Automatic document creation and sharing from Airtable records

[JonathanB]

Ideally what I’d like is for the “page designer” block to have the ability to share its output automatically with different recipients who don’t have Airtable accounts themselves. I have a large base that is used to process reports that come in from forms. Each record is an individual report, which I can build into printable pdf using the page designer. But the only way to share these is to download each individual pdf and then send it by email. I would like to be able to automate this process, i.e. once a report is complete, the document generated by the page designer is automatically shared with a given recipient. Is this possible through Zapier, or any other platform? I’ve looked at a few google sheets add ons but I’m not sure they’re what I’m after. Thank you in advance for your advice! :slightly_smiling_face:

[ScottWorld]

Yeah, Page Designer has too many limitations to effectively use it in a business setting.

For example, 2 of its biggest limitations are that (1) Page Designer can only create single-page documents, and (2) Page Designer can't be automated in anyway.

However, there are lots of great ways to automatically generate documents and PDF files out of Airtable, but they require using external tools.

Here are a few options:

1. One of the most popular PDF creation tools for Airtable is DocuMint. This can be automated natively or by using Make’s DocuMint automations.

2. Another popular tool is Docs Automator, which integrates with Google Docs.

3. However, you can choose ANY document creation app that you would like, and automate the PDF creation process by using Make. You can use good old fashioned Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or even newer apps like Formstack Documents, PDF Monkey, DataBox, Tableau, or more.

Make supports over 1,600 apps natively, and it also supports all other apps that have a REST API by using its HTTP module.

There is a small learning curve with Make, which is why I created this basic navigation video to help. I also provide the links to a few other Make training resources there as well.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

[openside]

Hi @JonathanB - Advanced Reporting is a Service we offer (and have ability to send out on scheduled basis)

https://openside.com/airtable-services

Feel free to reach out at dan@openside.com to learn more

[JonathanB]

Thanks Scott - I’ve been looking at Webmerge; it does the job I want it to do but it’s quite expensive considering the quantity of documents I’d need to process (around 500 per month). I need for every new record in a view to trigger the creation of a pdf document that would then be emailed automatically to a given recipient (also determined from data within the base). I’ve looked at google sheets and some add ons that can be added to that that would achieve the same output, but I’m concerned about google’s data protection policies. The data is sensitive personal data and I need it to be secure end-to-end, such that only the intended recipient can ever access it. Airtable data protection policies are much more robust in this regard I think.

[Bill_French]

I’ve done exactly this using Google Apps Script and G-Suite with full security measures for HIPPA.

The key is to start with a paid G-Suite account ($10/month) and use that as the basis for your web services development that taps into Airtable via its API.

Then ask Google to upgrade your G-Suite account to a security level that support HIPPA. They will do this on request and it’s no additional cost. It may also just be part of the G-Suite package now.

G-Suite also provides the automation framework for running serverless scripts and a fully-baked SDK for accessing documents that exist in Google Drive or accessing the data from Airtable and creating PDFs on the fly.

Lastly, the little cheap G-Suite account can email far more than 500 documents per day without cost and the domain those emails come from can be set up to be yours.

This approach is the only one that I’ve found reliable, secure, fully customized, and commercial grade (i.e., it looks and feels like your private solution).

[Lucy_Wu]

Hi Bill. I think I have GSuite. What are the steps/clicks in airtable to get the page designer to convert to PDF and then email the PDF attachment? Hoping you can help. Thx.

[Bill_French]

Hi Lucy!

Lucy_Wu:

What are the steps/clicks in airtable to get the page designer to convert to PDF and then email the PDF attachment?

There are no such steps to make that possible (that I’m aware of).

Unfortunately content in Page Designer stays in Page Designer unless you physically (and manually) use the features provided in the block to create a process with its content. There is no automation of printing, or queuing into another process for distribution. And there is no API into the content created by Page Designer.

Ergo, Page Designer is a nice friendly cul-de-sac.

The way I created an automated and highly visual process is to pull the data from Airtable (via the API) into the G-Suite environment using Google Apps Script. Then, using the native aspects of Google Docs and Slides I built various report templates with placeholders for the data including text narratives and charts.

Then I created a simple table (in Airtable) so users could administer automation properties such as how often a report was generated, who should receive it, and the template it should be based on.

Lastly, I built the scripting process to do it all without any manual process. This involves establishing repeatable processes that use Google’s integrated chron-job platform for running scripts at various intervals.

As you can see, this is not a product or a recipe, there are succinct steps and clicks anyone could follow. Rather, it is a solution crafted for a business that embraces automation process to make its workers productive and especially where data and visualizations are key to their communications success.

All I did was leverage the great elements of Airtable which the client loves, and make it possible to build and manage the reporting process far beyond anything we could ever expect Airtable to provide.

Here’s an example output. All of the data in these pages came from Airtable.

[Matt_Lindop]

Awesome work around Bill - can you share how you did this?

[Bill_French]

@Matt_Lindop,

It’s quite simple -

• Google Apps Script reads the Airtable data into an array structure (using the API).
• The array is transformed into various objects - titles, texts, charts.
• The objects are replaced into a Google Doc report template.
• The report template is exported into Drive as a PDF.
• The PDF is attached to a gmail message and dispatched to the designated recipients.

[remy_konings]

Hello Bill,

Thank you for writing about your workflow.
I’m no programmer but i would love to create a workflow like the one you describe here for ceating and sending invoices.

Could you explain me in a bit more detail how you achieved this? :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you