Generating PDF with different tables for the event triger and the file data

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
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Hello,
i’m trying to build a general report that will triger from a table of general reports.

the event table is different from the data-source - i looked in the “appsheet documents” (automation) and there’s a note that i need a further explation.

here’re the instrutions and the note:

Table name

Table defined in the event and used by the task.

To view or edit the structure of the selected table, position your cursor in the field and click Edit icon . See Tables: The Essentials for more information.

Note: To use a table that is different from the table defined in the event, add a Call a process step.

how should i put it in the app

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With a PDF it is different. Setup the automation to trigger on your Reports Table as usual - on a row added or changed.

Inside the PDF template you would use START/END blocks with SELECT statements that choose the rows from whatever table or tables you wish to report on. You might use the Reports table row to grab criteria to use in the associated SELECTs but otherwise you basically ignore the Reports table row for the report data itself.

I hope this helps!

If you are not familiar with START/END blocks refer to this article : Use Start expression in templates

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thx so much. i worked.

now im facing a new problem - the report is 4 pages long, and the logo&info that i embbeded in the header&footer - is not printed on all pages, just at the start and end of the document.

what should i do?

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The Appsheet PDF generator does not support paging. There is not a way to get headers and footers to show on each page.

There have been alternative methods to creating reports that are HTML based. I have never tried them. One of the App Creators produced a 3 part post describing how to set it up and produce documents that way. I’ll try to find those posts and link them here.

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oh so disappointing, how can it be? i think that it’s really basic element in a business facility.

thank you for your help, hope you’ll find it.

‫בתאריך יום ו׳, 31 באוק׳ 2025 ב-15:29 מאת ‪WillowMobileSys via Google Developer forums‬‏ <‪no-reply@discuss.google.dev‬‏>:‬

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Here are the links. There is a learning curve and as such I have yet to try it out. According to the original poster, Oscar, it is better way to produce the reports as you have more control. He seems to be a detailed oriented person so I believe him. It’s worth trying it out and assessing for yourself.

Pixel Perfect reports….

Part 1 - Almost Pixel perfect pdf reports from automation

Part 2 - Pixel perfect paginated reports

Part 3: Pixel perfect reports with Skia (AppSheet’s PDF generator)

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Attn @SkrOYC (for credit)

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:saluting_face:

Thx

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I think I could add 2 cents on this:

  • HTML is not just a workaround, it’s one of the primary supported formats.
  • MSWord and GDocs are first transformed into HTML behind the scenes -which is where most formatting issues are presented because some features are lost- so using HTML directly removes one step and reduces any formatting guessing
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