Docmm4j

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Docmm4j is a tool for organizations of all sizes to automate the tedious task of creating personalized PDFs from document templates and custom data sources.

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Mail merge is a process to create personalized letters and pre-addressed envelopes or mailing labels for mass mailings from a form letter.

Cambridge Online Dictionary

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Docmm4j is a super easy way for your organization to start creating personalized PDFs from document templates that utilize merge fields.

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You can start by creating a document in the document library by POSTing to the /api/v1/document endpoint with a request body like this:

{
    "documentNumber": "12345",
    "mapping": {
        "MergeFieldName": "$.json.path",
        "MergeField2Name": "$.another.path"
    }
}

The mapping links the merge field to a JSON value provided in the mergeData property of either an individual or multiple merge request. We use the JSONPath library to parse the mergeData object for the corresponding mappings.

You can upload the template for the document you just created by POSTing to the /api/v1/document/{documentNumber}/template, where {documentNumber} is the value provided in the JSON document in your initial post request. The template should be uploaded as a multipart form file.

To perform a single, real-time document merge, perform a POST operation to /api/v1/merge/single with a request body like this:

{
  "documentNumber": "12345",
  "mergeData": {
    "json": {
      "path": "some value"
    },
    "another": {
      "path": "some other value"
    }
  }
}

The single merge will return a single PDF in the content of the response. If you'd like to merge several documents at the same time, you can do so by POSTing to /api/v1/merge/multiple with a request body like this:

{
  "groupings": [
    {
      "name": "SampleName",
      "mergeRequests": [
        {
          "documentNumber": "12345",
          "mergeData": {
              "json": {
                "path": "some value"
              },
              "another": {
                "path": "some other value"
              }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Each grouping will end up in its own subdirectory in the zip that will be returned in the multiple merge request.

How to Run

For Development

1. Install Maven
2. Install Docker
3. $ mvn package && docker-compose up --build

For Production

There's currently no security/rate limiting. This is currently meant to be deployed behind a firewall, with only trusted resources able to make requests. Will accept pull requests that integrate Spring Security.