this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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Generate document from templates and database (self.selfhosted)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Biorix to c/selfhosted
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm looking for a solution to generate document (ideally docx but pdf is ok) from a database

Ex: I have a project entry (with client info, dates, information about the project, etc.) and I want to generate documents from a tender templates, containing selected entries from the database.

Here is what I tried until now :

  • Custom database (tinyDB) + custom webpage form + a docx template with jinja markups served by a homemade webpage hosted on pythonanywhere (lot of work and not reliable as I'm doing everything myself)
  • Nocodb form and database (no document generation yet) (self-hosted or on cloud)
  • Airtable (closed source and on cloud) for forms, database and document generation

Airtable is what I'm currently trying because it's the only one that I found that have lot of support and adds on.

There are a few options on Airtable for document generation, lot of which cost around $30/month which is why I'm looking for a viable alternative. Ideally I would like to be able to upload my already made templates.

More point to the solution if it's supports geodata

I'm considering keeping airtable and using the api to generate document with the python program I used on the first point, but I'd like to know if there is more options.

EDIT2: to be concise: I'm looking for an alternative to Airtable + Make. Ideally, FOSS and self-hostable or on cloud

Edit: precision: I need to create a document that contains multiple items of the db. Ex: I need to create a resume with different experiences that are saved in the database

Here is an example of a template:

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[–] florian 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What is "Make"? Hard to Google name.

Have you considered open sourcing you self built solution?

[–] Biorix 2 points 6 months ago

It used to be integromat. You can look it up more easily, haha

I almost succeeded with it, but to integrate multiple entries in one document, it was too complicated.

So, I'm modifying the code I originally made to make API calls to Airtable, and I assemble the doc with docxtpl

I started by creating an API on my already functioning flask app, so everything can be done through Airtable page. But I was worried about opening an API to the world, so I decided to make a local python app that I'll probably compile to .exe

And yes, I can open source, but it's really tailored to me needs