Request to add support for HTML Tables in "Document Generation Structured Input"

Technical Support Apryse SDK
, ,
1

Product:
Apryse SDK

Product Version:
v11.9.0

Please give a brief summary of your issue:
Is it possible to define custom tags in document generation?

Please describe your issue and provide steps to reproduce it:
I have been working with the Apryse SDK document generation from template feature for a while now.

I have a long outstanding need to be able to generate completely dynamic tables, including both dynamic rows and dynamic columns. I have participated in several other discussions here around how to achieve dynamic columns, but I have unfortunately not found a workable solution.

I would officially like to request that HTML Tables be added to “Document Generation Structured Input” (Document Generation Structured Input | Apryse documentation)

  • Brian
3

Hello, I’m AiRon, an automated tech support bot :robot:
While you wait for one of our customer support representatives, I can help you with your question.


It seems you are looking to enhance the document generation capabilities in Apryse SDK by adding support for HTML tables in structured input. Currently, the SDK supports inserting structured content like paragraphs using HTML or markdown, but the dynamic generation of tables with both rows and columns might require more advanced handling.

Some things you can try:

  • Consider using existing structured input methods to simulate table structures by managing rows and columns manually within your templates.

  • Explore the use of JSON or other structured data inputs that can help define the table structure programmatically.

  • Use a combination of template tags and dynamic content insertion to mimic table-like structures until native support is available.



Here are some resources that might help you:


Hopefully, this helps you solve your problem while you wait for a human to get back to you.

4

Hi there Brian,

This is Kaden from the Apryse Support Team – I understand that you’re looking to submit a Feature Request surrounding complete dynamic generation of tables, including both rows and columns. I do believe that I’ve worked with you on this issue previously, however, I also know that you’ve been in discussion with other members of our team surrounding this use case and potential solutions.

I’d be happy to submit a Feature Request for this feature internally, however, our Engineering team has indicated that the following details be provided regarding this dynamic table generation so that they may further consider potential solutions in the future:

  1. Can you indicate how the current offerings from Apryse (Apryse SDK, Fluent, etc.) are unable to achieve your desired outcome? As many details as you can provide are helpful.
  2. Can you demonstrate what you would like a solution using the Apryse SDK to look like, i.e. example template, output table, etc.?

I appreciate your time, and will let you know when a Feature Request has been submitted after receiving the above information. While it should be noted that not all Feature Requests are guaranteed to be implemented into the Apryse SDK, I am of the impression that other users have likewise requested this feature. If you need any clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you,
Kaden Rettig
Technical Support Engineer
Apryse Support Team

1 Like
5

Hi @kaden.rettig !

Yes, we worked together on other tickets that I had filed.

Ultimately what I need is the ability to create and render a completely dynamic table, where the rows and columns are only known at runtime, and not at design-time within the docx file.

From my experience, the document template / generation system that our clients are familiar with is HTML-based, where the platform they use has the ability to dynamically construct a completely dynamic HTML table. Then the HTML is converted into either DOCX or PDF for their final output.

Our clients have expressed how much they like using DOCX files as their templates, and now with the ability to edit DOCX files in the Apryse WebViewer, clients are able to do all of their template design work within our platform and don’t need to work separately in Office or O365.

Most of the document templates do have fixed table structures. However, one of the most important documents that we need to generate is called a “Credit Memo”, where it includes financial analysis tables. In these tables, the table structure is completely unknown at design time within the .docx table

What I am looking for is that in the Document Generation Structured Input | Apryse documentation advanced feature of generating a document from a template, currently HTML tables are not supported.

If HTML tables were supported, this would solve my problem. From the Document Generation Structured Input documentation page and examples, where you have this as an example:

{
    "template_tag_1": {
        "markdown": "# Markdown demo\nHello *world*\n\n---\n"
    },
    "template_tag_2": {
        "html": "<u>Underlined text <span style='color: red'>red text</span></u>"
    }
}

my ask would be to extend the html capability to support

, ,
, and tags so that I could construct an HTML table in my data and then provide that as data to my DOCX template using the Document Generation from Template.

Please let me know if that explains my request or if you would like further explanation.

Thank you!
-Brian

1 Like
6

Hello Brian,

I apologize for the lack of response on this thread – I do appreciate the information you’ve provided thus far, and have been discussing the particulars of a Feature Request surrounding adding table support to HTML input with our Engineering team internally. In response, our team has asked that you provide a bit more information so that they can be sure of further specific requirements that you may have:

  1. Can you provide more information about what attributes or CSS properties are required for your application?
  2. Do the template DOCX(s) used contain some predefined table styles that the HTML table might reference?

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for your patience in this request.

Best,
Kaden Rettig
Technical Support Engineer
Apryse Support Team

1 Like
7

Hi @kaden.rettig
Thank you for your reply.
I expect that for the HTML table definition, I would want to be able to support the table, th, tr, and td tags. For style properties I would want to be able to set:

  • foreground color
  • background color
  • border size / style / width / color
  • cell width

I personally do not have a need for supporting predefined table styles referenced by the table (using css classes vs inline style attributes)

The examples I have from my clients all use inline style attributes and do not use css classes

1 Like
8

Hi Brian,

Thank you very much for all of this additional information you’ve provides surrounding this Feature Request regarding adding support for HTML tables when generating tables dynamically with the PDFNet SDK. I’ve created the relevant Feature Request internally, and have informed our Engineering team of this & the specifications you’ve provided.

While there can be no ETA provided at this time, you can keep an eye on the features in our latest releases from our blog or changelog. If you have any further questions regarding this feature request or the PDFNet SDK, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Best,
Kaden Rettig
Technical Support Engineer
Apryse Support Team

1 Like
9

Hello Brian,

I wanted to reach out to let you know that our Engineering team has just added support for HTML tables via structured input in the latest Experimental version of the PDFNet SDK. While documentation for this support has not yet been added to our structured input documentation as of yet, HTML tables should be applicable in the way you’d expect.

Our team would greatly appreciate feedback regarding this new support in order to know whether it meets your needs and / or improves your workflow with the PDFNet SDK. If you’d like to try it out, please download the latest Experimental version of the PDFNet SDK from our Nightly Developer Portal here. If you have any questions regarding this new feature or Experimental versions of the PDFNet SDK, please don’t hesitate to reach out – we’d love to hear from you!

Best,
Kaden Rettig
Technical Support Engineer
Apryse Support Team

1 Like
10

LET’S GO!

Thank you @kaden.rettig !

I will add this to my weekly planning session tomorrow and find time next week to work with this. If there’s any documentation at all that you & the team can provide me, even if it’s unofficial, that would be really helpful to me to envision how this will work.

-Brian

1 Like
11

Hi Brian,

Apologies for the delayed response. Unfortunately, there is no documentation that we can provide at this time, however, the HTML input provided does not need to be formatted in any particular way; HTML tables should be able to be recognized / processed as you & your team would expect. If you see any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best,
Kaden Rettig
Technical Support Engineer
Apryse Support Team

1 Like