What data can be piped into custom documents

Most OpenForms response data can be piped into custom documents, including field responses and metadata such as receipt numbers and submission dates.

For information on how to prepare templates to receive the data described here, see Format Microsoft Word templates for custom documents and Format Adobe PDF templates for custom documents

Form fields

Custom documents can receive response data from the following form fields. This data is piped slightly differently into Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word templates.

When a single form field can output multiple kinds of data (for example, a signature field can pipe a signature image or a signatory name into a custom document) this is noted under 'mapping options.'

To learn more about mapping form data to template fields, see generate custom documents from response data.

Form Field	Piped as (Adobe PDF)	Piped as (MS Word)	Mapping options
Text	Text	Text	N/A
Number	Text	Text	N/A
Email	Text	Text	N/A
Date*	Text	Text	N/A
Radio	Mark on a radio button	Text	N/A
Dropdown	Text	Text	N/A
Checkbox	Mark a checkbox	Text, displayed as a comma separated list for multiple values	N/A
Signature**	Image and/or text	Image and/or text	Signature -- Image Signature -- Signatory’s Name
Location	Text	Text	Address Latitude and longitude
File Uploads	Links, shown as a comma separated list for multiple uploads	Links, shown as a comma separated list for multiple uploads	N/A
Payment	Text	Text	Payment -- Total Amount Payment -- Surcharge Amount Payment -- Convenience Fee Amount Payment -- Transaction ID Payment -- Payment Gateway
Calculator	Text	Text	N/A

*Date data is piped into templates using region-specific formatting (either MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY) depending on where your organization is based.

**Signature images are automatically resized to fit the area you've selected for them in PDF templates, and downscaled to 278 pixels wide in Word templates.

Form data

You can also pipe form metadata into custom documents. This can be especially useful when adding receipt numbers and dates to documents like tax receipts.

Here’s the metadata that can be piped into custom documents, and how it is displayed in documents generated from Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word templates:

Form metadata	Piped as (Adobe PDF)	Piped as (MS Word)	Mapping options
Form name	Text	Text	N/A
Receipt number	Text	Text	N/A
Response reference ID	Text	Text	N/A
Submission date*	Text	Text	Submission date Submission date and time
External system status	Text	Text	N/A
External system reference ID	Text	Text	N/A

*When using the Submission date mapping option, a response's submission time is piped as HH:MM AM/PM

Data that can’t be piped

Some form data can’t be piped into custom documents just yet. Here’s what you can’t add to custom documents at the moment:

Unsupported form fields

Rank
Radio Matrix
Checkbox Matrix
Content
Groups (standard, repeatable, and office use only)
Entire groups cannot be mapped into custom documents, but the fields in those groups can be (including the fields in repeatable groups).

Unsupported metadata

Response ID
Links to a response PDF
Workflow information
Snippets

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