Question T17122
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2024 Roadmap question

created a year ago

Hi,

Couple of questions about your roadmap:

  1. Are items on the roadmap released all at once once as all of them are ready or do you release them throughout the year as each item is done?
  2. Do you have any additional information at this point on below 2 items - in terms of scope and when you think they might get released:
    - Input Mask support for text-based questions
    - PDF Generator

We need to do something with both of so contemplating whether to wait for you to release or we do something custom on our end.

Thank you,
Vlado

Answers approved by surveyjs Support

created a year ago (modified a year ago)

Hello Vladimir,
We will include the most of our new functionality as they are ready. We are going to release mask support and animation this month. We will improve them based on our customer requests.
We are going to work on PDF generator in Autumn, per our current plans.
What exactly are you looking in context of PDF generator improvements?

Thank you,
Andrew
SurveyJS Team

    Show previous comments (2)
    VF VF
    Vladimir Filipovic 10 months ago

      Hi Jane,

      We will take a look at your sample for rendering checkboxes in PDF. We would want them to be in read-only mode and not something user can change in PDF. Thank you for sending this.

      As for PDF, I agree that ability to render any HTML as PDF is highly complex and not something that is feasible. And I also do not think that there is a need to support just any HTML but a small subset would be sufficient for most of the needs, for what we are trying to do and I'm assuming for others using your product.

      Things that would be sufficient, at least for the time being, are:

      1. New lines in HTML should be rendered as new lines in PDF
      2. Bullet lists should be rendered corrects without having to take an "image" of HTML and render image in PDF. Currently bullet lists are rendered but bullets are on the bottom of the paragraph.
      3. Numbered lists should be rendered in PDF with text indented properly. Currently it is very difficult to see numbers in these sort of lists
      4. Should be able to center or right align text without it getting cut off
      5. Should be able to highlight text

      I'm attaching a file that shows some of the issues I've listed above. I'm also including HTML we used to render attached PDF.

      HTML
      <p><strong>This is bold</strong></p><p><em>This is Italics</em></p><p><u>This is underlined</u></p><p><span style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">This is red</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">This is highlighted</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 36px;">This is 36 pt</span></p><p>SurveyJS PDF Generator actually have a room for improvement, especially when it comes to a large or complex HTML content. Your points regarding the HTML rendering are perfectly valid and already noted. Converting HTML to PDF is a complex task. While we're dedicated to getting better, we're a small team. Achieving perfection would mean building a big part of a browser rendering engine, which isn't feasible for us right now. Still, we're committed to doing our best with what we have.</p><p><br></p><h1>This is heading 1</h1><h2>This is heading 2</h2><h3>This is heading 3</h3><h4>This is heading 4</h4><h5>This is heading 5</h5><p><br></p><p>Bullet list:</p><ul><li>One</li><li>Two</li><li>Three</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Numbered list:</p><ol><li>one</li><li>two</li><li>three</li></ol><p><br></p><p>This is left aligned</p><p><br></p><p style="text-align: center;">This is centered</p><p><br></p><p style="text-align: right;">This is right aligned</p><p><br></p><p style="padding-left: 3em;">This is indented once</p><p style="padding-left: 6em;">This is indented twice</p><p style="padding-left: 6em;"><br></p><p><a href="www.google.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">This is a link to google.com</a></p>

      Let me know if your updates for later this year will include any of the above.

      Thanks,
      Vlado

        Hello Vlado,
        We will need to discuss it and we will be back to you.
        I would say that your suggestions have perfect sense to me.

        Thank you,
        Andrew
        SurveyJS Team

          Hi Vlado,
          Thank you for your comments.

          We will take a look at your sample for rendering checkboxes in PDF. We would want them to be in read-only mode and not something user can change in PDF. Thank you for sending this.

          If you wish to override rendering for read-only checkboxes, you can create a custom PDF renderer and a custom brick. Please refer to the following demo: View CodeSandbox.

          JavaScript
          import { SurveyPDF, FlatRepository, FlatCheckbox, CheckItemBrick, SurveyHelper, } from "survey-pdf"; export class CustomCheckItemBrick extends CheckItemBrick { async renderReadOnly() { SurveyHelper.renderFlatBorders(this.controller, this); if (this.context.checked) { let oldFillColor = "white"; this.controller.doc.setFillColor(this.color || "#9F9F9F"); this.controller.doc.rect( this.xLeft, this.yTop, this.renderWidth ?? this.width, this.renderHeight ?? this.height, "F" ); this.controller.doc.setFillColor(oldFillColor); } } } export class CustomCheckboxItemBrick extends CustomCheckItemBrick { constructor(question, controller, rect, item, index) { super(controller, rect, question.id + "index" + index, { question: question, readOnly: question.isReadOnly || !item.isEnabled, item: item, checked: question.isItemSelected(item), index: index, }); } } export class CustomFlatCheckbox extends FlatCheckbox { generateFlatItem(rect, item, index) { return new CustomCheckboxItemBrick( this.question, this.controller, rect, item, index ); } } FlatRepository.getInstance().register("checkbox", CustomFlatCheckbox);

          Clipboard-File-2.png

          Let me know if this demo suits your needs.

          Regarding HTML rendering in PDF: to process your inquiry in the most efficient manner, I created a separate issue on your behalf.
          T17234: Render HTML in PDF.

          We placed it in our processing queue and will process it shortly.