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I am a creator — PDF Document Generator - Walter Brame

walter_brame
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

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EDIT

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A lot has changed over the years.

Be sure to check here first:

https://developer.servicenow.com/dev.do#!/reference/api/quebec/server/sn_pdfgeneratorutils-namespace/CellBothAPI?navFilter=pdf

Have also enjoyed repurposing Webkit HTML to PDF plugin:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/geneva-performance-analytics-and-reporting/page/use/performance_analytics/task/t_ActivateWHTP.html

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ORIGINAL

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PDF Document Generator is used by the ServiceNow, Inc. sales organization and is a generic HTML form creation and PDF Document generation framework.   The framework supports creating HTML forms and PDF files using any UI Form in the instance as a template.

 

The PDF Document Generator will replicate how that standard UI Form looks but then provides the functionality to change it easily as a front-end user without requiring development.

 

A PDF feature exists today in the standard platform but it is not customizable. The PDF Document Generator allows for rapid deployment of multiple templates and making changes on the fly to every component visible on the screen very quickly and easily.

 

Previously, the Sales organization was challenged with the ability to produce Quotes and Sales Orders from a CRM environment. With this custom ServiceNow, Inc. app in place, it is now possible for the front-end business users (sales operations, systems managers, administrators, power users, non-developers) to access configuration tools that put control of the following features directly into their hands:

 

- Add/remove fields as needed

- Change any fields placement and the field's label, orientation, or value

- Change any section/grouping or fields / Table of information (E.g. "Section 1", "Section 2", etc.)

- Add/remove new sections present in the form

- Manage an entire section's placement, splits, annotations, and headers

- Re arrange the placement of components in the form (E.g. one component relative to the next)

- Change the look and feel (color, border, padding, alignment, etc.) via common HTML and CSS style attributes.

- A scripting API to create dynamic conditions to change any aspect of the form and data (style, value, label, section, etc.).

- Save templates of form layouts

- Preview and print to PDF

 

The functionality of this PDF Document Generator was made possible by leveraging the ability to write custom scripts in the standard ServiceNow platform, and by having access to the backend table structure and data where forms are stored in the instance (standard UI page, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript).   A single developer, in a time frame of one business quarter, built the PDF Document Generator.

 

pdf_doc_gen_img_1.png

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pdf_doc_gen_img_4.png

pdf_doc_gen_img_5.png

pdf_doc_gen_img_6.png !

 
99 REPLIES 99

Shannon Burns
Kilo Sage

I am using this plugin (in London), but it is not pulling in the signatures from the tasks. 

It says insert ${sig_task:correlation_id} , but that returns undefined.

 

Thanks,
Shannon

M_rio Rui Castr
Kilo Expert

Know that this article is already old and ServiceNow improved considerably in PDF exporting capabilities. I still believe that in terms of template customization, it still lacks a bunch.

Although not able to export data directly to PDF format with nice templates, we developed an application that allows you to generate DOCX, PPTX and XLSX files directly from ServiceNow, from forms or list with only the data that you want. You can prepare your own templates with your colors, fonts, etc. and then get the data there via ServiceNow.

After generation, you can do any modification needed in MSOffice and save it to a PDF format.

If you are curious about it, we have an article with some more information:
 

Abdul Khan4
Kilo Guru

Hi Walter,

I don't see this available in Share anymore. How can I access this now? 

Please help.

 

Thanks

Abdul Khan

 

sabrinavilla
Tera Contributor

Hi,

I'm trying to use PDF Generator but I am having some problems with images.

I tried putting image in the header section:

but when I generate the pdf this view appears:

 

 

the same if I attach the image directly in the body.

 

I tried to take the company logo from the companies table (U16 banner image or banner image) but no image is displayed, only the sys_id.

 

Do you have any suggestions?

 

Thank you,

Sabrina

 

Hi Sabrina,

I never got those headers and footers to work good with the previous PDF generator.
I think the iText5 hinders this in some way.

Best advice is to switch to the new way to generate PDF's in ServiceNow using iText7:
https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_article&sys_id=2e2e69d71bdaa0d038739979b04bc...