Create monthly PDF report for each table and send email with the PDFs

[Surdusvacca]

Hi, sorry I need help for this one.

I have been looking at this document: https://support.google.com/appsheet/answer/11541779 but I have to admit I dont understand since it is not working for me.

The app is some kind of Audit app where we do an audit of some employees to catch up if they're are doing good. The authorities require at any given time we can provide a printed paper of the audits.

I have 7 tables of which I would like to create a monthly report.
I want to create a monthly report for table: Xray, one for CMD, one for, DGR etc.

My plan was to create the bot as scheduled to run the last day in month around 11:45pm
My dream is that it generates 1 PDF file pr. table, where each PDF shows records for the current month.

Example of Xray table:

The other 6 tables that needs a PDF file as well is exactly the same, just with different 'questions'

Until now I have tried playing around, but nomatter what I do, it never generates the PDF when I use scheduled.

I try set the Schedule by hour just to make the creation go faster

Here is just simple PDF creation

In this template not all questions are present I know. I dont want to play around with correct design until the PDF is actually created. 
I really dont understand how to use these Start end End expressions?

[T_I_Phong]

You can try the Start:  <<Start: Filter(Xray, true)>><<[Dato for kontrol]>>

[Surdusvacca]

In the first place, I didn't work for me. But it does now, so thank you. I kind of found out the problem, but is actually not solved 😞 Not sure if I should accept your answer as solution and create new post with the problem I just found out 😕

It's a long story, but for my account, I am signed in with DropBox.
One of my apps needs instant sync from cloud to Dropbox installed on a pc. Dropbox is the only provider that does this. With Google, the sync time from cloud to Gdrive can vary from 30-60 seconds.

So.. yeah.. Because of that, I am signed in with Dropbox.
The next couples of apps I was creating I did under the login method of Dropbox as well because I would like to keep all apps with the same login.

But this Dropbox login apparently comes with a downside I haven't thought about.

An app that doesn't need instant sync and actually doesnt have to work with dropbox, but Google could be fine, then in the Automation section when I create a new Template file for PDF, it's created at dropbox.
Even though I have changed to Google storage provider everywhere in settings for this app.
If I add new records in the app, they are perfectly saved under the storage of google. But as soon as it comes to BOT and generate the PDF file, it always want to create the Temp file at dropbox. The downside of this, is that when you hit view button, it downloades as a Word file.
And this is apparently the problem with my START / END expression. MS Word dosen't understand this and the bot throw errors when it tries to create the pdf file.

So.. What can I do now?
I have searched google crazy much to find out if it's possible to force use of temp file from Google and save the PDF file at google even though the account is signed in through dropbox?

I am specifically thinking about this part:

Template: This is the path at DropBox, but I was kind of hoping you can force it to go to Google Drive?
/appsheet/data/SecurityKontrol/Content/TestTemplate.docx

File Folder Path I guess if the above can be solved, then this is just where the actual PDF file created would be saved?

[AleksiAlkio]

The app saves all your files into the default provider you have used when you first time logged to AppSheet.. and this is something that you can't change later. The only solution is to create a new AppSheet account using your Google account. Remember you can add additional data sources like DropBox to your account.

[AleksiAlkio]

And btw.. you can also create one PDF with all of your tables, they don't need to be separate PDFs.

[Surdusvacca]

Yeah I was afraid that it was not possible to change where files are saved 😞
This means I need to handle apps from 2 accounts which I am not fan of 🙂

Can we turn it around then? If I want to keep using the account signed in with Dropbox, can I make the Word template understand the START and END expression? Or am I forced to use Google Docs to do this?

I already have an account signed in with Google as well, I just dont use it because I would like to keep all apps under the Dropbox. I also pay for Core license with the Dropbox account.
I guess I have to pay again if I use the same email to sign in to Google? It see this as 2 different accounts, right?

[AleksiAlkio]

Yes you can use Start & End with Word. The license should not be a problem, you can change it.. just remove licenses away from the existing account in the end of the period and buy them from another account.

Yes the account is different because the auth ID is different.

[Surdusvacca]

Thanks for your answer again AleksiAlkio.

Will I have to do something specific to make MS word understand the START and END expression?

When I use it, the BOT gives an error saying the body is empty.

If I do the exact same setup when signed in with a google account and use a template with google docs, it works fine without any problem.

[AleksiAlkio]

No, nothing special is needed with Start & End when using MS Word. It should work with the same way. Maybe the reason is something else.  Would you please take a printscreen from the template + error message.