Auto-expand tables and lists

When working with document templates you create nicely formatted tables and lists from your data by simply creating a table or list with a single row and inserting a variable representing multiple items.

Doxey will then take the given row as a blueprint and creates a row for each item in your variable.

As we have seen in the previous sections, variables may contain a list of values.

If you are for example loading a worksheet from your Google Sheet that consists of two columns called name and email you will find variables for each column looking like this:

row[].name

row[].email

The square brackets indicate that the variable row contains multiple items with two named values each, name and email. These variables are suitable for being used in tables and lists.

If you use these variables in lists or tables in your template, just insert them into the list or table. Doxey will then auto-expand the table or list to create a row for each item in your list.

Lists

Let us now create a list from the rows in your worksheet.

Simply create a list in your Google Document by clicking on one of the list types.

Insert the variable that contains multiple values into the list like this:

1. $[mysheet[].name]

A preview of the document may look like this:

1. Daniel Florey
2. Oliver Zeigermann
3. Esther Cornils

The generated document will contain a list containing the values from the name column in your sheet.

That was easy, right?

Tables

In the same way you can create dynamic tables.

Insert a table with two rows and two columns into your template. Insert the column headers into the first row and the variables into the second row so that our table looks like this:

Note that you can use all the formatting capabilities of Google Docs like table background color, font sizes etc.

Generate the document from your template and you will get a nicely formatted table:

But that is not all!

You can quite easily create different row styles for even and odd rows.

Just add another row to your table in the template containing the same variables.

Add a different background color or any other formatting to the new row so that your table may look like this:

In this example the second row now has a different background color.

The generated document will now use the different row styles as a blueprint for the alternating rows in the generated table:

Advances techniques

Displaying multi-level data

In this example the second cell contains a list of books for the author in the first cell of the row..

Generate the document from your template and you will get a nicely formatted table:

Using conditions in auto-generated tables and lists

As you have learned in the previous sections you can generate tables and lists from structured data and you can use conditions in your templates.

With Doxey you can combine these techniques to achieve great results.

You can use if statements in a cell to apply conditional formatting or display different content based on a condition.

If you have a variable called highlightPrices you may want to use this variable to toggle if prices should be rendered in bold in your table:

If you want to apply formatting or content based on the value of a column in the current row, you can access the column using the row prefix.

Example: If you have a column in your table called specialOffer you can access it in an if statement using row.specialOffer as variable name:

Please note that the if statement only supports very simple syntax.

If you need to do more complex conditions, use the Calculate building block which will help you to create a new column on the fly based on more complex expressions.

Format rows based on conditions

If you use the if tag at the beginning of the first cell and use the matching end at the end of the last cell in the row, the complete row will only appear the condition is met. This is great if you for example want to use a different background color for the row:

In this example the row gets highlighted with a green background based on the value of the specialOffer column. If no if statement is matching, the default formatting will be applied.

As a final example let's use a complex table with two different conditions and automatic formatting for even and odd rows for all row not matching any of the conditions.

To apply a different formatting for even and odd rows we can simply create two rows without any conditions (in our example row 3 and 4) and apply the desired formatting for even (row 3) and odd (row 4) rows.

At the bottom of the table we'll append some rows displaying the subtotal, vat and totals as this is a pretty common use case.

As shown in this example you can also use conditions in rows that are not going to be expanded.

Formatting images

Doxey allows you to generate and embed images on the fly into your documents.

You can insert charts, contact photos, maps or any other image that is available on the net.

Let us getting started by inserting an image by URL. This will allow you to embed different images into your documents by simply passing the URL of the image as a parameter. Insert a new variable into your document and use the image renderer to tell Doxey to treat the content of your variable as an image URL:

${logo;image}

After reloading the template the new variable will show up as an input parameter. For testing purposes you can create a test form by clicking on the keyboard icon in the input parameter section.

In the form, enter the URL of an image into the form field for the ${logo} variable.

Let us pick an image from the internet and enter the URL:

https://www.Doxey.com/logo.png

Click on the preview button to view the generated document: Just as expected the image shows up in the generated document. You can adjust the size of the image by passing the desired width and height:

${logo;image(width=2cm;height=2cm)}

Change your template and either click again on the preview button or simply reload the generated document. Your changes will be reflected immediately.

Check out the renderer reference for a full description of the formatting capabilities of the image renderer.

${logo;image(width=2cm;height=2cm)}

{
  "logo" : "https://www.Doxey.com/logo.png"
}

Formatting maps

Wouldn't it be nice to render postal address as a map?

With Doxey you can do just that - and it is quite simple. To render the address as a map, just type

${address;map(width=10cm;height=5cm;res=1000x500)}

The generated map has a width of 10 cm and a height of 5 cm. Please note that the resolution should also reflect this ratio as your map will look distorted otherwise.

Check out the renderer reference for a full description of the formatting capabilities of the map renderer.

<p>Hey ${name}!</p>
<p>Pick up your order here:</p>
${address;map(width=200px;height=100px;res=400x200)}

{
  "name" : "Larry",
  "address" : "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway,Mountain View,CA 94043"
}

Learn more

The following guides will cover the aspects of the templating language.

Questions and Feedback

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Last Updated: 03.01.20