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From a Canvas PowerApps, generate a PDF file & Download it
Power Apps
Sep 27, 2023 12:28 PM

From a Canvas PowerApps, generate a PDF file & Download it

by HubSite 365 about Ahmed Salih (Power Platform Place)

Senior Software Developer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Power Platform Developer | PowerApps | Power Automate | Power BI | Dataverse | Power Platform Community Super Use

Citizen DeveloperPower AppsLearning Selection

Generate a PDF from a Canvas PowerApps quickly and easily using built-in Microsoft PowerApps features.

In our latest feature, Ahmed Salih from "Power Platform Place" discusses a popular topic in technology industry: generating and downloading a PDF file from a Canvas Power Apps. This particularly powerful tool allows both novices and experts to optimize their document-related tasks effectively.

Canvas Power Apps, as presented by Salih, provides an easy way to convert your projects into PDF files. This feature broadens the field of application for this user-friendly platform, allowing easy sharing and storage of project outputs.

The download feature further enhances the user experience by providing a quick and easy way of accessing work outputs directly without the need to navigate through complex folders or networks.

Synonymous keywords for Canvas PowerApps in the industry include Microsoft's digital application programming interfaces, the application building platform, and Power Platform.

A deeper dive into Power Apps

Microsoft’s Power Apps is intrinsically designed to allow everyone, from the IT veteran to the tech newbie, to create and utilize personalized apps that can completely revamp their work approach. Whether you aim to simplify task management, aggregate data, or improve collaboration in your team, Power Apps offers you the right tools. Furthermore, its Canvas option allows you to design the app layout precisely for your task, increasing your overall efficiency.

As discussed in the video, one of the most powerful features provided by this tool is the ability to generate and download a PDF of your work output directly. Given the ubiquity of PDF format in today's digital age, it’s an invaluable feature.

From presentations and invoices to guides and reports, virtually any business document can be converted into this widely accepted format, which maintains the document’s original appearance regardless of the device used to view it.


Power Apps - Generate & Download PDF Files from Canvas PowerApps

Generate a PDF file & Download it

Creating a PDF from a Canvas Application is a valuable part of using the Microsoft suite, enabling storage of documents or sharing them with others without requiring access to the application. In this guide, you'll learn how to employ Canvas Applications and Microsoft's powerful toolset to generate and manipulate PDF documents.

Within the Canvas Applications suite, the form that you wish to generate a PDF from can be selected. Once you have made your choice, press the “Generate PDF” button. Following this, your file will be produced. This file can be downloaded to your device or saved in the cloud, which creates a permanent copy for future use.

Within the Canvas studio, there is also a built-in PDF Generator. This useful tool can be used to create a PDF document by simply selecting the form from which you want to generate the PDF, clicking the “Generate” button, and choosing the “Download” option. Once the process is complete, the PDF can be saved to your device or in the cloud, or you can opt to share it as well.

Use Case

Certain scenarios may require a PDF file to be generated using Dataverse tables within Canvas Applications. The popular YouTube tutorial by Reza Dorrani outlines his method of opening PDFs directly from applications utilizing the PDF Function.

To generate a PDF file from Dataverse tables, use a Container. This control can be used as a target for the PDF function. Inside this Container, use an HTML Text control to format the PDF file. The HTML Text control enables incorporation of Dataverse Data.

Additional resources

  • For more insight on the PDF function in Canvas Applications, you can refer to Microsoft Learn's guide on the experimental PDF function. It includes how to select portions of a screen for export to a PDF object and discusses different configuration options.
  • The Ultimate Guide on How to Generate PDF from Canvas Applications on ConcettoLabs blog provides advice on handling response in Flow. It instructs connecting all associated flows with the action tab in Canvas Applications.
  • Pragmatic Works blog post, How to Generate PDFs from Canvas Applications, explains how a PDF can be created from an HTML doc inside an Application, which is then converted using Microsoft Automate.

Utilizing these resources and understanding the process of generating PDFs in Canvas Applications can enrich your overall use of the Microsoft ecosystem.

Keywords

Canvas PowerApps, PDF generation, Download PDF, PowerApps to PDF, PowerApps file download, Convert Canvas PowerApps to PDF, PDF from PowerApps, File generation in PowerApps, PowerApps PDF creation, Canvas PowerApps PDF download