Is there a way to create PDF’S leveraging the HTMLToPDF activity that include editable form fields?
I am aware of the E-Form option, but these are “static” PDF’s and in my scenario the content of the PDF may change based on the choice made in the case and thus not suitable for my use case.
The PD4ML engine seems to support this, but I found no reference of how to make this work with the Pega Implementation of PD4ML.
@Dennis could you provide details of documentation showing PD4ML supports dynamic/editable form fields?
]It does look like it should work but there is mention here that “,… editable forms are supported by PD4ML Pro (and derived volume licenses). Please contact support pd4ml com for upgrade options”.
@SrinivasKakani can you provide any input here?
Pega 8.8.4 I think uses 4.0.13fx8 (PD4ML Release Notes)
I found US-318183 where it was indicated that all existing features of pdf generation should work with the 4.x version of pd4ml which exists from Pega 8.4 onwards.
However there is a known limitation that defer loaded contents are not supported in PDF generation. The available markup in DOM will come up in PDF ( BUG-673255 logged for dynamic layout example).
PDF is a restrictive format that forces hard constraints on settings such as margins or layouts. Consequently, the HTMLToPDF rule does not support the conversion of dynamic layout groups. As a best practice, use free form layouts or smart layouts with forms that you want to print to PDF. Dynamic layouts groups are DIV based structures and the structure or the layout is driven by skin only. PDF generation using HTMLtoPDF still does not support Dynamic layout groups. For PDF conversion dynamic layout groups are not supported because such dynamic layouts are handled by CSS which is not supported by the third party PD4ML library and is a known limitation. A browser can handle HTML layouts in a flexible way. A PDF is a static document with hard constraints on margins and layout. The only way to fix the issue is to modify and normalize the HTML so that it works within those constraints. So it is advised to use a free form layout as a workaround for HTMLtoPDF generation.
Generating complex PDFs from your UI
.Creating PDF files by using a compact style sheet
I have not found any other info about editable fields. Perhaps you can log a support issue demonstrating that you are following the documented steps. Please let us know the INC id here if you log a ticket.
Thanks, you already answerred. I saw the Editable forms feature in the PD4ML documentation but missed that it was part of the Pro License.
For the other points many thanks, I am able to achieve the formatting I desire fordynamically generated PDF’s, even though it can be a bit finicky at times.
