from Top to Bottom/Left to Right)
- Nested containers
- Background-image
- Multiple templates
Expression language in PDF Generator API is a specific programming language that allows writing mathematical and logical expressions to manipulate the value displayed by component. Expression language can be written into the “Text” component “Raw value” under the “Formatting” view. You are able to use either use Supported operators (Arithmetic, Bitwise, Comparison, Array) or Functions (String, Aggregate, Substring, Replace functions). It is also possible to use expression language functionality combined with conditional formatting options.
Conditional formatting is used to conditionally hide and style the component. If you right-click on the component, you can use conditional formatting functionality, where you can either change the component style or hide the component if it matches the condition. A new functionality out there is the ability to hide the entire page based on your condition!
Iteration, especially Left to Right, which was released a few days ago!
It is now possible to iterate your data using the Container component from left to right instead of from top to bottom. With the new functionality, you are able to create a “gallery view” from a list of items. To enable the left to right rendering just check the “Iterate from left to right” option in the component’s sidebar. The “Spacing between rows” value is used as the horizontal spacing between content blocks.
Nested containers are useful when you need to iterate an array of data in another array. At the moment, you would need to use the “Container component” for this. Let's imagine that you have an array of rows in your invoice, one of them is social networks, and you would need to preview each category in a new row (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). This is when a nested container comes in handy.
Background image functionality could be used when you need to set your entire page background. You just need to right-click on your page in the editor, click on “Background image” and select the file from your file system.
Multiple templates allow you to merge multiples template with your data and returns a PDF document (or public URL to a document). Imagine that you have templates that are changing. Here you can combine your PDF document with more templates, exported in one.
You can find even more new functionalities in our latest release!
… last but not least, here are some of the highlights from our roadmap for the next months:
- Improving Data visualization options
- Import your existing PDF document as a template
- E-signature option
If you are interested in PDF Generator API and not sure how to get started with the technicalities, you can start with your first API Call following our Postman Tutorial.
Here you can find some basics about the API and we also have a hands-on tutorial to start with document automation.
Can't wait to have you on board!
@PDF Generator API Team 👨👨👧👧
