Generating documents from a form

This is the part a plain form builder can't do: attach one of your document templates to a form, and every submission also generates a finished document — an invoice, a certificate, an agreement — built from the answers.

A form works without this. Add it only when you want a document out the other end.

Attaching a template

In the builder's Settings tab, under Document generation, click Link a template and pick one of your document templates. A new Document tab appears in the builder once a template is linked — that's where you manage everything below.

When you attach a template, Automette auto-matches the template's variables to form fields with the same names, so a lot of the mapping is done for you.

Mapping fields

The Document tab lists every variable the template needs. For each one, choose where its value comes from:

• From a form field — the answer to a question on the form. This is the default and the common case.
• Fixed value — a constant you type once, the same on every document.
• System value — filled in at submission time rather than answered:
  • Submission date — the date the form was submitted.
  • Submission date & time — date and time, in UTC.
  • Submission ID — the submission's unique id, handy as a document reference number.
• Template default — leave the variable to whatever the template already defines.

If the template needs a value your form doesn't collect yet, you can add a matching field to the form without leaving the mapping view.

Output

Also in the Document tab:

• Formats — choose the output formats (for example PDF, or PDF and PNG). Leave empty to use the template's default.
• File name — set a naming pattern for the generated file, overriding the template's. Tokens include {template}, {date}, {datetime}, {random}, and any document field.

Delivering the document

Once a form generates a document, you have three ways to get it to people:

• On the page — set Settings → After submit to Deliver the generated document, and the respondent sees or downloads the PDF immediately.
• By email — in the Document tab, turn on emailing the document and pick which email field to send it to. The respondent gets a link to their document.
• To your systems — the form.submitted webhook and the render webhooks carry the generated document's details, so you can pick it up wherever you work.

Every generated document also appears in the Document column of the form's Responses table.

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