Forms are a valuable component for collecting data. In my app, users are employees who enter their performance goals and there is a pretty straightforward but intricate flow of going from setting goals>self rating goals>manager rating goals>rolling up goal ratings to get a performance score>filling out an assessment/performance review. My big issue at the moment is that as much as we want paperless, digital workflows, eventually many, if not all, customers want the PDF export to print, share by email, save in their own e-files etc, outside of the app. Employees want to save this record and take it with them when they leave the company that subscribes to my app. I want to print the Performance Review screens (data collected by various forms populate on this screen) as one of many examples in my app. Note to Glide team: This may also be a valuable functionality for Enterprise clients as well.
Here are some other use cases I’m adding based on comments in this thread:
-Customers export and save invoices/receipts
-Students/Teachers export and save assignments/grade cards
I’m glad you raised this topic because I was about to do so. I think it’s common practice to want printouts of certain types of data no matter the industry. For example, I work in education and having printed data for files is routine and I would like to build apps that provide people with that option. It would be nice if people can export data from forms for their own records or to share with others who do not have access to the app.
I’m currently using PDF filler (integrated with Google Sheets) to fill up a Fillable PDF with data I have submitted through my Glide App.
I just had to prepare the form with fields that corresponds to the columns I have on the sheet and it generates the PDFs with 100+ fields filled up. This form can be saved as a template on PDF filler so whenever I need to generate the forms, it can be as simple as a few clicks and I have PDF of the forms.
This works for me at the moment but I was looking at this thread hoping there was a direct integration with Glide to generate the PDF forms without having to take an extra step to generate it through PDF Filler.
I agree that it would be amazing to have an option to submit Forms into a PDF right from Glide. Maybe something that would kinda look like this? This might be outside of Glide’s service but they might want to consider if it’s possible?
This feature is so important. I am generating invoices and contracts on Glide and my users usually sign those in the app. Once they sign, I want them to have an ability to download the document and save it for their records including the signature.
Can this include images submittted on Glide which can be shown as images (not links) on the PDF?
Absolutely need this feature. I allow other subject matter teachers to integrate assignments into our learning adventures and being able to have them or the students export out the forms to pdf is super needed.
I just gave this a try, and when I print (File/Print) a Glide Page to PDF I get a screenshot of the fist page only with a picture of the scroll bar, but nothing below the fold. I usually can print a webpage to PDF and it’ll include lower portions of the page in separate pages. Is this a browser setting, or do others have similar results?
I agree customers want PDFs. I have been implementing this very thing for my customers. I have successfully (so far) avoided any third party integrators to perform my actions outside Glide. To create PDFs, emails, etc, I use app scripts.
For a PDF specifically, I have a time based trigger that looks at a single cell. If the cell has a certain value, the code executes, otherwise, it doesn’t. When the code executes, it grabs data from the specified row and places in a google doc template. For multiple if/then scenarios to have the template very dynamic, I also use app scripts. I then create the doc, place into the customer’s folder, convert the doc to a PDF, and delete the doc. I then set the PDF share options to whatever the customer requested (could be everyone, only in their domain, only with certain email addresses, etc). Then I take the PDF link and place into a cell. The user sees a button on their app and when clicked, can access the PDF. From there, they can print, share, etc.
However, the ultimate value of this is to quickly modify the code for multiple customers and deliver quickly with little verification time.
Hello @ThinhDinh! I’ve been reading your posts for a while. You are an amazing asset to this community.
Check out what I wrote below. I keep my monthly costs predicable without using 3rd party integrators.
Good afternoon, a query I used script code with triggers but out of nowhere they stopped working in a while you know why this is because that is why I stopped using script
Hello, Uzo! One more time i see your are very friendly to share your experience. Is it is a part of your business or you share like friend of community?
What i want to ask - is the script way, to issue PDF for users is easer than integromat automation way? Just, thing, in integromat - i can see and i can do and research to how to do. But for script it is not visual and need to study. How do you think is script is right solution for not experienced no-code developer?
hi… it is part of my business, I do help, and sometimes I get contracts or paid Zoom sessions from that…
Scripts are the best, fastest, and cheapest way to do all the tasks… but unfortunately not easy to learn and apply… if you don’t have experience yet with coding, I would suggest starting from a simple script… like writing a value to a cell in your spreadsheet… then adding a trigger to it, and making some simple calculations… test it… modify… and move one step forward. like send an email… then attach an image… then learn a little HTML to make the email pretty and one day try to convert sheet to the PDF,
start from easy things, so you don’t get lost with harder ones.
and one day try to convert sheet to the PDF,