Custom PDF Reporting (legacy feature)

FastField supports Custom PDF Reporting by associating a PDF Form Template to your FastField form. This allows you to achieve your own look and feel when generating your FastField reports. If a custom template is not provided, the generic reporting is still available.

Custom PDF Requirements

Adobe Acrobat - To design your own custom PDF, you will need Adobe Acrobat. Our tools do not support Adobe LifeCycle or other third-party solutions. Adobe Acrobat Reader is not sufficient for setting up report templates as it does not allow you to create documents and is a read-only application.

Note
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat or need assistance setting up your Custom PDF Report Template, we can help. We offer customizations and can provide you with a quote to set up your report. Please contact FastField Support.

How it works

Your data is submitted via the FastField mobile application.
Your data is then mapped and merged directly into your Custom PDF Report Template, automatically matching the PDF Form Fields to your form using the Field Keys in your FastField form.
Your Custom PDF can then be generated and downloaded via the FastField Portal.

Set up your own PDF

Open your blank PDF Report in Adobe Acrobat. For demonstration purposes, we will use the following form:

Sample blank PDF report open in Adobe Acrobat

Next, we will start adding Form Fields to the PDF template. To add form fields, you will need to open the Acrobat Form editor. The menu option may differ depending on the version of Acrobat you are using:

Add or Edit Fields menu option in Adobe Acrobat

The list of form fields will look similar to the following:

List of available form field types in Adobe Acrobat

Now place the PDF Form Fields on top of your blank PDF document. These fields will be populated by data collected from your FastField form. In the example below, we add a Text Box field where we want the Customer's Name to print:

Text Box field placed on the PDF template

We then repeat this process for each field in the form. It is important to name your PDF Form Field to match the field's Field Key within your FastField form. Field Keys and Names are case sensitive. You can name the PDF Form Field by double-clicking on the field.

Naming a PDF form field in Adobe Acrobat

The following screenshot indicates where you define Field Keys within a FastField form:

Field Key setting in the FastField Form Builder

Note: The following Form meta-data Fields can also be added to your custom PDF. These meta-data Fields include:

formName
updatedAt (created date)
userName (created by)
submissionId (unique submission id)
sequenceNumber (sequence Number)

Once you have placed all your Form Fields, save the PDF. You are now ready to upload and associate your PDF Template with your FastField form.

Upload the PDF template and assign it to your form

Once you have set up your PDF Template, you will need to upload the PDF to link it to your FastField form. To do this, open your FastField form using the FastField Portal.

FastField Portal form list view Reporting button location in the FastField Portal

When your form is open for editing, select the Reporting button.
Navigate to the Custom tab, and near the bottom, you will see a PDF area to upload your custom PDF.
Once uploaded, select Save.

Test your report

Now that you have uploaded your PDF Report Template and have linked it to your form, it's time to test it. Open up the FastField app and complete your FastField form:

Completing a form in the FastField mobile app

Once you've filled out your form, submit it by tapping the Submit button. Once the form has been submitted, log in to the FastField Portal and select the form link in the Recent Submissions list. A dialog will appear as shown below:

Dialog for downloading the generated PDF report

Select the PDF button to download your PDF report. The PDF will now have the data you submitted from your FastField form. See the example below:

Final custom PDF report output with submitted data

Field types

The following table defines which Field Types you should use in Adobe Acrobat when linking to specific fields in your FastField form:

FastField Field Type	PDF Form Field Type	Notes
Text
Numeric
Date/Time
Single Photo		Since Adobe Acrobat doesn't have a specific field for mapping an image, you can use the button field type to display an image in your report. Drag and drop the Button to match the size of the output you are looking for.
Multi Photo		Since Adobe Acrobat doesn't have a specific field for mapping an image, you can use the button field type to display an image in your report. Drag and drop the Button to match the size of the output you are looking for. The field key should follow the naming convention of "`fieldkey_n`" where n is the photo number you want to display. You can also display the Caption of the photo by placing a Text Field on your PDF Report Template. The naming convention for captions is "`fieldkey_n_caption`"
Embedded Photo		Since Adobe Acrobat doesn't have a specific field for mapping an image, you can use the button field type to display an image in your report. Drag and drop the Button to match the size of the output you are looking for.
Switch
Option List List	or or Check Box	For a list selector that allows multiple selections, use a text box or a check box to display multiple selected values. If you are using single or multi-select with checkboxes, the setup is like this: fieldkey_listselectionvalue Set all export values to: "checked" When mapping to a checkbox in a subform, the syntax is as follows subformfieldkey_listpickerfieldkey_instancenumber_listvalue
Location/GPS		Since Adobe Acrobat doesn't have a specific field for mapping an image, you can use the button field type to display an image in your report. Drag and drop the Button to match the size of the output you are looking for.
Long Text		In Acrobat, make sure the field has "multi-line" checked off.
Signature		Like a Photo Selector field, the Button Field Type in Acrobat can display a signature image. You cannot use Acrobat's Signature field for this; it will cause PDF generation errors on your reports.
Calculation
Static Text		In Acrobat, make sure the field has "multi-line" checked off.
Audio	Not supported	Not supported
Document Viewer	Not supported	Not supported
Rating		The numeric rating value will be displayed in the text field.
Formatted Numeric
Yes/No/NA		A Yes/No/NA field can be bound to a series of Radio Fields in Acrobat. Drag and drop 3 radio button fields onto your PDF within Acrobat. Name each field the same name as your Three-State field key in FastField. To indicate the Yes field, change the Export Value on one of the Radio fields to Yes's value. For the No field, change the Export Value to the value of No. On the last Radio button, change the Export Value to N/A. Alternatively, you can print Yes/No/N/A as a value by just placing a Text Field on the PDF Form
Video	Not supported	Not supported

Naming convention for multi photo selector fields

fieldkey_n where n represents the photo number, you want to display.

To display the caption, add a Text Field to your PDF Report Template and use the following naming convention:

fieldkey_n_caption

See example below

Example of multi photo field naming in a Custom PDF Report

Subform reports

Subform data can be bound to your custom PDF reports as well. This is helpful for forms such as invoices or work orders that have repeating data.

To bind a subform field to your report, define the field name within Adobe Acrobat using the following naming convention:

Example of subform field key naming structure in Adobe Acrobat In the above example, Prospects is the Subform Picker Field Key from the Master Form, FirstName is the Field Key from the actual subform, and the numeric value of 1 and 2 indicate which rows to bind to.

You can place as many rows of subform as you want in your Custom PDF Template. Specify the row number at the end of the field name to let the reporting engine know which subform row you'd like to bind to. Since custom PDF templates are a fixed format, the max row count is capped to the number you place on your PDF Report Template.

Multi-photo fields in subforms

This setup can get a little confusing, so please familiarize yourself with the normal setup for subforms and multi photos within a custom PDF before moving to this. There is one slight tweak when adding multi-photo fields to a subform. Instead of the instance number remaining in the last (suffix) part of the key, it will now be moved to just inside the multi-photo instance number. Additionally, if you want to show the Caption to your photo in a separate text box, you will also have to add "_caption" to the key in the text box.

See the example below.

Example of multi-photo field key naming within a subform

Repeating sections in Custom PDF Reports

Repeating sections can be set up to display in your custom PDF reports as well. There are some similarities and differences when compared to the setup of subforms in a custom PDF. You will NOT have to link the section key as a prefix before the field key; rather, you can place the field key as it is for the first instance of a repeating section. When you reach the second row, you will only have to place a _1 as the suffix of the key per each field, and each consecutive instance will add one to the suffix. So the third instance will be a _2 as the suffix.

See the example below.

Example of field key naming for repeating sections in a Custom PDF Report

Versioning

Your PDF Report Template is tied to your form's specific version. So if you update your PDF Report Template, older form submissions will use the older PDF Version to generate the report. To test new PDF Reports that you re-link with your form, be sure to refresh your form library on your device to sync the latest forms from the FastField server.