Can I prefil information in attached document

scrfix

Now that I have figured out how to get the Google Docs Integration to save the username and password provided by Google. (see my other post). viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1975

Does EPESI have variables or something that will allow me the ability to fill in the spaces within the word doc?"
Example: I have a spot for %full_name% and Epesi will automatically take the record and replace the variable within the Google doc with the fill in name of the person.
Example 2: There is a spot in my document for %mobile_phone%. Will EPESI replace %mobile_phone% with the "mobile phone" data from that record the doc is attached to?

***** Old Question *****
How do I attach a Google Doc to a contact. I would like use EPESI to fill in Google Doc Templates I have uploaded to Google Drive. Can someone assist me with this or point me where in a manual it states how to accomplish this so I don't have to dig through code to try and figure this out?
***** /Old Question *****

ANSWER TO ABOVE OLD QUESTION
there isn't a lot of documentation out there on how to work with Google Docs and Epesi. Luckily, I did find however another forum post: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1465

which kind of explained what to do. First thing to know is that at this time you cannot upload something to Google Docs and then expect EPESI to have access to it. This is what I attempted and that is wrong (at this time).

Next, you have to create a new note for either a company or person (ie. a record). In that new note it says Attach File. This is a browse to a file on your computer. This is how the Google docs works apparently. So you choose the file on your computer and it uploads to Google docs and then allows you to edit the file from there. Now, the issue here is that if you use a lot of tables (like me) and borders (like me) and colors (like me) Google will almost 100% of the time screw up your file. This is bad. So now you have to first recreate the file in Google docs but then it appears that EPESI doesn't have the ability to retrieve that file from your Google Docs account. This is bad. So you have to create the file in Word that will hopefully work with EPESI and Google Docs integration.

The one thing I want to know before I go through all of that trouble is:
"Does EPESI have variables or something that will allow me the ability to fill in the spaces within the word doc?"
Example: I have a spot for %full_name% and Epesi will automatically take the record and replace the variable within the Google doc with the full name of the person.
Example 2: There is a spot in my document for %mobile_phone%. Will EPESI replace %mobile_phone% with the data from that attached record?

Thanks for any answers,

Wayne

jasiek

[quote:7djye6ti]Does EPESI have variables or something that will allow me the ability to fill in the spaces within the word doc?"[/quote:7djye6ti]
Interesting idea but the problem is not on EPESI side but what API can you use to pass these "variables" to Google Docs?

Anything you want to get on EPESI side is available to you - any record and any field: First Name, Last Name etc.

For example how you can do this see a demo of Campaign Manager - especially inserting tags:
http://epe.si/campaign-manager

insert tags.png

But I don't know how to pass it into Google Docs - I searched briefly but did not find anything interesting.

However you may want to approach the problem from a different angle - and this is what we do when implementing "mail merge fucntionality".

Produce a module - call it a report if you want - which will generate a PDF on EPESI side. If this should be completely automated then you can put an extra action button under contact and it will produce a report.

If you need more flexibility - create a module where some predefined sections will be stored in the database - this way you can edit it. In addition you can provide a text area (FCKEditor is included in EPESI) where a user can type in a custom text - in addition to predefined sections.

You build the entire text in HTML - you can add logos, whatever - and then pass it to PDF and the document is ready.

=======

As for your other questions - current integration of EPESI and Google Docs is not ideal and we are aware of it. There are problems on Google side, because it handles Word format relatively well, but Excel does not work at all. You can send CSV file but file compatibility is terrible: see for example this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic ... Wgeva60s5E

It would be much better to offer native Google Docs (Apps) format - this way don't loose anything.

As for the question if we create a document (or upload it) from EPESI to Google Docs for editing and then saving it back in EPESI and delete it on Google Docs or not...
EPESI has built-in file versioning. But it stores the entire file. Google docs offers history much better - down to every character - but to link a document to a note instead of saving the file attachment we will need first integration with Google Drive (and Dropbox and Sky Drive and so on...). Then you could create a file in Google Docs and just link it or make a copy on EPESI side.

Yes - this is the direction we are taking but please be patient - we have limited resources. However if someone wants to help we all will be very pleased.

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