PDF Generation for Dashboard

[myra_o]

hello all,

I am on the struggle bus with trying to figure out this pdf automation. I have a dashboard that filters a customer, job, and start and end dates. I want their data to be exported into a pdf. I don't know how to make it automate that because I am not making a new row. It is changing all the time and I want it to take the information currently on the screen and make a pdf. Preferably with an action. 

What am I missing?

[Markus_Malessa]

PDF generation is available only through the use of bots at the moment (someone correct me if I got this wrong). So you can accomplish this by a data change event for updates only for example and you could set a specific condition in the bot for when it executes such as [_THISROW_BEFORE].[end date] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[end date]. If desired, create an additional column [PDF last generated] as a datetime column, then create an action with a visible button for 'set a column value', just put the NOW() formula for the value, then you still need to set up a bot to create a PDF if that column value changes.

[myra_o]

[Filled out]=timenow() this is what i have as my conditon for my bot but it isn't firing my pdf automation

[Markus_Malessa]

What is the value of [Filled out]? My guess is that in the form your initial value for this column is TIMENOW(), then when the bot fires you are comparing TIMENOW() against TIMENOW(), but at that point those time values are 1+ seconds different and that is why it is not firing.

[myra_o]

Ok yeah I have [filled out] as an action that sets the time now. But then on my conditon for my event I have [filled out]=timenow. I need a condition that looks as the must up to date time?

[myra_o]

I am just changing the values in this filtered dashboard and it shows the customers data for that time frame. I want to be able to export this as a pdf to send to that customer. So I created an action that set the time now that fires the bot.

[Markus_Malessa]

Ok, so why don't you set your bot firing condition to [_THISROW_BEFORE].[filled out] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[filled out] which will tell the bot to only fire if the [filled out] column value changed?

[myra_o]

So it makes a pdf but it wipes out my formulas in my sheet. And then repeats the customer even if a different one is inputed.

[Markus_Malessa]

That is probably attributable to how the rest of your columns are set up, most likely the initial value settings and/or resetting the initial values. I'm unsure on that part since I don't know anything else about your app.

Going back to your original issue though, between setting the column value and then running the bot condition TIMENOW() is NOT equal to when the column value was set due to timing when things happen. So regardless of anything else you will want to consider a different bot condition that what you are currently using.