Easy to set up, but lacking some important features

  • After extensive comparison I ended up selecting this plugin (PRO version without watermark at 49 USD/year) in order to get a PDF file from a Contact Form 7 form.

    The good points of this plugin are:
    – you are allowed to make all the testing you want before deciding if buying the PRO version without watermark (the free version is for unlimited testing only)
    – the linking between Contact Form 7’s fields and the fields in the PDF is easy
    – you can upload different PDF files and have them filled at once (one field’s data can go to several places in the same PDF or, should be, in different PDFs)
    – I could create the PDF file and its fillable fields from the free LibreOffice Writer (it’s similar to Microsoft Word)
    – You can decide if the created PDF is still fillable or not (“flattened”) – I can add that you can have only certain fields still fillable if you make some of them “read only” while creating the PDF (in LibreOffice Writer) and set the whole PDF created by this plugin “not flattened”)

    Some important missing features are:
    – It is not possible to “trigger” a specific PDF file based on a specific answer in the form (the only option is not to have a PDF at all if all the fields are empty) – that would be a very important feature in order to get only the PDFs you actually need based on your selection
    – While a Contact Form 7 field data can go to different places in a PDF, the opposite is not possible (it means that a PDF field can receive a data only from one specific Contact Form 7 field)
    – multiple selections do not work – you have to create several “multiple” selection (one on top of the other) where you really have only one selection for each one

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by info2.
    • This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by info2. Reason: minor addings and spelling corrections
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Author maximum.software

    (@maximumsoftware)

    Thanks for the feedback!

    I am working on adding support for multiple select.

    It would be great to get a clarification on some of the other items.

    How would the trigger feature work exactly? Maybe an option can be added to skip a PDF file if user selected field doesn’t match user entered value. Did I misunderstand your requirement?

    If you have multiple CF7 fields mapped to a single PDF field and the user enters different value for the two CF7 fields, which CF7 field value would take precedence when filling the PDF? Or would both values be concatenated somehow?

    Thread Starter info2

    (@agnoletti)

    Dear Sir,

    1. You perfectly understood the requirement. The trigger should work as follows: if the user has selected a certain field (a radio selection or a checkbox) or (better) even starts filling in a certain text field in CF7, a specific PDF (among those uploaded) will be activated to be downloaded and/or sent by e-mail. For a professional use it is not enough not to activate a specific PDF only if it is completely empty, because the data a user has submitted should automatically go to all the PDFs where the same data is present, but an entire PDF should not be created at all if that user has not asked for that specific service (as it is now, his name and surname can automatically go to all the uploaded PDFs, but a specific PDF should not be generated at all if he has not asked for a specific service described in that specific PDF) – I hope I was able to explain myself.

    2. If I have multiple CF7 fields mapped to a single PDF field and the user enters different values in the CF7 fields, they should go one on top of the other (overlay) in the generated PDF (creating confusion, I know, so to clearly show the error in creating the CF7 form), because it is a responsibility of who is setting the CF7 form to make that situation not possible (like having only radio selections and not checkboxes)

    Thank you for your attention!

    Plugin Author maximum.software

    (@maximumsoftware)

    I am working to release the feature that would allow you to map multiple CF7 fields (and other mail-tags) to a single PDF field. Please check it out at GitHub: https://github.com/maximum-software/pdf-forms-for-contact-form-7

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘Easy to set up, but lacking some important features’ is closed to new replies.