Creating a PDF template
Advantages of using PDF templates:
- Can produce PDF files.
Disadvantages compared with text templates:
- Produce larger documents.
- More difficulty maintaining the templates over time.
- More time is needed to create the document (especially when the PDF optimization configuration parameter is enabled).
You can create PDF template forms using several applications:
Every PDF form field name needs to be unique; you cannot set the same property value for several form fields.
Preliminaries
Register the Metadata group definition at Administration > Metadata.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE property-groups PUBLIC "-//OpenKM//DTD Property Groups 3.10//EN"
"http://www.openkm.com/dtd/property-groups-3.10.dtd">
<property-groups>
<property-group label="Sample Template" name="okg:tpl">
<input label="Name" name="okp:tpl.name"/>
<input label="Birth Date" name="okp:tpl.birth_date" type="date"/>
<select label="Language" name="okp:tpl.language" type="simple">
<option label="Java" value="java"/>
<option label="Python" value="python"/>
<option label="PHP" value="php" />
</select>
<checkbox label="Important" name="okp:tpl.important"/>
</property-group>
</property-groups>To establish a relationship between the template form fields and the property group, name them using a naming convention: replace ":" and "." with "_". Here you can see the matching between both fields:
| Metadata field name | Template field name | Template field value |
|---|---|---|
|
okp:tpl.name |
okp_tpl_name |
${okp_tpl_name!} |
|
okp:tpl.birth_date |
okp_tpl_birth_date |
${okp_tpl_birth_date!} |
|
okp:tpl.language |
okp_tpl_language |
${okp_tpl_language!} |
|
okp:tpl.important |
okp_tpl_important |
${okp_tpl_important!} |
Creating the template
We recommend using Acrobat Pro or Master PDF Editor to avoid problems.
This is a sample template created with Master PDF Editor:
Date format
OpenKM uses FreeMarker internally, so you can take advantage of FreeMarker's formatting features. For example, you can set the date format in this way:
${okp_tpl_birth_date?string("yyyy-MM-dd")}Learn more about FreeMarker formatting at Built-in Reference.
