Generate PDF with data from core component based form submission
Here’s the revised text with “Core Components” capitalized:
A typical scenario involves generating a PDF from data submitted via a Core Components-based adaptive form. This data is always in JSON format. To generate a PDF using the Render PDF API, it’s necessary to convert the JSON data into XML format. The toString method of org.json.XML is used for this conversion. For more details, refer to the documentation of org.json.XML.toString method.
Adaptive Form-based on JSON schema
Please follow these steps to create a JSON schema for your adaptive form:
Generate sample data for the XDP
To streamline the process, follow these refined steps:
- Open the XDP file in AEM Forms Designer.
- Navigate to “File” > “Form Properties” > “Preview.”
- Select “Generate Preview Data.”
- Click on “Generate.”
- Assign a meaningful filename, such as
form-data.xml.
Generate JSON schema from the XML data
You can utilize any free online tool to convert XML to JSON using the XML data generated in the previous step.
Custom workflow process to convert JSON to XML
The provided code converts JSON to XML, storing the resulting XML in a workflow process variable named dataXml.
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import javax.jcr.Node;
import javax.jcr.Session;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import org.json.XML;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Component;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowSession;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkItem;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkflowProcess;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.metadata.MetaDataMap;
@Component(property = {
"service.description=Convert JSON to XML",
"process.label=Convert JSON to XML"
})
public class ConvertJSONToXML implements WorkflowProcess {
private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ConvertJSONToXML.class);
@Override
public void execute(final WorkItem workItem, final WorkflowSession workflowSession, final MetaDataMap arg2) throws WorkflowException {
String processArgs = arg2.get("PROCESS_ARGS", "string");
log.debug("The process argument I got was " + processArgs);
String submittedDataFile = processArgs;
String payloadPath = workItem.getWorkflowData().getPayload().toString();
log.debug("The payload in convert json to xml " + payloadPath);
String dataFilePath = payloadPath + "/" + submittedDataFile + "/jcr:content";
try {
Session session = workflowSession.adaptTo(Session.class);
Node submittedJsonDataNode = session.getNode(dataFilePath);
InputStream jsonDataStream = submittedJsonDataNode.getProperty("jcr:data").getBinary().getStream();
BufferedReader streamReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(jsonDataStream, "UTF-8"));
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
String inputStr;
while ((inputStr = streamReader.readLine()) != null) {
stringBuilder.append(inputStr);
}
JSONObject submittedJson = new JSONObject(stringBuilder.toString());
log.debug(submittedJson.toString());
String xmlString = XML.toString(submittedJson);
log.debug("The json converted to XML " + xmlString);
MetaDataMap metaDataMap = workItem.getWorkflow().getWorkflowData().getMetaDataMap();
metaDataMap.put("xmlData", xmlString);
} catch (Exception e) {
log.error("Error converting JSON to XML: " + e.getMessage(), e);
}
}
}
Create workflow
To handle form submissions, create a workflow that includes two steps:
- The initial step employs a custom process to transform the submitted JSON data into XML.
- The subsequent step generates a PDF by combining the XML data with the XDP template.
Deploy the example code
To test this on your local server, follow these streamlined steps:
- Download and install the custom bundle via the AEM OSGi web console.
- Import the workflow package.
- Import the sample Adaptive Form and XDP template.
- Preview the Adaptive Form.
- Complete a few form fields.
- Submit the form to initiate the AEM workflow.
- Find the rendered PDF in the workflow’s payload folder.