Printing to PDF¶

Printing to PDF provides the ability to generate PDF documents with record data. The document content is defined by a Template.

Important

You need to have at least one Template for the entity type of the record you want to print.

Printing single record¶

Print to PDF is available on the detail view under the dropdown next to the 'Edit' button.

Printing multiple records¶

Print to PDF is available on the list view as a mass action. You need to select needed records and click Print to PDF from Actions menu. It will generate a single merged PDF file (or multiple PDFs zipped, depending on a used engine) for multiple records.

By default, the max number of records is limited to 50. The limit is defined by the config parameter massPrintPdfMaxCount.

Access control¶

Access to PDF printing is controlled by Roles. Admin can set a read access level for the Template entity type.

Engines¶

PDF documents are generated from HTML code by the use a PDF engine. Out of the box, Espo supports Dompdf engine. Tcpdf engine is available as an extension. Dompdf has better CSS support. Tcpdf supports some languages which Dompdf does not.

The engine can be switched at Administration > Settings > PDF Engine.

Templates¶

Table of content:

Code view
Charset issues
Access to templates
Page numbering
Page breaking
Condition checking
Each iterator
Lookup
Expressions
Logical expressions
Images
Date & time formatting
Number formatting
Currency symbol
Text field
Related records
Multi-enum & Array fields
Checklist field
Barcode field
Raw values
Maps
Custom helpers

Available at Administration > PDF Templates.

For more precise editing it's recommended to use Code View mode. To switch to Code View click on the button ``.

You can print fields of the record as well as fields of related records by utilizing placeholders (Handlebars like) in your template.

Examples

{{name}} – Name of the record;
{{assignedUserName}} – Assigned User;
{{account.name}} – Name of the related account.

Note

If an attribute name coincides with a name of some helper, you can use the following form: {{this.attributeName}}.

You can specify a document title in the Title field (as of v7.0). {$name} placeholder is available to substitute an entity name.

Code view¶

A code view mode can be enabled by clicking \ button. It allows to edit raw HTML and make sure a layout is not messed up.

Charset issues¶

If some characters are not displayed in generated PDF files, it usually can be solved by changing a font in a template. For Arabic language use 'AlArabiya' font, for Chinese – 'CID-0 cs'.

Access to templates¶

Administrator can add Templates tab at Administration > User Interface. An access to templates must be defined in Roles (Templates scope).

Page numbering¶

Placeholders are only available in footer (and header if it's set to be printed on each page).

{pageNumber} – the current number of the page

Page breaking¶

In places where you need to have an explicit page break, add:

{{pagebreak}}

Condition checking¶

Conditional rendering attribute x-if¶

As of v8.4.

<table>
    <tr x-if="{{equal status 'Active'}}">
        <td></td>
    </tr>
</table>

Helpers:

if
unless
ifEqual
ifNotEqual
equal
notEqual

if¶

{{#if value}}
    {{value}}
{{/if}}

{{#if value}}
    {{value}}
{{else}}
    No value
{{/if}}

{{#if condition1}}

{{else if condition2}}

{{else}}

{{/if}}

unless¶

Opposite to if.

{{#unless value}}
    No value
{{/unless}}

{{#unless value}}
    No value
{{else}}
    {{value}}
{{/unless}

ifEqual¶

{{#ifEqual a b}}
    a is equal b
{{else}}
    a is not equal b
{{/ifEqual}}

ifNotEqual¶

Opposite to ifEqual.

equal¶

As of v8.4.

Returns boolean.

{{#if (equal status 'Active')}}
    ...
{{/if}}

notEqual¶

As of v8.4.

Returns boolean.

{{#if (notEqual status 'Active')}}
    ...
{{/if}}

Each iterator¶

Looping through a list of items.

Example:

{{#each contacts}}
    Contact name: {{name}}
{{/each}}

Array (list):

{{#each array}}
   {{this}} – item
   {{@index}} – index
{{/each}}

Object (map):

{{#each map}}
   {{this}} – item
   {{@key}} – key
{{/each}}

Note

Using <tr> and <td> tags along with {{#each}} helper is not recommended as it breaks markup of a contenteditable element.

With iterate attribute (as of v8.2):

<table style="width: 100%;">
  <tbody>
    <tr iterate="{{contacts}}">
      <td>{{name}}</td>
      <td>{{assignedUserName}}</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Displaying certain number of items in one row:

{{#each contacts}}
   {{#ifMultipleOf @key 3}}<br>{{/ifMultipleOf}}{{name}} 
{{/each}}

Access a parent scope:

{{#each contacts}}
    {{../name}}
{{/each}}

Lookup¶

In object (map):

{{lookup subject key}}

In array:

{{lookup teamsId index}}

Expressions¶

{{subject.key}} – lookup in objects;
{{array.[0]}} – lookup in arrays;
{{~anyTag}} – remove all previous spacing;
{{anyTag~}} – remove all next spacing;
{{{helper}}} – prevent escaping;
{{helper1 (helper2 arg1 arg2) arg2 arg3}} – sub-expression passed as an argument;

Logical expressions¶

As of 8.4.

Helpers:

and
or
not

To be used in sub-expressions.

Examples:

{{#if (or (equal status 'Draft') (equal status 'Active'))}}
    ...
{{/if}}

{{#if (and value1 value2 value3)}}
    ...
{{/if}}

Images¶

{{imageTag imageFieldNameId width=50 height=50}}

imageFieldNameId is a name of image field, concatenated with Id
width and height can be omitted

Another way to print images for older versions. Add in code view:

<img src="{{file imageFieldNameId}}">

where imageFieldNameId – the name of an image field, concatenated with the suffix Id.

Date & time formatting¶

See info about date formatting.

Format Date-Time field:

{{dateFormat createdAt_RAW format='MMMM DD, YYYY' timezone='Europe/London'}}

Format Date field:

{{dateFormat closeDate_RAW format='YYYY MMMM DD'}}

Print formatted now:

{{dateFormat now_RAW format='MMMM DD, YYYY HH:mm'}}

Print formatted today:

{{dateFormat today_RAW format='MMMM DD,YYYY'}}

Specific language:

{{dateFormat createdAt_RAW format='MMMM DD' language='de_DE'}}

Number formatting¶

To display float numbers w/o fractional part (as integer) use the following expression:

{{numberFormat quantity_RAW decimals=0}}

quantity is a field name.

Custom formatting for currency values:

{{numberFormat unitPrice_RAW decimals=2 decimalPoint=',' thousandsSeparator=' '}}

Value 10000.5 will be printer as 10 000,50.

Note that _RAW part is appended to a field name.

Currency symbol¶

{{amountCurrencySymbol}}

where amount is a field name (of currency type).

Text field¶

To display text fields (multi-line) use triple braces

{{{description}}}.

Print markdown (as of v8.1):

{{markdownText fieldName_RAW}}

Many-to-many and one-to-many.

It's possible to loop through a link collection.

The max number of records is 100. It can be changed with a config parameter htmlizerLinkLimit.

Example

Printing contact names and roles of an opportunity:

{{#each contacts}}
    Name: {{name}},
    Role: {{opportunityRole}},
    Contact's Account Type: {{account.type}}
{{/each}}

Where contacts is a relationship name. You can obtain relationship names at Administration > Entity Manager.

Example

Example, printing contact names of an opportunity:

{{#each contactsIds}}
    {{var this ../contactsNames}}
{{/each}}

Multi-enum & Array fields¶

Printing selected items:

{{#each fieldName}}
   {{./this}}
{{/each}}

Checklist field¶

Option 1: {{checkboxTag fieldName option='Option 1' color='blue'}}
Option 2: {{checkboxTag fieldName option='Option 2' color='blue'}}
Option 3: {{checkboxTag fieldName option='Option 3' color='blue'}}

Barcode field¶

{{barcodeImage barcodeField_RAW type='EAN8' width=60 height=30 fontsize=14 text=true padding=0}}

Where barcodeField is the name of your barcode field.

Parameters fontsize, text, padding are supported only in the TCPDF engine.

(TCPDF only)

Available types:

CODE128
CODE128A
CODE128B
CODE128C
EAN13
EAN8
EAN5
EAN2
UPC
UPCE
ITF14
pharmacode
QRcode

Raw values¶

To access a raw value of a specific attribute you need to add a suffix _RAW to the attribute name. The raw value is a not formatted value. Raw date-time values are in UTC timezone.

Example

Example (applying another format to the raw value):

{{numberFormat quantity_RAW decimals=0}}

quantity is a field name.

Maps¶

It's possible to print Google Maps image in PDF. See here.

Custom helpers¶

See here.

Printing to PDF¶

Printing single record¶

Printing multiple records¶

Access control¶

Engines¶

Templates¶

Code view¶

Charset issues¶

Access to templates¶

Page numbering¶

Page breaking¶

Condition checking¶

Conditional rendering attribute x-if¶

if¶

unless¶

ifEqual¶

ifNotEqual¶

equal¶

notEqual¶

Each iterator¶

Lookup¶

Expressions¶

Logical expressions¶

Images¶

Date & time formatting¶

Number formatting¶

Currency symbol¶

Text field¶

Related records¶

Multi-enum & Array fields¶

Checklist field¶

Barcode field¶

Raw values¶

Maps¶

Custom helpers¶