Generate Custom Documents from Response Data

Enterprise plan

Custom documents streamline the post-submission process by piping response data into official records and documents, and automatically sending them to the people that need them.

As you create forms, consider what documents you might need to generate from response data. For example

• Payment receipts to be sent to respondents and staff
• Certificates or permits respondents have applied for
• Standard letters that quote information from a response
• Duplicates of paper forms that need to be filed in addition to the online OpenForm

How It Works

There are several steps to set up a custom document:

1. Create Word or PDF templates
2. Upload the template to OpenForms
3. Set your template options
4. Map template fields to OpenForms fields
5. Save your mapped template and use the template library
6. Attach the mapped template to automated emails

When set up correctly, OpenForms will pipe data from received responses to the custom document template you created and attached to automated emails. These custom documents are then sent to the specified recipients as attachments.

OpenForms will also store copies of sent custom documents in the form's Responses.

Create a Template

OpenForms generates custom documents by piping response data into templates you've created in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. This allows you to heavily customize the design of these documents, but also means that they must be formatted in a specific way to work with OpenForms.

Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF templates are also formatted differently and suit different document types, so we recommend reading more about them before deciding which template to create:

• Format Microsoft Word templates for custom documents
• Format Adobe PDF templates for custom documents

Most kinds of response data and form metadata can be piped into a custom document; we recommend consulting the complete list of data you can pipe into a custom document as you create your template.

Upload Your Formatted Template

To upload a formatted template file to OpenForms:

1. Go to your form > Settings > Form documents.

   

2. Select Upload a prepared template under Custom Documents.

   

3. Enter a Template name; this is what your template will be called in your form’s template library and when you attach it to emails.

4. Enter a Document Name; this is what custom documents generated from this template will be called. You can pipe form data into this as you would into email subject lines.

5. Upload your template by clicking in the upload window or dragging and dropping a file there. OpenForms will scan the file for viruses as it uploads.

6. Once the file is scanned, select Next.

   

Template Options and Information

Before you map fields, you should understand the template information and options you have in this screen.

At the top of the screen, you can see the Template name and any Response emails or Workflow emails it is being Used in. If you've just uploaded this template, these will be zero, but once it is being used, you can select either button to view more details.

At the top right of the template mapping screen, you’ll also see some setup options for your template. These are:

Map Template Fields to OpenForms Fields

In the Field mapping section, you can use the drop-down menus to select which Template field is going to Map to OpenForms field. Use the two columns to map your OpenForms data to the template fields you've set up in your template file, so OpenForms knows where to pipe response data.

Here's a bit more information on each of the columns:

If you need to start over for any reason, you can select Clear all mappings from the Map to OpenForms field drop-down menu.

Save Your Template and Use the Template Library

With the mapping complete, select Save and your mapped template will be added to the form's template library.

You can now attach it to automated emails, but if you need to access the template library go to the form Settings > Form documents and scroll to the list of templates. Each form can have up to twenty custom document templates it its template library.

This area will allow you to:

• See the Template name, when it was Last edited and by whom, and which workflow and response emails it is Used in.
  
  
• Edit the template mapping or its options by selecting the Template name or selecting Edit mapping from the ... menu.
• Download and change the template by selecting Download template from the ... menu. To re-upload, select the template and use the pencil icon option to edit it.
• Select Delete from the ... menu to remove it from the library.

Attach Mapped Templates to Automated Emails

Once uploaded and mapped, you can attach a custom document to an automated email by selecting the + button under Add attachments and selecting the Template name on an email.

Now, when the email is triggered, OpenForms will pipe response data into your attached template and send the completed custom document to the email recipient. 

Which templates you attach to emails may depend on the purpose of the custom document you want to generate. For example:

• Attach a receipt template to the submission confirmation email for forms that take a payment, so that respondents receive an official receipt when they submit a response.
• Attach a permit template to the workflow notification email sent when permit application responses have moved to an “approved” final step. You can direct this to respondents and internal teams, so both parties are automatically sent the permit once a reviewer has approved it.

• Attach a template that is an exact replica of a paper form to the response notification email directed to your organization’s records department, so that online and paper responses are filed together. 

To prevent documents from bypassing a review process, custom documents cannot be manually generated; they can only be generated as attachments to automated emails. If a template is listed as Not currently in use, then you cannot generate a custom document from it. However, you can review custom documents that have been sent for a response.

Review Sent Documents

You can review custom documents that have been generated and sent by going a response in the form's Responses tab and expanding Form documents. This will list all generated custom documents for that response and the default response PDF. When you hover over a document in the list, you can:

• Select the document or the download button to download the document.
  
• Select the bin icon to delete the document.
• Export all custom documents generated for the response by selecting Download > Advanced export and checking Custom documents generated from response data before selecting Export.
  

You can also download all custom documents generated for all responses to a form, or a filtered set of responses, by selecting Bulk actions > Export [x] responses and checking Custom documents generated from response data before you Export.

These options are useful for archiving purposes if you need to delete responses to manage your organization's storage quota.

What Else?

• What data can be piped into custom documents
• Format Microsoft Word templates for custom documents
• Format Adobe PDF templates for custom documents
• Send automated emails to staff and respondents
• View form responses