Hello everyone,
I’d like to know if it’s possible to create a PDF file directly from the screen displayed in a Glide application.
The idea would be to allow users to instantly capture the current state of their screen in the app and save it as a PDF.
Have any of you already managed to implement something similar, or do you know if it’s technically feasible with Glide’s current tools?
Thank you in advance for your feedback and help. I look forward to reading your ideas and advice!
You can use the browser’s Print button to print the screen to PDF, but last I checked it didn’t include any content below the visible part of the screen. Otherwise I’d recommend using one of the integrations and pass it your content to generate a PDF.
This is an alternative.
Data displayed on the screen is data that comes from a table. Using the DocsAutomator or PDFMonkey integration, you can generate a PDF from data in a table.
The new solution from Loqode might interest you, it is also a course. https://youtu.be/gS5nt39V-vI?si=ou9MNj3QWhytPmDI
I can attest that it works well if you’re savvy with HTML and simply need to view a would-be PDF and print it on the fly. If you need to save/send a PDF link, it requires a bit more of a setup then I’d like.
CraftMyPDF is a flexible solution that’s rather inexpensive but has a bit of a learning curve.
thank you all for your advice. I thought there was a native function in Glide without going through an api or integration.
Sorry for the late joining. Is is possible to generate pdf ONLY from the filtered data on screen? Let say we use choice component to filter the data. So not the whole rows would be printed into pdf.
You’re using a choice component. So you built your own custom filter, which I think in this use case makes things easier.
(just for reference, for a custom filter we can also use other entry components such at a date picker)
Had you use native filters
(“in-app filter” or “filter data”)
I wouldn’t know how to create a PDF file from that. Maybe someone else would know for reference.
If custom filter, which is your case
What you see in the layout editor is also the data in the data editor. You can use that data in the data editor directly for the DocAutomator integration. The data might have to be processed a little, but this approach to me is quite doable with the DocsAutomator integration.
Thanks for the response, Nathan.
Yes, I made custom filter with If-Then-Else & Single Values workarounds. That’s great for viewing, but I’m afraid it’s not actually filter the data we want to export on the data editor side. I am thinking if I feed it to DocsAutomator (or PDFMonkey) it will print the whole rows, not only the viewed data. Am I missing some understanding here?
I don’t really follow. Are you filtering a collection in the layout editor?
To filter a collection with a custom filter, I would
To create the PDF, you would need to extra data from the query column.
If your setup is different, would you share a few screenshots?
Exactly. I filter a collection with choice component. Just like the screenshot below:
So this is Outstanding to be done per sector. the collection list will show the filtered data when choice component (Sektor) is chosen (or not chosen). Can you see how to export only the filtered ones? in this screen only the RETAIL sector list.
The solution is already posted. Use the Query column as the source of your collection as well as the source of the filtered data to create your PDF.
Okay thanks Jeff, Nathan. Will do adding Query Column, then playaround with DocsAutomator which I never tried it before.
Just one more thing in my head. If we are using DocsAutomator, can it print a Table Component? Let me show the screenshot once again.
With DocsAutomator, you will create the template of your PDF in Google Docs (which in your case will include a table), and you will place data placeholders in Google Sheets.
DocsAutomator will pull the data from your Glide table, insert the right data in the right place in the Google Docs template, create the PDF, and send the PDF file (or a URL thereof) back to Glide.
If you need further help, answer here or send me a direct message, I’m happy to help out with DocsAutomator.
With tables, it will be helpful to learn line items. This is now easy to setup thanks to @Rupert 's work.
