🚀 [New Plugin] PDF Creator

[alexcooney5]

Hi @jacob2, no I’m afraid PDF Creator needs all the elements it’s PDF-ing to be visible on the page the user is generating the PDF from.

However, you may be interested in PDF Potion. This is a new Bubble PDF solution that I recently released. It can generate PDFs of pages that are not visible (indeed, that’s how it’s designed to work).

You can check out the PDF Potion website or the forum launch post for more info.

Any questions just let me know

[alexcooney5]

Hi again @kapitani.tech, I’ve just released a new version of the plugin (version 1.19.9) that has a beta feature for adding page breaks to specific elements.

For example, in the below app I have 3 groups and am creating a PDF using the ID attributes ‘group-1, group-2, group-3’:

You’ll note that all 3 groups appear on the same page.

However, if I add the ID attribute ‘group-2’ to the new ‘Element Page Breaks’ field…

…group-2 now starts on a new page of the PDF

If I add in ‘group-2’ and ‘group-3’ to the Element Page Breaks field…

each of the 3 groups will start on a new page:

Can you try this out and let me know if it works for you?

[kapitani.tech]

I have tried it Alex, and it works! Thank you for your fast respond and update on the app. Simply the best pdf plugin I have used so far. Cheers!

[alexcooney5]

No problem at all @kapitani.tech! Glad the update helped and if you’ve any other questions just let me know

[nextwall22]

I am concerned about generating a PDF before all elements are fully rendered on the page. In the case of a repeating group with a large amount of data (such as a repeating group within a repeating group), it takes time for all elements to be displayed. Is there a way to prevent this issue?

Thank you.

[alexcooney5]

Hi @nextwall22, a very reasonable concern! The trick I’ve found is to ensure you’ve ticked the ‘load all items immediately’ option on the repeating group. This ensures everything is loaded and that PDF Creator captures everything correctly.

Hope that helps. If you’ve any other questions just let me know

[nextwall22]

Thank you! My concerns have been alleviated. I will be using this for my subscription service.

Best regards,

[alexcooney5]

Great to hear @nextwall22!

[alexcooney5]

New page-counter option: June-24 update
Just released version 1.2.0 of PDF Creator. Now if you add ‘page-counter-2’ to the left/right footer/header fields…

…you get a nice page counter in the format ‘2 of 5’.

Any questions just let me know

[nextwall22]

I tried adding to the ID of the repeating group, but I encountered an error.

画面収録 2024-06-29 23.27.45.mov

Do you know what might be causing this? I believe I have set it up correctly according to the tutorial at this URL: https://youtu.be/IJV2QbBw2T4?si=deOgT9KIyRPXljtz&t=611.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and I appreciate your assistance.

Thank you.

[alexcooney5]

Hi @nextwall22, no problem at all.

Are you using the Classify plugin? This plugin unfortunately causes an issue with ID attributes are interpreted by PDF Creator, which means you can’t use the around an ID attribute.

If you’re not using the Classify plugin, can you confirm if this issue is also happening with elements where you’re not using the around an ID?

[nextwall22]

I am using the Classify plugin. Classify is an essential plugin for my application, and so is PDF Creator. Is there any workaround for this issue?

[alexcooney5]

@nextwall22 let me investigate and I’ll see what I can do. I’ll provide an update tomorrow.

[alexcooney5]

Hi again @nextwall22, I’ve just released a new version of the plugin (version 1.20.1) that has a new special command for repeating groups.

Simply add an * before and after the ID attribute of the repeating group you are PDF-ing and you will get the same affect as the 's. For example, if your repeating group has the ID attribute:

my-repeating-group

You can add a * before and after to get:

(I had to use an image to avoid become formatting issues )

There is no conflict with the Classify plugin when you use this command.

Can you let me know if that works for you?

[nextwall22]

I am amazed at how quickly you responded. I can’t thank you enough. I will test it right away and get back to you soon.

[nextwall22]

The error no longer occurs when starting the workflow! Thank you very much.

However, there is one point that concerns me. According to the tutorial, when adding to the repeating group, it seems that each child group of the repeating group can be split into separate PDF pages. But when using *, it appears that a few pixels from the top of each element are being included in the previous PDF page. I created 19 pages in my test PDF. Could you please check this?

Thank you.

画面収録 2024-07-02 1.04.11.mov

[alexcooney5]

@nextwall22

The error no longer occurs when starting the workflow! Thank you very much.

Thanks for confirming @nextwall22.

@nextwall22

According to the tutorial, when adding to the repeating group, it seems that each child group of the repeating group can be split into separate PDF pages. But when using *, it appears that a few pixels from the top of each element are being included in the previous PDF page.

The * and approaches use the exact same logic, so I’m afraid this is an issue with both approaches. Just to note that these approaches are not specifically designed to allow each cell of a repeating group cell to start on an new page.

However, this is still unusual behaviour. I’ll look into this and see what I can do. Will get back to you by tomorrow with an update

[alexcooney5]

Hi again @nextwall22, I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking into this and I’m afraid it’s not good news.

There appears to be a bug with the underlying javascript library that PDF Creator is built on that’s causing this. Quite a few other people have noted this bug when generating very long PDFs, but there doesn’t seem to be any solution.

I’m very sorry about this. I wish I could offer a fix, but because the issue is with the underlying library, it’s a bit out of my hands

One thing to mention: I have another Bubble PDF solution called PDF Potion. It was designed for longer, more detailed PDFs (like yours) and can cleanly start each cell of a repeating group on a new page.

However, it works a bit differently to PDF Creator (you need to set up the PDF in a different page of your app) and is more expensive (as I have to run my own server). Just said I’d mention it in case it’s of interest; please don’t take this as me trying to upsell you the more expensive solution

Very sorry again for this issue with PDF Creator. If I uncover a fix for the bug I will of course implement it and let you know.

If there’s any other way I can help, please let me know.

[nextwall22]

Thank you for investigating this. I liked the features of PDF Creator, so it’s unfortunate, but I would appreciate it if you could keep me in mind when creating a new plugin!

If PDF Potion can support pages that dynamically retrieve values with privacy roles or filters, I would consider using it.

I was impressed by Alex’s prompt and sincere response. I look forward to the creation of another great plugin.

Thank you.

[alexcooney5]

Thanks for the kind words @nextwall22 and appreciate your understanding on this.

@nextwall22

If PDF Potion can support pages that dynamically retrieve values with privacy roles or filters, I would consider using it.

Yes, I can confirm PDF Potion can support pages with dynamic content and it respects privacy rules. You can learn more about how to enable all of this in this short video