The Despatch Documents option in PVX allows you to create customised print templates for documents that you can then modify and print as required on A4 paper using a generic printer.

Paid Feature: Despatch Documents is a chargeable feature. You need to raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to have this option enabled on your account.

This article describes the basic operations for using the despatch documents template designer in PVX to create a template. Refer to the articles on setting up printers and printing from templates for further information on generating documents in PVX. Refer to the attached FastReport user guide for more information on the template designer software.

Setting up, previewing and saving a new template

You can either create a new template or edit an existing one. To set up a new template:

1. Go to the Print Templates tab in the Setup module of the web app.

2. Click Create template.

3. In the Create new template dialog, enter the following information:

   • Template name;

   • Label type - this defines the section of the web app where the template can be selected and used;

   • Copy from template - select either a default template or one of your own created previously as a starting point for the new template;

   • Label size and Printer type - these are normally set to A4 and Generic respectively for despatch document templates.

4. Click Go to open the despatch documents template designer.

To edit an existing template:

1. Go to the Print Templates tab in the Setup module of the web app.

2. Find and click the template that you want to edit. You can use the Search feature on the left of the screen to find templates by a combination of label type, barcode type, label size and printer type.

3. In the Save template dialog, click Edit and then Edit template.... The despatch documents template designer will open.

To preview how a document will look using the template:

1. Click Report in the main menu and then click Preview. A new window will open and show you the appearance of the document using data retrieved from your PVX account.

2. You can save this document in a variety of formats from the Preview window; hover over the save icon and select from the list displayed.

3. You can also check the formatting by printing the document to a printer or creating a PDF file; hover over the print icon and select to print either from your Internet browser or from Adobe® Acrobat Reader®.

To save the template:

• Click Report in the main menu and then click Save. The template will be saved using the name you originally selected when you clicked Create template in PVX.

Note: You must save the template before you close the template designer software. The template will not automatically be saved when you close the template designer. When you click the Close icon, you must confirm the action by clicking Leave, at which point any unsaved changes will be lost.

Once you've saved your template, it will be registered automatically on your PVX account and can be used to print documents immediately.

Introduction to the template designer

The screen of the template designer and its main sections are shown below. Clicking each of the options in the main menu displays a series of ribbons showing the main functions as well as the various objects that can be added to a template. The structure of the template is shown in the sections panel on the left of the screen. The visual editor allows you to position each object in your template directly without having to perform any coding. You can use the zoom slider in the bottom right of the screen to change the size of the visual editor viewing area as needed.

The icons in the top right of the screen allow you to change the layout on the screen, and also close the software (but make sure you save the template first). A list of shortcut keys can also be viewed from here.

Finally, the toolbar on the left displays three windows which help with navigating around the contents of the template and adjusting many aspects of the objects it contains. You can click and drag a window to any position on the screen; click the paperclip icon in the window to return it to its original position.

Note: To undo or redo any actions in the template designer, use the buttons on the left of the ribbon in the Home menu.

Adding sections

Sections of the template are known as bands in the template designer. They contain a number of different objects and you can choose to fix the band's size on the page or expand it as needed to contain all the required information in those objects.

Different types of band are available in the Bands menu. Each type has its own behaviour in the template as shown in the table below. In general, Report bands (in blue) are usually fixed in size and contain details relating to the document itself such as titles. Data bands (in orange) are used to display data from the WMS and will be repeated in the document as many times as needed to display all the required data in a selected object. Group bands (in green) can be used to set group conditions using data expressions which control whether or not a collection of bands is printed in the document.

Band Type	How it works
Report Title	Prints once at beginning of document, before Page Header.
Report Summary	Prints once at end of document, before Page Footer on last page.
Page Header	Prints at top of every page in document.
Page Footer	Prints at bottom of every page in document.
Column Header	In documents with multiple columns, prints at top of every column after Page Header.
Column Footer	In documents with multiple columns, prints at bottom of every column before Page Footer.
Data	Designed to contain data sources from your WMS; prints as many times as needed to display all data in the source.
Data Header	Connected to a Data band; prints before first row of data.
Data Footer	Connected to a Data band; prints after last row of data.
Group Header	Prints at beginning of every group of bands when value of group condition changes.
Group Footer	Prints at end of every group of bands.
Child	Connected to another band; prints immediately after its parent.
Overlay	Prints as background on every page of document.

Whenever a band option is clicked in the ribbon, it is immediately created and added to the document and can be viewed in both the sections pane and the Report Tree window. To format the band:

• Right-click the band in either the sections pane or the Report Tree window to change its properties (or use the Properties window).

• Adjust the CanGrow, CanShrink and CanBreak properties depending on whether the objects in the band will vary in size.

• Click Edit to adjust the data source in a Data band and add any expressions to control its behaviour in the document.

A band can be deleted either by right-clicking in the Report Tree window and selecting Delete, or by clicking the section in the visual editor and pressing the Delete button on the keyboard.

Adding objects

Objects that you add to a template are known as components in the template designer. Click and drag objects from the Components menu to the location in the template.

There are various types of component with specific purposes and properties:

Component	What it's for
Text	Can contain fixed lines of text combined with data sources from your WMS and other system variables, controlled using expressions.
Picture	Can contain an embedded graphic (in file formats BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, ICO, EMF, WMF), a URL or a link to a local file.
Shape	Displays rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle or diamond. Click and drag to choose position of shape, then format shape in Properties window.
Line	Displays horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. Click and drag to choose position of line, then format shape in Properties window. Do not use for borders of objects (see 'Formatting objects').
Subreport	Inserts separate document into the original document (adds another page to template). Allows complex data to be presented using simple template structure.
Table	Contains rows, columns and cells. Can be static if contents entered manually, or dynamic if data sources are used.
Matrix	Similar to Table object except that numbers of rows and columns adjust to fit data being displayed.
Barcode	Displays barcode in range of formats, including Code 128, Code 39 and EAN-13. Set type of barcode in Home menu and value in Properties window.
Rich Text	Displays text in RTF format (use with caution as rich text may be exported to some document formats as a picture).
CheckBox	Displays box in either ticked (checked) or unticked state.
Cellular Text	Displays each character in individual cell (useful for online forms).
Linear/Simple Gauge	Displays scale with pointer in two different styles. Adjust appearance and value using Properties window.

Formatting objects

The visual appearance of objects in a template can be thoroughly formatted using the options in the Properties window (accessed from the toolbar), but for most purposes the options in the Home menu are sufficient and easier to apply. You can adjust the alignment, font, shading and borders for objects, and in some cases there are special settings in this menu depending on the type of object selected. Click the object first to select it (indicated by red dots around its edge).

If you right-click the object, the options menu is displayed. From here you can format the various possible text items in the object, whether or not text can wrap within the object and also whether the object can grow, shrink or break across page boundaries. You can also delete objects using this menu. Press the Esc key on the keyboard to remove the options menu.

If you select Edit in the options menu, then the Edit Expressions dialog is displayed. This allows you to set up the contents of an object using various options selected from the tree structure on the right of the dialog.

The available data sources are pre-configured on your system, and are appropriate for the type of template you are creating in the template designer (despatch notes or despatch package labels). Each data source has a range of variables. Select the variable you want to use and click Add; an expression will be added to the dialog that will then appear in the template when you click OK.

In the same way, you can select from a list of system variables (values relating to the document itself such as page numbers) or a range of functions that can be used in algebraic expressions. Detailed information on these options can be found in the attached user guide.

Note: You can access the same tree structure of variables in the Data window from the toolbar, and then click and drag them into the visual editor directly.

You can access the FastReport Online Designer User Guide here.

Note: External links are maintained by third parties and are provided here as a convenience only. Descartes does not endorse, approve or make any claims as to the accuracy or reliability of the contents, which may be changed from time to time by the third party without warning.

Advanced Use Cases

Functions in the document designer expression editor can be used to manipulate data stored in Peoplevox to ensure it is presented as you desire on printed documents. Common uses for functions:

Use Case

Method

Gift Messages

Gift messages are usually stored as Sales Order Attributes, but these are single-line text fields that do not support any additional formatting (including HTML and new \r\n characters). To deliver multi-line gift messages, a custom line break delimiter can be used when data is inserted into the Sales Order Attribute (from the Ecommerce/ERP platform) and then a function in the document designer can be used to replace this with newline characters. For example: [Replace(ToString([DespatchHeader.SalesOrderAttribute4]),"[eol]",ToString(Chr(13)) + ToString(Chr(10)))]

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