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MachForm Community Forums » MachForm 4
[Request] Notification email included as .PDF attachment.
Started 10 years ago by MvdL1979 | 19 posts |
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Hi Yuniar,
I have asked for this in the past, unfortunately it still wasn't added in MachForm version 4 unfortunately.
We still would like to have the ability to 'Send Confirmation Email to User' in 'Notification Settings' to be send in .pdf format as an attachment. That way, we can send our customers our contracts which already has all the necessary details (through an email template) with the values entered in the online form.
I don't think it's really hard to code this. It's just another step (convert to .pdf format) in between and probably create a simple on/off togle like "send email normal" or "send as .pdf attachment" + with some basic text for the email itself ofcourse.
As mentioned, we asked in the past for this and it would be looked into. I think we asked for this about 2 years ago? We would really would love to have this function. For a different website of ours we already have this option, however we don't use MachForm for it on that site, but something custom coded for Joomla.
However we would really appreciate this function also to be included in MachForm. Especially considering we have been a loyal MachForm customer (Unlimited License) since March 2008 (6 years and counting)!
I will try to rephrase, in case you don't understand exactly what I mean; you have the ability to send the user (who filled in the form) a confirmation email with template variables or even a custom template based on the filled in values (which we did use in the past). However we want this template (with filled in details) to be send as an attachment in .pdf format along with some basic text in the email (for example the text 'please read the .pdf, sign it and return it to us).
Thank you in advance.
//update #1
Found mPDF as a possible solution. Maybe you can include this into MachForm?
I quote from their website:mPDF is a PHP class which generates PDF files from UTF-8 encoded HTML. It is based on FPDF and HTML2FPDF, with a number of enhancements.Website: http://www.mpdf1.com/mpdf/index.php
Ofcourse if you have a better idea or solution which makes a 1-on-1 email > .pdf is ofcourse also fine. Thanks.
//update #2
Though I just noticed now, the latest version of mPDF requires PHP 5.5 as a bare minimum (earlier versions are fine), so probably you know a better solution as you are a developer / scripter anyways. Anyways, we would really like to see this incorporated in MachForm after all these years. It would be a very big 'plus' for us.Posted 10 years ago # -
After waiting over a week still no answer at all. Kinda disappointing.
Seems support went a little bit downhill as it was in the past?This might even turn away some new customers...
I also submitted a few bugs (previous post) which was also unanswered... Not a good way to treat loyal customers. Oh well.
Maybe I will have an answer next week or so (if I am lucky).Posted 10 years ago # -
@Mvdl1979, if you need timely support, I would suggest contacting Appnitro directly by email or their contact form (detail at foot of this page), as they don't monitor this forum 24/7. Specific tech support requests (as you mention reporting bugs) should be sent directly to them.
Their business hours are 9 to 5 Mon to Fri (Indonesian time GMT +7). Their contact form is here: http://www.appnitro.com/contact, or use their email customer.service (at) appnitro (dot) com (as stated at foot of their web site pages).
Turn around response to email directly to them is within 1 business day, but longer on the forum since they don't monitor it 24/7, and only sometimes do you see Yuniar posting responses.
Posted 10 years ago # -
yuniar
@MvdL1979 -- sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
Regarding feature request, please feel free to post it into this forum. We always recommend people to post any feature request into this forum.
We're not promising to implement every feature request.
However, most of the time, when a feature is highly needed by other people, it will receive lots of votes from other users.Once a feature is requested by many people, we can then consider to implement it.
MachForm Founder
Posted 10 years ago # -
Well I was hoping as a long standing / loyal customer, I would get some advantage over new members.
I already asked about this option about 2 years ago and unfortunately it was ignored.We have been a customer since early 2008 and was hoping being a loyal and long standing customer would get an advantage with this. Apparently not the case with Appnitro unfortunately.
But I understand your point of view. The more people ask for a certain option, the more you can sell, instead of adding 1 useful option for just a single customer. I get it...
Posted 10 years ago # -
yuniar
I'm sorry, there is nothing personal with this, but our feature request policy remain the same since the first version of MachForm.
We just don't want MachForm to be bloated with too many features.We'd rather have a simple set of features but being used by most people.
If you take a look further into this forum, you'll see that there lots of feature request and lots of them aren't being implemented or approved.It's actually more difficult to reject a new feature instead of adding it.
I believe you (or many other people) like MachForm in the first place because it's simple and doesn't do 100 other things you don't need.MachForm Founder
Posted 10 years ago # -
Well it does currently do 20 things which we don't need or are completely useless to us. But do we complain about this no?
But then again, I understand it completely the more request are made for something, you will gladly add is asap (and probably in a newer version). That way you can sell way more stuff. Same thing happened with the first Machform when you changed the text for upgrades. Used to be completely free and later it was changed to major version.
Again I fully understand. Even with Machform / Appnitro money is the most important thing and keeping loyal customers happy comes second obviously. Oh well, PDF-function is important to us, so we doubt we will be upgrading our unlimited license in the future.
Apparently developers nowadays don't really care anymore about loyal customers, as long as they can make $$$ quick. We have been a customer over 6 years (with unlimited licenses) and if we ask for a simple thing to be included, you are out of luck it seems. If we now do continue with Machform, which I doubt, we will have to hire a seperate coder to include this function and get screwed over again when a new version is being released, because we will have to re-hire the coder and spend more money (= down the drain)...
Oh well... Pointless to continue, you made up your mind you just don't want to add the .pdf function, otherwise this would have been added several years ago when we asked for it the first time. Money comes first, customers second.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I would like the ability to send a .pdf file as well with the confirmation email that is sent.
There is another piece of software I also use (not for forms, for something else), and in their forum area they actually have a New Features and Suggestions area and a Custom Development area (along with the General Discussion area). Obviously New Features and Suggestion is just that and you are able to respond or add to a suggestion.
The Custom Development area is for additional code/features that people have created to share with other users. I have picked up some useful code modifications through posts by other people. In some cases, that code has made it into a new release of the software.
Yuniar - maybe you will consider adding these sections to the forum.
Mvdl1979 - I have added custom code to my forms for functionality that isn't in the base software. I document where I have added the code. I have gone through quite a few upgrades and haven't lost any custom functionality yet. That's the purpose of testing out an upgrade before putting it into production. Oh - like I tell my kids, it's all in the approach...
Posted 10 years ago # -
yuniar
I found an alternative way to create PDF you might want to try:
http://lifehacker.com/pdf-convert-instantly-turns-an-email-into-a-pdf-1472640172The way it work, you can simply send the content to pdfconvert@pdfconvert.me and it will send you back the email as PDF file.
Using the above, you can simply use the email logic within MachForm to send a copy of the form to the above email and use your client's address as the sender. So that the PDF will be sent back to your client.
The only drawback, the PDF will be sent back to your client using the address @pdfconvert.me
Not a 100% perfect solution, but you can explain this within the original email that being sent to your client, something like "An email containing a PDF receipt will be sent to you shortly as well"MachForm Founder
Posted 10 years ago # -
Hi Yuniar, I'd like to graciously request this feature which will allow the form to be emailed as a PDF. I will attempt to use this work around.
Thanks!
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'd also like to bump this as a big feature request - we have daily requests from people in our organization wishing that they could receive emails with PDF's formatted with their form information (maybe have it set up the same way as the notifications field where it can be HTML or just form data
Posted 9 years ago # -
We could use this feature BIG TIME! We are using pdfconvert.me, it's a work around and it does work, but it does look unprofessional and can be quite challenging to get the responses setup properly when building the form and the logic.
Thanks for all your hard work Yuniar!
Aaron
Posted 9 years ago # -
I am a new member and was hoping this was capable as well as possibly attaching the .csv export format to certain email addresses as well
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yes I would like this feature too please :-)
Posted 9 years ago # -
yuniar
Update on this, the feature to let you send the form data as PDF file within the email is coming into the next version update (v4.4), soon! :-)
MachForm Founder
Posted 9 years ago # -
Please also include the images into the pdf as well if possible, not the links, but the actual images displaying inline in the form. We have had requests for this capability since 4.1. An option to turn this on in the same pdf setup would be great!
Thanks again for all your incredible work!
Posted 9 years ago # -
yuniar
@vdo-ph
Yes, images will be displayed inline within the email and the PDF file as well.
MachForm Founder
Posted 9 years ago # -
I cant wait!
Posted 9 years ago # -
If you'd like to generate customized PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents from your form entries, you can use a service called WebMerge. Here's an article that outlines how to generate an invoice: https://www.webmerge.me/blog/populate-a-customized-pdf-invoice-from-machform
Each form you setup can be attached to a unique document/template and it can be emailed, sent to cloud storage like Box or Dropbox, or even sent for e-signature with services like DocuSign or CudaSign.
Posted 9 years ago #
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