🚀 [New Plugin] PDF Creator

[alexcooney5]

@chris33

seeing one critical issue. When I run the workflow, the output pdf seems to not print any dynamic images - they are just blank. It also seems to force the page element that it is printing from, to also no longer show those dynamic images…

Any idea what that could be?

Hi @chris33, thanks for the kind words and sorry for the issues with the plugin - I will do all I can to make sure we get it working!

Can you send me a private message with a link to your editor so I can take a closer look at the issue?

[alexcooney5]

February-24 updates
Recently released version 1.17.0 of the PDF Creator plugin. The PDFCreator element now includes a new exposed state called ‘base64-encoded string’

This exposed state represents a base64-encoded string of the PDF created by the plugin. This can be useful if you want to send the PDF via email and you’re using a plugin that requires a base64-encoded string (for example the Copilot SendGrid plugin).

[alexcooney5]

(more) February-24 updates
Just released a new version of the plugin (1.18.0) that allows you to specify the max size of the PDFs users are permitted to upload. You can set the max limit on the PDF Creator element itself:

[padyx]

Hello Alex

I have defined the ID attributes in the repeating group with the name “[work-experience]”.

I have specified the same ID attribute in the workflow settings.

Unfortunately, I get an error message.

I have also checked again in your editor whether I have done everything correctly. I have done everything as in your instructions but I still get the error message. Can you please help me?

thanks mate

[alexcooney5]

Hi @padyx, no problem at all. I’m going to send you a private message shortly requesting access to your editor. We’ll get to the bottom of it!

[will]

Hello!

Appreciate you being so responsive in the forum!

My most important concern is the page break does not seem to be working. I watched all the youtube videos, removed custom css for the page, and I found that removing divs (groups) greatly reduces the files size.

Right now my ids are as follows in the plugin workflow: doc1, doc2, doc3, doc4, doc5, doc6, doc7

each docN is a group with text. I still seem to be getting errors with the page break.

I’ve tried brackets in a repeating group as well. I’m hoping there is a quick fix i overlooked.

Also noticed that I cannot have separate size font for headers and footers, FYI. That i’m not too worried about.

Would be great if there was a “start content on new page” to help break up content. Right now I’m just concerned with the page break so my heading isn’t split between two pages.

Thanks so much!

[alexcooney5]

Hi @will, thanks for providing those details!

Can you confirm what ‘top margin’ you’re setting?

And what ‘Bottom Margin’ and ‘Top Margin’ values you’re using in the footer and header?

I just want to confirm that there’s enough space for the elements at the bottom/top of each page

[xavier1]

Hi there, hope all is well. Thanks for releasing this plugin, I think it’s precisely what we were looking for. However, been playing with it and running into several errors, in particular this one.

I put the ID on a group that includes several fields:

And when I get the PDF output it looks like this… I tried different things but can’t make it work… Any idea what’s going on?

Appreciate your help!

[alexcooney5]

Hi @xavier1, thanks for using my plugin This is quite an interesting problem - it looks as if only the first letter of all dynamic data is appearing in the PDF?

I suspect the content is getting cut off due to the combined width of the elements exceeding the size of the page. Have you read this section of the documentation that describes how the plugin scales elements from the canvas to the PDF?

Can you share a screenshot of your editor for this page and show the min/max width of the text elements on the left-hand side (like the ‘Name’ element) and the right-hand side (like the ‘Augusta Grove’ element)? That will give me a better indication of the exact source of the problem.

[xavier1]

Thanks for getting back to us so quickly Alex. Yes that seems to be the issue.

Below is a screenshot of the element that contains the row title and row content (the latter here is the issue). The container has no fixed width, the 2 items it contains however (the “name:” in the first row) and the second are fixed width.

Let me know if this gives you a hint as to what might be going on!

[alexcooney5]

No problem @xavier1! Could you send me on the width dimensions of the two items in the container (i.e. the two text elements)?

That will confirm whether it’s a width issue or not

[xavier1]

Sure thing Alex, see below. Lmk and thanks again for being so responsive, it’s amazing.

[alexcooney5]

Thanks @xavier1. I still think it’s probably related to your element width settings, but it would be useful for me to see your Bubble editor to confirm this.

I’m going to send you a private message requesting access now

[antonio2]

Hello @alexcooney5 ! First of all congrats for the plugin!
Wanted to know if is it possible to create a PDF taking data from the database that is not visible in the browser at the moment of creating the pdf.
We have a real estate webapp and need to add multiple property’s listings to a “cart” and then generate a single pdf with the information of all the properties together.

[alexcooney5]

Hi @antonio2, thanks for the kind words

So the quick answer is no. All data that you are including in the PDF needs to be visible on the page when you use the ‘Generate PDF Creator’ action.

HOWEVER, there is a workaround that I’ve seen from a few of my plugin users:

• When the user clicks on a ‘Create PDF’ button (or equivalent), show a loading screen on the page
• Then show a popup (behind the loading screen) that contains all the data/elements you want to include in the PDF
• Trigger a custom event where you use the ‘Generate PDF Creator’ action to create a PDF of the popup
• Once the PDF has been downloaded/saved to the database, use the ‘When PDF Creator saved to database’ or ‘When PDF Creator downloaded’ events to hide the popup and loading screen

Hope that makes sense - if you have any other questions let me know

[alexcooney5]

April-24 Update
Just a quick note to say I recently released version 1.19.1 of the PDF Creator plugin.

This version reduces the file size of the output PDF. Particularly useful if you’re creating large PDFs that contain images!

[JDeltree]

Looks like a great plugin and thanks for engaging with the forum and extending the capabilities based on feedback/questions.

I’ve got 2 questions:

• Does this generate a PDF with selectable text or is everything flattened when the pdf is created?
• Can this be used in a reusable element. I have seen some of the other plugins state that their solutions do not work from a Reusable

Thanks

[alexcooney5]

Hi @JDeltree, thanks for the kind words!

@JDeltree

• Does this generate a PDF with selectable text or is everything flattened when the pdf is created?

I’m afraid my plugin converts everything to an image before generating the PDF so the text is not searchable.

However, you may be interested in another Bubble PDF solution that I’m currently close to launching. PDF Potion will let you create PDFs with searchable text

@JDeltree

• Can this be used in a reusable element. I have seen some of the other plugins state that their solutions do not work from a Reusable

Yes, PDF Creator can be used in a reusable element. For example, in this demo app I have a reusable element called ‘views-1’ that’s on the page ‘support-example-1’.

I’ve dropped the PDF Creator element on the page ‘support-example-1’ and use a workflow action associated with that page to create a PDF of the group in the reusable element ‘views-1’

Hope that helps and if you’ve any other questions let me know

[JDeltree]

Thanks. PDF Potion looks really promising. Do you have a release date and cost at launch?

[alexcooney5]

Thanks @JDeltree! I’m going to be onboarding beta testers tomorrow - feel free to shoot me a private message with your email if you’d like to be included

Haven’t fully decided on pricing yet, but it’s going to be a monthly subscription product.