How to generate and add to a record a pdf file from a workflow template?

Hello friends, i’ve seen some posts discussing this subject, but i don’t think there has been a clear answer yet, and I’m really interested in implementing this to my app.

As the title says, how can i generate a PDF file based on a google docs template, and somehow show it in my app? Could be a link to view the file somewhere else, I’m not too picky about it hehe.

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Basically, turn off the filename timestamp, and give it a specific name that you can easily reference. Then put that correct filename and path into a File type column.

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Basically, turn off the filename timestamp, and give it a specific name that you can easily reference. Then put that correct filename and path into a File type column.

So i would have a specific name for each row basically? what happens when i generate a second file with the same name? is the first one overwritten?

I usually use a gsheet formula with a simple row formula , in a column. For the files , I concatenate the name with that column , so I get file1.pdf, file2.pdf. etc.

When I need to generate multiple pdf from the same row, I add in the equation a change column, that increases when I press an action button for pdf , so I get File11.pdf , file12.pdf,file21.pdf, etc.

I think others use the now() in the concatenation for file names

Man, this was waaaaaay easier than i thought it would be, thanks a lot guys @Marc_Dillon @OptimiX_XcrY you’re the best !

Hey guys, just one last thing @Marc_Dillon @OptimiX_XcrY , I only need 1 file per row for my table, so i’ll have a static name for each, but sometimes it may happen that here might be new versions of the same file, how can i force appsheet to “refresh” the PDF file it has already stored?

I thought since all I gave the app was a relative file path, all updates would be automatic, but right now I have one old version of a PDF shown in my app, while the newer version sits in my drive folder.

The only way to force AppSheet to make the updated copy of a file is to use a different file name.

Thank you Steve, i’ll add a numeric suffix then.

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