Introduction
The Gravity Flow PDF Generator Extension allows administrators to add PDF creation steps at any point in a workflow. PDF templates are created using merge tags, similar to those used in notifications, and are generated when the step is triggered. as other Gravity Flow steps, the PDF Generator step supports conditional logic, scheduling, and email attachments. It provides a simple, efficient way to generate PDFs from form entries without editing configuration files, fully integrated with Gravity Flow.
For advanced PDF needs, Gravity Flow also supports the feature rich Gravity PDF plugin.
Adding a PDF Step
First, design the template. All Gravity Forms merge tags are supported.
By default, if you don’t enable the email option below, a PDF will be generated on the server which can be downloaded with the following merge tags:
{workflow_pdf_download_link}
or
{workflow_pdf_download_url}
The {workflow_pdf_download_link} merge tag supports the following optional attributes:
| Parameter | Type | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
text | String | The text displayed for the PDF download link. | "Download PDF" |
signed | Boolean (true/false) | Determines whether to add a signature to the URL, bypassing all permission checks. | Not specified (false) |
expires | String | Specifies the duration the URL remains valid (e.g., “1 week”). Requires signed to be true. | "20 minutes" |
Example
{workflow_pdf_download_link: text="Download your document" signed="true" expires="1 day"}
Note that the text attribute is not supported by the {workflow_pdf_download_url} merge tag which supports only the signed and expires attributes.
If the merge tag is signed then all permission checks are skipped. If you do not sign the merge tag, the permissions for the current user are checked before the PDF is delivered to the browser. If the current user has access to the workflow entry then the request will be fulfilled. Permissions for accessing the entry are determined by the following:
- gravityforms_view_entries capability
- gravityflow_status_view_all capability
- the current user is an assignee of the current step
It’s also possible to construct a URL without the merge tags like this:
yourserver.com/?gravityflow-pdf-entry-id=999
(replace 999 with the ID of the entry)
Email the PDF as an Attachment
Enable the ‘send by email’ setting to send the PDF to the selected users. Selecting the role will send the email to all the users in the role. All Gravity Forms merge tags are supported.
When ‘Send by email’ is enabled then, the PDF would be sent with the default name and can also be downloaded from the server. If ‘Custom File Name’ is chosen, a custom name for the file sent via email can be specified. This custom name would be used for the file saved on the server.
Note: Any slashes ( / or \ ) included in the Custom File Names will be stripped out of the generated filename to avoid directory/folder related issues.
Note: you can use the <pagebreak /> tag to add page breaks to your PDF.