Overview

The DynamicPDF Designer is a WSIWG editor for graphically creating DLEX templates. The following outlines the major Designer interface's layout elements.

The DynamicPDF Designer is a layout tool used to create templates that are then used to create PDF documents using the pdf and the dlex-layout endpoints. Layout elements are dragged, dropped, resized, and positioned to create a template as a DLEX file. The DLEX file, combined with a JSON dataset, is then used via the DynamicPDF Cloud API's pdf or dlex-layout endpoints. The following topics list the DLEX document sections, major Designer Interface Layout elements, and then describes the major features of Designer.

Section	Documentation
Document	Document
Page	Page
Report	Report

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Use the dlex-layout and pdf endpoints to process DLEX files created using Designer.

Designer Layout Element	Documentation
AztecBarcode	AztecBarcode Layout Element Details
ContentGroup	ContentGroup Layout Element Details
DataMatrixBarcode	DataMatrixBarcode Layout Element Details
FormattedRecordArea	FormattedRecordArea Layout Element Details
Image	Image Layout Element Details
Label	Label Layout Element Details
Line	Line Layout Element Details
LinearBarcode	LinearBarcode Layout Element Details
Link	Link Layout Element Details
NoSplitZone	NoSplitZone Layout Element Details
PageBreak	PageBreak Layout Element Details
PageNumberingLabel	PageNumberingLabel Layout Element Details
RecordArea	RecordArea Element Details Layout Element Details
RecordBox	RecordBox Element Details Layout Element Details
Rectangle	Rectangle Layout Element Details
SoftBreak	SoftBreak Layout Element Details
Subreport	Subreport Layout Element Details
Symbol	Symbol Layout Element Details

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The designer-usersguide-examples GitHub project contains numerous examples illustrating the many different components of a DLEX document. The Samples folder in your DynamicPDF cloud storage also contains numerous example projects. Refer to the Designer Examples documentation for more information.

Main Window

Designer's UI consists of a toolbar along the application's top, the document window, and the properties window.

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Every Designer report MUST have associated JSON data. You cannot use Designer without specifying data.

When opening Designer with no DLEX file loaded, you are presented with the File Explorer. You must either open a DLEX file from the File Explorer, add a file to your File Explorer from your local system, or create a new DLEX file.

Figure 1. Designer's main window.

tip

Right click anywhere in the File Explorer right pane to display a New DLEX option.

After loading a DLEX file or choosing to create a new DLEX file, Designer is enabled.

Figure 2. The DynamicPDF Designer application main window.

The toolbar buttons along Designer's top are described from left to right.

Figure 3 The DynamicPDF Designer's toolbar.

Toolbar Button	Description
New DLEX File	Create a new DLEX file.
Open DLEX File	Open an existing DLEX file.
Save DLEX File/Save As	Save a new DLEX file or Save As to overwrite an existing DLEX file.
Cut	Cut to clipboard.
Copy	Copy to clipboard.
Paste	Paste from clipboard.
Undo	Undo the last command.
Redo	Redo the last command.
Zoom Percentage	Zoom by a percentage of 1 to 100.
View DLEX Source	View the DLEX file currently in Designer (read only).
Edit Layout Data	Edit the JSON layout data or create new layout data.
Run Report	Generate a PDF and display it in a separate browser window.
Settings	Settings.
Help	Help documentation.

Switch the application you wish to work with by selecting the desired tool in the main navigation button (the DynamicPDF image). You can switch between DynamicPDF Designer, Portal, and API and Help Documentation.

Figure 4. DynamicPDF Designer's main navigation button.

Task	Description
DynamicPDF Designer	Opens DynamicPDF Designer.
Portal	Opens the Portal.
API and Help Documentation	Opens help documentation.

New and Open DLEX File

Selecting the New DLEX File button opens the File Explorer. Selecting Open DLEX File opens the File Explorer with the Create button replaced with an Open button.

Figure 5. DynamicPDF Designer's File Explorer, creating or opening a DLEX file.

tip

Right-click in the folder pane to create a new folder.

Adding a File

Drag resources from your local system to the Drag files here to upload to this folder button to add files to your cloud storage space using the File Manager.

Figure 6. Add resources to your API resources by dragging local files to the Drag files here... button.

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If you add a DLEX file and there is a JSON data file of the same name, then Designer will automatically load the JSON data file for you.

View DLEX Source

Selecting the View DLEX Source button opens the DLEX Source View.

Figure 7. View your underlying DLEX file by selecting the DLEX Source View.

tip

The DLEX Source View is read only. You must download the DLEX file to your local system if you wish to edit manually.

Edit Layout Data

The Edit Layout Data is where you add or modify the DLEX file's JSON data. You can open a pre-existing JSON data file using the File Explorer and also save the JSON data.

Figure 8. The Layout Data Editor displays your JSON dataset for your DLEX file.

tip

Refer to JSON for more information on layout data.

Run Report

The Run Report button (the green arrow) will attempt to generate the PDF document from the DLEX file combined with the JSON dataset.

Figure 9. Create the PDF document by clicking the Run Report button.

Add Page and Add Report

The Add Page Button adds a new page to the Document Window while the Add Report button adds a new Report to the Document Window.

Figure 10. Create a new page or new report to a DLEX by selecting the Add Page or Add Report button.

Control Elements And Properties

You can add new pages and reports to the Document Window by selecting the Add Page or Add Report buttons.

Adding Elements to a Page or Report

You add elements to a page or report by right-clicking and making a selection from the context menu.

Figure 11. Add elements to a DLEX file through the context menu.

You add RecordBox elements by dragging and dropping the JSON field name from the Data Explorer.

Figure 12. Adding a new element from the Data Explorer.

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Right-click on any layout element to change its z-order.

Page

Upon creating a new page you are presented with a blank page. You can only add static elements and non-repeating top-level JSON fields to a page. Only valid selections are displayed in a page when you right-click and view the context menu (invalid choices are greyed-out).

Adding RecordBox or RecordArea

You can only add non-repeating top-level JSON fields to a page. For example, suppose you had the following simple JSON dataset.

{
  "Title":"My Report",
  "ReportCreatedFor": "Alex Smith",
  "Products": [
    {
      "ProductID": 17,
      "ProductName": "Alice Mutton",
      "UnitPrice": 39
    },
    {
      "ProductID": 3,
      "ProductName": "Aniseed Syrup",
      "UnitPrice": 10
    }
  ]
}

You could only add the Title and ReportCreatedFor elements to the page as a RecordBox or RecordArea. The repeating elements in the Products array must be added to a report rather than a page.

Page Properties

Figure 13. The Page Properties explorer.

The Page Properties explorer contains formatting properties for a page.

Property	Description
bottomMargin	The bottom margin of the page dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
leftMargin	The left margin of the page dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
pageHeight	The page height in points (1/72 inches).
pageOrientation	Drop-down with two choices: portrait or landscape.
pageSize	Drop-down list of most page sizes.
pageWidth	The width of the page dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
rightMargin	The right margin of the page dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
topMargin	The top margin of the page dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
templatePageNumber	The page to take from the template to add to the page/report.
templatePath	The path to the PDF template.

Report

You create a report by clicking the Add Report button. This adds a blank report with header, footer, and a body section. The header and footer contains non-repeating data fields and static data such as labels. The details contains the repeating report data from the JSON dataset.

Figure 14. The major sections of a report.

Report Properties

Property	Description
`id`	The identifier of the report.
`bottomMargin`	The bottom margin of the report dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
`columnLayout`	A value indicating how the data in the columns will be laid out.
`columnSpacing`	The amount of space between columns.
`columns`	The number of columns the report will have.
`leftMargin`	The left margin of the report, dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
`pageHeight`	The report height in points (1/72 inches).
`pageOrientation`	Drop-down with two choices: portrait or landscape.
`pageSize`	Drop-down list of most page sizes.
`pageWidth`	The width of the report dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
`rightMargin`	The right margin of the report dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
`rowSpacing`	The amount of space between consecutive rows in the report.
`topMargin`	The top margin of the report dimensions in points (1/72 inches).
`dataName`	The name from the JSON data that repeats for each record.

Report Properties

Figure 15. The Report Properties explorer.

This property specifies the manner in which the columns will be populated. The three options are explained below (default for a Report is verticalUneven, default for a Subreport is verticalEven):

horizontal – Records will appear horizontally across the columns. For instance, if a report has three columns, records will first be placed in column 1, then 2 then 3, then back to 1 and continue in this fashion. A column layout of horizontal will never be splittable.
verticalUneven – Records will vertically fill column 1, then proceed to subsequent columns. This is the default layout.
verticalEven – Records will vertically fill column 1, then proceed to subsequent columns. On the last page, the verticalEven option will layout the records so that they are as evenly displayed on the page as possible. For instance, if a report has three columns and the last page has 6 records to display, the verticalEven layout may display 2 records on each of the three columns. Where the verticalUneven layout may have just placed all 6 records in the first column.

Template

Templates are a powerful and easy way to add professional formatting to your reports. A template is added to a page or report. When added to a report, the template is divided into three sections, header, footer, and details in the report.

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Refer to the tutorial, Creating a Report Using a Template, for a comprehensive example illustrating adding a template to a report.

Figure 16. A template displayed in a DLEX report.

Resizing Template

When loading a template, you must resize the dimensions. For example, in the previous template, we resize the report's header, footer, left and right margins. We then must resize the header, footer, and details section's widths.

Figure 17. A template that matches the report's sizing.

Resizing

Resize the report to use the appropriate dimensions for a template using the following properties.

Margin/Size	Element	Property
top margin	Report	`topMargin`
bottom margin	Report	`bottomMargin`
left margin	Report	`leftMargin`
bottom margin	Report	`bottomMargin`
header height	Report (header)	`height`
footer height	Report (footer)	`height`
details height	Report (details)	`height`

Template Properties

Figure 18. A template displayed in Designer.

Property	Description
`id`	The template's identifier.
`templatePageNumber`	The page number of the template.
`templatePath`	The path in File Manager to the PDF template.

Header/Footer/Details

A report's header, footer, and details are used to space the report to display correctly when the JSON data is applied to generate the report. Each report section is displayed using the following logic.

The header repeats for each page of data.
The footer repeats for each page of data.
The details repeats for each data row.

For example, suppose displaying all the data in a JSON dataset took three pages to display, the header and footer would be displayed three times. The details would be displayed for each row within the dataset.

Property	Description
`id`	The unique identifier of the header.
`height`	The height of the header section.

Figure 19. A report's header and footer details displaying the Header Properties.

Property	Description
`id`	The unique identifier of the footer.
`height`	The footer's height.

Figure 20. A report's header and footer details displaying the Footer Properties.

Body

Property	Description
`id`	The unique identifier of the body section.
`autoSplit`
`height`	The height of the body section.

Figure 21. A report's Body and Detail Properties.

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Main Window​

Toolbar​

Main Navigation Button​

New and Open DLEX File​

Adding a File​

View DLEX Source​

Edit Layout Data​

Run Report​

Add Page and Add Report​

Control Elements And Properties​

Adding Elements to a Page or Report​

Page​

Adding RecordBox or RecordArea​

Page Properties​

Report​

Report Properties​

Template​

Resizing Template​

Resizing​

Template Properties​

Header/Footer/Details​

Header​

Footer​

Body​

Main Window

Toolbar

Main Navigation Button

New and Open DLEX File

Adding a File

View DLEX Source

Edit Layout Data

Run Report

Add Page and Add Report

Control Elements And Properties

Adding Elements to a Page or Report

Page

Adding RecordBox or RecordArea

Page Properties

Report

Report Properties

Template

Resizing Template

Resizing

Template Properties

Header/Footer/Details

Header

Footer

Body