Forum Discussion

JimHarrison's avatar
JimHarrison
Qrew Champion
1 year ago
Solved

Document Template Source Engine?

Looking to see if anyone has knowledge of the engine Quickbase is using in the Document Template (Doc Gen) feature? 

Reason: We are hand editing the source to gain control over the layout. Each time we paste our edited and functional HTML into the Source window and save, the Document Template engine modifies the HTML. When we print the Template the layout does not meet end User requirements.

If we know what Quickbase is using, we can read the documentation and learn what HTML is allowed. It is obvious the HTML engine is not compliant with HTML5 and we are struggling.

We are chasing our tails. Any ideas ... aside from using a third party solution.

Document Generator
  • JimHarrison's avatar
    JimHarrison
    6 months ago

    Quickbase is using CKEditor as their pdf engine. I wrote up a list of lessons learned when you first asked in the reply and when I hit the reply button, the community forum deleted my response and logged me out.

    In short
    - use the source and ignore the editor
    - split everything into divs
    - for layout spacing, margins, padding use in. (inches) everywhere % doesn't work
    - set the table properties first on the entire table and then for each cell
    - If you have a page break in the middle of a list or table that is random. Insert a div where the break occurs and see if it clears the break. CKEditor does things with styling sometimes. 
    <div style="height:0;">&nbsp;</div>

    I cannot waste time on this forum anylonger because of the logout problems. 

9 Replies

  • JimHarrison's avatar
    JimHarrison
    Qrew Champion
    1 year ago

    I have a support ticket open with Quickbase, they won't tell me what they are using to render the source code. I cannot research what is allowed and what is not allowed. They are telling me they "sanitize" some elements. What does that mean in terms of which elements are allowed and not allowed?

     

  • KevinMcNutt's avatar
    KevinMcNutt
    Qrew Trainee
    7 months ago

    Have you had any luck with this?  This built-in document template tool is terrible.

  • curevick's avatar
    curevick
    Qrew Cadet
    7 months ago

    Have you already removed things like style blocks, layout and positioning elements (flexbox, grid, floats..). Only simple tags, basic tables, and minimal inline will probably stick around. I've used some rich text fields to spruce things up here and there as they are a bit more flexible.

    • KevinMcNutt's avatar
      KevinMcNutt
      Qrew Trainee
      6 months ago

      Even their own generated, simple elements seem to get moved around after saving.  Plus, CSS seems to override some of tool-generated formatting.  Its really just a pain to work with. 

  • JimHarrison's avatar
    JimHarrison
    Qrew Champion
    6 months ago

    Quickbase is using CKEditor as their pdf engine. I wrote up a list of lessons learned when you first asked in the reply and when I hit the reply button, the community forum deleted my response and logged me out.

    In short
    - use the source and ignore the editor
    - split everything into divs
    - for layout spacing, margins, padding use in. (inches) everywhere % doesn't work
    - set the table properties first on the entire table and then for each cell
    - If you have a page break in the middle of a list or table that is random. Insert a div where the break occurs and see if it clears the break. CKEditor does things with styling sometimes. 
    <div style="height:0;">&nbsp;</div>

    I cannot waste time on this forum anylonger because of the logout problems. 

    • KevinMcNutt's avatar
      KevinMcNutt
      Qrew Trainee
      6 months ago

      Thank you, appreciate the help.  This forum could be such a great resource if it were implemented better.  I believe many feel the same way.  

      • JimHarrison's avatar
        JimHarrison
        Qrew Champion
        6 months ago

        This forum was supposed to be an improvement to the previous one but it is the exact opposite. There were features in the old forum that are missing from this one, like calendar events for Meetups as an example. I don't use this anymore, it has lost its value. 

  • Roy-Wanyoike's avatar
    Roy-Wanyoike
    Qrew Assistant Captain
    6 months ago

    I had the same problem and a simple way not the best but try have the entire source code on the body and ensure you have it in the correct html format else it will be distorted.