Improve the document template please (especially styling)

Question

Improve the document template please (especially styling)

109

I know the idea has been put out before and got closed: https://community.mendix.com/link/ideas/11
It got around 67 votes before it was closed due to no space in the Mendix planning for it during 2018, not because it wasn't a much needed or impossible improvement.

so..... Let's put the idea out there for 2019!

(It would be nice if I could tell people that Mendix could generate a neat pdf with a few different colours based on certain values, a nice header etc. but I seriously advise against pdf's or words from Mendix directly right now because you can't do much that you would want to show a customer)

asked 2018-11-09

Desiree de Ridder

24 answers

Good idea

Created 2018-12-12

Elvis Fleury Nzoyoum Soh

Andreas Blaesius · Answer 1 · 2019-01-18

It finaly made it to the top. There must be a very good reason still to ignore it.

Desiree de Ridder · Answer 2 · 2019-01-14

Yeah, kind of waiting to pronounce this the topic to have the dubious honour of having the most votes

Andreas Blaesius · Answer 3 · 2019-01-14

Only a few upvotes left to be the most upvoted idea of all time.

Robert M Dominiczak · Answer 4 · 2019-01-09

@Mendix architects,

please notice, that this feature is really important for showing customers the power and completeness of Mendix framework.

Rapido · Answer 5 · 2019-01-08

-1 for Mendix which doesn't work on this feature, unless the sufferings of the masses

Desiree de Ridder · Answer 6 · 2019-01-08

Yeah, I had hope they'd react after a month or two. You'd think that seeing the same idea at the top this often would at least invoke a reaction even it were: we'll take a look at it later

Alexander Keßler · Answer 7 · 2019-01-08

It is sad, that there is still no official comment on this topic after almost two months.

Lukas Tost · Answer 8 · 2019-01-08

Definitively one of the most requested feature update and currently one of the clunky parts that do not seem to blend in with the rest of the improving functionalities. I hope this is high on the list

Gerrit Kiefer · Answer 9 · 2019-01-08

Great idea!

Marcel Groeneweg ITV · Answer 10 · 2018-12-15

OK I did the previous one so I'm definitely backing this attempt too. There really must be a usable document generator in the modeler, without Java libraries and most definitely without additional cost. This is a very basic function which is now working very poorly, to put it mildly.

Andreas Blaesius · Answer 11 · 2018-12-13

@Desiree But this is an idea that has a lot of upvotes. And it has already a lot of upvotes for the second time.

Desiree de Ridder · Answer 12 · 2018-12-13

I can imagine Mendix has a lot of ideas to sort through @Andreas. But I agree, a little bit of feedback whether it will finally be considered would be great :)

Andreas Blaesius · Answer 13 · 2018-12-13

I am very interested in getting some feedback on this from the Mendix Team. It seems to be a very popular idea and has already been a very popular idea a year ago.

I thought it was the idea behind the idea forum to make mendix better based on great and popular ideas from the idea forum.

I fully understand that it can not be implemented immediately, but no reaction at all is a little bit disappointing.

Alexander Keßler · Answer 14 · 2018-12-13

@Armando Jacobus: WordTemplater module from JAM-IT is again another custom widget with extra license costs.

Floor Verhoeven · Answer 15 · 2018-12-12

Oh I'm getting everyone behind this!!!

Armando Jacobus · Answer 16 · 2018-12-12

You can also use the WordTemplater module from JAM-IT to generate docx documents based on Microsoft Word templates with the use of variables, markup and other fun stuff.

https://appstore.home.mendix.com/link/app/106722/JAM-IT/WordTemplater

Hunter Koppen · Answer 17 · 2018-12-10

The current document generation in mendix might possibly the most outdated feature mendix has to offer. Its very frustrating to have to explain to clients that it takes a long time just to make very basic PDF, especially when they are used to high speed development that mendix does provide.

Maarten Bongers · Answer 18 · 2018-12-06

Yep this is very limited at the moment and has been for several years, would be nice to see an improvement!

Rom van Arendonk · Answer 19 · 2018-12-06

Cool Pim, if you provide that service free of charge, I'll gladly use it in any project!

Andreas Blaesius · Answer 20 · 2018-12-05

I feel like add a comment to this every day, just to keep it on top of the Idea List :-)

Alexander Keßler · Answer 21 · 2018-12-04

The document generation in Mendix hasn't seen any updates in the past years and is just not state-of-the-art anymore.
We need a new and better builtin document generation with easy to use templates, tokens and styles asap.

To quote the previous idea from Marcel Groeneweg:"It is really hard to explain that I can build an entire application in just a few days and then spend another three days to produce a PDF that fits the styling guidelines!"

Pim van der Noll · Answer 22 · 2018-11-12

In the meantime you can use our module for creating beautiful documents based on MS Word: https://appstore.home.mendix.com/link/app/2026/Appronto/Document-generation-4-Mendix

short movie here: https://youtu.be/tKb-IubHN6A

Austin McNicholas · Answer 23 · 2018-11-12

I was just about to submit an idea for this, glad its already here!