Create Excel and PDF documents from Typeform in Zapier
This article demonstrates how to create PDF documents from an XLSX template on a Typeform submission with the help of Processes in Zapier. It may help you to automize the generation of different documents like applications, requests, orders, etc., in your company.
Processes are a Plumsail Documents feature with an intuitive interface for creating documents from templates.
Typeform is an online form builder that allows you to create modern responsive forms for your website.
Let’s see how to connect them in Zapier to automatically collect data from a Typeform, apply the data to our Excel template, and generate a new PDF document.
Create a Form
We’ve already created a Typeform with a short employee questionnaire. We will use data from its submission. If you haven’t created Typeforms before, follow this link to learn how to do it.
Below is a screenshot of our form:
Configure the process
Before creating the Flow, we need to create a process, which will generate PDF documents from an XLSX template.
Create a new process
Open Processes in your Plumsail account and click Add process.
Then, select Uploaded file in the side panel to import your Excel template. You can use your own template or download the sample template from this example.
Enter a name for the process, select PDF as the output format, and choose the templating engine. Finally, click Create
Configure a template
After creating the process, the template opens in the online editor.
The template used in this example looks like this:
Templating syntax
When creating your own templates, mind the templating language. Plumsail Excel XLSX templates use a different approach than most other templating solutions. It uses a minimal amount of syntax to make your work done.
Template placeholders are enclosed in {{ }} brackets, and when the document is generated, these placeholders are replaced with data pass to the process.
Read this article to get familiar with the templating engine.
Test template
Before building the automation flow, test the template to verify that it generates the expected document.
Click Test template and the editor will automatically generate a test form, based on the placeholders found in the template.
You can adjust the look of the testing form by changing token types. Alternately, you can use a JSON example.
Verify that the generated document looks correct before continuing.
Settings
Use the Settings option to further customize your process.
You can:
Name your template
Change the output filename dynamically
Select the output file type
After updating the settings, run another test to verify the output. When everything is configured correctly, click Save.
Start the Process
We will start our Process from Zapier.
Create a Zap
Zap is an automated connection between web services in Zapier. You can create it from scratch following the steps explained below.
Or you can utilize the zap template. Click Use this zap, and then just customize the steps as it’s described further in this article.
This is how our Zap looks:
New entry in Typeform
We need to start the Zap every time somebody submits our Typeform. For that, search for Typeform in Zapier and add New entry as a trigger.
If this is your first Zap with Typeform, on this step, sign in to your Typeform Account from Zapier to use your forms inside Zaps.
Then, you’ll need to pick the form you want to track in the dropdown.
The last thing to do with the trigger - Find data. Press “Test trigger” to find data. It will allow you to use the trigger output on the next step.
Start process in Plumsail Documents
Once the trigger is set, search for Plumsail Documents and add an action Start process.
Click Continue. If this is your first Zap, at this point, you’ll need to Sign in to your Plumsail Account from Zapier to establish a connection between the app and your account. If you already have a Plumsail account tied to the app, you can add another one at this step, and use it instead.
Customize Start Process
Choose the process you want to start by this Zap from the dropdown. You will see fields to complete - they have the same names as tokens from the template.
To complete them, use the output from the Typeform trigger.
Our Zap is ready. See how the resulting file looks:
Sign up for Plumsail Documents
As you can see, it’s simple to automize the generation of documents on Typeforms submission. If you’re new to Plumsail Documents, register an account and follow the steps described in the article to set the process for automatic creation of PDFs from Typeforms. A 30-day trial is free.