Creating and autopopulating a templated document with field inputs and photograph

Liberty Create
1

We are building a service to allow adult carers to apply for a carer card online.

We would like to autocreate a template which is sized and configured with the carer card branding. It should also be autopopulated with the relevant details from the application form and we need to be able to add the photograph which is sent with the application.

We have done something similar with a letter, but this was standard A4 with our council logo.

The carer card template needs to be a specific size and colour.

Has anyone done something similar?
Can you recommend how we would create the template? Could we use a Word document or does it have to be a PDF?

Thanks

Nicky

2

Hi Nicky,

You could use OPA document templates but you’d have to speak to your account manager about that.

It would allow you to create a word document of your template (with specific styling) and allow you the option to generate either a DOCX or PDF of the contents from your application.

3

Hi, there are a number of options for this depending on specific needs.

PDF Forms

If you have access to Acrobat, you can create a PDF template using form fields as placeholders for the values. This can be uplaoded as a PDF Form Asset in Build Studio, and you can then map Properties of an object to each placeholder. A Rule can then be used to create a copy of that PDF with those form fields filled in, and saved to the record.

Pros: Relatively simple to use. Fixed layout, a pro if that’s what you need.

Cons: Requires Acrobat to create the templates. No support for images. Fixed layout, a con if you need a layout that caters for content of varying lengths nicely. No lists/tables, single values only.

Templates

You can create templates using a WYSIWYG editor, giving you control over formatting and styling, and include placeholders for record data, including images and sub pages with simple widgets. A rule is then used to generate that template as HTML or a PDF while populating it with a specific record’s data.

Pros: Flexibility over content. Can include listings, and content can flow/expand. Can include subpages for more control.

Cons: Not a fixed layout, a con if you need every document exactly the same.

IDP Document Generation

Newly added in 25.3 the IDP Document Generation features brings some of the previous OPA functionality into Build Studio. You can create document templates in various formats in Word or PDF which include text placeholders tags, which are then mapped to fields in Create. Similar to PDF Forms mentioned above, but more advanced. Using rules you then generate the documents using those templates.

Pros: Support for multiple file types. Supports images and lists/tables. Doesn’t require Acrobat specifically.

Cons: Not a fixed layout, a con if you need every document exactly the same.